Kata Tjuta

We managed to drag ourselves out of bed before sunrise (who am I kidding – Ryan managed to coax me out of bed after himself being fully awake and ready to get up for at least 45min) to watch the sun rise from our dune. In contrast to the previous day (overcast and threatening rain), the sun rose into perfectly blue skies and both Uluru and Kata Tjuta glowed red in the morning light (pretty cool).

We then spent the day exploring Kata Tjuta – which I think is now my favourite place. We started with the Valley of the Winds Walk (just managing to beat the hordes – the carpark was overflowing by the time we returned). This walk was amazing – it looped between two of the largest domes then climbed through a gap between them – standing on top of a huge mound of accumulated rock and dirt at the narrowest point of the gorge gave views back into the glowing red walls in one direction, then opened out into the remaining domes in the other (hard to adequately describe – but an awe-inspiring place to be)(lots and lots of photos). The walk form there was then through rolling terrain with more domes crowding in the distance. It was very, very cool.

We also did the gorge walk which was quite different – just a short walk into a narrow gorge between two of the domes. This was filled with greenery and had running water (and also much fewer people), and with the red walls rising up on each side was also a place that had the camera running hot.

Overall, Kata Tjuta was definitely a highlight of the trip. Most of it was that the scenery was completely amazing, but part of it also was that it was much less fenced and sign-posted than Uluru, and the walks actually gave the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the terrain. Loved it (if you couldn’t already tell)(will be hard to pick just 4 photos to put at the end of the post).

We finished the day by driving up towards King’s Canyon – making it as far as King’s Creek Station from where I am currently sitting in our tent typing this. Tomorrow we’ll see if King’s Canyon can top Kata Tjuta…