Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Uluru and Kata Tjuta

• The address: Lasseter Hwy, Uluru NT 0872, Australia
• Phone: +61 8 8956 1128
• Website: http://www.parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/
• Area: 1,326 km²
• Foundation date: 1987

Sometimes it seems that there is some injustice in the fact that one country owns any wealth, sights or monuments in an amount much larger than neighboring and other states. But if we talk about, then how great it is that for a decade now the country's authorities have been making a lot of efforts to keep as much as possible intact everything that was created by nature for millions of years. In this country, there is simply a huge number of reserves and parks of various levels, such as the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park is located in the northern part of Australia, in the so-called Northern Territory. Geographically, to the north of the park is the city (distance 1431 kilometers), and 440 kilometers to the northeast - the city. The total area of ​​the park is 1326 sq km. The important components of the park are the famous ones, as well as Mount Kata Tjuta, the distance to which is 40 kilometers from the mentioned rocks. When visiting the park, keep in mind that the Great Central Road passes through it.

When visiting the park, it should be borne in mind that in summer the average temperatures are kept at 45 degrees Celsius, and in winter around -5 degrees. As for precipitation, approximately 307.7 mm falls from it annually. It is noteworthy that the aborigines of the Anangu tribe live on the territory of the park in the reservation, most of whom work as guides, conductors and tour guides for tourist groups in the park.

National Park "Uluru - Kata Tjuta" is very important for their country: in 1977 it was included in the world network of biosphere reserves, and since 1987 it has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The word park is poorly associated with the real landscape of the protected area - the desert. The characteristic color of the rocks is red, geologists believe that this is due to the presence of iron oxide in the rocks. By the way, the rocks of Uluru and Mount Kata Tjuta are two hills of the same formation. According to geological exploration, they were formed at one time in the form of a large mountain range, but now it comes to the surface only with these two hills.

All the beauty of the plant world can be observed in winter and after the rainy season: during this period, the time comes for the flowering of all green diversity. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is home to almost every type of flora that fills Central Australia. Together with the animals encountered, they create a real single biological cycle. Interestingly, some species of plants and animals are still used by local natives in the form of medicines or food.

Keep in mind that the behavior and appearance of tourists must strictly comply with local regulations: serious monetary fines are imposed for its violation.

How to get to Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park?

Since the red rocks attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists back in the second half of the 20th century, since 1975, a real Yulara resort with all the benefits of civilization, and an airport near it, has appeared 15 kilometers from Uluru. You can fly here from almost any major city in Australia. In Yulara, you can rent a nice hotel room, visit restaurants and cafes, swim in the pool and rent a car or buy tickets on a group tour.

There are several official routes in the park. Thanks to this, you can see all the rock formations and local landscapes from the most favorable side. For example, the "Main Trail" route introduces you to the Ulira rock, but local natives consider it sacrilege to climb the mountain itself, incl. having a desire, you will have to do it yourself, there is a path. And the trail "Valley of the Winds" leads only to Mount Kata Tjuta, two good observation platforms are also built here. At the entrance to the park in the cultural center, you can buy souvenirs made by the natives by hand, and get acquainted with their culture, history and traditions.

Photo: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

In Australia, almost in its very center, is the Kata Tjuta National Park. It is known primarily for its famous mountains in the desert. Ayers Rock (also known as Uluru) and Kata Tjuta proper (translated as “many heads”, she is also called Olga, in honor of the daughter of Russian Emperor Nicholas I, Princess Olga).

Uluru is a majestic red monolith rising above the surrounding desert at an average of 350 meters (836 meters above sea level). In diameter, the length of this unique formation is about 3100 meters, the width is about 2000 meters.

Uluru and Kata Tjuta on the map

• Geographical coordinates
• Distance from the Australian capital city of Canberra is about 2050 km
• The distance to the nearest airport in Ayers Rock is approximately 20 km.

There is an interesting feature in Uluru: the ability to change its color depending on the time of day. In the morning, the rock has a dark purple color, which gradually turns into fiery red. A little later, the color turns into pink, and by noon it turns completely golden.

