Adelaide to Uluṟu Day 1

It’s 3.00am when the radio comes alive with the local news, this is our alarm to get moving. It’s pitch black outside and 4c. This will be our first flight since Covid hit three years ago so we are somewhat apprehensive. Qantas haven’t enjoyed the same level of popularity since virtually closing down the airline and sacking 17000 employees soon after Covid became a worldwide problem and Australia locked its doors. Not to mention that they continue to be embroiled in controversy over their CEO’s dubious business practices. Though within the law seemed morally corrupt given the high regard the flying kangaroo enjoyed here.

Amanda’s cousin Barbie arrived from Hurricane, Utah last Monday awaking us from our winter slumber, giving us the impetus for this trip to the red centre. After a week of city sightseeing dotted with the occasional wine tasting in the newest of south Australia’s wine districts the cool climate Adelaide Hill’s we ready ourselves for a visit to the monolithic natural rock formation that once known as Ayres Rock is now renamed Uluru. Indigenous Australians took control in 1985 signing a 99 year lease, declaring the area a sacred place, eventually ceasing the practice of climbing the rock that had proven dangerous and in this day and age certainly outside health and safety guidelines. Uluṟu doesn’t sit alone out there in the red desert just a few kilometres away is Kata Tjuṯa once known as the Olga’s a collection of rock formations that form islands amongst the red sandy sea. One of the most visited and remote places in Australia, Uluṟu and Kata Tjuṯa sit in the Ayres Rock National Park some 400 kilometres from Alice Springs.

By 4.15 am we have loaded our bags into the car and are on the road to the airport. A drive made easy by the lack of traffic at this hour, by 5.00am we are through security and looking for breakfast. We spot a coffee and muffin outlet with everything from savoury to sweet and settle in to assuage our hunger. Our flight time soon arrives and we are on our way through the night sky. Dawn greets us as we make our way east towards Sydney on the first leg of our journey with a gradual emerging stratified display of pink, grey and blue.

Crazy as this seems currently there are no direct flights to the airport that services the Yulara resort. The Yulara Resort sits just 1580 kilometres north of Adelaide while Sydney is 1375 kilometres east and Yulara 2838 kilometres west from Sydney. We long for the pre Covid days when life seemed now in retrospect so much less complicated.

Our stopover in Sydney is brief, we have moved forward by 30 minutes and have a 60 minute wait for our flight to Uluṟu. Flying west again we will loose the 30 minutes gained on our flight from Adelaide plus another 60 minutes, the Northern Territory doesn’t do daylight saving time, something to do with upsetting the cows. This time we have a three hour flight into the red heart of the continent.

Onboard wifi allows us to track our path, as we cross the border back into the far north of South Australia the vast ground beneath us is a hazy ochre that fades into distant grey cloud cover topped with white before reaching a pale blue sky. The three hours passes by, passengers to the left off us have an aerial view of Uluṟu and glimpse of Kata Tjuta as we descend. The landscape is a canvas of bluey green low scrubby bushes, yellow spinifex grasses that form tufts that sprout from the red soil and blue grey spindly desert oaks. Once landed we take the shuttle the short distance to the resort and the Emu Walk Apartments hotel that we have booked for our 3 night stay. On our way we have our fist glimpses of the rock formations we are here to see. The day is pleasantly warm with a light breeze. After check in we walk into the town square to check out the restaurants, organise our rental car as well as browse the shops and the indigenous art gallery. A crowd gathers in an amphitheatre where a didgeridoo player is holding a lesson on the basics of playing this ancient instrument. Originating in the north of Australia around Arnhem Land and The Kimberley’s in Western Australia the wind instrument is now associated with Aboriginals all around the nation.

Our energy fading we find a restaurant and settle down to an early meal and a glass of wine. The sky turns a rosy hue as the sunsets while we stroll back to our room for an early night after an early start and a long day. Tomorrow we will travel into the Ayres Rock National Park for a close up encounter with these two giants of the landscape, Uluṟu and Kata Tjuṯa.