Matt Down Under

My alarm went off at 5.30am. I went to have a shower and by 6.15am we left the campground to drive into Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park to watch the sunrise at Uluru.

We didn’t know where the best place was to watch the sunrise so we drove to the dedicated ‘sunrise viewing area’ that is actually quite a long way to drive. I think by 6.45am we were there. Busloads of others were there too, fighting for the best spots on the viewing platform. It was probably the biggest conglomeration of people incompetent of handling a point-and-shoot camera I have ever seen.

The sunrise was around 7.15am and most of the people probably expected magical things to happen, such as Uluru shining in bright red. However, not much happened. The sun came up, and it was a nice sunrise to be honest. However Uluru didn’t shine at all. What made it even more boring was the fact that the sunrise was actually slightly behind the viewing platform, so you couldn’t even get the sun and Uluru on the same photo.

You could feel the disappointment in the air. Hundreds of cameras were pointing at Uluru and nothing happened. Slowly, people realised the show wouldn’t happen and left.

We drove to the Culture Centre nearby. My travel companion, Patrick, was dropping me off there. He wanted to spend the day organising his project work, while I wanted to spend the day doing all the possible walks around Uluru. But first we had breakfast. The good thing about a campervan is, that you always have everything with you. Wherever your car is, you can have breakfast.

I walked through the Culture Centre and then started on the Liru walk which ended at the car park where the climb to the top of Uluru starts. I watched some people climbing up, but didn’t go myself. There are signs, asking people not to climb due to Uluru being a sacred place to the Anangu Aboriginal people, the traditional and official land owners. I respect that, and I wish others would too. If I was religious, I wouldn’t want the Aborigines to climb my sacred places either. It’s simple as that — a question of respect from both ends.

I absolutely loved walking around Uluru. I think every person should at least once in their life visit Uluru and walk around it. Otherwise all the fascination and hype surrounding it is hard to understand. Imagine a landscape, flat to the horizon. Desert. And in the middle of it, a majestic red rock. So much is fascinating here. Not only is it incredibly big (I spent 4 hours walking around it), it’s also the shapes and curves that make it look like it’s not from this world.

What made it even more awesome was, that when I was there, the grass around Uluru was very green, so it was this amazing colour combination of clear blue sky, red rock, and green grass around it. I must say I had been pretty disappointed when I saw the level of commercialisation at Yulara, but when I actually went to Uluru, walked around it, saw all the sights, caves and gorges, touched the red rock and saw it in all it’s beauty on a fantastic day, I was really blown away. Easily the greatest experience I’ve had in Australia so far.

You could say it’s just a rock, but only those who’ve never been there say that. It’s a beautiful rock. In a beautiful location.

The walk around Uluru was longer than I had expected, but I totally enjoyed every minute. It was a very hot day, bright sunshine. I love the heat.

When I got back to the Culture Centre I called Patrick to come and pick me up. While I waited for him I had lunch at the café. Ice-cream is pretty expensive there.

Patrick then wanted to spend an hour or two in the arts studio next to the Culture Centre, so we decided to stay inside the park. I took the car and drove back to the sunrise viewing area to take more photos and do the small walks there. I also used the time to catch up with my inbox.

Around 5pm we went to drive back to Yulara, just in time for the sunset. We parked at the side of the road, shortly before the dedicated sunset viewing area. It was the perfect spot. It also seemed like the perfect spot for sunrise, because the sun then actually rises behind Uluru, slightly to the left, creating stunning views. We decided to park there the following morning to try the sunrise again.

Unfortunately it was a little cloudy and we didn’t get to photograph Uluru in it’s full glowing red beauty. I parked the car only a few seconds too late — by then most of the sun had already disappeared behind clouds again. It really annoyed me.

We went back to the campsite and cooked pasta again. Afterwards we did more computer work (there is perfect mobile phone and 3G coverage at Yulara and Uluru — as soon as you leave, it quickly fades).