The Outback, Australia: Exploring Uluru, Kata Tjuta and King’s Canyon
- Esther
- Feb 25, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 2, 2020
Seeing the Outback was one of the last things I did in Aus, but it was also one of the best! The scenery out there was incredible and the whole trip was so different to anything I’ve ever done or seen before.
We went with a tour group called Mulgas Adventures, which was definitely the right choice because the itinerary was perfect for what we wanted to do. We got to see a lot of the best parts of Australia’s Red Centre, like the famous Uluru rock, Kata Tjuta and King’s Canyon. We also got to sleep under the stars in swags (one of the coolest parts of the whole tour!) and watch some of the most amazing sunrises and sunsets I’ve ever seen.
The second we got off the plane from Sydney, we were hit by the 40 degree heat of the desert. The air was really dry, though, which was nice, and even though it was super hot, our tour guide Jesse made sure we did all of our walks during the coolest hours of the day. This meant a lot of very early wake ups for the sunrise treks, but they were definitely worth it!
Uluru
Our tour started with a base walk around Uluru, the famous rock in the middle of the Red Centre. It really is just a rock but it’s so huge, red, majestic-looking and full of history that it’s no wonder it’s become so iconic. The desert scenery around Uluru was amazing and as we walked Jesse showed us aboriginal drawings and sacred aboriginal sites (like the huge dips in the rock where women would traditionally go to give birth, or where the men would teach their sons to hunt).
Our whole group was glad we had our fly nets to put over our faces when we stopped, though, because even though they made us look insane, the amount of flies around Uluru is crazy!
Uluru is a really sacred site to the Anangu aboriginal people, and has been for tens of thousands of years. Like the Fraser Island tour we went on a few months ago, one of the things I really loved about our Outback tour was that Jesse talked a lot about the Anangu people who had been living in that area (and all over Australia) for 65,000 years before the first white settlers arrived. He told us aboriginal Dreamtime stories about how the landscape was created and we also weren’t allowed to take any photos of the aboriginal people in that area, their Visitor Centre or the especially sacred parts of the rock.
You also can’t climb Uluru any more, which is a really good thing because the aboriginals in that area have been asking for a long time for the climbing to stop. Jesse had been at the celebrations for the closing of the climb just a few weeks before we went!
In the evening, we had some bubbles while we waited for sunset at Uluru before heading back to the campsite to have dinner and sleep under the stars.
At first, I was worried about the dingoes, spiders and snakes that might be around at night, because we were literally sleeping on the ground with no protection at all, but this ended up being one of my favourite parts of the tour! The only time we even saw a snake was when Ben stepped on a harmless python (!) while we were doing one of our walks before sunrise.
Kata Tjuta
On our second day, we woke up super early and drove to a lookout to see a stunning sunrise over both Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
We spent the rest of the morning exploring the Kata Tjuta National Park and it’s famous Valley of the Winds, which was actually even prettier than Uluru.
On the way to the next campsite, we stopped to stock up on drinks for the night, take a look at the amazing Mount Connor and watch some of the camels passing by us on the road!
At the campsite, we all helped make dinner (I made 'bush bread' with chocolate Tim Tams) and then sat around the campfire in our swags chatting and playing drinking games.
King’s Canyon
On the third day, we hiked up to the top of King’s Canyon for another Outback sunrise. I’d never heard of King’s Canyon before but it was so incredible I think Jesse was saving the best part of the trip for last.
The scenery there was really varied, with giant watering holes and gardens lying in-between huge expanses of bright orange rocks and steep cliff edges.
On our last night, we had more drinks and games at the campsite and Jesse actually let us all sleep in our swags at the lookout point where we’d watched the sunset over Uluru the night before. It meant we woke up to the prettiest view ever!
I’m so glad I got to see a bit of The Outback before the end of my trip. I’ve had the best year living in Sydney and travelling the East Coast, but it was great to top the year off with something that felt really adventurous and different. It was the perfect end to my year in Aus!
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