Kata Tjuta is located 25 km west of Uluru and exceeds it in size (about 7 by 5.4 km). It looks from space as a heap of giant boulders. According to geologists, both rock formations are connected into a single monolith underground.

Locals, as expected, consider these places sacred. According to legend, in ancient times, snake people lived here in two tribes, who periodically quarreled with each other. And once they met in a decisive battle, as a result of which everyone died. The natives also claim that Uluru is a portal connecting the world of people and the world of spirits.

Climbing the mountain is considered sacrilege by the locals. They themselves, of course, do not climb there, fearing the wrath of the spirits. Although tourists try not to miss the opportunity to conquer this peak. For lifting there are special supports. It hardly looks like a full-fledged staircase, but still they will help you avoid accidents, which, unfortunately, have happened before.

On the second day of the trip along the Stewart highway, I had to drive the longest section of the road - almost 1000 kilometers, see the Martian landscapes of Uluru and Kata Tjuta, be alone within a radius of 100 kilometers and spend the night at the family ranch.

Route of the day:
Day 2. Coober Pedy (K) - Coolgera - Erldunda (L) - Uluru (N) - Kata Tjuta (O) - Curtin Springs (M)

Distance: 962 km (total: 1818.5 km)
Travel time: 11 hours 30 minutes (departure 9:00 a.m. South Australian time, finish 21:30 a.m. NT)

Gas stations (petrol price):
Marla - 1.50 AUD per liter
Erldunda - 1.57 AUD per liter

Onward to the Northern Territories!

Leaving Coober Pedy early in the morning, I took the Stewart Highway further north. The main goal of the day was the famous sand monoliths of Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

A poster at the exit of Coober Pedy says that the nearest telephone will be only 78 km away. Well, not the longest distance for Australia (1)

And the nearest gas station is in Marl, after 90 kilometers (2)

By the way, the dynamics of gasoline prices is quite remarkable - the farther from the coast deep into the continent, the more expensive. In Adelaide, a liter cost 1.20 Australian dollars, in Coober Pedy - 1.40, and in Marl already 1.50. And this is not a record yet. It is clear that this is mainly due to transportation costs - gasoline can only be brought here on the Road Trains.

The Stewart Highway follows the edge of the Great Victoria Desert, which stretches from the Nullarbor Plain to the old weathered ridges in the center of the continent, of which Uluru Rock is a part. Desert landscapes are monotonous, but very attractive (3-4)

Sometimes the view outside the window is enlivened by trapezoidal hills - harbingers of the old ridges that will appear a little further (5)

As always, signs warn of kangaroos. For the driver, they are a real danger, especially at dusk (6)

And here is Marla. Motel, shop, bar and gas station - all that is in this town (7)

The 370 kilometers from Coober Pedy to the border of the Northern Territories flew by quickly. The Northern Territories - the most sparsely populated state of Australia - has long been a territory with a special status, and it received the rights of a full-fledged state only at the turn of the 21st century. Only 175,000 people live in the vast area of ​​the Territories, and about half of them live in Darwin, the state capital. Half of the remaining half are in Alice Springs, while the rest are distributed in small towns in the north, and only a few thousand people have found shelter in the center of the continent. But among them there are many natives with whom we will definitely meet.

Northern Territories Border (8)

On the reverse side of the stele - naturally, a greeting from the state of South Australia (9)

Information boards at the entrance to the Northern Territories warn of the many dangers that await the auto traveler. Among them are dust, floods, stray animals, bad roads, camper caravans, land trains. It is also reported that a permit is required to enter Aboriginal territories. Previously, the natives lived in reservations, similar to those for the American Indians, but now they are assigned huge tracts of territory in the center of the continent, where without their consent it is impossible not only to conduct any economic activity, but simply to appear (10)

Another stand describes the delights and roads of the South Australian Outback (11)

There is a toilet in the parking lot, equipped with everything you need, including toilet paper (12)

From the highway, small country roads periodically depart, leading somewhere deep into the desert (12a)

The first town in the Northern Territories is Culghera.

