Beyond Uluru: A Photo Essay From Australia’s Red Centre

Into the Red Centre

I flew from Sydney to Ayers Rock, and somewhere along the way I met Aurelie Neyret, an illustrator and fellow traveler. We quickly decided to explore the Outback together.

After arriving, we headed to our lodge. From a lookout behind it, I caught my first distant glimpse of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. The heat was brutal, but seeing those shapes rising above the flat landscape made the Outback suddenly feel very real.

That first evening, I headed out toward Kata Tjuta for the Valley of the Winds walk.

From a distance, Kata Tjuta didn't look particularly intimidating. Up close was another story. This was also my introduction to one of the Outback's less romantic features: flies. So many flies.

See the black dots around my face? Those were flies desperately trying to land around my mouth and nose. Welcome to the Outback. :)

The walk began with a gradual climb through the rocks. I'm usually not much of a guided-tour person, so whenever we stopped, I found myself itching to keep moving.

At the first lookout, the group split between a shorter route and the longer climb deeper into Kata Tjuta. Naturally, I went for the longer one.

What surprised me most was how much life there was between the rocks. I had imagined a barren desert, but inside the valleys were grasses, shrubs, and pockets that felt almost like forest.

The trail became steeper as we climbed, with sections where I had to use my hands. Somewhere along the way, even Kata Tjuta appeared to be smiling back at us.

After about an hour and a half, we reached the Valley of the Winds lookout. Standing between those enormous formations was the moment I finally understood the scale of Kata Tjuta.

A person looked tiny against the rock. Photos barely convey how massive the landscape felt when I was standing inside it.

Eventually, it was time to descend and watch the last light fall across Kata Tjuta.

I felt very small out there.

The clear blue sky made the red sandstone look almost unreal. It was exactly the kind of color contrast I had imagined when I thought about the Australian Outback.

At sunset, I ended up talking with other travelers over drinks and snacks: a Korean couple curious about where I was from, and two women from Sydney who wanted to climb in the Himalayas. Encounters like these were becoming one of my favorite parts of traveling alone.

Under the Outback Sky

Later that night, I returned to the lookout behind the lodge with my tripod. Away from the city lights, the sky seemed impossibly crowded with stars, with the Milky Way stretching above Uluru.

For a while, all I could do was stare.

The universe felt enormous. Looking up at that sky had a strange way of shrinking everything I had been worrying about back home. For a moment, none of it seemed particularly important.

Uluru at Sunrise

The next morning began before sunrise. Most people gathered on the elevated viewing platform, so I wandered a little farther away and found a quieter spot where I could watch Uluru almost completely alone.

There was nobody around. Exactly how I liked it.

Which also meant nobody was around to judge the ridiculous poses. Looking back at these photos now, I was definitely a little nerdy. :)

As the sun rose, Uluru slowly changed color against the gradient sky. It remains one of the most memorable sunrises from those early years of traveling.

I eventually met up with Aurelie again and we kept walking, until we realized we were late for the next part of the day. We ran back and were greeted by some very unimpressed faces from the rest of the group. It became the beginning of our little “Always Late to Everything” saga.

Around the Base of Uluru

Aurelie and I split up for different walks, leaving me to face the group I had just kept waiting. Thankfully, everyone eventually forgave me.

Walking close to Uluru completely changed my impression of it. From a distance it looked almost simple; at its base, the surface was full of folds, scars, caves, vegetation, and details I couldn't see from afar.

The closer I got, the more complex the rock became.

We reached a waterhole tucked against the rock, another thing I had never pictured when imagining this landscape.

Around it, the dry surroundings gave way to dense vegetation. It was one of many moments that challenged my idea of the Outback as an empty desert.

We rested in the shade for a while before heading back into the heat.

Along the walk, I met Yoko, another solo traveler. Somehow our conversation wandered from travel to aliens. Yes, aliens. That's the fun of meeting strangers on the road, you never quite know where the conversation is going to end up.

By noon, the heat was becoming intense, so we returned to the lodge and waited for evening.

One More Night Under the Stars

That night, I went back into the desert for an astronomy tour. Two telescopes were set up beneath the open sky while our guide pointed out constellations and objects above us.

Our guide, Nick, was hilarious. We also ended up exchanging a few nerdy ideas about photographing stars with the little Sony RX100 I was carrying at the time.

Before the night ended, one of the telescopes was pointed at the Moon. Through it, the craters along the surface were remarkably clear.

I also met Caroline, a traveler from Cologne who shared my fascination with astronomy. After the tour, we stood around wondering whether a shuttle would still be running that late. Another couple offered us a ride, but we waited, and eventually the bus appeared.

More Than a Rock

I had come to the Red Centre expecting Uluru to be the main event: one giant red rock in the middle of the desert. Instead, what stayed with me was everything around it, the scale of Kata Tjuta, the life hidden between the rocks, the people I met, the silence at sunrise, and those enormous Outback skies.

Uluru was never just a rock. And for me, that was the whole point of coming all this way to see it for myself.

From here, the journey continued deeper into the Red Centre toward Kings Canyon.

Continue on to the 3rd part of my Australia Trip: