Australia’s Outback easily makes its way onto every wanderer’s bucket list-solo travelers and families alike! And why not! Where else in the world would someone experience a place that is so raw and remote, yet so powerful and gorgeously divine!
Uluru or Ayer’s Rock, a Unesco World Heritage site, is a 500-mn year old massive sandstone monolith that sits in the Red centre of Australia. It holds great spiritual, cultural and sentimental significance to the Anangu people, whose ancestors walked this land and protected it for thousands of years.
For me and my partner, this was our first full-fledged Outback journey. 10 days in a campervan, driving 5700 kms on a straight, never-ending super highway cutting through red, barren, remote, arid and vast landscape turned out to be one of our most memorable travel sojourns!
Our trip commenced in Melbourne, crossing through the state of Victoria, South Australia and then entering Western Australia via the Stuart Highway. This 7200 km long super highway starts in SA and ends in Darwin, cutting through the centre of this continent! Driving in the outback can get extremely monotonous as the landscape doesn’t change much throughout the entire trip and you share the road with huge, multiaxle road trains. With roadhouses at least 100-200 kms apart, the only way travelers kill their boredom is by waving at a random vehicle that may pass by.
Somewhere I belong
What I absolutely loved about the Outback were its insanely beautiful sunsets. I would eagerly wait to stop and get out of our van so I could soak in its bliss every evening (surviving the swarm of flies!)
The play of shadows at the Breakaways
The underground Opal mining town of Coober Pedy is ghostly, but a rather interesting pitstop on the journey to the Red Centre. There is lots to do in a day- exploring the active opal mines, shopping for Opal souvenirs, visiting Crocodile Harry’s unusual house, wandering around the mines and visiting ‘The Breakaways’. Here, the landscape comprises of naked hills in shades of brown and white that get blanketed in the play of shadows and light during sunset. Note: No color modification done in post processing of this image.
The last light of the sun hits the hill at the Breakaways
While I have perhaps seen hundreds of images of Uluru and heard about its sunrises and sunsets a thousand times; the euphoria of experiencing it in person is indescribable!
Uluru is a place of great religious and spiritual significance to the Anangu people who have respectfully preserved the knowledge, rituals, traditions, dreamtime stories and totems of their ancestors who walked this land approx 20000 yrs ago.
The best way to get upclose to the monolith is to do a 10 km walk/cycle tour around its base. While many spots are prohibited for travelers and photographers, climbing the sacred rock is now completely banned for good. The base has some impressive water holes and other significant sites with each of the them connected to a fascinating dream-time story that has been passed on from generations. The visitor centre and the guided tours give a brilliant sneak peak into the culture and traditions and beliefs of the native owners of this land.
The climate in Central Australia is hot and humid. The mid-day temperature had hit 35 degree C. We came across this beautiful cave almost towards the end of our base tour and decided to escape the harsh sun for a few mins.
The color synonymous with Uluru is Orange! The dawn, the dusk, the soil and the rock itself! A charred tree in the foreground complimented the rust-colored rock in the background so perfectly!
You & I…in this beautiful world
When we arrived at the sunrise viewing deck at Uluru, the sun had begun painting the sky in molten gold. A couple stood on a bridge at the far end behind me. The song ‘You & I in this beautiful world’ played in my head as I clicked this silhouette.
We chose to head down and walk on the designated path for a ground-level view of the monolith and to surpass the crowds. I decided to pitch myself at this spot with a lovely dead tree in the foreground to add an additional element in my image. As the sun rose behind me, it painted the rock in shades of vibrant yellow and orange, but what impressed me more were the shadows that Uluru casted on itself! Katajuta can be seen in the far left corner. Uluru has an entirely different vibe at sunrise and hence, its best to include both dawn and dusk in your itinerary.
KataJuta in flames
Just 20 kilometers ahead of Uluru lie the equally impressive dome shaped rocks of Kata Juta. Kata-Juta translates into ‘many heads’ in the local Anangu language. When the sun begins to set, Kata-Juta transforms into flames with its deep orange hues!
Walpa gorge
Close to Katajuta is the scenic Walpa gorge. We briskly walked the 4km return trail with a gradual yet mild ascend to the gorge with beautiful views throughout, oh yeah and did I mention the extremely annoying swarm of flies for company.. I bet you cant do this walk without a flynet!
Yet another beautiful frame enroute to Walpa gorge
Passing through the scenic Macdonnell ranges enroute to our next destination, Alice Springs, we stumbled upon a dry campsite perched on a hill. It turned out to be a dreamy night under a million stars and the milky way for our company
The Macdonell ranges feels like an oasis in the Outback. It is lush green and home to rich birdlife, wildlife including a whole bunch of nocturnal species. A pair of Budgerigars or Budgees as we more commonly refer them to, perched on a bare tree.
Alice Springs, 500 kms east of Uluru is a great place to get introduced to the flora and fauna of the Outback. A pair of Dingos look through the fence at The Alice Springs Dessert Nation Park. While the world’s longest dingo fence is right here in the Outback to protect the cattle, the country has made sure it cares for its Dingos at the same time.
A Red tailed black Cockatoo flashes its vibrant orange feathers
A sheep grazes with its lambs somewhere in the Outback
The outback can fool you to believe that the earth is flat!