The painted desert & Uluru-Kata Tjuta NP

Driving through the Painted Desert.
The Painted desert is situated north of Coober Pedy and is quite similar to the ‘Breakaways’ in formation but gives off more colour and the range is longer. We spent quite a bit of time driving there, looking for fossils and enjoying the scenery before we headed off for a night in Marla.


Amazing Uluru!
We made it to the Ayers rock campground around lunch time and headed straight to Uluru after pitching the tent. The photos you have seen of Uluru do not show how huge this monolith is or how complex its walls are. We spent the afternoon walking around the northern face of the rock and in the cultural centre before watching the sunset – amazing colour changes.






Over the next two days we walked around the base of the rock (10km) and walked through Kata-Tjuta (The Olgas). Both these formations have huge cultural significance to the indigenous people who were really only effected by ‘white’ man in the 1940’s. Up until then only explorers had come through, named Ayres rock(Ernest Giles -1873) & The Olgas(Gossamer? -1872) but deemed the area to hard to get to and desolate so no one really bothered to come through until a dirt road was cleared. Up until the 80’s you could camp and drive right up to Uluru and walk over the top. Now the campground and resort are 24km away and climbing up the rock is discouraged. (35 people have died climbing the rock)


The area is beautiful and green, with small springs flowing in both areas. It is hard to imagine how big both formations are until you walk right next to them. We are also very lucky at the moment that it is not peak season so we often have had times next to Uluru or within Kata-Tjuta when all you can hear is the wind, the birds or the water. It is a very special place until the tour buses arrive!



We have also seen some local reptiles – a thorny devil (Vanessa swerved to avoid the poor creature and Jamie chased it off the road), a legless lizard, a dingo (no baby in its mouth) and many birds.