We visited Uluru in 2018 and probably didn’t expect to come back for another visit. But circumstances change and here we are !
Day 1
We departed Kings Kanyon about 9.00am for our drive to Uluru. There was not a lot along the way to see at this point. We re-traced our drive back past Kings Creek Station and then through more undulating hills and sparsely vegetated landscape until we met the Lasseter Highway – pretty much the only intersection of the drive today ! You certainly know there is not a lot around when the mileage markers which usually show the distance to the next town actually show the distance to the next highway !
About 120 or so kilometres from Uluru we came to Mount Connor. For tourists driving from Alice Springs, it has often been mistaken as Uluru as all of a sudden out of the landscape appears this huge monolith rock formation. It is about the same height as Uluru but has quite a flat top. It has the nickname “Fool-uru” as how many huge rocks would you expect to find just appearing in the lanscape like that ? Driving another 120 k’s or so you will find out !
Just over a sand dune behind the Mount Connor viewing point, Adrienne had read about another interesting sight. We scrambled up the dune and quite a large salt lake appears – known as Lake Swanson. The top of the dune also provides a much better overall view of the area.
Driving on we went through the only real settlement along the way – Curtin Springs station. It is a bit like a run down version of Kings Creek station – with accommodation, a shop and fuel – but not really worth a stop for us.
Not too far out of Uluru we came across a group of 4 or 5 camels striding through the open landscape not far off the road. We stopped and they stopped – eyeing off each other. We took photos but I don’t think they did.
Then soon after we arrived at Uluru – well Yulara to be correct, the name of the actual township containing the accommodation area. So around 1pm we checked in to Sails in the Desert, where we had stayed on our last visit.
As I said in my last post, we were meeting up with our friends – Jo, Steve, Gae, Greg & Therese – for this part of our trip and their flight was due in about 1.30pm. So we wandered down to the shopping square to get a bit of lunch while we waited for them to arrive. We got a message from them about 1.20pm that their plane had landed, but with the “border checkin” process, luggage gathering process and bus trip to the resort, we had made it to the bar for a drink and to wait for them before they arrived about 2.30pm.
After they had settled into their rooms, we met up again in the bar before heading off for our evening “Sounds of Silence” sunset and dinner nearby. It was a lovely evening with another fantastic sunset experience, although a few low clouds and a pretty full moon had rolled in by the time we had our “star talk”, limiting the stars on view.
We are certainly noticing the effects of the pandemic on staffing and tourism generally. When we had checked in, the girl at reception had told us they had been at 95 – 100% occupancy for the last few weeks. But we had also heard elsewhere that the normal staff level of around 2,000 was operating at about 500 ! Our “guide” on one of our activities had said she was working 2 jobs at present. So service was certainly slow and stretched but we didn’t let that detract from our enjoyment and just “went with the flow”. A good start to our Uluru stay nonetheless.
Day 2
We had a leisurely start and nice breakfast and browse around the shopping precinct with everyone before heading out toward Uluru mid morning. First stop was the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre. This showcases the local Anangu culture and the park’s natural environment through exhibits and presentations and galleries showing local art. No photographs allowed here !
We had a picnic lunch and then headed for our main activity of the day – our segway ride around the rock ! Adrienne and I had done this on our 2018 visit and we were really looking forward to it again !
No personal tour this time – there was a group of 22 in total which was split in half with each group heading different directions around the rock after everyone had their segway training. If you are ever in Uluru we absolutely recommend this activity if you are up to it !
Over the next few hours we made our way around the rock, listening to stories of the local culture relating to the rock and generally enjoying the surroundings and experience.
Uluru Segway Tour
We finished late in the afternoon and hastily made our way back to the resort to collect our “afternoon provisions” and head out to the “sunset carpark” to have our drinks and nibblies whilst we watched the amazing changing colours of the rock as the sun set.
Back to the resort for dinner and our day was over in what seemed a flash ! But such a great day !
Day 3
It was a very early start – 5.15am at the front of the hotel – as we were doing the sunrise “Field of Light” experience.
