Aus 4 All

Uluru & Kata TJuta

The red centre, but wheelchair accessible. Niiiiiiice. So I’m going to warn you all, this one is going to need a bit more planning and a few more forms to fill out BUT they have ramps galore, accessible bathrooms everywhere and accessible buses from our friends at AAT Kings. They also own most of the buses around Yulara and run tours to all the major destinations, they are also a huge company so that helps their ability to bring the beautiful Uluru and Kata Tjuta (Olgas) to you. Yulara is the resort area by the way. AAT Kings also handle the airport transfers so that’s extremely handy. Not much use having tours to go on if you can’t get there hey. Also, if you didn’t know, there is an airport as part of the resort. It’s a 20min drive from the resort. Also, did you know there is a resort next to Uluru? Sorry if you were wanted to get back to nature and all its ruggedness for a few days. I mean you can but you can throw a few nice meals and a few glasses of wine in between the endless red dirt.

I know this is usually about the time I would tell you where the destination is, but if you don’t know where Uluru and Kata Tjuta is then you should have paid more attention in school. If you are reading this and didn’t grow up in Aus. It is quite literally in the middle of Australia, hence being the “red centre”.

Tours! Now I’m going to do my best, but there are multiple companies that run tours in the area and I only had the time and funds to do a few of them. I did a mixture of AAT Kings and other companies. Now if someone gave me thousands of dollars and I had about 3 weeks there, it could have been a different story haha. I did however chat to the people in the info centre, so I’m going to have to take their word for the parts I couldn’t see. But never fear! I did see all the main points so I reckon I got ya.

Bit of the nitty gritty. Parks passes! So, the deal is, if you are going on a tour you don’t need one, but if you are taking your own car in, you’ll need one. The pass cost $38 for 3 days or $50 for an annual pass for an adult over 18 yrs. Children 17 yrs and under are free. Important info! Don’t make the mistake we did and waste your money, save it because this trip ain’t cheap my friends. If you book a 3 day pass you can extend it for 2 days at the National Park Entry Station. You won’t miss it, it has boom gates and everything. 5 days is also a great amount of time to spend there, 3 days is just that little bit too short.

Accomodation

We stayed at the campgrounds, but there are a variety of accommodation options from luxury apartments to a patch of red dirt to call home. After speaking to a few people I have been told the Sails apartments apparently have some accessible rooms. Unfortunately I was unable to check this out for you, so you might have to give them a call to find out more. Sorry team, there’s only so far I can push my luck.

I can tell you all about the campground though! The campground consists of powered and unpowered sites varying from dirt to grass. The roads around the campgrounds are all concrete, with the occasional speed bump. We stayed in the powered area and the bathroom near us had an accessible bathroom. All the bathroom blocks I saw seemed to be identical. There is also a lookout in the middle of the campground which has a great view at sunset, and probably sunrise, but we were never up that early. It is technically accessible but I’d be using power assist and some help because it is steeeeeep. There is also another lookout in the middle of Yulara which also has a ramp going up and is steep but slightly less steep. Although I’d still recommend some help and power assist to be sure. The view up there is pretty cool, so if you can manage the climb it is worth it.

Transport

There are a few options. Hire a rental car (these will not have hand controls), take your own car or use the AAT Kings tours to see everything. There is a hop on hop off bus that takes you out to the same areas that a car would around Uluru and Kata Tjuta but these buses are not accessible unless you are able to transverse 2-3 steps to get into the bus. I rang the company and was told they don’t have a ramp and there are a few steps into the bus. This would be the same for the free shuttle bus around Yulara. The best option is to have your own car as you know that transferring in and out will not be a problem, however I respect this isn’t always an option. There are 3 rental companies. Avis, Hertz and Thrifty. All of which have an office at the airport. Hertz also has an office within Yulara. They have a variety of car options from hatchbacks to people movers to 4wds.  The best part is that Thrift has 2 wheelchair accessible option. They are Kia carnival’s or equivalence with a ramp into the back of it. If you are travelling with someone with a licence then this could be a great option.

Town Square

Within Yulara there is the area called the town square. There is a bus that circles the resort every 20mins however from what I saw the bus was not accessible, as mentioned above. That isn’t the end of the world though, as the resort is flat and in a big circle with the lookout I mentioned previously in the middle, like a big roundabout. The campground is the furthest from the town square and it was a 10 min flat walk across the centre. It is a hard gravel path to get there, you will just have to find the crossing areas to get over the gutters. If this seems a bit far, the Sails apartments are next to the town square.

