Uluru

I visited this mixed WHS in January 2018 and spent 3 nights here. By renting a car and buying a 3 days pass, I was free to roam about quite freely within the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The natural OUV is immediately visible from your airplane as you descend towards the tiny Yulara Airport. The massive red rocks of Uluru and Kata Tjuta are quite impressive surrounded by a never-ending red desert.

The exceptional natural beauty of the rock formations and the surrounding sand plains provide rare habitats for a variety of plants and animals. I was lucky (or unlucky) to experience a thunderstorm on one of the days I was visiting. Not only was it an unusual to see small waterfalls coming down of Ayers Rock but during rainfall the red desert is literally in full bloom. A few minutes after the thunderstorm, the flowers practically vanish, while the few puddles that form are filled with tadpoles and burrowing frogs. Among the several insects and reptiles, we spotted stick insects, praying mantis, leaf katydids, sand goannas and the peculiar thorny devil (photo).

A strong emphasis is made on the fact that the national park is on Anangu land and that Anangu customs and tradional laws are to be respected. Anangu are the traditional owners of this land and living cultural landscape. The land is believed to have been actively managed by generations of Anangu using traditional practices and knowledge. The land is still believed to hold powerful religious and …

A few hours on the ground is long enough to feel the energy of Uluru but not long enough to become absorbed by it. Many parts of the site – including the entire northeastern face – are designated as sacred areas because of their significance to the indigenous inhabitants. That means people aren’t allowed to take photos of these areas and so it’s likely you’ve never seen images of them before. These, in particular, are the places that I would like to have spent more time looking at, thinking about, being a part of.

Uluru is one of the iconic symbols of Australia, and for good reason. This desert monolith in the center of the continent is as awe-inspiring as pictures suggest, and I highly enjoyed the time I spent at Uluru and the neighboring rock domes of Kata Tjuta in June 2012. Uluru and Kata Tjuta were not just inscribed as a World Heritage Site for their natural component, but also for their cultural component. To that end I very much enjoyed learning about the Anangu culture through visiting the Uluru cultural center and by taking the Kuniya walk to the Mutitjulu Waterhole at the base of the monolith, a hike that includes views of rock art and displays about desert living. Kata Tjuta also had memorable hiking opportunities, including a trail through a gorge and an amazing walk through the Valley of the Winds. The unforgettable highlight of any trip to Uluru and Kata Tjuta is watching the fascinating range of color shifting on the rocks at sunrise and sunset, and I was not disappointed. Just as spectacular for me was the opportunity to view the vast southern sky at night, unpolluted by nearby civilization and replete with constellations I rarely see.

Logistics: Uluru/Ayers Rock is fastest to reach by air, although it is also accessible by road. I recommend renting a car locally to access the various trailheads and viewpoints at Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

This site sees an unbelievable 400,000 to 500,000 visitors a year. All travel for hours just to see these rocks in the desert. You can fly in from Australia's major cities, or drive from the next city Alice Springs (445 km away). I did the latter, visiting Uluru on an overnight trip and staying in the resort town of Yulara. Yulara itself is a sight to behold: it was only developed in 1975 to keep the tourists out of the park. It has just one loop road, a couple of hotels, restaurants, a petrol station and a supermarket. All are owned by the monopolist Ayers Rock Resort, which keeps prices sky-high. I paid 175 EUR for a night in a budget room at the Outback Lodge, the cheapest of the 4 hotels in the area. The room came with a spray to kill resident pests. I used it.

After dumping my backpack at the lodge, I drove straight on to Uluru. Somehow you get the feeling here that there is no time to lose as if The Rock is calling for you. On the way up I stopped at the Cultural Center for an introduction. It has exhibits about the Aboriginal traditions surrounding Uluru. Like in Kakadu NP, I found these stories and what they involve hard to grasp.

Finally, I came to the base of the rock. I had a strange sense of arriving at somewhere very remarkable, a WHS with a real Wow!-factor. The attraction is …

When I visited Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, the biggest question among my group of fellow travellers was "Are you going to climb up the rock?". Many indigenous people hold Uluru to be sacred and should therefore not be a place to climb. Others are pleased that Uluru is a tourist spot that brings in money. I decided to walk around the base of Uluru and found that I could take in its textures and colours just as well as if I had climbed it. What an eerie and beautiful place!

The day I was there was cool, rainy, and foggy (and I had thought I was in the desert), but still the mountain exudes a magical charm and is a must-see site. I almost managed to hike around it, but it really was too muddy for that! At least I could understand why people from all over the world make such a fuss about it. Really worth seeing.