Yesterday we had an early flight from Cairns to Uluru, aka Ayres Rock. Once again, the fight experience was so much more civilized than in the U.S. Our airline (Qantas) advised arriving at the airport one hour before our flight, and that was ample time–we checked our bags, went through security, and even had time to have a coffee in the lounge before we boarded. We flew business class because I booked the tickets with points many months ago (January, I think) and they were having a flash sale on business class award tickets, so the deal was too good to pass up. I had forgotten all about that, so it was a nice surprise to find ourselves in comfortable seats having a lovely breakfast during our three hour flight.

We had our first 30-minute time change, so now instead of being 14 hours ahead of home, we are only 13.5 hours ahead.

We arrived at the tiny Ayres Rock airport at around 9:30, grabbed our luggage, and hopped on the Ayres Rock Resort shuttle bus. This area is the traditional home of the Anangu people, and about 350 of them still live in a community here within what is now the Uluru-Kata Tijuta National Park, named after the two massive rocks that dominate the landscape here. There are also two resorts here; an ultra luxury (and tiny) resort called Latitude 131, and the Ayres Rock Resort, where the rest of us stay. The Ayres Rock Resort consists of several different lodging areas and a “town square” with some shops, a post office, and a small grocery store. That’s it–there is nothing else but desert for hundreds of kilometers. The nearest hospital is in Alice Springs, which is a five hour drive south.

The resort offers numerous activities and excursions, most of which are either sunrise or sunset related, because it is very hot the rest of the day. Last night we did the Fields of Light Uluru Dinner, which was really great. A bus took us to a viewing area overlooking Uluru, where we were served drinks and canapes while we watched the sunset. We then walked a short way to an outdoor dining area, where we were served a buffet dinner, given some information about the history of the area, and had a chance to talk to the other people at our table–a couple from Sydney and six Germans on a group tour. We really enjoyed chatting with them all.

After dinner we were supposed to have a stargazing talk with an astronomer. Unfortunately, it was totally cloudy–we could not even see the moon through the thick cloud cover. The astronomer was delightful and still gave an interesting talk, using her laser pointer to show us where the various constellations were.

Next, we walked through the Field of Light art installation by artist Bruce Munro. There are a couple of pictures below, but pictures do not convey the stunning beauty of the 50,000 glowing glass spheres of different colors covering twelve acres. It was truly stunning.

All in all, it was a very lovely evening in the Outback!