Uluru (Ayer’s Rock)

When you’re traveling, you have to be ready for bumps in the road. And we experienced a couple this morning. We had a 5:30 a.m. pick up for a flight from Cairns to Uluru scheduled to leave at 7:50 a.m. The first hiccough was when the car prearranged to take us to the airport didn’t show up, so we took an Uber. All good.

As we’re en route in the Uber, I pull up my boarding pass for our Qantas flight from my mobile wallet and notice that the boarding time for the flight is now 10:30 a.m. not 7:30 a.m. and my seat has changed! Puzzled, Brad pulled up his boarding pass, which has the original boarding time of 7:30 a.m. and the original seat. While he was looking at it, the boarding pass transformed to the 10:30 boarding and a different seat?!? We were in awe. Sure enough when we arrived at the airport, it turned out that the flight had been delayed because of a mechanical issue and was now scheduled for 10:50 not 7:50 a.m. Qantas gave us each a $20 breakfast voucher and we sat around the airport until it was time to go. The flight to Uluru is about 2 1/2 hours and it was quite routine.

We knew that we were heading to the outback and to the hottest area of Australia. When we landed, it was 41 degrees Celsius. Thankfully, it’s dry heat. The hotel is part of a large resort complex with everything from a grocery store to a post office. Our room wasn’t quite ready so we went and explored the property.

Given we’d been up since 5 a.m. we rested in the afternoon in anticipation of our sunset visit to Uluru for dinner and a light/drone show that tells an aboriginal story ( https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/discover/cu… ). Uluru is a sacred site and it is seen as a resting place for ancient spirits, giving it religious stature. The show was developed with the aboriginal Anangu Working Group and photography is prohibited. It’s an incredible experience that’s beyond description.Read more