A portion of Uluru viewed from the base walk

Of course the main draw of central Australia is Uluru – one of the largest bornhardt formations in the world and a sacred site for the local aboriginal people. I decided to do a 10-day group tour from Alice Springs to visit Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Kings Canyon, Devils Marbles, Katherine Gorge, Mary River, Kakadu NP, and Litchfield NP, finally ending in Darwin in plenty of time to begin my new job. While I would have loved to do this trip on my own as a massive road trip, after adding up all the costs I just couldn’t justify it – it would have been nearly triple the price to do it alone. Of course there are benefits to the tour – being able to sleep during long drives, not worrying about getting lost or finding an appropriate place to sleep, etc., but I definitely realized that my personality and travel style does not lend itself well to being in such close quarters with so many strangers for such a long time. It was a massive relief to be done with the tour and back in a private bedroom, despite how beautiful and exciting everything I saw was.

Anyway, the first stop on this 10-day tour was the magnificent Uluru. We did a little bit of walking around the base (of course we did not climb up it) and heard creation stories about different features on the rock.

Uluru viewed from the base walk

A smaller rock near Uluru

The sun shining bright over Uluru

Some trees at the base of Uluru

You can get a sense of how huge Uluru is by how tiny the women walking appear

The section of Uluru that has the Mutitjulu waterhole

The Yank without a Chain sitting on a bench at the base of Uluru

A section of Uluru that illustrates the battle of Liru and Kuniya, an ancient creation story

Tawny frogmouths on a tree near Uluru – they look like wood, but they’re real birds!

Uluru and some trees

Uluru at sunset with flowers

Posing with the gorgeous Uluru

The sun setting over Kata Tjuta, Uluru’s sister site

A final glimpse of Uluru at sunset

The sun rising the next morning over Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park