Exploring Australian National Gems: Uluru, Tasmania and the Great Barrier Reef

Ana Oliveros Cervantes

Spring 2023 Study Abroad student from University Iberoamericana

Mexico City, Mexico

My name is Ana Oliveros, I am currently an exchange student at UTS, as I am revalidating

my 3rd year of architecture. While completing my semester, I have had the opportunity to

travel to some destinations in Australia, which in my opinion, are hard to compare to any

other place.

Among these is the famous destination of Uluru, located in the Northern Territory. This

place is characterized by its out-of-this-world landscape, thanks to its gigantic rock

formations that emerge from the ground in the middle of the red desert.

In addition to its characteristic landscape, I had the opportunity to make this trip a little

different than usual; since I found a tour in which you did not sleep in a hotel, nor in a tent,

but in sleeping bags, which means that we slept outside, in the desert and I was able to

appreciate the starry sky and the milky way throughout the night, as well as many

shooting stars, a true joy.

Uluru has a great cultural value, due to the aboriginal tribes that still traditionally inhabit their lands which as you travel through Uluru you read and learn. As traveling to Uluru, which is the most touristy, I highly recommend visiting the Kings Canyon and Kata Tjuta. Both very beautiful and unusual rock formations worth seeing.

So, if you are a nature fan and are looking for a place to disconnect from the city and

connect with nature, this is definitely the trip you should take.

Taking advantage of the space to share, I would like to tell you about 2 trips that, despite not having them done yet, I will be in a few weeks at the end of the semester. These are Tasmania and the East Coast.

Tasmania is an island, located southeast of Australia, that is very highly recommended for its high animal watching, especially the wombats, a very small and cute-looking animals, which I am very excited to meet. It has also been highly recommended to me for its multiple national parks that offer hundreds of hiking trails, with waterfalls, rivers, lakes, and impressive cliffs. I will be visiting the east coast, starting in Hobart and making my way to the north, ending in Launceston.

The trip to the East Coast is a slightly more relaxed trip, where despite traveling many

kilometers you can enjoy multiple beaches to rest and appreciate marine nature. I plan

to start touring the coast from north to south so that I will be flying from Sydney to Cairns,

then I will drive to Magnetic Island and finally to Whitsundays, where I will take a flight to

Brisbane to take a car again to drive a few kilometers north to visit Noosa and Sunshine

Coast, passing through Brisbane again and finally finishing in Byron Bay, where I take my

flight back to Sydney. This trip is highly recommended for people who are fans of the

sea and beaches, since throughout the trip you will be able to enjoy the sea and its

multiple attractions such as diving and snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, surfing,

swimming, and paddle boarding, among many others.