Uluru: A weekend in the Australian Outback

This weekend's adventure went to the huge red rock in the middle of the Australian Outback. Isabelle, Devan, Sydney and I hopped on a plane and went to Uluru (also officially known as Ayers Rock) from Friday to Sunday (May 9th - 11th). This is one of Australia's most impressive landmarks, and with good reason... It was amazing! 

Uluru is a holy place for the Anangu tribe of Aboriginal people in Australia who have been in the area for about 10 000 years, and is located in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Teritory Outback. The remarkable rock is approximately 600 million years old. It stands 348meters/1142feet high, and has a total circumference of 9.4km/5.8miles. Interestingly, most of the bulk of the rock is underground. The rock is listed as both a natural site and a cultural site on the World Heritage list.

Uluru was indeed beautiful, and worth a visit. We saw it when the sun rose, during the day,  and when the sun set. The sight of the rock morphing from a red terracotta hue into a more violet and blue color was spectacular. I never thought I could be so excited about seeing a rock, but I was pretty excited (which, to the others' annoyance, I proclaimed approximately 37 times throughout the weekend). 

After the 3 hour direct flight from Sydney to the Ayers Rock airport, we were picked up by the complimentary shuttle and driven to our living quarters. Ayers Rock Resort in Yulara has monopoly over accommodation, food outlets, and other services in the area near Uluru. Though there was only one area to chose to stay in, there were a few different accommodation options (all at somewhat inflated prices). We chose to stay in a four bed dorm at the Outback Pioneer & Lodge. At $40 per person per night, this was our cheapest option. Well, except for staying in a tent on the camping grounds. The room was actually quite nice, and we enjoyed ourselves here. Nice and clean! 

We arrived in the afternoon on Friday, so we had a bit of time to explore the Ayers Rock Resort our first day. Lots of different restaurants, souvenir shops, and even a grocery store. We went up to the viewing platform near the Outback Pioneer & Lodge, and watched the sun set. It was spectacular. There were lots of clouds in the sky, so the rays created a beautiful mosaic of colors. We had an early start the next morning, so we headed to bed at a decent hour (i.e. we were in bed by 9:30pm). 

Doesn't the sky almost look fake? This pictures wasn't edited the least bit. 

Uluru during sunset 

We booked a guided walk a tour company named SEIT. For a whopping $149 we would be guided around the base of Uluru for approx 14km/8.7miles. In addition, we had to pay the $25 entrance fee to get in to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Little did we know, we could've rented a car, driven to the park, and walked around by ourselves. We would've saved so much money! That being said, we did enjoy the guided tour, and learned a lot more than we would have by just walking around ourselves.  

Our guide for the day, Danny, really made our walk enjoyable. Don't be fooled by the name Danny; she was a girl (so no guide-crush for us this trip). We were joined by 6 other people on the walk: Christina and Marc (originally from the US, but currently living in Beijing), Susanne and Steve who were visiting their daughter Casey (who had studied abroad in Cairns this past semester), and Susan (Danny's mom). Danny originally had the day off because her mom was visiting from Adelaide, but she was asked to work because of high tour demand. It was a great way for her mom to see her in action. At the end of the tour, we asked Susan how she thought her daughter did, and with a big smile on her face she exclaimed "I'm so proud!". We could see Danny's reflection in the rearview mirror; she had tears in her eyes when her mom said that. We all missed our own mothers that day quite a bit. 

Happy Mother's Day, Mumsy! 

Our tour started before the crack of dawn (5:45am), so we could see the sunrise. We were anticipating a beautiful, beaming sun peering out from the the horizon as we started our walk in the pitch black. Unfortunately, there were way too many clouds in the sky for us to see anything, so no gorgeous sunrise for us. Oh well... 

So many non-cooperative clouds

Despite not seeing a beautiful sunrise, we did see many other beautiful things along the way: caves, paintings, sandstone folds, and geological abrasions. The red color of Uluru is due to the high iron content in the rock which has resulted in surface oxidation. In areas where the surface hasn't oxidized, the rock looks more gray. 

During periods of high rainfall, waterfalls appear from many different areas around the rock. The massive black stains on the rock is algae growing along the path left from the waterfalls. The organisms are living evidence of storms from the past. 

Heart shaped cave 

We didn't see much wildlife on our walk except for a few interesting caterpillars and birds. Oh, and flies. There were tons and tons of flies. They were nosy little flies, too! They flew in your eyes, month, and nose. They flew everywhere, and were so annoying! After a mere hour of walking around on Friday, we quickly realized that we wouldn't be able to go on the base walk without some fly protection (hence our fashionable hats with nets). 

Sydney, Isabelle, myself and Devan in our nifty hats.

Heaps of flies. Yuck. 

Ferocious caterpillar with spikes.

We were back to our hotel by 12pm, so we had lots of time to enjoy the rest of the day. We walked around, stopped at a few of the shops, and ate at lunch at one of the restaurants. I wasn't feeling the greatest, so I ended up having to stay in our room for the remaining hours of the day. 

If you're thinking that going all the way to the middle of nowhere to see one rock is a little excessive, I have some good news for you. While in the area, you can also visit MORE rocks: the Kata Tjuta (also known as The Olgas). We were thinking about renting a car for the Sunday and driving out, but opted not to because of financial reasons. We still have another month and a half in Australia, and we have to make sure we'll be able to eat something (other than Ramen noodles) for the remaining part of our semester. We made do with one big rock this weekend. 

The next morning (Sunday), Devan and I woke up early for a second attempt at seeing a beautiful sunrise. As we were walking up to the viewing platform, we had high hopes. There weren't too may clouds in the horizon. But alas, this time the trees were the ones being uncooperative, and they blocked a majority of our view. We caught a few glimpses of the sun though. 

Our flight back to Sydney left in the afternoon, so we really only had time to have breakfast and stop by a few places to do some last minute shopping before heading to the airport. We got home to Sydney a few hours ago. Time to get to bed. Long day of tutorials and term paper writing ahead of me tomorrow. 

Until next time. 

Love, 

Suzy