It’s amazing to think that people who’ve grown up in Australia haven’t visited Uluru. I guess it’s not that surprising, considering these are the same people that turn to mush at the thought of having to walk three hundred metres to an IGA to get milk. So the notion of travelling into the heartland of Australia to visit a mammoth rock might not be that appealing to some people. But Uluru is a magnificent beast of a natural wonder and worthy of your time. You might be sitting at home in your comfortable bed thinking, “Why would I want to walk up a rock?” Well, joke’s on you – because you can’t walk up it anymore. But, there are actually much better ways to experience Uluru that don’t expend those precious leg muscles you got from drinking so much milk from IGA.
1. Skydive Uluru
There’s never been a James Bond set in Australia, but if there were and a poor screenwriter phoned it in, he might have 007 parachuting right over one of Australia’s most iconic landmarks. In this scenario, there’s also an evil villain who’s turned Uluru into some sort of Rock Lair. Anyway, enough of my silly Hollywood dreams – you can skydive right into the red centre of Australia and land right next to Uluru, which is much better than landing on a crummy beach or getting tangled up in some larrikin’s Hills Hoist because you were hungover and weren’t listening to the instructor and veered off course and ended up in the suburbs of Parramatta.
Skydive Uluru with Rock the Sky- Skydive Uluru.
2. By camel
You know what’s better than a horse? Humpy horses. Or, as you scientists call them, camels. Because Uluru is out in the middle of nowhere, horses were basically about as useful as chocolate kettles. Enter the camel, which, if you’ll remember your year 3 science class, uses that back for a lot of water, making them the Bear Grylls of survival animals. They’re actually incredibly fun to ride, and it also makes you feel like you’re riding to the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin. Camel tours operate all the way around the Uluru national park, the better ones providing fascinating information about the flora and fauna of the surrounding area.
Fun fact: if you’re not wearing an Akubra and at least six pieces of R.W. Williams clothing, you’re not allowed to go camel riding.
Book a camel tour of Uluru with Uluru Camel Tours.
3. Fly over it
Flying is the new walking. So just because you can’t get red dirt all over your $400 pair of walking shoes, doesn’t mean you can’t see the top of Uluru. Helicopters are a fast and trendy – business folk use them to fly over cities and avoid the ordinary people – way to see Uluru. There’s something unbelievably harmonious about hovering above such a huge humbling natural wonder, and it’s probably the only real way you’ll get to drink in its sheer gigantic size. Sure, at first your heart will likely be in your stomach, the rotor blades are loud as hell and your helicopter pilot will probably make a lot of bad Aussie dad jokes about how gravity is really uplifting, but beyond that, it is absolutely breathtaking to see it from the air. The sunrise and sunset tours are particularly…orange and red.
You can take the helicopter tour with Ayers Rock Resort.
4. By motorbike
I like to think of myself as a bit of a Johnny Badass. A bit of a leather-jacket wearing rake with morals flying past me as I play by my own rules. You can be like me if you want, and cane it around Uluru on a sick soft-tail with chrome ape hangers. What a rush!! What an immensely unique way to unleash your inner James Dean. Slicked back hair, helmet…and the rest of the stuff. The reverberations of some-sort-of-horse-power-number in the desert is absolutely heart-throbbing, even if it does wake up everyone in a six-hundred kilometer radius. But you won’t care – the dingo doesn’t concern himself with what the cattle are thinking.
Book your motorbike tour of Uluru with Uluru Motorcycle tours.
5. By bicycle
Ok, you have to use your legs a little bit for this one. But slightly cheaper and less engineered than a motorbike, you could take the more alternate route and take a non-motorised bike out for a spin around Uluru. There’s 15km of desert to pedal your way through and it’s a pretty unique way to get up close and personal to the big red monolith. There are disappointingly, absolutely, positively no double-barrel named hipster coffee shops anywhere along the route. No Rock & Berry, no Dingo & Milk, no Desert & Steam, which, frankly, feels like a real gap in the market. Where am I supposed to get my sunrise, decaf, skimmed double espresso from before I crush the course on my low-rider!? Besides that, amazing.
Book your bicycle tour of Uluru with Outback Cycling.
6. From the sidelines
Although there’s a lot of ways to transport yourself around Uluru, there’s also plenty of ways to make the most of your time at big red without doing a damn thing. Until March 2017, there’s a stunning art exhibition called the Field of Light, which sees the desert lit up like a backyard bonfire by electronic stems. There’s also a Sounds of Silence experience, which distills the beauty and serenity of the desert into a few magically quiet hours. Unfortunately, Uluru is probably now a Pokemon Gym, so your silent wonderland will likely be shattered by Pikachus.
Book your Sounds of Silence experience here.
