Australia

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Our taxi arrived at 8.30am to take us to the airport, and by 10.30am we were taking off for Ayers Rock Airport.

The landscape became more and more barren as we travelled further inland. It wasn’t long before the ground beneath us was a patchwork of browns and ambers. As we approached the airport the land looked like a red table cloth with black sand scattered across it. As we descended I realised the black dots were trees, against the red sand they looked so dark.

As we stepped off the plane we were met with a full on blast of heat. We’d been warned it would be hot but we hadn’t expected this.

We were pleased to get into the tiny air conditioned airport terminal. There was only one baggage carousel and as it was an internal flight, there was no security, so we whizzed on through to the courtesy bus which was there to shuttle guests to the Ayers Rock Resort.

The coach drove us through arid landscape, giving us our first glimpses of Uluru on the horizon. It was overwhelming seeing the redness of the sand, the remoteness of the landscape, the unbelievable heat and the large rock looming proudly in the distance. It felt like we were a million miles from anywhere.

I wasn’t even aware that we were in the resort grounds until we stopped to drop off some passengers at the first hotel. The buildings were all low rise and were painted muted colours to blend in with the landscape. Between the hotels was long stretches of red sand and bush. There was accommodation here to suit every budget, from five star hotels right down to the final stop, our stop, the campground.

It was hard watching everyone getting off at the hotels knowing that we were going to be roughing it. We were paying $150 (£63) per night for a basic campsite cabin (no toilet or shower) - the same level of accommodation at the five star Cairns caravan park the previous night was less than half that price! But then again, considering this was the gateway to one of Australia’s greatest tourist sites I guess we had to be grateful that the prices weren’t higher still.

Everyone else got dropped off at the door of their hotel, but we were dropped off on the road around the corner from the campsite (already we could see there were no luxuries for us!) so we had to lug our bags in the heat along the road and down the drive to reception. Our cabin was close to the reception building which at the time sounded great as it meant we didn’t have to carry our bags far, but it did mean we were a long walk from the toilet block at the other end of the campsite.

Our cabin was very basic with a double bed in one room, bunks in another and a tiny kitchen/dining room with fridge, hob, microwave and tv. It had everything we needed - including air conditioning. We were so pleased the campsite had advised us against booking one of the safari tents when we called them to book last month as it was way too hot for one of those!

After cooling off, we set about planning what tours and trips to do. It was quite a rush as it was already late afternoon and we knew that tours would be filling up, so ten minutes later we were back in reception booking to attend the Sounds of Silence Dinner for the evening, and a couple of other tours over the next few days.

We didn’t really feel like going out for a big dinner, but the weather seemed ok despite there being warnings of thunder. The receptionist advised us to get it out of the way as the weather could be unpredictable and if it was cancelled at the last minute we’d still have a couple of more nights to give it a go. It seemed sensible (and proved to be the best decision we ever made as the following two nights the weather was rainy and thundery so it was cancelled!)

We ventured over to the shower block together to check out what creepy crawlies might be in there - it was a given seeing as there were no doors on the shower blocks so it was completely open to the desert wildlife.

I had a good look around my shower cubicle and was pleased to see nothing that shouldn’t be there so had a quick cool shower to try to escape the baking heat. Matt on the other hand found a massive spider on the shower curtain in his cubicle just as he was about to get in so decided to get dressed and move to another one.

On the way back from the showers we couldn’t help but look at number of people who’d brought their own tents to the campsite. I don’t know how they could - being in the open air it was unbearable, but inside a tent would be even hotter! I was pleased we’d at least got a cabin to cool off in even though it wasn’t the height of luxury.

The evening was hot. Hotter even than the midday sun at home on a hot day. Apparently the temperature had reached 42 degrees during the afternoon but luckily it cooled down a little before the coach picked us up for the dinner.

We were dropped off at a remote spot, and as our host for the evening walked us over the brow of the hill we saw waiters with trays of champagne waiting so that we could have a drink while watching the sun set over Uluru.

There was man playing didgeridoo, a table bar serving other drinks, and waiting staff circulating with canapés - all of which involved either kangaroo or crocodile.

Everyone gathered around taking photos as the sun cast shadows across the rock. I can’t explain how it felt to be in the middle of the desert drinking champagne and looking at the vibrant red of the sand, all I can say is that it felt right to be there. I was so pleased we’d decided to take a few days in the centre before heading to the west coast as Uluru was like nothing I’d ever seen before.

I was slowly melting in the evening heat so it was a relief when the sun finally deserted us and it‘s final shadows blanked out the landscape.

Our host told us that the tables were ready so we ambled along a small dirt track in the direction he‘d pointed. As we crossed the brow of a gentle hill we saw banks of round tables laid out with white linen and large hurricane lamps. It was the most beautiful restaurant I’d ever seen.

We sat on a table and got a view facing the ever fading Uluru as it felt wrong to turn our backs on it.

We were joined by a couple of ladies from Canada and Sydney, and a couple from Japan on their honeymoon who could speak very little English.

Our starter was pumpkin soup, which seems to have become a staple for us while travelling, followed by a buffet. The buffet was enormous and as we didn’t know what foods were coming up we kept putting spoonfuls of everything on our plates until the pile was ready to topple over! There were salads, potatoes, kangaroo kebabs, crocodile Caesar salad, sausages, lamb chops, barramundi and lots more.

When it came to eating we suddenly realised how dark it was with just one candle to light up a whole table. It was difficult to know what we were eating but as our wine glasses kept being dutifully refilled every few minutes we didn‘t care.

After our meal the waiters blew out the candles. Within minutes, more stars than we could have ever imagined started to appear above us. I found myself welling up with terars as I’d never seen or experienced a sight like it before.

Our host welcomed a star gazing expert to us and he spent the next twenty minutes talking us through the Australian night sky using a pointer light to highlight galaxies and well known constellations. We loved every minute of it - especially when he tried to explain in real terms what the distances and sizes meant, it took us back to the amazing Bill Bryson book that we’d read at the start of the trip about the history of the universe.

When he had finished his talk he invited us to come and have a look though some telescopes after we‘d had dessert.

Pudding was even more delicious - we put slices of different cakes on our plates, thinking that was it, only to discover more around the corner. We must have ended up with a least five different desserts with white chocolate sauce, crème anglais and all sorts of goodies, all served with port and coffee.

We munched our way through as much as we could and then went to look at the astronomy displays. They had some light box photos of the moon on show, some pieces of meteorite, and two telescopes - one fixed on the moon and the other on the seven sisters. It was the first time either of us had looked at the sky through a telescope and it was amazing. It felt similar to when we discovered snorkelling - as though a whole new world had opened up to us.

When we were chatting to the astronomer I saw a bright shooting star above his head. Matt didn’t see it but a second later he saw a different one.

Unfortunately the coach was getting ready to leave so we had to say goodbye to the clear night sky and head back to our cabin.

We watched everyone get off at the doorsteps of their hotels with jealousy. For us the coach parked on the road outside the site so we had a trek in the dark to our cabin (luckily we’d brought our torch so could make sure there were no snakes in our path!)

It was still hot even at 11pm so we were pleased we’d left our air conditioning on as the cabin was freeing cold. It was lovely stepping into what felt like an ice box after being so hot all day.

We’d both had a lot of wine to drink so as we were going to sleep we both thanked our lucky stars that we’d chosen to do the afternoon Kata Tjuta tour the following day rather than the sunrise 5am Uluru tour!

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