Uluru

A quick visit to Ayres Rock

Having been to a lot of the main Australian cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, the obvious ‘attraction’ to visit next was the huge monolith that is Uluru, or Ayres Rock in Australia’s Northern Territory. Travelling from Perth in Western Australia to Melbourne, Victoria on the East Coast, we decided make a 2-night stop along the way, everyone telling us that this was ample time for us to see the rock at sunset, sunrise or both.

Stopping briefly at Alice Springs airport to change planes we were soon on our way again, spotting the huge rock rising out of the carpet of red below us as we began our descent into Ayres Rock Airport.

When visiting Uluru, there is pretty much just one option of where to stay – the Ayres Rock Resort of Yulara -so, the dry heat hitting us as soon as we left the airport, we wandered out to meet our shared van transportation vehicle and were taken the short distance to this ‘township’. Yulara was like a holiday village rising up out of nowhere. A circular road running around the park with hotels, motels, campsites, stores and eateries dotted around it.

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We were staying at a low-budget motel – although even low budget at Yulara is expensive! After checking into our room, we battled our way through a sea of flies to the nearby bus stop. Buses travel on a continuous loop around the resort allowing you to hop on and off at the stores, restaurants and other hotels etc. Needing some supplies, we hopped off at the nearest convenience store, unsurprisingly finding prices hiked up to more than we would usually expect to pay but as there’s nowhere else to go, they can pretty much charge what they like across the resort.

That evening, we had booked a tour out to Uluru for sunset and having had numerous people raving to us about this ‘must do’ Australian experience, we were pretty excited for it.

Again battling through the hoards of flies (it was April and we were told these temperatures and flies were nothing compared to other months!), we hopped back on the bus – finding ourselves with the same driver we’d had every time that day so far and wondering how many laps of the resort she’d done that day! – and made our way to the resort entrance.

Rows and rows of coaches were already pulled up outside and soon, tour companies were calling for their groups to board ready to leave for Uluru in time for sunset. Once on board, we were told how the evening would run – that we’d have a special sunset viewing area to stand in and where to meet the coach afterwards. It didn’t take long to reach the park and we soon found ourselves stood in front of the rock behind a rope.

Now, for some reason, we had both expected the sun to set behind the rock but we soon realised this would not be the case and in fact, it would set opposite the rock, reflecting off it.

It was a beautiful evening without a cloud in the sky and there was a really beautiful sunset as we watched the rock waiting for this spectacular event we had heard so much about to happen. As it turned out, the sunsetting was so gradual that we didn’t really notice much change stood watching the rock and it was all a lot less dramatic than we had been lead to believe. In fact, it was a bit of a let down and as the sun finally dipped out of sight, with a ‘is that it?’ shrug of our shoulders, we made our way back to the coach.

Looking back at our photos now, it does look pretty amazing but while we were there, we hardly noticed the changes in the colours as the sunset reflected off it.

The next day, we were up at the crack of dawn to head back to the rock having booked a sunrise tour as well. Bleary eyed, we repeated the previous day’s process of making our way to the resort entrance and boarding a coach to the park, this time arriving in the pitch black. The viewing point for sunrise was at a different place to the sunset viewing point and rock seemed further away.

Again, it was difficult to really see anything happening as it all happened so gradually but at least it was less of a disappointment this time knowing what to expect from the night before.

After watching the sunrise, we had the option at staying in the park as long as we wished to explore some of the trails, walk the circumference of the rock or visit some of the museums and galleries.

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We followed a trail through the dust towards the rock walking along the perimeter for a whole then we walked towards the cultural centre where we spent some time looking around the visitors centre and galleries before catching a bus back to Yulara resort early afternoon.

Exhausted after our early start that morning, we spent the rest of the day lazing by the motel pool, going for regular swims to cool off.

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That evening, we made our way to the nearby backpackers resort where there were a few restaurants and takeaways and ordered pizza, sitting out at the picnic benches to eat it- and almost having the shock of my life when an enormous spider climbing up a wooden post right next to me caught my eye!

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The next day, we returned to the airport to wave Uluru behind and fly to Melbourne.

I’d been left slightly underwhelmed by my visit but was glad I could tick it off my list of things to see in Australia. I wonder if I’d have appreciated the experience more if I’d visited as part of a tour of the Northern Territory or had taken part in different type of sunset tour with the entertainment and barbecue included.

Looking back, I also wish I’d spent more time exploring the surrounding area as there’s much more to see than Uluru – the Olgas, Kings Canyon National Park or just spending more time in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Maybe one day in the future I can return.