This was not a well organised side trip to see Uluru and Kata Tjuta. In fact no research was done beforehand, rather it was a case of pop in and see these sites while we are up that way. Only a 535.4 km return trip from the Stuart Highway. Not a great distance when one considers the vast distances in the Australian outback.
We had tried to book a caravan site there a week beforehand, with no success, either because we could not find the telephone number, or no one answered the phone and once we were directed to Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges. The same indigenous group runs both camping sites. This should have raised alarm bells! We have spoken to other travellers since who have had the same experience.
Off we went regardless, knowing that there was an overflow section at the back of the caravan site. There is only one camping park, and no camping areas after Curtin Springs 85 km away from the resort (Yulara).
The Lasseter Highway was quite a new experience. First up Mount Ebenezer Roadhouse, closed since 2019 due to being poorly run by the local community. There was quite a bit of controversy when someone tried to lease the roadhouse, and failed to do so. Now it looks derelict. Very sad really.
Further up the road (104.3 km) is Curtin Springs Station, which is a million acre cattle station. But it also has an inn with 27 rooms, a camping ground, fuel, store and restaurant. They make paper from the native grasses on the station, and provide guided walks. I believe the non powered sites are free, and payment is only required for the use of the toilets and showers. Water is available to fill caravan/motorhome tanks, with a donation to the Flying Doctor Service. It is near the turn off to Kings Canyon, and has wonderful views of Mt Conner. We should have stayed here! Oh well.
Kings Canyon. We did not even realise this was a spectacular place to visit, 122 km from Curtin Springs.
No more said on this one. Although we had an extra day to spare, this would not have been enough time to explore the area.
Uluru, taken from the back of the caravan park at sunset. I think we were about twenty kms away. It still looked impressive. The first photograph is the one that is uploaded onto Facebook so thought it needed to one of Uluru and not Mt Conner.
We finally arrived at the township of Yulara, most of which is the Ayers Rock Resort, an indigenous owned enterprise that provides accommodation, restaurants and other services for people visiting the park. I believe there is an Aboriginal school in the town.
We did not visit the centre of the resort, sadly. Apparently it is beautifully landscaped with a tourist shop, cafes and restaurants.
Yulara was established in the early 1980s after a decision was made to relocate the tourist accommodation away from Uluru. By the early 1970s, the unstructured and unmonitored tourism was having a detrimental effect on both Uluru and Kata Tjuta. There was a camping ground at the base of Uluru, plus at least one motel nearby. There was also a runway for planes in the vicinity too. And of course people climbed the rock, up until a few years ago.
There were no signs that any of this existed as all structures were dismantled and the bush has claimed the land back.
I tried to find old maps online which showed the camping ground and motel. The camping ground was clearly marked, but not the motel or runway.
But I did find some alarming information. Apparently, in 1983, a man drove a 25 tonne Mack truck into the crowded bar of the motel and killed five people. It would appear that he had been barred from the bar, and retaliated by driving his truck into the bar. He did not confess to this of course, claimed he had no memory of driving the truck into the bar, but he was imprisoned for the murder of five people.
Then there was the dreadful killing of baby Azaria Chamberlain by a dingo in 1980, plus the wrongful arrest and imprisonment of her mother. The awful trial by the media. It makes one shudder to think of such a beautiful area being the scene of immense tragedies.
Once I entered the national park I could see why there was a separation between the park and the resort, as the protection of the area was paramount, both for native bush and animals as well as for the natural beauty and special significance to the Anangu, who were the traditional owners of the park. The Anangu owners include the Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara people.
Now back to the one and only caravan park, which wins an award for being the most disorganised caravan park ever. The staff in the front office were very pleasant but the real organisation was done centrally somewhere, and they had a system which we did not understand. It was very busy which probably did not help, with long queues every afternoon. And people mostly only stayed a few days.
If you were lucky enough to obtain a booking then your site was earmarked for you until you arrived, and the booking people would not move your name from that site. They also refused to move people around on paper, consequently there were heaps of vacant sites. We were the filler uppers, so were moved from site to site, and after the second night we gave up and left. There is nothing more off putting than packing up and moving to another site a few metres away.
Our site for the first night was on a slope, which meant using our levellers and pieces of wood. Packing up, moving two sites along was not easy. Also it could not be done until the office had cleared where there would be a vacant site for us. After ten in the morning.
There were beautiful large grassed areas, for the few tents, but it was lovely to walk around this part of the caravan park. Piper was happy with all the grass.
The overflow area at the back of the caravan park may have been preferable. We were told it had a huge generator there which was very noisy, but people said it was great being there, with plenty of room and not really noisy. There was no power, or water hookup, but at $30 per night this was a good option. But we did not take it up unfortunately. Oh well!
The idea was that we would take turns visiting the national park as dogs were not permitted in the park. Walter decided that the view from the caravan park was enough for him, so he decided to have a quiet day reading. He was by this stage not prepared to move the caravan again, and fed up with the disorganisation.
So off I went, for my day in the park, after I had helped Walter move the caravan.
My morning view of Uluru in the morning.
The structure of the Cultural Centre is a free-form structure built from locally made mud bricks, and represents two ancestral snakes, Kuniya the woma python woman and Liru the venomous snake man. They helped to create Uluru.
Photography within the Cultural Centre was not allowed.
My first close view of Uluru. To see the rock closeup was breathtaking to say the least. And even better was the opportunity to touch it.
Initially I started to walk from the Cultural Centre but realised this was going to take too long. There was a convenient sealed road that went around the rock, with roads into the important parts. It would have been great to walk around the rock, about 10.6 kms, but time did not allow this. Better still I would have liked to hire a bike and complete the full circle but no time for that either.
In fact there were sedgeway tours too, but definitely not for me! I am sure I would fall off one of these.
I did take a walk into Kantju Gorge where there were rock paintings. The photo below was not the gorge!
There were plenty of signs explaining the Anangu stories. The rock was ever changing.
And the amazing sight of lush vegetation on the way into the waterhole. A different world.
Mutitjulu Waterhole, home of the Wanampi, an ancestral watersnake. A very special place. The water cascades from the top of the rock when it rains.
This piece of rock looks like it is about to fall off!
The ever changing face of Uluru.
It is still possible to see the outline of the walk up the rock. Not for me.
The next part of the tour took me to Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas. Kata Tjuta means 'many heads' in Pitjantjatjara. It is 50 kms from Uluru. This is an Anangu men's site and is sacred under traditional law.
The photograph below was taken from the dune viewing platform.
The start of the Valley of the Winds walk, apparently quite a difficult walk at times, and not to be completed on a hot day.
The desert oak (allocasuarina decaisneana) caught our attention as we drove towards Uluru. These trees really stand out in the desert. The young trees have a narrow trunk and the grey/green foliage grows on the trunk. It is only when the trees reach maturity do they have spreading limbs and bushy foliage. A pity I did not take any photographs of them. They were most unusual.
We visited the industrial part of the resort of Yulara, so it was good to see the practical part!
Walter emptying the portaloo at the dump point.
Walter and Piper standing apprehensively in front of the camels.
They even had a viewing platform in order to watch the sunset.
And from there we continued on our way south, to Coober Pedy, Woomera and Quorn.
An early morning view of the sunrise at Coober Pedy.
Although we did see as much as we should have, it was still a worthwhile trip into Uluru.
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