Kata Tjuta, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park - December 2015

The day after I did the Base Walk at Uluru I grabbed Sam and we headed out to Kata Tjuta to walk the Valley of the Winds circuit. Like the Base Walk this is another excellent stroll, and like the Base Walk the rangers close this walk early in the morning if the forecast temperature is over a certain level, so we had to head out early again. The weather today was hot and overcast again, we had watched the lightning and listened to the thunder crack all around us last night, but so far we had stayed dry, all the storms passing around us. 

Sam heading up towards Kanu Lookout.

Leaving the ute we headed up a wide dusty track towards Kanu Lookout, there were a few people around today but the walk never felt crowded. Now days there are quite a few companies running soft adventure tours mainly catering to the back packer crowd, these tours quite often do some of the more well known day walks, it's kind of ironic that these back packers experience more of Australia than most Aussies ever will, today we shared the walk with two different tour groups although we didn't see much of them. Kanu Lookout marks the spot where the track is closed at 10am if the forecasted temperature is over 36 C. Reaching the lookout before the automated sign closed the walk we took in the view towards the shallow Valley of the Winds.

Looking down towards the Valley of the Winds from Karu Lookout.

This is where the rangers close the walk at 10am if the temperature is forecast to get too high.

The track now drops down into a small side valley and then follows a creek up towards Karingana Lookout, the walking up here is stunning. The pock marked domes of Kata Tjuta towering over head and crowding in from all sides and the small creek holding a few pools of water left over from some recent rain. At one point along this section the route climbs a dry waterfall, the top of which provides another fine vantage point. The name Kata Tjuta means many heads in the Anangu language and its easy to see why it got that name on the walk up to Karingana Lookout, stopping fairly frequently to catch our breath on the climb allowed us to take in the ever changing vista.

We climbed up this valley to Karingana Lookout.

There was a little bit of water around.

Topping out at Karingana Lookout was the only spot on the walk that felt remotely busy, with two tour groups and a few ring in like us there wasn't a lot of serenity to be felt at the lookout. Karingana Lookout is also the spot where some people turn back to the carpark, therefore avoiding the walk into the more remote Valley of the Winds section of the stroll, sure enough for the rest of the walk we hardly saw any more punters. The track that drops down into the Valley of the Winds is a bit on the loose side so it was no surprise when Sam slipped over, what was a bit of a concern was when she told me that she had cut herself, Sam's pretty tough so I knew it wouldn't be a small scratch, catching up to her I saw that she had sliced the fleshy bit between her thumb and fore finger, hmmm. Luckily I'd chucked my first aid gear into my pack so on finding a nice rock for Sam to sit on I bandaged it up as best I could, it was a fairly deep cut but at least it was clean and it didn't look like it needed to be stitched, still, sitting on the side of the track in the baking heat surrounded by bush flies, it wasn't an ideal situation.

The valley we climbed up to Karingana Lookout.

Th view into the Valley of the Winds from Karingana Lookout.

After patching up Sam's hand we continued on through the Valley of the Winds, the track slowly climbing up the valley, the open nature of the valley giving us great views in every direction, the domes of Kata Tjuta being framed by the many Ghost Gums that lined the dry watercourses in the valley. After climbing over an open rocky spur where the bare red rock that was baking hot with the sun radiating off the bare rock we dropped down to another emergency station in a dry creek bed, we had plenty of drinking water so we didn't need to top up but we did make use of the tank to wet our hats down.

The track is a bit on the rough side but is well marked.

Walking through the Valley of the Winds.

The Valley of the Winds.

The second emergency station on the walk.

From the tank we followed the rocky bed of the creek back up towards our inward route at Kanu Lookout, the creek being lined with Ghost Gums giving us some sparse shade. This creek is the same creek that we followed up towards Karingana Lookout earlier in the day and it made for probably the roughest walking of the trail, however at less then a kilometre it was hardly onerous. After completing the Valley of the Winds loop part of the walk all we had to do was to head back up and over Kanu Lookout and drop down to the ute, it was just after midday now and it was getting very hot so I was thankful for the gentle easy descent. Arriving back at the ute it was time to fire up the air con and head back to Yulara for some lunch and a swim, easy for us but its mind blowing how people lived in  this environment for thousands of years.

Walking up the dry creek bed was pretty rough under foot.

There's plenty of Ghost Gums on this stroll.

Climbing back up to Karu Lookout.

You can just see the car park ahead.

The Dirt.

We walked 9.5 kilometres on this walk and climbed 254 metres. This is getting a bit monotonous but once again I think that this is one of the best day walks in Australia, the track is well engineered while still being a little challenging and the scenery is stunning. I'd rate this a medium grade walk, although treat it with respect in hot weather. I used notes from Tyrone Thomas' book 40 Great Walks In Australia, the park notes are probably adequate for the walk though as the trail is extremely well signposted.

Back at the ute, maybe the bridge is a bit optimistic!