Emma in London & now in Melbourne: Uluru Weekend

The stars (winter temperatures and a public holiday) aligned for Mum and I to spend a long weekend visiting Uluru and stay at Longitude 131 in June. It was a brilliant experience and an incredible treat to stay there.

We arrived at the airport on Saturday lunchtime and were driven 20 minutes to our accommodation. Sandwiches and champagne on arrival set the tone for the next 4 days. As did our luxury "tent" which had a stunning view of Uluru across the national park, and the super friendly staff.

A few hours later we were watching the sunset at Uluru with drinks and canapes. We wandered through the Field of Light installation and then had dinner at Table 131 under the stars. And the stars, the Milky Way, Orion, and a gazillion more were beautiful.

Our home for the 3 nights (the Sidney Nolan tent)

The best looking tent I've ever stayed in

The view from our tent

Wild camel spotting
(thanks to earlier explorers the are a few million in the red centre)

One of only about 3 tree varieties in the national park.
This is a Desert Oak. It should really be called a Desert Pine.

Ready for sunset

The Olgas

First sunset drinks and a new view of the rock

Classic shot.
That blue ring of light is actually the Earth's shadow

Uluru in every light

The setting of Longitude 131

The Field of Light installation.
Blurry but one of the better photos

There are about 50,000 small lights but it seems a lot more than that

The turn down service included rolling out a swag on the deck,
putting the fire on, and a few tipples to choose from.
Make mine a Baileys.

We quickly realised we were never going to be far away from our next bite to eat. The help-yourself-to-whatever-you-like-whenever-you-like fully stocked bar was pretty incredible. We did our best to make the most of that while still managing not to miss any of the activities or be drunk / hungover throughout the entire weekend.

Sunday was an early start with a dawn walk for a couple of hours through Walpa Gorge, and then onto Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and the nearby cultural centre. The character of these 300-400 million year old rock formations close up is really interesting. We had some down time over lunch and then went on the sunset Mala Walk with canapes & a bush bar up close to Uluru at a very pretty spot at its base. This was one of my favourite moments of our visit. Our four course dinner, topped and tailed with drinks at the bar, that evening was in the hotel's Dune House restaurant.

Walpa Gorge

Closer view...

...Even closer

Wearing cosy ponchos to protect against the early morning wind.

For scale

And looking back to the light

Dingo tracks. No dingo sightings.

Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)

More interesting to look at than Uluru I thought

Walking at the foot of Uluru

No filter. It got brighter and brighter with sun set.

As soon as the sun comes out, so do the bush flies.
Fly nets provided. Actually not as annoying as they might look.
Would have come in handy in Greece with all those wasps.

Drinks and fly nets served with sun set on the Mala Walk.
That bright light is au naturel.

Enjoying 25 degree winter warmth

Mum relaxing on the deck

The bar

The restaurant (by night)

Cocktail hour

On Monday morning we had yet another new view of Uluru. This time doing the 12km walk around the base of the whole rock. Mum and I were the only two on this walk so it ended up being a private tour with the two guides. We could see it close up, all the character, and the one end that is 50 million years older than the other. As it's deemed culturally insensitive to climb the rock these days, I didn't even consider it but plenty of people still did (before it officially closes in Oct 2020). In the afternoon we relaxed over lunch and at our tent. I had a massage and then only an hour or two later it was time for drinks and another dinner under the stars.

Starting the base walk with the rising sun

Pretty morning light on the trees

These pics of the base walk are all out of order hence the changing light scenarios.
It was shady to begin with. Then full sun on one side as the sun rose. Then back to shade once we were around to the other side of the rock. The walk only took about 2 1/2 hours.

Macaron-shaped rocks according to Mum

Some cave art

A water hole

Our last morning was spent having a sleep in (up with the sun instead of before it), a leisurely breakfast, and soaking up the sunshine by the pool. It took me 9 hours to get home again but it was definitely worth it for a once in a lifetime experience.