The state flag flies over the bar-shop-motel Coolera (13)

And the poster of the local pub informs about the distances to other Australian cities. From Adelaide 1262 km, to Darwin - 1522 (14)

After another 75 kilometers to the north (only a little more than half an hour drive with local traffic) - Erldunda. This town is a transit point for travelers who decide to head to Uluru. Here, the Lasseter Highway, a 250-kilometer road leading to Uluru, branches off from the Stewart Highway.

In Erldund there are quite a lot (for the desert center of Australia) of cars and people, primarily tourists - I counted about a dozen buses and cars in the parking lot. Here you can observe how and in what ways tourists travel through the center of Australia.

A way for German pensioners is large sightseeing air-conditioned buses. In a day they drive from Alice to Uluru, where tourists stay in a 5-star hotel, spend the day and go back (15)

Same option but for a smaller group - minivans (16)

And such a minivan with a couple of beds in the upper superstructure can also be rented for a family or a group of friends (17)

The way for fathers of families is to travel with their wife, children, and other household members in a camper. There are quite a few campsites of various types. There were already 3 of them in Erldund (18-20)

A way for lovers of auto extreme - a large SUV is ideal for excursions inland from the highway. Don't forget cans of diesel fuel, a winch, a couple of spare wheels, 40 liters of water and a girlfriend (21)

My modest way (you see it against the backdrop of the Nissan Patrol in the previous photo) - in a rented economy class car with overnight stays in a motel - is practiced by not so many people.

And finally, for the youngest, the most frugal, or the most adventurous, hitchhiking with a backpack on your back. People traveling in this way - with large backpacks - are called backpackers (from backpack - backpack). They usually travel in pairs (in large numbers it is more difficult to catch a car and “fit in” for the night). Not necessarily hitchhiking, you can also use some cheap public transport, but here it simply does not exist. Here are a couple of backpackers picked up by a married couple in a car. It remains only to find a place for backpacks (22)

There is an even more extreme way of traveling, but about it - in the next part.

In the meantime, turn off the Stewart Highway (23)

... west on the Lasseter Highway (24-25)

This road will lead us to Uluru after 250 kilometers. The highway is named after the adventurer and gold digger Harold Lasseter, who, as they say, found a very rich gold mine somewhere in these places in 1897, returned for water and food, but went back and could not rediscover the treasured place and died in wilderness in search of what may not have been.

The first of the wonders of the Northern Territories, Mount Conner appears in the car window - a large block of sand towering 300 meters above the plain (26)

Around - red sand and a long flat and empty road (27-28)

Uluru

This huge red rock is visible for many kilometers (29-30).

Uluru (this is its aboriginal name), or Ayres Rock, is the top of a huge underground block of sandstone many hundreds of millions of years old. The above-ground part reaches 350 meters in height and about 10 kilometers in circumference. A bizarre picture of the rock was formed by wind and erosion - they cut the monolith with furrows and gave the rock a characteristic ocher-red color. Aborigines consider this mountain sacred. Europeans discovered it only in the 1870s. Ernst Gills first saw it in 1872, and a year later William Gosse climbed it for the first time and named the mountain after Henry Ayres, Governor of South Australia. After more than 100 years, the mountain was returned to the natives, along with its traditional name. Now here is the national park Uluru - Kata Tjuta. Aboriginal people receive from the state for the lease of the park about 100 thousand dollars a year, plus 20% of the fee for entry into the park (it costs $ 25 per person). About half a million people visit the Uluru National Park - Kata Tjuta annually.