It is an art installation originally conceived during a visit by artist Bruce Munro to Uluru in 1992. In 2016, he returned to the red desert in Australia for the installation of Field of Light with a unique interpretation of his artwork comprising 50,000 spheres of light, the largest and most remote iteration of this artwork to date. Originally due to end in 2018 just after our last visit, it was extended for 12 months or so and has since been extended indefinitely.
We saw this in 2018 as part of an evening “Sounds of Silence” dinner. Seeing it again now with the added dimension of a sunrise was absolutely spectacular ! I think we would both agree that this added dimension would make the sunrise experience our pick of the two options.
With the early dawn start, we were back at the resort for breakfast ! After breakfast it was time to wear off a few calories so we drove out to Kata Tjuta to do the Valley of the Winds walk. We stopped on the way out at the viewing platform – which was just as well as the chorus of “The Wheels on the Bus” were starting to get out of hand – and it was only 10am !
The Valley of the Winds walk is fairly strenuous and makes its way through some of the “boulder” formations which make up Kata-Tjuta. As our time was a bit limited, we decided on doing only part of the walk but what we did was certainly worth the effort !
We were back at the resort early afternoon and we all went separate ways to have a casual lunch, some a (brief) dip in the pool (it was so cold !) and we did a bit of laundry for the road ahead.
Then it was drinks in the bar and our final dinner together to share quite a few laughs and stories from our few days together – despite our very early start, I think we may have been the last to leave / get kicked out !
Day 4
Today we all headed our separate way – we were moving on, initially back to Alice Springs, and the rest were heading home to Sydney. So with a last breakfast and fond farewells, we packed the car again and headed east, whilst the others filled in the morning at the resort before their flight back to Sydney.
There was not a lot of navigating needed for us today – we drove east along Lasseter Highway until we reached the Stuart Highway and then turned left until we hit Alice Springs !
The first part was really a fair bit of back-tracking until we met the road in from Kings Canyon and then the rest of the road was fairly familiar – largely flat and scrubby countryside with an occassional hill here and there. We passed through the now derelict town/roadhouse of Mount Ebenezer along the way. Seems this place has had quite a past ! It has been closed since 2019 and any buildings are now already a decaying wreck. In 2012 there was a change in the leasehold ownership but within weeks the new proprietor is said to have been run off by members of the local community with spears wanting their land back. It must have re-opened as in late 2014 staff arrived at work early one morning to discover a man calling for help from their fireplace. Half-naked, the would be thief had allegedly tried to clamber down the chute some time in the middle of the night to gain entry into the business. Never a dull moment in the Territory !
About 1pm we made our left turn onto the Stuart Highway and stopped at the hub of activity at the intersection which is the Erldunda Roadhouse. It provides fuel, accommodation, a bar and emu exhibit – and significantly is the “Centre of the Centre” – whilst there is apparent disagreement about the location of the centre of the country because of the different ways of measurement, currently, there are five points that compete for the title of the centre of Australia. “The Government” has decided that the title goes to the middle point of those five measurements, hailing Erldunda the ‘Centre of the Centre’. The “township” is also known as Ghan.
After a tasty sandwich for lunch, we set off north for our return to Alice Springs for the evening. The speed limit of 130km certainly hastened our journey and the countryside was much more picturesque. With the area in the vicinity of the Finke River Gorge National Park, the Owen Springs Reserve and the reaches of the West Macdonnell Ranges, the hills were more prevalent and the substantial gum trees more abundant along the drive.
We arrived back in Alice about 3pm for our last night – this time at the Crown Plaza – before heading further north. We sat around the pool and had a couple of drinks recalling our enjoyable few days with “the gang” and then headed to the “Juicy Rump” bar for an early dinner. Just as well as today was Ladbrokes Alice Springs Cup Day and the race goers were soon spilling off buses to celebrate or drown their sorrows from a day at the races.
Its been a great few days and tomorrow we fly to Darwin to continue our tour.