From Cairns to Ayers Rock (Uluru)

Cairns to Brisbane

And we’re up at 3am and off to the airport for a 6am flight to Brisbane. In the airport John spots a man being led away in handcuffs. Besides that nothing out of the ordinary occurs.

John gets some good shots of Cairns from the air.

I can see the shadow of our plane as we start descending to land in Brisbane.

Brisbane to Ayers Rock

We have a 2.5 hour layover before our flight to Uluru. John is seated near the front of the plane and I am near the back. I wonder if he paid extra for that.  Once in the air, the view from the plane of the different depths of the water is so cool. 

The flight takes over four hours. For hours we fly over uninterrupted red surfaces. Just before landing, our pilot announces that ground temperature is 39°. Yikes.

Getting Settled

You can’t imagine any more of a different environment. This morning we are in lush, humid rainforest and now we arrive in scorching, red and dry desert.

Ayers Rock (Uluru) is a resort area. Everything is run by the one resort operator. 

As we get into the bus to the hotels, the driver announces that the temperature has now risen to 41°. The driver advises to always wear enclosed in shoes when off the resort cause there are lots of things that sting and bite out there and when out exploring, drink one litre of water an hour.

We are now at a 14.5 hour time difference from Toronto.

The resort has a bunch of hotels, tourist apartments, conference centre, restaurants, stores and a grocery store. It is all walkable and they have included shuttles to Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta which are in the National Park.

We get a few groceries and food for our four hour hike tomorrow, have some supper and head back to our room for a rest and cool down. John heads to a nearby lookout to watch the sun set (while I still rest).

Uluru Rock, Field of Light Show

We leave our room at 7:30pm to catch the bus to the Uluru Rock Field of Lights show. We pass wild rabbits along the way.

Now that the sun has set, it is much more comfortable…a mere 34°.

The Field of Lights is 49,000 sq. metres of lights that change colours. There is a pathway that you walk through them.

There are so many stars in the sky.

After the field, we head back and go to bed since we are getting up at 3:45 to watch sunrise at Ayers Rock and do the 11km hike around it.