There are a few restaurants, a small, but well stocked shopping centre, post office, gift shop, information centre and a range of free and paid activities, as well as the opportunity to purchase artwork from the locals. My only tip with the artwork is, if you like a piece, buy it that day as the artist may not be there the next day. I should also mention that the cafe in the town square is run by students that are completing a course in hospitality. We ate there twice and enjoyed their selection of desserts, pies and sandwiches.

As I mentioned before, the town square is accessible with ramps for every set of stairs, you may just have to look around a bit at times as they can be behind a building.

I’ll separate the tours into different sections of AAT Kings tours followed by Uluṟu, Kata Tjuta and Yulara so I don’t confuse you or myself.

AAT Kings

The lovely staff at AAT Kings were able to go through their pamphlet with me and highlights what experiences can be accessible. They do require you to contact them with fair notice and fill out their “Particular Needs Form”. I’ll post a link to this below. At Yulara they have 2 buses which have the capabilities to be wheelchair accessible, a 64 seater and 9 seater both with lifts. These buses are not usually set up to allow for a wheelchair so they will need notice to ensure they change the orientation of the seats to leave room for your wheelchair. Not that I don’t trust them, but I would be calling a few days before to double check they have understood your form and have in fact set their bus up for a wheelchair and have booked one of these buses to pick you up. Better to be safe than sorry! They can also do the airport transfers so remember that if you are flying in. 

On to the tour part. The tours they highlighted for me as accessible are:

• Uluru sunrise and field of lights
• Uluru morning guided base walk
• Uluru sacred sites and sunset
• Uluru sunset

I would like to add to the list the Field of lights dinner. I did this tour and it was definitely a highlight. You get picked up from your accommodation and taken out to a lookout, this is the portion that will be the trickiest part, as well, it’s a lookout, you have to travel uphill. It is fairly steep, however with help or a fairly good power assist it is possible. If not there is another way up which is longer but the gradient isn’t as steep. At the lookout you are treated to drinks and canapés as the sun sets over Uluru. I am also assuming this lookout would be the same one as the Uluru sunset tour mentioned above. Following this you travel down off the lookout, about 30m to an open area for dinner. You are treated with endless drinks, a 3 course meal and star gazing. Unfortunately for us it was very cloudy so the star gazing wasn’t as spectacular as usual, however we did a star gazing tour on another night which was awesome, we learnt so much about the stars over the 4 days we had there. Following the dinner you get to stroll around the field of lights. The field of lights is completely flat, the hardest part is getting to them as it is dark. It is a hard gravel path but being dark can make it tricky to see any dips or bumps. Potentially a small torch to be sure could be handy just in case. In saying this, the path is only about 100m to the field of lights. After the field of lights they drop you back off at your accommodation. I should also mention that there is a bathroom out there however it isn’t accessible.

Uluru

Uluru is the most accessible of the 2 rocks. You will be able to see the entire thing with the use of power assist. We opted to hire bikes and ride around the base. It is a 10km round trip, after all it is a huge rock! The track is easy enough and fairly flat with a few short ups and downs, honestly its more Iike big speed bumps. I would highly recommend a charged up power assist and lots of water. It can get fairly hot out there. There are a few water station around as well. The base walk is well worth the effort. The rock changes so much as you travel around and you get so see rock painting, learn the story of the area and see the waterholes. However if you are reading this and going, have you lost the plot, 10km in the outback! I hear you. I would opt to do the Mala section. It has rock painting, a nice waterhole and a story of that portion of the rock. It is 1.5km return. I should also add, if you are travelling with others, they may opt to hire bikes to complete the walk. The bikes leave from the Cultural Centre and you’ll notice on the map below that the Lungkata section is not marked as accessible. This portion is a bit narrower than the rest and has 2 sections with some soft sand for about 2-3m and the odd rock in the middle of the path. Since you would be travelling with others, you could make it work to follow your friends on bikes as they can help you negotiate these sections. It isn’t hard work for the entire 2km portion of the track, only about 10% of it. I didn’t see an accessible bathroom along the route, so this is also a factor. However, there is at the Cultural Centre. I should also add, there is a free guided walk around the sites each day at 10am which is a great way to learn more on a budget.

