After finally making it to the Outback, I wish I hadn't waited so long to get there. Of the trips I've taken in Australia, the trip to Uluru is my favourite. It's so vast, so beautiful, so Australian. I can't recommend a trip to the Outback enough and am already looking forward to returning.
The cast of characters for this trip picks up where we left off in our Great Barrier Reef chapter: Bryan (college friend who also responds to "Cassowary Mike"), Linnea (my esteemed adventure associate), and me (friendly neighbourhood blog author). And I suppose before I get any further, I should be sure you know what Uluru is. While looking at photos of it may lead you to think that it's a big rock, it's more than that. It has a massive spiritual importance to the indigenous people of the region, and, when you first see it, it's easy to understand why. There's something moving about seeing this rock stand tall (348 meters) among an otherwise flat landscape.
There are direct flights to Uluru, but we decided instead to fly to Alice Springs and drive. Bryan, Linnea, and I all enjoy road trips. Plus, Bryan and I have a bit of a road trip history; we drove to Florida from Indiana together for spring break during our junior and senior year in college. We hit the road immediately after landing in Alice Springs to ensure a pre-sunset arrival at Uluru. This was partly because we wanted to see Uluru at sunset but mostly because it it is very dangerous to drive the Stuart and Lasseter Highways in the dark. This danger is due to the combination of no lights on the highway and large mammals (kangaroos, camels, cows) that are wont to cross the road at any moment. Four and a half hours, many miles of red dirt, and a few dodged cows later, we arrived at Uluru just in time to enjoy the sunset. They say that you need to see Uluru at both sunrise and sunset when you visit, and I agree with that suggestion. The sunset was worth hustling from Alice Springs to Uluru for.
Our only full day in Uluru began with watching the sunrise, which was arguably better than the previous night's sunset. Energised by a coffee and the presence of Uluru (but mostly the coffee), we drove to the base of the rock to walk around it. Since there isn't much shade available on the base walk, we were happy to start as early as possible to avoid the midday heat. The 10+ km loop took us past numerous sites sacred to the local Anangu people, demonstrating the importance of the rock to those who had been living in the region for at least 10,000 years.
At this point, you might have the following question: "Did you climb the rock?" The short answer is no, I didn't climb the rock. The longer answer is that you are allowed to climb the rock, but the Anangu do not climb it and they discourage visitors from climbing. The Anangu do not want people to climb the rock for two reasons: it disrespects their sacred tradition and they feel responsible for the safety of those who climb the rock. Many injuries and a few deaths have occurred to visitors while climbing, which makes the Anangu very sad. Even though climbing the rock seemed fun, we decided to respect the wishes of the traditional Aboriginal owners of Uluru and stick to the base walk.
If you look closely above at the photo of Uluru at sunrise, you can see a distant rock formation on the left side. This rock formation is Kata Tjuta. Being a lesser-known site than Uluru, I wasn't expecting much from our hike through Kata Tjuta. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this hike took us through gorgeous, lush valleys.
While the day so far was great, the main event was booked for that evening: a sunset camel ride through the Outback with views of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta. This was the highlight of the trip. Riding the camels was fun and surprisingly comfortable, the guides were knowledgeable about the region, and the views were great. Fun fact: Australia has more wild camels than any other country in the world. Like many mammals in Australia, camels do not have any natural predators and are able to proliferate unchecked.
We woke up very early the next day to make time to stop at King's Canyon on our way back to Alice Springs. King's Canyon is another gorgeous place for a hike, but other than the fact that we saw a couple of dingoes as we began our hike there isn't much to say that I haven't already said about our other destinations on this trip. In fact, we realised at this point that we had almost exclusively taken photos of rocks or featuring rocks, and King's Canyon was no different. Over one hundred rock photos in 48 hours means you had a great trip, right?
The drive back to Alice Springs was full of red dirt, roadhouse camel burgers, and seemingly infinite landscapes. Over the course of the trip we drove 1,400 km and covered only a small part of the Northern Territory. Australia is a big place.
One night and one morning in Alice Springs was enough to see a majority of the town. It seemed small to us city-dwellers, but a population of 27,000 means that over 10% of Northern Territory residents call Alice Springs home. While wandering down the main street, we were enchanted by the Outback-style hats in every shop window and on every head so we purchased hats just before heading to the airport. We will fit right in the next time we find ourselves in the Outback.