My God, it's full of stars

The Milky Way, Ayers Rock, Northern Territory

Today has been a bit of a blur. Perhaps it was the 3:30 wake up or the five hours flying to and fro across the country or maybe even that little 1/2 hour time difference but the day just seemed to whizz by. I think to be honest, the driving has tired me out a little more than I expected but I've got a good weeks break from that now. The first 3 days of that will be spent in Northern Territory at the Red Centre, taking in the sights of Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon.

The flights were pretty uneventful, although I was slumming the 3 hours flight to Ayers Rock in an A320. Up to now, all my flights have been on larger aircraft and after the relative luxurious space on the other flights you really did feel a bit cramped on the smaller aircraft.

As we flew away from the coast and across the great dividing range, the rich greens of the east coast (I had to fly from Melbourne to Sydney before connecting to Ayers Rock) were replaced by the pale orangey red and greens of the bush. From the air, while that red soil is prominent it doesn't dominate like you'd expect. Vast areas of green cut through it like a patchwork of pastel fields. Dotted through the landscape are the darker canopies of the trees. It's only as the get closer to the ground that you realise that the green "fields" aren't solid but rather clumps of grass grouped together. Approaching the airport, we caught our first glimpse of Uluru from the air. It totally dominated the flat landscape and even at the height we passed over, you could clearly see the markings and results of erosion on the massive rock. It was impressive indeed.

Checking in at the hotel, I discover I'm put up in room 918. This lot have me pegged from the get go. Not only am I in the six room block furthest from the centre of the resort, but I'm in the room on the furthest corner. Heh, I'm literally 10 feet away from the edge of the wilderness. Obviously my reputation for hard core partying has reached even this far and they want to discourage it in any way possible! ;-)

I had a couple of minor calamities on unpacking the essentials. Firstly, the sun tan lotion which I forgot I wouldn't be able to put in my hand luggage because of the volume had just been stashed in my outside pocket and had obviously received some rough handling somewhere along the line. Fortunately it had been wrapped in my pj's which were also in there - look, people aren't supposed to go raking in other folks luggage, so you're going to take a chance if you go in mine (actually, for some reason I had a great deal of trouble closing up my luggage again and it wasn't getting opened for that at 4am in the morning). The second came as I took my toiletry bag out. One of the bottles had been busted there too, it's contents spread through everything. Grrrr... So instead of settling in and relaxing for a while, I had a nice wee cleaning job to do! Before long, it was time to head along to the first of my tours, the Uluru sunset and BBQ.

Having seen it from the air earlier, Uluru was no less impressive from ground level. The sunset viewing area is still pretty far away from it, so you were able to take in the spectacle that was sunset on the rock. From the vantage point you were also able to see Kata Tjuta 50km distant. As the sun fell on the day, at least on this part of the world, you could see the famous colour changes. It was amazing to watch the darkness fall on the rock and for it to lose its bright red daylight appearance. More so, as the light faded, it was replaced by the most wonderful bands of purple and orange along the horizon that framed the ever darkening rock beautifully. I really hope that the camera was able to pick up some of this because it really was gorgeous. My only regret was that we weren't allowed to hang about longer. I could have stayed all night watching as the stars took over the sky, and what a night sky it was, but more on that later.

The BBQ was great. Since I'd been in the air most of the day I'd only managed to grab a choccy bar in the afternoon to add to the breakfast served on the flight from Melbourne to Sydney. I was ready for my scran and I wasn't disappointed. You waited for your steak to be prepared to your liking. I'm normally a well done man, but when people were coming back saying their rare and medium rare weren't as rare as they expected, I decided to drop a couple of grades and went for a medium. I was starving! ;-) Added to the steak you had a choice of lamb sausages, garlic prawns, kangaroo fillet and chicken skewers. There was also a salad bar set up somewhere... Heh, I did have a little potato and some greens, properly proportioned to the slabs of meat of course! :-) A second helping of kangaroo and chicken was required as I knew it would get a little cooler later on and I'd need the extra energy to stay warm. Desert followed. A lovely slice of leamington. A delicious end to a fantastic open air meal. Mmmmm....

Once dinner was over, a wee stargazing followed as we were introduced to the southern sky. I'd never seen the sky so clearly in my life. It was just an absolutely stunning sight to see the Milky Way stretch wide and long over your head. It was one of the most beautiful sights I'd seen in my life. In addition to the sights, some of the traditional aboriginal stories associated with the stars were also passed our way.

Unfortunately there was no time for photography as we headed back to the resort. It was only a little after 8pm though so I decided to head out and see what I could see from the edge of the wilderness. The lights from the edge of the resort weren't bright, but enough to light the foreground enough to bring out the trees and bushes in the images as a great offset to the band of the Milky Way and I had great fun experimenting. It was the perfect end to the day.