Down Under, by Land, Sea and Air

[Zubbie15]

Onward through Kakadu

After the Yellow Waters cruise was done, we returned to the lodge in Cooinda for breakfast. This was included in the cruise ticket – in theory, other people needed to pay for breakfast. However, no one seemed to be checking if people had taken the cruise, and a lot of people showed up at the same time as our buses returned, so getting food was a bit of an adventure.

Leaving Cooinda at this point, we headed toward the main town in the park, Jabiru. This is a town of 1100 people, that predominantly exists to support the mining that is on-going in the area. Our stop on the way was at Nourlangie, an area known for its Aboriginal art. This surprised me in two ways – firstly, I expected there to be more, and secondly, it was more interesting than I thought. We did the short trek that is available, and predominantly focused on the art, rather than the longer bushwalk, due to time constraints.

I had originally planned, prior to us taking the second cruise, to be here early in the morning, as there is a billabong (Anbangbang) that apparently has a nice walk also, but we needed to move on so we missed this.

We continued along, past Jabiru, and headed to the East Alligator River for an aboriginal-led tour/cruise (http://www.kakaduculturaltours.com.au/guluyambi-cultural-cruise).

This was definitely not as refined as the Yellow Waters set up, but I really enjoyed hearing our guide’s stories as we voyaged along the river.

Not only that, but the river was absolutely crawling with saltwater crocodiles – by the end of the cruise we had counted over 30 separate crocs, despite the fact that we took the midday cruise.

Of course, in general they were lazing around and not doing much, but still it was fun to see them.

Halfway through the cruise, we were permitted to get off on the other side of the river, in Aborigine-controlled Arnhemland.

This was just a quick stretching of the legs, combined with the guide demonstrating to us how the Aborigines threw spears.

We continued back to our launch point, still observing a variety of crocs. It was amazing that, not far from where we disembarked, there were people fishing in the river, standing in ankle-deep water. It’s definitely not something I would consider doing!

[Zubbie15]

Continued...

From here, we made a quick stop at the border store at Cahill's Crossing, as it was extremely hot, and picked up a frozen treat each to cool down. We then continued along to Ubirr, which along with Nourlangie is the best/easiest location to see Aboriginal rock painting. During the high season, the park rangers often lead a tour of the rock art at this site, which finishes in time to observe sunset over the park (

After a slow stroll along the track, we arrived at the main gallery for the rock art. This was really quite impressive to see. One of the paintings showed a thylacine, the extinct Tasmanian Tiger (although there are still occasional claims that people see it in Tasmania).

This was the end of the guided walk, but they showed us where to continue to have a view of the sunset over the plains of the park. There was enough space for everyone to spread out, so we watched the sun set while listening to the birds sing. It was very peaceful.

We then slowly drove back to Jabiru – where in the afternoon this part of the park seemed devoid of wildlife, the sides of the road revealed kangaroos and wallabies all over the place. Luckily, they stayed off the road.

[elefromoz]

@@Zubbie15, that last photo just captures the beauty of the Kakadu area. And yes, the evenings can be treacherous on the roads with Roos, you wonder where they all came from.

[Zubbie15]

Next day – going out into the bush

We have no experience driving off-road with a 4WD, but I wanted to get away from the “heavily” trafficked (relatively) parts of Kakadu that are accessible by sealed road, so this day we booked a tour to visit a couple of waterfalls. I made an error in planning this, as the most interesting tour (to Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls) is located close to Cooinda, and approximately 45 minutes from Jabiru. I’d booked the nights in Jabiru however, and when I looked to change the accommodation in Cooinda was full. So this made for a bit of a long day, as we had an extra 90 minutes getting to our hotel.

The tour was in a larger 4WD vehicle, with seating for approximately 15-20 people. Once we had picked everyone up, we headed off from the paved roads. It quickly felt like we were back in Africa, as the corrugation of the unpaved road gave us a nice massage. Our first stop was to be Twin Falls, which involved a pretty major river crossing, followed by a short walk and then a boat ride up toward the falls.

Reaching the dock, we then had a short walk along a sandy path through a small canyon.

We then reached Twin Falls, which were still flowing but at a fairly minor level at this point of the dry season.

Our guide told us, if we were ever to drive ourselves to Twin Falls, that the track that went to the upper part of the falls was truly spectacular; unfortunately, the tour didn’t allow us to do that, but worth noting for anyone considering a visit.

