Friday, March 7, 2025 – Another 4am wake-up with a 4:50 pickup to get to the airport in Cairns. Everything was perfectly smooth, nice sunrise drive, easy time, getting through check-in and security at the airport, got a little bite to eat, and off into the wild blue yonder.
After we were aloft for a while, I noticed there were a lot of beautiful and interesting geological features on the land below, but missing were roads, buildings, and any kind of infrastructure. For more than two hours, the land looked beautiful and pristine from 30,000+ feet. I realized the only time I had seen such an expanse was flying over the ocean. There were no visible signs of human presence below. The experience brought a whole new meaning to ‘vast’! As we started to descend into the Ayers Rock airport, Uluru and Kata Tjuṯa became visible, and everyone on the plane became excited.
Upon arrival at the Ayers Rock Airport, I collected my bag and boarded a shuttle to my hotel. It was about 100 degrees, and my room wasn’t ready, so I stashed my luggage and jumped on the resort shuttle which circles the village of Yulara about every 20
minutes. I went to the village center where I managed to do a little souvenir shopping, get a bite to eat and generally hang out until my room was ready.
I had a ticket for the Field of Lights exhibit (same artist as the sister show in Paso Robles) which started about an hour before sunset, so I had some time to relax. I went to the lobby when it was time to check in for the tour, and ran into a wonderful couple from Sydney, Maggie & Max. Their adult children had arranged this trip for them as a Christmas present! We hit it off immediately and had a wonderful evening together watching the twilight develop over Uluru and the lights of the exhibit come on in the desert between our overlook and Uluru.
We had about 45 minutes to make our way to the field of lights, and wander through this magical experience. We re-boarded the shuttle, and returned to the hotel, where we said goodbye for the night and went our separate ways, thinking that we were going to be on the same tour in the morning, unfortunately, that was not to be.
Travels with Nance 