We drove an entire day to travel from Coober Pedy to our overnight camping spot Curtin Springs which is about 100km from Uluru. On the way we stopped by Kulgera, the ‘first and the last pub’ in the Northern Territory.

Uluru is 346-metres high and is visited by roughly 350,000 people a year, about half of whom are from overseas. More than 100,000 people climb the rock against the wishes of the traditional owners which is why climbing the rock can be a controversial. More than 35 deaths have been recorded on the climb most being from heart attacks (apparently).

There’s plenty of info on the net regarding whether to climb or not. We made the decision to climb Uluru without knowing what we were really in for. We were under the impression it would take an hour to climb up, enjoy the view and back down again. What we didn’t realise was how steep, scary and physically demanding the climb would be and we both loved every minute of it. The climb up was thrilling and exhausting. One wrong step and you could be on a quick steep slide to your death. There is a chain to help guide you up on the first section of the climb as it is very narrow and dangerous. After the chain finishes you are on your own to follow the white painted track. There were loads of Asian tourists coming back down while we were going up and they were squealing and holding onto the chain the entire way which made us a tad nervous about coming back down.

Once we made it to the top it was well worth the effort. We could have spent all day exploring the top of Uluru, it is massive!

After hanging out on the top of Uluru for almost an hour we started the trek back down. It was no way as scary as the Asian tourists made it look. Joe even stopped halfway down the steepest section to answer his phone and have a chat with his Mum. It was actually easier to shuffle down without holding onto the chain although in some parts it was so steep it was a necessity (unless you wanted a quick bum slide to your death!)

Climbing Uluru was a memorable and fun challenge that was more difficult than we expected which made the experience even better!