The cultural centre has an accessible bathroom as well as many paths, once again that hard gravel for you to use. At the cultural centre there are 2 places to buy art, both from the locals, one being more expensive and from more established artists and the other from locals building their name. The proceeds from the artists trying to establish themselves are given back to the people which was good. I can’t speak to where the funds go for the more established artists. There is also a cafe that sells souvenirs and of course the bike hire.

The field of lights installation is great and I recommend you give it a look at sunset or sunrise. After all it is a light installation so darkness is kind of necessary. Interesting fact. When it was installed it was only meant to last a year however it has been extended every year since 2016 and the 9 football fields of solar powered lights are going strong. I did get the impression that the installation will continue so long as the completely solar powered Bruce Munro masterpiece is still functioning. It’s very impressive really, seeing as each light is hand made by him and there are 50,000 of them! You will need to get on a tour to see it though. AAT Kings can help you out there. As I mentioned above the walk throughout the installation is hard gravel and flat. It is dark however the 50,000 lights help you see.

We didn’t get a chance to suss out the new drone show, so unfortunately I can’t comment, however it wasn’t on the AAT Kings list of accessible tours, so my guess is it isn’t.

Kata Tjuta

Kata Tjuta unfortunately isn’t as wheelchair friendly as Uluru, as all the walks are over rocks. The two walks are called The Waḻpa Gorge walks and the other is the Valley of the Winds walk. We did these so I’ll put a few highlight photos in the blog so you don’t miss out. In saying this though, it is still worth a visit. We were there for sunset and it was beautiful to see them turn this bright red with the stunning pinks and blues setting behind it. Best place to see this is at the sunset viewing point, funnily enough. Who would have guessed hey!? This viewing area is wheelchair accessible and even has an accessible toilet. Around the viewing area is flat with some concrete areas and some hard dirt areas. We set up on the dirt that is on the right when you drive in and found this had the best view of them. If you weren’t too sure about getting out of your car or just couldn’t be bothered, you can position your car so you can see everything. I won’t post any pictures of this viewing area as they would wreck the stunning view you will experience.

There is also another viewing area called the dune viewing area. This is also wheelchair accessible, only down side is you are limited to the first platform. There are 2 sets of 2-3 steps up to the other platforms. They aren’t much higher than the first platform and you will see everything from the first platform so it isn’t a problem. To get up to the platform there is a long ramp walkway. Being a lookout it is a long incline, so once again some power assist or assistance to save your triceps would be good.

Walpa Gorge walk

Valley of the Winds walk

Yulara

We did 2 paid activities in the town square. The Dot painting and the Astro tour. You can book these through the Voyages website.

If you like arts and crafts then the Dot painting is a fun activity where you get shown what a few of the aboriginal symbols mean and how they create their pieces, then you get the chance to tell your story through your painting. I learnt that each painting has a story or meaning behind it, such as family, travelling or historical stories of the area. My painting was about my trip, travelling from place to place, meeting new people and experiencing new things. And no I will not be showing you a picture of my painting, I don’t think my skin’s thick enough for art critics. This is just in the main part of the town square so accessibility is not a problem.

The Astro tour was awesome. I didn’t know much about stars before this tour so it was great to learn more about the stories behind the stars, how the stars can be used to tell when certain foods are ripe, as well as navigation. If you need to know where south is at night, I’m your girl! Apart from that the stars in the outback are incredible. You just can’t get the same effect anywhere else. The tour is located just behind the shopping centre in the town square. The path is hard gravel, however the trickiest part is crossing the carpark as there are gutters. There are places to cross in the carpark so you may have to go the long way but I think you could make it work. It was a bit hard to see as it was night time so I’m going off what I could see. This tour doesn’t book up as quickly so you could easily go and have a look at the carpark and the gravel path and make the decision for yourself. There is also the Voyagers info centre in the town square, so you could ask them to show you the path if you’re struggle to find it from my vague night time directions.

Free Experiences

There are also a range of free experiences that are held in Yulara, usually in the town square, ranging from didgeridoo workshops to bush yarns filled with stories of Aboriginal culture and traditions. To get a list of the current free experiences , use the voyagers website above and use the free filter.

Thank you as always and let me know if you have any questions or places you want me to check out for you.
Over and out, 
Sheree