We spent a while enjoying the falls, before retracing our steps back to the vehicle. From there, we returned across the river, and stopped at a nearby picnic site for lunch. We watched as people in other 4WD vehicles crossed the river – it was fairly obvious who knew what they were doing and who wasn’t very experienced!

Edited October 10, 2015 by Zubbie15

[Zubbie15]

Continued...

After lunch, we headed back a little and then took a different turn-off to get to Jim Jim Falls. To get there involved a reasonably long hike, going up and over boulders, and our guide warned us beforehand that it would be somewhat challenging. In the end it wasn’t particularly bad, but a couple of older and larger women decided to relax at the start of the walk rather than proceed. The trail followed the river that resulted from the base of the falls, and my wife and I stopped regularly for photos, so we were always at the end of the group.

We had been warned ahead of time that at this point of the year the “falls” weren’t much more than a trickle, and when we reached the end of the trail we saw that this was definitely the case.

Apart from some traces on the rocks, there weren’t really any falls at all!

However, the area was very quiet and peaceful, and I was really happy that we had gotten away from the crowds in Kakadu.

There were no crocodiles in this area, having been trapped and relocated after the waters receded, so several people swam due to the heat (every day in the Top End was a high of roughly 34C, definitely quite hot). The pool at the base of the falls was apparently permanently in shadow, so the water was quite cold (although my wife, as a Canadian, didn’t find it too bad). There were a couple of other, smaller pools that did receive sunlight, so everyone eventually moved over to those.

However, the swimming eventually stopped when everyone noticed that there was a water monitor also enjoying the warm water.

We returned back down to the carpark, and then made the journey back to our hotel.

Even though the day wasn’t perfect, I was really happy to have done the tour.

[Zubbie15]

Heading back to Darwin:

Our next day we already had to head back to Darwin, so after breakfast we packed up and hit the road. The drive to Darwin from Jabiru is all on a sealed road (254 kms), so we planned a few stops to break it up. Our first stop was the main park visitor center, located just outside Jabiru. This was quite informative, but would have been better at the start of our trip rather than the end. There are a couple of endemic bird species that are commonly sighted on these grounds, but we didn’t have any luck. As an aside, Parks Australia has released several apps for Android/Apple, including ones for birdwatchers in various regions, which we really found to be quite useful. They are free too (or at least, they were when I downloaded them), which is nice. Our next stop was the Mamukala Wetlands, which offered a short (~5 minutes) walk to a viewing hide over the wetlands. Things were pretty quiet on the water when we were there, but we did note a lizard in the bushes.

We also saw this Forest Kingfisher on our way back to the car.

There were several other finches and honeyeaters in the canopy, but none felt like posing for us.

We continued along, heading for the Corroboree Tavern. This is a roadhouse on the side of the main highway, but it is also where you can get picked up, if you have a 2WD vehicle, for the cruises that are offered on the Corroborree Billabong (www.wetlandcruises.com.au)

After a short ride on the transfer bus, we made it to the boat. This was fairly small, with perhaps 8-10 rows of 2x2 seats. Unfortunately, we were the last ones on the boat, with a large group taking up most of the seats, and my wife and I ended up at completely different ends of the boat. That was a little disappointing, but we didn’t seem to have any other options, as no one wanted to move.

Since this cruise was to break up our trip, we took the midday lunch cruise. I was expecting the wildlife to be a little more scarce than previous cruises due to the time, but we also had to contend with the fact that we were there on a Sunday afternoon, and there was quite a lot of boat traffic (high powered jet boats and fishing boats), which also made sightings more challenging. I really enjoyed the captain, who was very knowledgeable and definitely passionate about preserving the habitat.

While sightings weren’t particularly plentiful, we did get some interesting views. We started with a crocodile, half hidden in the shade to keep cool.

This was followed by a Comb-crested Jacana and a Rainbow Bea-eater.

There were also several White-bellied Sea-Eagle territories in the area, including one where an adult allowed us a nice view.

We continued along, through an area with dense vegetation that typically houses the largest croc in the area.

He apparently enjoys trying to sneak up on the boat and determine if it’s a threat he needs to confront, but he wasn’t around at this time. We did shortly after see another resting crocodile on one of the banks.

This was followed by some of the birdlife, including Black-necked Stork and Little Pied Cormorant.

