Kata Tjuta and Walpa Gorge, Uluru Sunset

The bus took us next to Kata Tjuta Dune Viewing Area, which offers a magnificent panoramic view of Kata Tjuta. Even on the way there, the views of the 36 domes were amazing!


Afterwhich, it was another hour walk for the 2.6km of Walpa Gorge. Formerly known as Olga Gorge, Walpa (meaning windy) Gorge is a desert refuge for plants and animals. The rocky track gently rises along a moisture rich gully, passing inconspicuous rare plants and ending at a grove of flourishing spearwood.


The walk sounded easy but it isnt exactly. You could easily see those really unfit people struggling...Some didnt even wear proper walking shoes... how silly.


The ground was slopping at some part and most of all, the hot sun is shining on your back can make it quite unbearable at 3pm and the air is very dry, making it hard to breathe as one sped up the lookout point. The wind at times blows pretty hard and so u need to really pace yourself. I was too focused on my walk up to take much pictures till the final point. Coming down was better and luckily i had my shades to shield me from the glaring sun... I was glad i slap on tons of sunscreen before i started....

After a super packed day of non stop walking and climbing, it was time for us to have another sunset view of Uluru tonight. I can finally rest my feet to view the sunset after 12 hours!

Sunset sequence taken every 10mins or so.

Uluru cave paintings remains

We had only 15mins to 9.30am and I figured we wont make it back to the carpark in time to board the bus unless we run, which I didnt think it was worth the effort.

So instead, I proposed to my husband that we would wait at the Mutitjula Waterhole where it was the designated stop for the bus guide. You will noticed the little hollow that is shaped like a heart on the rock wall (above me)


The good thing about being there before the hoards of tour bus is that we had the place mainly to ourselves and little interruption. So I had the chance of getting the Aboriginal cave paintings at lesiure, listening to the birds singing without interruptions and getting shots of birds with no one to frighten them away!

The entrance to the cave painting had a rock formation shaped like a python doesnt it? Story has it that there was a battle between the python snake Kuniya and the warrior snake Liru that had killed her nephew. So in vengence and anger, Kuniya battled the Liru snake here at this spot. I didnt know why some of the people couldnt see the snake at all... well, its there, you just need some imagination :)
As the bus started its bus tour and headed towards Kata Tjuta formation, the guide pointed out one of the sacred side of Uluru, and doesnt it just look like a human skull formation on the left?

more creation stories

Video clip of birds chirping and Cave painting

Walking the Uluru Base walk

The next agenda after the sunrise was touring the Uluru Base. I didnt realise that the base tour had not included the actual base walk (circumference of the rock formation). Instead, the base tour was just having the tour bus driving round and explaining the different site. Luckily though, the bus departs at 2 timing, one was 7.30am and the other 9.30am. So we had the 2 hours free and easy time to do our own walk if we are fit enough. Unhesitatingly, I knew I would be doing the walk. I wont miss it for the world. What fun is it to watch it from a distance in a bus when u can be standing at the base of it gaping in awe? So while the bus took the senior folks off to the cultural centre or some back to the hotel after the sunrise, my husband and I took off with our walk and photosession. Luckily I had packed extra water, chips and sweets for energy replenishment :) Good thinking huh.

The wind was incredibly strong this morning. However after over an hour, it started to get pretty warm and battling against the sand getting into my eyes as the wind whips them up from the road.

Watching Uluru Sunrise

We had to be awake and ready for the bus by 5.15am this morning. We were going to catch the Uluru Sunrise. As we huddled our there in the cold, the staff prepared hot drinks and little stool for us to sit before the rock and wait. I looked up into the sky, could almost see the morning stars dancing before me.

While the sky gets brighter, the stars get dimmer...



Its not possible to describe the sunrise and see how the redness started to form as the first ray of sun hits the formation. You just have to be there to see the colour change both in the sky and the rocks within the 3 hours plus.


I wont say its spectacular beyond unimagination but it had been a good experience to be there and witness it no matter. I firmly believe the sunset was more magnificent than the sunrise here in Uluru, but beauty is in the eyes

Night of "Sound of Silence"

We were pretty lucky in the bunch of people that shared the table with us. We had 4 from UK and 2 from walsh. I was secretly thanking my stars that we didnt end up any this bunch of very loud Americans that couldnt stop talking in the volume that could have waken the dead.

Video of the surrounding.

The table setting at dusk was really pretty. Made me totally excited and anticipating of what was to come.

The guide introduced us to our surrounding and we all started chatting within our tables. During dinner, we also had someone blowing the usual aborginal pipe.

The bunch who shared our tables were hilarious. Now who said Londoners had no sense of humour and stiff upper lips?

While we were talking, one of the wife was sharing her personal experience of having gotten the opportunity to meet with the Dutchess of Cornwell, Prince Charles and Harry by chance. So the husband was telling us how excited her wife had been that eve, sharing the incident and that she even got to shake their hands unexpectedly. While anyone would have been understanderably excited about this "Royal" experience, what the husband said next had been most unexpected.

It seemed that after the wife has finished gushing about her luck of shaking the hands with the royal family, the husband said to her..."Did you just realised you had just shaken the hand that had held the Royal piss?" That night, my new found UK friends had me laughing in stitches uncontrollably and endlessly...

After the dinner, it was lights out time. The candles were snuffed and suddenly, the whole infintely black sky was suddenly dancing with countless twinkles! I have never ever seen so many stars congregated in one sky in my life prior to this! The milky way, the Orion belt, the southern cross... it was just breathtakingly amazing!

The guide started to read a poem "Sound of silence" to us, as we submerge ourselves into the beauty of darkness and quietness. As he was reading, suddenly, a shooting star was falling behind him and we could all see the star trail and everyone gasped! Truly amazing. As the night grew later, the stars got brighter and we could see the orangey and blue stars, and some other smaller (further) falling stars continued to shower us. As the night comes to an end, they had telescope set up for us to look up into the stars in detail. What was truly most amazing was the fact we got to see Planet Saturn soooooo clearly and defined that it was almost unreal! I got to see a planet with its rings around it for the first time ever!

If this wasnt a magical night, I didnt know what else could be.