05.10.2018 | Australia, Travel

Did you ever hear about Kata Tjuṯa in the outback?

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Our trip to Kata Tjuta

After spending a few days in the MacDonnell Ranges (read my article) and after exploring the beautiful Uluru (read my article) we were extremely excited for Kata Tjuta, near Uluru. The Uluru is very popular, but only a few people know about Kata Tjuta or the Kings Canyon. There is so much more to explore in the endless outback. Although the Aborigines call the formation “Kata Tjuta”, a lot of Australian people call them “Olgas”. The trails around and through the Kata Tjuta are even more impressive than the Uluru trail. The trail leads through the round rock formations, until you arrive in the middle, surrounded by all of the 36 rocks. I highly recommend this “Valley of the Winds” trail – it is absolutely stunning, 4 hours long (we did it in 3 hours) and it is absolutely worth it! Between the big red rocks, I felt so little, the colors are unbelievable and unique and you can see the endless outback between the gaps of the rocks again and again. After that we also went the shorter trail “Walpa Gorge” in 40 minutes, leading us to a big Gorge (as the name suggests 😉 ), but is a lot more touristic than the longer “Valley of the Winds” Walk. The 4-hour walk is much more interesting and the only trail you are standing in between the mountains and sometimes we had nature completely on our own. In the blazing sun it got really hot, so keep in mind to bring a lot of water :).

The meaning of Kata Tjuta

The Kata Tjuta, called Olgas a few years ago, is a series of an ancient and huge rock formation in the middle of the red center of Australia. Together with the Uluru, they are located in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Altogether 36 domes cover an area of 20 kilometers. The Mount Olga with 546 m is the highest Mountain. For the located Anangu-Aborigines the Kata Tjuta is a sacred place. The huge sandstone cupolas are very impressive if one stands in front of it, they are about 500 million years old! The name “Kata Tjuta” means “many heads” and there are countless legends, like the legend of the Serpent’s Lord Wanambi, but it is to be kept completely secret. Because the beautiful rocks are standing stand pretty close, they create spectacular gorges and valleys.

Sunrise-Point of the Kata Tjuta

At the end of the wonderful hiking tour, we drove to the Sunrise-Point of the Olgas. Here you have the most gorgeous view of all the red beautiful rocks and actually, you see the Ayers Rock far away. One bad thing: A lot of annoying flies love the warm desert as well – therefore you should take along a fly net.

Sightseeing flights above and around Uluru

If you are very interested in seeing the Outback and the Uluru from above, a lot of companies offer helicopter flights around the Uluru area. They are pretty expensive but cheaper than the flights at for example Kings Canyon. We decided to spend our money to other things, Because we already saw the outback from above, when we flew from Sydney to Alice Springs with a perfect view – we decided to spend our money on other things, for example, a camel ride, because I never rode on a camel before ;). 🐫

Camel riding in the outback

If you haven´t a 4-wheel car like us, you can only drive the attached road back to the Uluru and back to the Stuart Highway, because the direct street from the Olgas to the Kings Canyon isn´t an attached road thus only for 4-wheelers. Therefore we drove back to the Uluru and stopped at the camel farm near Uluru. They keep kangaroos, pigs, one emu, one water buffalo and a lot of camels. The farm offers camel rides through the outback with a great view to Uluru. They are a little bit expensive, therefore we only booked the shortest camel ride with a camel group of four animals (12 AUS Dollar per person). I really wanted to know how it feels like to ride on a camel. My boyfriend and I could ride together on one camel, the movements were really smooth and they have such soft fur. 🙂 Do you ask yourself why there are camels in the Australian outback? Europeans imported the animals for transportation in the 19th century. Next we drove to the Kings Canyon. Read my next article here   *** Dieser Artikel enthält Werbung, da Marken genannt werden.