After this we had one of our most memorable moments of the trip (no pictures, unfortunately). There was a relatively large female crocodile sitting exposed on a high riverbank – high enough that she was actually above the height of the boat we were in. The captain said she was typically quite calm, and so tried to slowly get us in for a close look. At one point, she decided the boat was too close, and needed to get out of sight. Of course, for a croc the instinct is to get in (and under) the water, so she came charging directly toward the boat. Of course, everyone at the front of the boat freaked out – including the large man my wife was sitting beside, who almost pushed her out of her seat in his panic. There was no real worry, as the boat was definitely too far for her to get to, but it was fun to see just how fast they really can move, and (as I was sitting in the back) to get a view of the people stressing out.

This was the end of the boat trip, at which point we were to head back to the dock. Unfortunately, we ran into engine trouble, and it took about 45 minutes longer than expected to return. This meant that we weren’t able to stop at a couple of other places I had on my list (Fogg Dam Conservation reserve, and Window on the Wetlands, both of which are supposed to be good for birdwatching), but it was alright as we were out on the water anyway.

In any case, while this cruise wasn’t as good as we had experienced on the Yellow Waters cruise, it is definitely a viable alternative as a day trip out from Darwin if one doesn’t have more time. I imagine early morning or late afternoon, on a weekday, would definitely be more productive for wildlife.

Edited October 17, 2015 by Zubbie15

[Zubbie15]

Finishing our time in the Top End

When we arrived back in Darwin, it was a Sunday evening, which meant that the well-known Mindil Beach markets were in progress. We headed there directly, as we had read that it was a good place to purchase gifts for our family, as well as to sample authentic regional cuisine. We were quite successful at purchasing a variety of kitschy objects as gifts, and then got some excellent Thai food to enjoy on the beach as the sun set. I didn’t take any photos of the market itself, but we did get some of the sunset.

After finishing our meal, we headed off toward the airport, as we had an early flight out the next day. I really enjoyed the Top End, but even with 8 nights felt like we only scratched the surface. I’d love someday to return, and in particular head off in the direction of the Kimberley.

[elefromoz]

Very funny to witness the Croc "charge", think I may have leapt up too. Very sweet little Forest Kingfisher.The Top End is unique and completely different than the southern half of Oz and Tasmania is completely different again. Glad you enjoyed your time there.

[Zubbie15]

Off to the Red Centre

Our flight the next morning was bright and early at 7AM; luckily, the crazy security and associated long waits that we have in North America have yet to make it here, so we didn’t need to get up too early. We were still up and on the road while it was pitch black outside, however. I was looking forward to the flight to Alice Springs, as I thought we have an interesting view of the remote Outback from the window. However, essentially the entire flight was over clouds (the only substantial clouds we’d have over 13 days in the Northern Territory, of course), so the view wasn’t too inspiring.

The nice thing about such an early flight was that we arrived in Alice Springs at 9:30 in the morning, giving us most of the day to explore. We picked up a rather beaten up rental car at the airport – interestingly, the guy serving us was French-Canadian, like my wife, so we had a good conversation about that. Our pickup of the car was interrupted by a call to the desk from a lady who had just hit a kangaroo and needed roadside assistance, underscoring the danger of the wildlife in the area. The plan was to drop this car off in 5 days at the Ayers Rock airport, so I had booked this car through Tourism Central Australia, which offered a much better deal on the one-way rental penalty.

Because we were too early to check in to our hotel, we decided to head to the Alice Springs Desert Park. This is an open air zoo, with displays of the local wildlife. They also, in the summer months, run a regular wildlife spotting tour in the evening, which I would have liked to try if we’d been there at the right time. Being open-air, there was quite a lot of birdlife around, including this (heavily cropped) Superb fairy-wren.

The highlight of the trip for me was the nocturnal house, where the light/dark cycle is reversed and you can see all the small mammals that come out at night in the Outback.

They had also done a nice job planting and fostering the wildflowers, which was nice to see (but nothing like what @@elefromoz is showing in her current TR!).

After wandering around the grounds for a few hours, we grabbed a bite to eat at the cafeteria, and then headed back to Alice Springs to our hotel.

[Zubbie15]

Alice Springs continued.

That afternoon, we spent walking on the Todd Street Mall, the main pedestrian shopping area of the city. We ended up buying a piece of Aboriginal artwork from one of the galleries – it was the end of the day, and the guys had been drinking, so we got it 50% off, but I’m sure it was still marked up substantially.

From there, we went for a walk across the (dry) Todd River, and into the local botanical gardens.