You can come close to the mountain and examine it nearby (31-32)

Until recently, it was possible to climb the mountain. Moreover, several people per year died, having fallen off during the ascent. Now it is forbidden - but not because of the danger, but because of the protests of the natives. The paths upstairs remained, but only park attendants go along them (33-34)

Up close, the landscapes are truly Martian (35-38)

Uluru has been an Aboriginal shrine for thousands of years. This is evidenced by well-preserved rock art (39)

This sacred cave is a symbol of the maternal principle of the natives (40)

Some more impressive scenery from the other side of the cliff (41-46)

Kata Tjuta

From the foot of Uluru you can see an even more grandiose rock mass - Kata Tjuta. You need to drive about 45 more kilometers to it (47)

Up close, Kata Tjuta looks absolutely incredible, fantastic! (48-51)

Kata Tjuta, or Mount Olga, is even more ancient than Uluru natural monument. Once these rocks were a single monolith, 10 times larger than Uluru, but wind and water over millions of years turned it into an amazing group of rocks separated by gorges. The highest of the heads of Kata-Tyuta - Mount Olga rises up to 550 meters.

The first European who saw this place was the same Jills, who named the mountain Olga. When the territories were returned to the natives, the original name returned to the mountain - Kata-Tyuta ("many heads"). Now it is also part of the same national park with Uluru and a place no less sacred to the natives than Uluru.

There are only a couple of permitted routes through Kata Tjuta. One of them passes through the "Valley of the Winds" - a network of inter-rock gorges. The scale of the picture can be understood from the figures of people in the second photo (52-53)

Kata Tjuta at sunset (54-55)

Uluru is located near the tropics and gets dark very quickly here. Having left Kata Tjuta at sunset, I returned to Uluru already in the dark and decided to spend the night. Near the entrance to the national park there is a place Yulara, where a huge number of tourist buses and a luxurious 5-star hotel with swimming pools, bars and other excesses were discovered.
- I need a room for one night, - I asked the receptionist.
- Please, it will cost 420 dollars, - the kind girl at the counter answered.
- Isn't there something cheaper? I asked.
- Nearby there is a 3-star hotel, where a room costs $250.
"Thanks, that doesn't suit me," I said, and went back to the car.

It’s not that I felt sorry for the two and a half hundred Australian dollars, it just somehow didn’t fit into the overall style of the trip with overnight stays in motels and food at roadside eateries. I'll go to a motel - in the morning I passed some institution on a ranch a hundred kilometers from Yulara.

I returned to the track. It was already pitch dark. From the motel in Curtin Springs, I was separated by 100 kilometers of completely empty highway. I turned on the high beams, drove into the middle of the road so that I had more room to maneuver if a kangaroo suddenly jumped out from behind the bushes, and rushed forward. The headlights were looking for the next turn in the road, the landscape outside the window instantly dissolved into complete darkness, for the whole road I did not meet a single car.
An amazing feeling - night, desert, you are alone, there is absolutely no one within a radius of 100 kilometers. The car flies through a tunnel drawn by headlights and it seems that you are rushing not through space, but through the cosmos of time.
This incomplete hour was one of the most memorable in my life. When the lonely houses of Curtin Springs appeared through the darkness about 45 minutes later, I reluctantly hit the brakes and turned towards the empty motel.
Wish I could go on like this forever...

previous series.

The territory of the park is inhabited by the Anangu aborigines, many of whom are currently working as guides and tour guides for tourist groups.

The first Europeans visited these places in 1870. In 1872 maps of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta region were drawn up. In 1920, an Aboriginal reservation was established on part of what is now the national park. Tourists have been visiting the area around Uluru-Kata Tjuta since 1936. In 1976, Australia transferred the rights to the park to the Aborigines who inhabited it, who then “leased” the park to the Australian government for a period of 99 years.

Since 1987, the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and in 1995 the park received the Picasso Gold Medal, the highest UNESCO award "for the conservation of the nature and culture of the Anangu aborigines."

The natural landscape of the park is a desert. The animals and plants living in it create a single biological cycle, and the flora of Uluru-Kata Tjuta is represented by almost all species found in Central Australia. Some of these plants are extremely rare and are found only in the national park. The average temperature in the summer months in the park is 45°C, the average winter temperature is 5°C. On average, 307.7 mm of precipitation falls here annually.