Never have I had a more disappointing set of photos than from our long weekend trip to the centre of Australia to see Uluru (aka Ayers Rock). The trip was outstanding, but the images never quite came together for me. I had some modest successes, but not nearly as many as I should have. This was about four years ago and apparently I wasn’t working my camera concentration as hard as I should have been.
But, there’s more to a successful trip than just photos. Home base when visiting Uluru is the little town of Yulara. It’s a resort town with a range of accommodation to meet a range of budgets, but one look at the prices might make you think you need to have a pretty big budget.
Uluru is the chief attraction, but a trip to the Red Centre has to include hiking at Kata Tjuta (aka The Olgas). If you’re feeling adventurous you might even take a full-day four-wheel drive tour out to Mt Connor. Mt Connor is a similar rock formation to Uluru, but it’s bigger and sits on privately held land. A couple of tour companies have arrangements with the owners to take groups to see a salt lake (very cool) and to drive to the top of Mt Connor.
Lots of tourists fly in and out the same day and miss so much that it seems not worth the trouble to me. We stayed three and a half days and could have stayed longer. I personally can’t wait to go again.
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Just how high is this Uluru rock? Looks beautiful though. All I can think about is climbing to the top!
It’s about 350m high. Climbing the rock is actually a tricky call. While the government allows climbing, the local aboriginals ask that no one climb it. A visitors guide says “the climb is not prohibited, but we prefer that, as a guest on Anangu land, you will choose to respect our law and culture by not climbing.” For the Anangu, it is a sacred site and I’m personally inclined to respect their wishes. That said, bus loads of tourists turn up every day to do the climb so I guess it’s up to each visitor to make their own choice.
You have posted so many beautiful and interesting places; the photos are amazing! This is another place on my bucket list! Thanks for the great posts!!
Love the simple composition here and the major tones in this one complement each other so well.
What a beautiful shot, the red against the clear blue sky is fantastic, excellent composition too!
Excellent picture, Mike! Adrian
I really like the simplicity of composition in this shot, that you’ve chosen to include so much sky. Very nice.
One of my regrets when I left Australia was that I had not made the trip to Uluru! Sorry you were not happy with your photos – but thanks for sharing the info re the Olgas! I couldn’t imagine rushing in and out in a day! I imagine some of the magic of the place will only just start to rub off after at least 24 hours!!!
Lovely shot. Looks like a postcard to me.