We were able to see several species of birds in the setting sun, including this Galah:

As well as this Crested Pigeon.

Continuing along the dry river, we came to a small rocky hill. We were about to turn around, when I noticed something at the very top of the hill. It turned out it was a marsupial, a Black-flanked Rock Wallaby.

We waited quietly, and several more animals appeared on the hillside, including one quite close to us.

We stayed there for a while, enjoying the relative peacefulness, before returning back to the hotel for a quick bite. We had a busy day planned for the next day…

[Zubbie15]

And, I'm back. Sorry for the delay in continuing, I was travelling...

West MacDonnell day trip

Alice Springs itself is, in all honesty, not an overly inspiring town, and getting to such an isolated locale wouldn’t be worth it just for the town. However, quite quickly after you leave town you are in remote outback areas, with beautiful scenery and, except in a few popular spots, essentially no one around. Today, we had planned to head to the West MacDonnell National Park, located to the west of Alice Springs on good, paved roads. We were up early, and on the road just as the sun was touching the horizon, with almost no one else about. Our first stop was Simpsons Gap, which is known as a good place to see Black-footed Rock Wallabies, if you are there at dawn and dusk. When we got to the parking lot, there was only a single other car there (we never saw the people). We exited our car, and continued along the short track into the gorge.

We eventually made our way to the hilly, rocky area where the wallabies are typically seen (helpfully denoted by a sign asking not to disturb the area), and waited quietly while scanning the various nooks and crannies.

We didn’t see anything for the longest time, and were about to give up when a subtle rustling sound became apparent, and a wallaby hopped into view right in front of us.

He knew that we were there, and would stop eating whenever we moved, but we were able to spend a good five minutes with him before he disappeared. We then continued along the track, and around a curve 100m later we came across another wallaby eating. This one was further away, but so concentrated on eating that it didn’t know we were there for a while.

Once it did notice us, it quickly hopped out of sight – the speed they were able to move at over the uneven terrain was quite impressive. We continued along the track, which wasn’t much longer, before turning back to the car.

Just as we got back, a small bus full of Asian tourists arrived, making a lot of noise. We were definitely glad to have made the effort to get up early, if we’d been much later I doubt we would have had the same experience.

[Zubbie15]

Next stop – Standley Chasm

Our next stop is technically not in the national park, but is adjacent to it on land controlled by the local Aboriginal people. As such, it was the only stop on this day that required an entry fee. Standley Chasm is, at the end, a very narrow chasm, and so it is “best” to visit it around noon, when the sun is shining down between the two walls and lighting them up. Unfortunately, its location did not allow us to do this, but on the other hand I think it was much quieter earlier in the day. We stopped initially for a hot chocolate to warm up at the entrance, as the weather was quite cold (a few degrees above freezing). From there, we started along the walking track, stopping to appreciate the view through the chasm at multiple locations.

The area had a lot of Ghost Gum trees, which contrasted nicely with the reds and orange of the rocks.

We reached the end of the track, and the narrow opening that gets lit up at midday. While I imagine the colors are amazing with the sunlight, it was still a very beautiful area to be in.

The entire time on this track, while it wasn’t crowded there was a steady stream of other people passing us going in the other direction. I had read, while planning this trip, that a section of the Larapinta Trail intersects the trail at Standley Chasm, and by taking this track one could get away from the crowds and enjoy some solitude. On our way back toward the car park (there is only one trail along the chasm, so it’s an out and back walk), we detoured along this path, heading up a fairly steep set of rough stairs to climb up the side of the valley. The views up here, over the Outback, were quite stunning, and as promised there was no one else but us there.

We were also able to get close to a large Ghost Gum, as it stretched into the sky.

We didn’t go particularly far (the reference I had found suggested that continuing along further led to more interesting views, but at that point it started to descend quite steeply and we weren’t too keen to have to climb back up afterward, so we returned back.

The Chasm itself had a large variety of birdlife, but for the most part they stuck to the brush and were hard to view. One bird in particular was making a fairly distinctive call, and we eventually were able to identify and photograph this White-plumed honeyeater.

[Zubbie15]

The West Macs, continued

Moving along from Standley Chasm, out next stop was Ellery Creek Big Hole. This was a bit of a risk, as the entry road is not paved and so we had to go quite slowly in our rental car. When we got there, we found a nice little swimming hole, but it probably wasn't worth the detour.

