Day 13, May 7: Hikes at Uluru and Kata Tjuta

Woke up at 5:20, did some morning exercise, left at 6:10 to admire the sunrise at Uluru. The viewing platform was by far not as good as the parking lot for sunset. At sunset, there are two parking lots, one for cars, and a separate one for tour buses about 2km away. Accordingly, it was quite quiet there and we could directly admire Uluru from the car. At sunrise, everyone gathers together, and you walk up to a viewing platform that was already crowded today, even though it's still the off-season. We were early, but too late for the best spots at the top. The choice was either the second row with strangers always in our photos or a platform lower down with a tree between us and Uluru. We chose the tree.

The colors weren’t as beautiful as at sunset yesterday. The sun rose at 7:05, and we moved on at 7:20. At least, we had also seen our goal for the afternoon from 50km away: the red rocks of Kata Tjuta.

Then we drove about 10 minutes to the hiking parking lot at Uluru, where we had done the Mala Walk yesterday. This morning we planned to do the 10km circuit around Uluru. Luckily, there were few other people out, and they were mostly going the opposite direction. Thus, we usually had our peace to admire the monolith from various viewpoints and took numerous photos—way too many. We saw budgerigars that I could photograph well, and fairy wrens that scurried through the bushes in a family group. I managed to photograph the brown female very well, but unfortunately not the blue male.

After 5km, the wide, flat, and red hiking trail was suddenly blocked due to maintenance work. But a shuttle bus took us for free the 3km to the next parking lot, from where we continued. So we only walked 7 instead of the 10km.

Then came the unpleasant part of the day that would occupy us further. At the parking lot, we had seen that the solar panel on the roof of the camper was loose, over 2.5m above the ground. We called Apollo and then went to a workshop, where we had an appointment at 14:00.

It turned out that there was a bigger damage on the roof, which was completely unseeable for us: a large dent on the side and scratch marks on the roof indicated that something had been dragged over the roof and also damaged and likely detached the solar panel.

Now we had absolutely not had an accident but received an email from Apollo stating that we should register the accident. In other words, I or my insurance should cover the damage.

However, pictures from the pick-up day, both from us and from Apollo, show that the large dent was already there and that the solar panel was already loose—unnoticed by us and Apollo. There were no pictures of the roof, and I still do not know what it looks like. But in any case, the damage occurred before our rental, and we got a broken car. Let’s see how it turns out, whether Apollo acknowledges this right away or tries to pass the damage onto us.

At least the panel was quickly secured, but it doesn’t seem to be working. However, after half an hour, we were done and on our way to Kata Tjuta, 50km away, a red rock landscape like something out of a fairy tale. It is an insular mountain range with 36 domes and ridge formations, significantly higher than Uluru. These red domes rise suddenly from the flat plain just like Uluru and offer hiking opportunities into this labyrinth.

We walked the magnificent 7.5km Valleys of the Wind trail past towering red rock walls into the stone labyrinth, up to two beautiful viewpoints, and down into a lovely green valley with grass and eucalyptus trees. Unfortunately, there were no animals to see. But at the end, we enjoyed a glorious sunset. On the way home, we appreciated the beautiful landscape in the last light of the day and once again saw the Uluru glowing in the distance.