Saturday, August 15.
Today we headed to Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) in Central Australia. They’re a half hour behind the East Coast — isn’t that a random time difference?
As we took off, we could see Cairns and the Green Island below.
Beautiful sight.
First glimpse of Uluru from the plane!
The Ayers Rock Airport is TINY. I think Qantas is the only airline that flies to/from Uluru. It made everything SO easy, though. Our bags came out quickly and the transfer bus was already waiting to take all the passengers to the resort. Options are limited here — one company, Voyages, owns the entire resort and there’s only a handful of hotel options to fit various budgets. This means that prices are SKY HIGH even at the “budget” accommodations because there’s no other choices.
We stayed at the Lost Camel Hotel which is (supposedly) one of the mid-range hotels but it was still $400+ per night. For a tiny room. !!! And that’s actually a winter rate because we were there during the off season. Can you imagine the summer rates?!
After we checked in, it was about 3pm and we were hungry. We decided to check out the town centre and look for food. Sadly, the restaurants and deli were already closed so we went to the market and picked up bottled water (it’s the desert so it’s HOT and dry), snacks, and cup of noodles for lunch. LOL.
They don’t have paper or plastic bags at the market — instead they have boxes! Like Costco.
Eating our lunch. The room was so small there was no seating area with a table. We had to use the counter above the bed. Heh.
Our first activity during our stay here was the Sounds of Silence Dinner. Reviews on various travel forums are pretty mixed (probably because it’s not particularly inexpensive) but we had a GREAT time. Definitely a highlight of our trip.
We were picked up and taken to a sunset viewing area with a fantastic view of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
We had drinks and appetizers as we listened to live didgeridoo music and waited for the sun to set.
After sunset, we walked down a trail to the dinner site. Seating was assigned as we arrived and we were placed with 3 other young couples from the US (NY), Britain, and Italy. We were all at various stages of our vacations so we got the chance to talk about and give each other advice on our travels so far. By the time everyone was seated, it was PITCH BLACK. The only light came from the candles on our tables and the torches surrounding the site. Eating dinner would be interesting!
Dinner was buffet style and it was really tasty. There were some exotic dishes like crocodile (tastes like chicken) and kangaroo filets (tastes like beef — I really enjoyed it) as well as standard fare like chicken, lamb, and barramundi. I tried to take pictures but they didn’t come out at all because it was so dark.
So you can see just how dark it was that night, here’s a pic of the pathway leading up the hill to the bathrooms…
I made Rob accompany me because there was NO WAY I was going up there by myself. LOL.
Following dessert (brownies! bread pudding! wattleseed crumble!), all the lights were turned off and we were treated to a tour of the night sky by a startalker. OMG. I have NEVER seen the sky so clear and beautiful. I seriously had no idea there were so many stars in the sky! The startalker pointed out the Milky Way, Jupiter!!!, and many constellations (Southern Cross, Libra, Scorpio). This was an INCREDIBLE experience and I’m glad we didn’t miss it.
More pictures on the Flickr:
Uluru, Day 1
Up next: Uluru, Day 2!