There was some birdlife around, including this Splendid Fairy-wren:

From here, we returned to the main road, and drove all the way to the end of the sealed portion, arriving at Glen Helen Gorge. We grabbed a bite to eat at the roadhouse, which was surprisingly good, and then went for a short walk down to the path to the gorge. Along the way, we saw this Crested Pigeon:

This was also the only location that we would see Budgerigars on our trip. There were several pairs nesting in the trees.

We continued along the track, which wasn’t particularly long, to an outlook overviewing the body of gorge.

In certain times, it seems they have a pretty hefty population of birds around the water, but it was pretty quiet when we were there.

[Zubbie15]

Ormiston Gorge and the end of the day in Alice

Returning to our car, we started to slowly make our way back toward Alice Springs. Our major stop for the afternoon was at Ormiston Gorge, where there are a variety of hikes to take. We did the Ghost Gum Walk, which goes partially up one side of the gorge, before descending to the bottom and returning to the parking area (taking about 90 minutes total). This was my favorite stop of the day, and really allowed us to appreciate the beauty of the area. Despite the fact that it was winter, there were a few wildflowers about.

With the initial climb up the side of the gorge, this afforded us with a nice panoramic view of the area.

One thing we noticed in the region, and which was confirmed by talking to locals, is that they had received more rain than typical in the time before we had arrived. Several people joked that instead of calling it the Red Centre, it was more appropriately call the Green Centre at that time!

While there weren’t enough trees to say the area was forested, there were definitely some healthy specimens to be seen.

At roughly the midway point, you descend to a small pool. It was sufficiently late at this point that the sun had descended behind the gorge walls, which really helped accentuate the contrast between the white trees and sand, the dark water and the red rocks.

Returning back, you follow along a little stream, which allows for some nice reflections of the gorge walls.

This also provides a different view of the walls, and the trees on the edges.

One issue we had was either the path is not well marked, or we missed a marker at one point, and we ended up in an area with lots of uneven boulders and, beyond a general idea of which direction to go, no specific trail to follow. This was a bit of a challenge, and was the only time on the trip that I was conscientious of the fact that Australia has many poisonous snakes that might enjoy the nooks and crannies in the area! But we made it out alright in the end.

As we got back to the car, we stopped for a minute to determine where, if anywhere, we wanted to stop prior to returning to Alice. As we were doing that, I noticed in front of us a movement in the trees, which slowly materialized into a Dingo! I was excited to be able to see one, as I hadn’t really counted on it. It made its way through the car park, and then along the exit road, with us following along at a crawl.

Eventually, it went off the road, and stopped about 10 meters away to eat some flowers. We managed to be the only ones with it at that point.

After getting a few pictures, and the dingo eating a few flowers, it decided to lie down, and became completely invisible. We never would have known it was there if we hadn’t seen it moving around.

From here, we started on our way back to Alice Springs. We made a brief stop at the Ochre Pits, which is an area that the local aborigine use to get various colors of ochre, but I was underwhelmed. The colorful parts were rather far from the path, and at this time of day in shade, but maybe at sunrise it would be better.

We finally made our way back to Alice Springs, just as the sun was setting. We headed to Anzac Hill, which is a low hill on the edge of town with a nice view over the town at sunset. There were some people there watching, but it was a nice and peaceful way to end a busy day!

[michael-ibk]

Still with you, and really enjoy all these landscapes, plants and animals so rarely seen here - this was an envy-enducing trip for sure. Fantastic that you saw the Dingo.

[Zubbie15]

On the road…

The next day, we slept in a bit to recover from the long day we had. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel, and hit the road. Our destination for the day was Kings Canyon, a part of Watarrka National Park, and a 475 km drive from Alice Springs. This drive is on a two-lane highway, and really quite monotonous after the first 15 minutes or so, with red soil and small bushes on both sides of the road. There’s definitely not a lot of traffic, and we would easily go half an hour without seeing any cars.

Taking our time, we got to the area around 3:30PM, and therefore headed directly to the Canyon. On this afternoon, our goal was to stretch our legs and do the short Kings Creek walk, which meanders through the floor of the canyon. We got there as the sun was getting lower in the sky, so the light was starting to complement the red sides of the canyon.

The floor is full of stands of trees, which makes for a pleasant walk surrounded by birdsong.

The lower angle of the sun also helped illuminate some of the cracks and contours of the rock walls.

