Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

Palya! Welcome to Anangu land.

There is certainly something magical about this place. Uluru is like nothing else and needs to be experienced to understand the feeling. The way the rock rises up, standing so proud and strong, with nothing but flat desert and yellow spinifex grass surrounding, is something worth travelling many km’s to see. Although this is our second visit – it still makes you gasp and say ‘wow’ when you see it, both from a distance and up close.

We have spent the past four days camping at Ayers Rock Caravan Park and visiting the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park each day – you just can’t get enough of the wonder.

Day one we arrived and headed out to view sunset over the rock. The final stages of the sun going down saw the rock glow bright orange/red – amazing. We snapped so many photos!

Day two we set our alarm (much to Andrew’s complaint…) to witness sunrise over the rock at the viewing platform. The muted colours at this time of the morning were beautiful. After breakfast we headed to the Mala Walk with an Aboriginal guide, which was really interesting. We enjoyed the stories shared and learning more about Aboriginal culture and the specialness of this place. We then proceeded to walk around the base, around a 12km walk. It was a very pleasant 23 degrees (much better than the 35 degrees of last visit).

Day three we headed out to Kata Tjuta to walk the stunning Valley of the Winds trail (7.4km). This walk is so magical and majestic – absolutely one of our favourites. We followed up with the Walpa Gorge walk, along with a stop at the lookout on the return to the campground. We then met up with Chris Shakya for a cuppa! How delightful to be able to catch up with a friend whilst on our travels – such a blessing.

That evening we went to The Desert Sails Resort for dinner – nice treat indeed which included native desserts and a few glasses of wine.

Day four was spent getting ready for the next part of our journey, which included washing, grocery shopping, filling up the water tanks and the fuel tank! We also managed to look through some galleries in the Yalara town centre, watch some locals completing beautiful dot paintings and grabbed a luke-warm coffee. Then it was time to head out to watch one more Uluru sunset, this time with Chris and Podum, which was a lot of fun.