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!

I totally abandoned my Australia trip report. But I’m trying to be better at finishing things that I’ve started so… here’s the next installment. Hehe.

Friday, August 14.

Today we explored the area of Cairns known as the Atherton Tablelands.

Since we didn’t rent a car, we went with Northern Experience Eco Tours and the owner, Brett, showed us the sights.

Our first stop was Lake Barrine where we were scheduled to have morning tea at the teahouse and a ferry cruise afterwards.

We opted for coffee and along with it we were given 3 scones each topped with raspberry jam and devonshire cream.Those scones were INCREDIBLE. SERIOUSLY. I’m drooling right now just thinking about them.

The ferry took us around the lake so we could see some of the surrounding rainforest — lots of umbrella trees and figs. We also saw ducks, turtles, an eel (creepy), and a brush turkey.

After the ferry cruise, we headed over to the famous curtain fig tree. This tree is amazing. Sadly, immediately after I took the above picture, Brett was going to take our picture in front of the tree and our camera battery DIED. I totally forgot to charge the battery the night before. %$#!@ Luckily, I had my iphone and our camcorder takes pics as well (although they’re pretty crappy).

We moved on to Milaa Milaa Falls where I managed to turn on our camera and take 1 picture before it shut down again. Grrr. Oh well. I tried. All the rest of the pictures from this day were taken with our camcorder so they’re really pixel-y. Anyway, the falls are beautiful — gorgeous flowers and plants all around it.

Lunch was at Mungalli Creek Dairy and it was probably one of the best tour meals I’ve ever had. It was the most amazing lasagna with a side salad, which was good because I hadn’t been eating many fresh veggies on the trip so far. We also got the chance to sample the yogurt and cheese that they make on site. Mmmm. My favorite was the havarti cheese. So good! The mango yogurt was also excellent. It’s greek style so it’s thick — really good and so flavorful.

The major stop of the day was Paronella Park. Jose Paronella was a Spanish man who made his money in Australia, brought his wife over from Spain, bought land, and built a “park” for his family. It includes a castle, cottage home, entertainment areas, gardens, and a lovely waterfall. The whole park is magical. We had about an hour to spend and we ended up following portions of the complimentary walking tour — but now, I wish we had walked around the park ourselves. While we got to see the castle, the grand staircase, the lower refreshment rooms, and Kauri Avenue, we still missed the turtle nesting area and botanical walk. It also would have been nice to sit in the picnic area by Mena Creek Falls and just enjoy the surrounding scenery.

Our last stop of the day was Boulders Lookout where there was a small swimming area at the end called Devil’s Pool. We had the opportunity to swim but only 2 of 8 of us did. I didn’t want to deal with changing and getting dry and all that stuff. We also had our afternoon tea so instead I stayed by the food and had coffee and chocolate biscuits.

Back in downtown Cairns, we went out again to walk around on our last night. Rob wanted to check out the casino and play a little blackjack. After losing some more money (!), we went to the esplanade in search of food. Not wanting to go to a sit-down restaurant, we settled on self-service chinese food at the night market. It wasn’t very good. :/ All the fun is getting the plate and piling as much food on top of it as possible. Oh well. We grabbed some strawberry ice cream to make up for the average dinner.

When I was planning the trip, I thought we were in Far North Queensland for a long time (6 nights) but looking back, I would have loved to spend a few more days there. We could have spent more time on the beach lounging around or maybe even visited one of the islands located on the Great Barrier Reef itself. Next time.

More pictures on the Flickr:
Atherton Tablelands

Up next: Uluru!