The walk only goes part of the way down the canyon, but from there you can see all the way to the end.

From there, we retraced our steps, and then got in our car to go to our hotel. As we were getting back to the main road, there was a dingo sighted, but this sighting, compared to our one of the day before, was quite different. There were a lot of people who had been leaving the canyon around that time, so a lot of cars were stopped along the side of the road. This not only caused the dingo to disappear quite quickly into the brush, so no pictures, but one guy tried to park half on the road, and almost got run over by a road train. Because of this, and having seen the dingo the previous day, we left pretty quickly, and headed to our hotel.

We were staying at the Kings Canyon Resort, which is one of only a few options in the area. Check in was a bit of a challenge, as a busload of tourists had arrived just as we got there, and the check in lobby was rather small. We got the formalities accomplished eventually, and then drove over to our room. After quickly unpacking the car, and turning on the heat in the room (the nights in the Outback were consistently around the freezing point), we walked over to where the hotel had set up a viewing platform to watch the sunset and the colours changing on the escarpment.

The platform was quite full, but not overflowing, and in any case I was naughty and went down below it to get a better angle for photos.

They also offered alcoholic drinks for purchase, but we were too focused on the photography.

Once the sun set, we headed over to the restaurant (decent food, served essentially cafeteria style), had a quick bite to eat, and went to bed. Unfortunately, the heating system was not very good, so the room was rather cold all night.

[Zubbie15]

Next morning: Rim Walk

The next morning, we were again awake in the dark, in order to start the Kings Canyon Rim Walk bright and early. We got to the car park just as the sun was peaking over the horizon, but even so there was already a fair amount of activity in the area. This is a 6 km walk, which starts by ascending the western rim of the canyon, prior to looping around and descending the eastern side. There are typically two questions that come up about this walk – how long will it take, and how steep is the ascent at the start. To get those out of the way, the walk took us 2:45, with many stops for photographs; we were constantly being passed. And while the stairs up were rough and relatively steep, there were lots of places for people to go to the side and “enjoy the view” for a little while, so it didn’t seem to be an issue.

The scenery along the walk was quite interesting, definitely it didn’t really compare with anything I had experienced previously. There are nice views over the wider area from many spots.

As well, the rocks are quite unique, not only in their red color but in the shapes they form.

There are some areas where one can get right up to the edge of the canyon.

This gave nice views, but it was sobering to know that not long before we were there a tourist had fallen on a later part of the hike and passed away (the rumor was she was on a tour that encouraged people to act a little wild, and while trying to do a handstand lost her balance).

About halfway through the walk, there is a small waterhole which helps support some larger trees and bushes in an area known as the Garden of Eden. The turnoff from the main path was not particularly well signed, so a lot of people seemed to bypass this, which meant that it was comparatively quieter (not that anywhere was overflowing with people).

We continued the walk, through more unique rock formations and then down a gentle slope back to the carpark.

While Kings Canyon is certainly a bit of a detour of the main Alice Springs – Uluru road, I thought it was definitely worthwhile.

Having completed the walk, we headed back to the hotel to wash up. We then stocked up on gas and snacks, and hit the road for Uluru, 306 kms away. The scenery was really more of what we’d seen driving the previous day, so we didn’t make many stops. The one place we did stop quickly to rest our legs was at the Mount Connor overlook.

This monolith is encountered along the road to Uluru, and a lot of people who aren’t aware of its presence think that they have reached Uluru. We only stopped for about five minutes, as the midday sun wasn’t conducive to stunning photography, and the Mount was actually fairly far in the distance.

It’s possible to do a guide tour to the Mount if people desire; as it is located on private property, there is no access otherwise.

[elefromoz]

Well Im very jealous that you got to see that Dingo, I searched constantly on our recent trip with no luck, and a lovely photo too.

[xelas]

For us, the Kings Canyon was even more fascinating than Uluru. I still remember vividly those Bee hive rock formations.

Was there a plaque at the start of the steps where casualties were reported?

[Zubbie15]

I was really happy to see the dingo @@elefromoz, when we didn't see one in the Top End I figured we weren't going to be lucky on our trip.

 

I didn't notice the plaque if it was there @@xelas. I agree, I've never seen anything like the features there before. It's hard to say whether I preferred Kings Canyon, Uluru or Kata Tjuta - all had their own appeal.

