Sunrise – Sunset: Ayers Rock and The Olgas

It is 4:45am and I find myself standing outside the Outback Pioneer lodge, awake in theory, waiting to go see the sunrise at Uluru. As we drove out to the rock in the lingering bits of night, I noticed a different night sky, a sky full of stars foreign to me and a partially full moon with the Cheshire cat sliver of a smile upside down instead of the proper mischievous grin it usually gives me. I am noticing more and more why this is called the “land down under.”


In the twinkling of dawn, the rock appeared to be as we left it, asleep in its brownish/ blue hues. With a cup of coffee in my hand and my camera in the other, I stared at the rock like so many others around me, but was expecting fireworks or nature’s version of a Broadway musical to make it come to life and justify why I was standing outside staring at a rock with many other groggy tourists before the crack of dawn. After a few more sips of coffee and a short walk to a less crowded viewing point, I stopped, listened, and soaked in the moment. Before my eyes, the rock began to come to life. The brownish/ blue hues became red, then orange, and then as the sun completely popped up over the horizon, it glowed like it was on fire. Each picture, each blink of an eye caught a glimpse of its transformation. I was thankful for those moments.

A fellow tourist in my group, John, from the UK, has become my official photographer, kindly taking pictures of me when my own arm is not long enough to take the photo of myself. John and his wife, Di are visiting their daughter and her family in Adelaide but snuck away from grandkid sitting to come on this tour. We gladly took photos of each other with the rock as our amazing backdrop.

Now that we were mostly awake, we made our way to the Olgas, known by their aboriginal name as Kata Tjuta, which means “many heads.” There are 36 different mounds protruding from this formation, which for the aboriginal people, represent different ancestors. This rock formation is about 50 kilometers from Uluru but is not considered a monolith. It is a conglomerate made up of gravel, pebbles, boulders and mud. Kata Tjuta is a men’s sacred site so the hiking trails are limited to public access. However, walking through Walpa Gorge, with its walls of rock on either side, it’s rocky floor and oasis in the middle was spectacular. The views of the flat, reddish valley with hints of green bush surrounding the formation was well worth the walk.

After such an amazing start to our day, we packed up from the Ayers Rock Resort and made our way to our next location, Kings Canyon. It is this opportunity to experience Uluru that has opened my eyes to a new and different beauty that is the Red Center, enhanced by the stories and people groups that call it home.