48 Hours in Uluru

lastminute lovely Angela and I are off to Uluru (Ayers Rock) for a fleeting 48 hour visit, jam-packed with tours, sights, adventures and food!
Arrival – 1.45pm
We arrive and make our way into Ayers Rock Resort to check in to our accommodation Sails in the Desert (more on that later). Ayers Rock Resort is the main township of the area, all of the accommodation options and shops are located within the resort and it’s located only about 15 minutes from the Rock itself, so super close!
Hours 1-2: 2pm
There’s no time to soak up our surroundings, we hit the ground running, whisked away on our first experience – The camel express tour. For the full low down on our tour read up on Angela’s review here.

Hours 3-4: 3.30pm
We’re back at Sails in the Desert for a couple of hours before our next pick up and with the weather sitting around the 30 degree mark, after I check out of my room I decide to embrace the heat and get a bit of sun on my white winter legs by the pool.
Sails has recently had a refurb and the rooms now are all decorated with colours and furnishings from the local area and culture with amazing Aboriginal art on the walls, bedding and art even worked into the carpet! The beds are seriously like floating on a giant marshmallow and the rooms are super shady and cool.

Hours 5-10: 5:30pm
We’re picked up to head off to our Sounds of Silence dinner for sunset and then dinner. It’s our first sunset overlooking Uluru and Kata Tjuta (which you might better know as The Olgas) and its living up to absolutely all of my expectations!

Hot tip: Make sure you take your eye away from the camera lens and actually enjoy it for the moment it is as it’s a memory you want imprinted in your brain even more so than on a selfie on FB!

After the sunset we’re seated for our buffet meal under the stars. Dinner’s sort of the lesser focus of the evening, it’s good but what I find mind blowing is a) the didgeridoo playing and b) the astronomy tour oh and c) the dessert (the port’s also pretty good!)

We’re taken on a tour of the stars by a local star gazer and it’s truly amazing – trust me, it makes the night. The stars out here are in a league of their own and if you’re lucky enough like we were twice, you’ll see shooting stars. Sounds of Silence gets a big tick from me!

Hours 11-17: 11pm
We think we should do a bit of that thing called sleep so to my giant marshmallow I go.
Hour 18: 7am
A speedy trip means we don’t have the opportunity to check out all of the dining options at Sails but one I’m so glad we did get to taste test is the buffet breakfast. Words can’t describe so I’ll let my pics do the talking but seriously the morning you’re not doing a sunrise tour, dedicate a couple hours to this buffet.

Hours 19-23: 8am
This morning we’re lucky enough to be heading on a helicopter safari across to Kings Canyon. Kings is about a three hour drive from Ayers Rock or a 45 minute helicopter ride which I highly recommend. Angela will tell you all about the trip here.

Hours 24-25: 1pm
With a couple of hours down time before our next pick-up, we opt to do a quick tour of the whole resort and the local shops (just to get our bearings), followed by lunch at Geckos in the town centre to refuel for this afternoon’s adventure.
Hours 26-31: 3pm
Next up – our SEIT Tour of Uluru (Ayers Rock) and we’re picked up by the lovely Troy who is our guide for the afternoon and the sunset ahead. The tour takes us for the first time into the National Park.

Hot tip: You need passes to enter the National Park and these can be bought at the entrance.

We have the opportunity of selfies in front of The Rock (a very famous photo spot) before venturing closer to take a stroll along one of the tracks beside the Rock. The history and culture behind Uluru is pretty amazing and I’m continually blown away about how much Troy knows and some of the crazy stories that are told! After another small walk further around the Rock, we head up to our sunset spot for the evening where we have nibbles and champers and lots and lots of snaps! It’s a great way to spend an afternoon and the sunset tonight has really just topped off a great tour.

Hours 31-32: 8pm
We’re back at the resort for the later part of the evening and we venture out to the resort’s token pub – The Outback Pioneer for some dinner. We have a quick bite to eat followed by a very quiet night to be up bright and early for our sunrise tour tomorrow!

Hours 33-39: 10pm
Reluctantly, we’re giving into that thing called sleep – secretly wishing we had more hours here to explore.

Hours 40-46: 5am
Our pick-up is at 5.45am, again with SEIT for our Sunrise Tour, this time over near Kata Tjuta which takes around 40 minutes from the resort. As the sun rises behind Uluru and then lights up Kata Tjuta, it’s so beautiful and I am so glad I got up for this. Sleeps overrated anyway right?! After the sun is up we head off over to Kata Tjuta for about an hour to walk up beside the rock which again is super impressive. Alex our tour guide fills us in on all of the culture and history of Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and the area surrounding and then we head off for our much deserved breakfast. Yum!

Hour 48
So here we are boarding the plane back to the noise, the city lights and reality! It’s been a jam-packed couple of days of fun, adventure, history and so much more. It’s opened my eyes to the endless range of things to do up here and we only had 48 hours! My final tip – make sure you arrive well-rested! It might be the outback but there’s nothing sleepy about a trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock).
View a quick clip of our trip here!

Nicola and Angela travelled to Uluru (Ayers Rock) thanks to Tourism Northern Territory.

Geckos Cafe

Outback Pioneer Kitchen