[Zubbie15]

Reaching Uluru

We reached Yulara, the small town near the national park not long after that, but continued immediately into the park to buy our park passes and to check out the visitor center. This was really quite informative, and I was glad we saw it at the start of our time there. After that, and a few minutes checking out Uluru, we returned to Yulara and checked into our hotel.

This day was my birthday, and so I had splurged to let us go on a sunset helicopter tour of Uluru and the nearby Kata-Tjuta. One of the things that Uluru in particular is known for is the changing colors of its face as the sun sets, and I thought the different perspective of seeing it from high above would be interesting. I was also happy about this choice, and there were no clouds in the sky during our entire visit, and being in the air allowed for photographic compositions that could minimize the “boring” sky.

This helicopter ride was definitely run in a more professional manner than the one we did at Katherine Gorge. In this case, there were approximately 8 people who had booked flights, and so there were 2 helicopters set to fly. We ended up in the larger one, with the two of us, a father and son from Japan, and a solo Aussie lady (who got to sit up front with the pilot). The windows were also bowed out to enhance our field of view, although it also had the effect that avoiding reflections in the glass was a bit of a challenge. In any case, the pilots had obviously flown many sunset flights before, as they knew down to the minute exactly when they wanted to take off to be in a good position as the sun set.

We started off by heading toward Kata-Tjuta (previously known as the Olgas), which were brilliantly lit up by the low angle sun.

We then slowly looped around, allowing for a view of the domes in the foreground with the Uluru in the background.

Heading toward Uluru, we got there just as the sun was going below the horizon, so apart from some dunes the ground was in shadow while the rock was lit up, allowing for some nice separation.

I also tried some silhouette shots of Kata-Tjuta from that position.

Unfortunately as the light dimmed the vibrations of the helicopter made it hard to get sharp photos, but in a way that let us put down the cameras and enjoy the show. We got back to Yulara shortly after dark, went to a fancy dinner, and then crashed as we were to be up early the next day.

[xelas]

@@Zubbie15

 

The Kata Tjuta and Uluru from the bird perspective gives another dimension to those sacred places! The second shot of Uluru is to be printed !

That was an awesome b'day gift!!

[Zubbie15]

Thanks for the kind words @@xelas. I have to say, I'd never been in a helicopter before this trip, but I really enjoyed the different perspective it offered.

[michael-ibk]

Stunning vistas!

[Zubbie15]

Thanks @@michael-ibk.

Sunrise at Kata Tjuta

We woke up the next morning at 5:30, since the park gates didn’t open at this time of year until 6:30 and sunrise was close to 7. Our destination that morning was the viewing platform at Kata Tjuta. We had two mornings in the area available, and decided to do one at Uluru and one at Kata Tjuta. Because most reviews on the internet suggested that the best hike in the park was the Valley of the Winds hike (7.4 km roundtrip) at Kata Tjuta, we decided that for our full day there we’d start with that.

I was a little disappointed in that we got to the gate at 6:02, so we weren’t there right away (well, not too disappointed! ). As we were driving, I had an idea of a photo I wanted to take the next day (more later), but as Kata Tjuta is 50 km from the main gate, we kept on the road, trying to maintain a good speed but not so fast we couldn’t react to any wildlife (thankfully none was there). We got to the parking lot for the platform as the second car there, just as the color to the east was getting stronger. We made our way by flashlight out to the viewing platform, and since I had my tripod and didn’t want to get too much in the way we set up in the northeastern corner (the platform being south of Kata Tjuta, and west of Uluru). While I had good intentions from doing this, it turned out to be a very bad idea, as just before sunrise a large busload of tourists arrived, and despite the fact that they had taken a tour to Kata Tjuta they were focused on getting pictures of Uluru backlight by the morning light.

We ended up being completely crowded by people, who were moving around, taking selfies, pushing to get better views. Definitely not a peaceful experience!

The other issue this group caused was that there was substantial vibrations caused on the raised, metallic-grid that composed the platform’s base. Because of this movement, I have a lot of pictures with longer exposures that are definitely not sharp.

Despite those issues, and a lack of clouds meaning that the sky was rather boring, the sunrise was quite beautiful.

Quite soon after the sun had risen, the busload disappeared off to their next stop, and we were left alone again with just a few people. While it was perhaps no longer the ideal time for photography, the renewed peace was great. It was quite cold that morning (roughly around freezing), so we then returned to our car and had our breakfast. We’d stocked up the night before at the little grocery store in Yulara, and had made hot tea while getting ready that morning.