Uluru (2025)
Other than having to get up early (again), our flight from Melbourne to Ayer’s Rock Airport was delightful. Jerry put in a last-minute lowball bid for an upgrade, and they accepted it, so we got upgraded to business, which were surprisingly nice seats (similar to US domestic first), rather than the “economy seats but with the middle seat empty” that is standard in European business. It also gave us lounge access, and the Virgin lounge is quite pretty (though the food selection was limited):
On board, the dedicated flight attendant for the 8 business class seats was amazing, and we got a proper breakfast on board.
On arrival, we had to take the stairs down to the apron, and it’s hard to describe how hard the wall of hot air hit us as we stepped outside. It was something like 108, with a UV index of 12, and just the brief walk to the terminal felt like being thrown in a pizza oven:
We appreciated the welcome being written in the local Anangu language:
After catching the free shuttle bus to the hotel and showering, we mostly napped until our early dinner in the hotel restaurant, Ilkari. The resort did have a lot of beautiful landscaping and a pool, in case you wanted to be roasted or boiled alive, respectively.
Dinner at the hotel was lovely, and quick. Nick opted for kangaroo loin, which was a bit tough, but prepared well, and Jerry had the vegetarian wellington.
After dinner, we went out for a stargazing talk. Even with the sun down, it was still triple-digit heat outside. They started just after sunset, which meant we got a chance to see Venus before it set:
The guide pointed out Jupiter and Mars and started us off with the telescope looking at Jupiter. It was a powerful enough telescope to really appreciate the gas giant. The rest of the talk focused a lot on a mix of stories about constellations as well as interesting science tidbits. In particular, when the ISS passes overhead, it’s only around 400km above us, which is less than the 450km distance to the nearest McDonald’s from Uluru.
We had great views of Orion and the southern cross, but the moon was nearly full, so we couldn’t capture the Milky Way itself. On the plus side, we got some nice photos of ourselves by moonlight.
After the star talk, we walked over to the tall sand dune in the middle of the resort to get our first good look at Uluru by moonlight.
Despite the late night, our next morning was again an early one – we woke at 5 to join a morning group tour. It began with a pre-dawn breakfast on top of a dune with stellar views of Uluru and Kata Tjuti.
We looked surprisingly awake for how early it was.
Our guide then drove us all over to Uluru proper. It’s a truly stunning sight, partly for the geological aspect (it was shoved up by old tectonic activity even as the mountains around it eroded to sand), but even more so for the history of the native peoples that lived, maintained, and worshipped at this unique place.
The Anangu people in particular have a number of creation stories to explain the striations, caves, and other features seen in the rock. I won’t repeat them here, both because you should come and hear them told in person, but also so I don’t butcher the stories in my retelling. We also learned more about how the caves were used for both ritual and everyday purposes, such as cooking.
There are also a couple of culturally sensitive areas that cannot be photographed, either because of their significance to the Anangu creation stories or because they include spaces that some Anangu are prohibited from looking at, even by accident (e.g., on social media). Also apologies to any Spanish speakers, as this sign means something completely different in Spanish than it does in Anangu:
The last stop around Uluru showed the place where tourists were able to climb up the rock until it was closed in 2019. White Australians mounted a crappy climbing chain up the side of the rock in the early days of white-people tourism to the site (the 50s, maybe?). The history of the climbing chain is itself kind of comical. A local cattle rancher was hired to install it, but he was a very short man, so he installed it at like knee height for the rest of us. Also, he insisted that it wasn’t there for safety on the 45-degree climb, but just to guide people in the right path. There’s a great article about the crotchety old man from when the chain was removed. Anyway, the climb was crazy steep, and 37 people died before it was closed:
Finally, we retreated to the cultural center, as the heat was now on full bore, north of 100 even at 10am. There were some nice informative signs about local stories, as well as A/C. We camped in the cafeteria for a bit to cool off and have an iced drink, then bought a luggage tag with a design from a local artist from the gift shop. Finally, we stopped in the art gallery for a moment before rejoining our bus back to the hotel.
The driver did stop briefly for final selfies on the way out:
At the hotel, we relaxed for a bit, then went out to check out the “town center” part of the resort. We bought a couple snacks to prepare for our upcoming road trip the next day, and bought an ornament with art from a local indigenous artist. After dropping our purchases in our room, we had a lovely afternoon tea that combined traditional English elements with local ingredients:
We napped in the room for a bit, given the two early starts in a row, but were awoken in the afternoon by a crazy storm passing through. The wind whipped at the trees, and rain was blowing sideways. We saw some other guests rushing out of the pool and back to their rooms in the storm. This had us worried for our evening outing, but the storm cleared out quickly.
Speaking of the evening activity, we joined a big crowd to be bussed out to a field on the outskirts of the resort property. They began with cocktails and passed hors d'oeuvres with a view of Uluru and Kata Tjuti, (along with just a sprinkling of rain). To be honest, we’d seen them both enough that we turned down the offer of a friendly couple to take our photo with the sites, but the stormy weather made for some fun dramatic shots:
As it got dark, they led us down to an outdoor dinner buffet. We were joined by a big group of women in their late 20s from Melbourne and a retired couple from Arizona, which made for some fun chitchat during our meal. The women were particularly impressed with Jerry’s knowledge of Kylie Minogue trivia.
After dinner, there was another star talk, and with the completely overcast sky, it was more comedy than informative for us. The guide took it in stride though, dutifully pointing out where some of the constellations and planets are located had the clouds not blocked our view.
The final treat of the night was a walk through the field of lights, a truly massive installation of LEDs. It’s hard to capture well in photos, but trust me that it made for a romantic stroll to cap off the evening.
Tomorrow we catch a car and drive off to Alice Springs, stay tuned!