Day 26: Ayer’s Rock
We headed to the airport this morning for our flight to Ayer’s Rock, which is in the middle of the country, in what is known as the Australian Outback. Basically, the middle of nowhere. We are here to visit Uluru, a huge monolith that juts out of the earth in the middle of vast flatlands as far as the eye can see. There are other such mountains in the area, including Kata Tjuta, but they are very few and far between, and we can understand why the Anangu (pronounced Ananu) people of the region consider the monolith, Uluru, and the nearby Kata Tjuta (meaning “many heads”) range to be very sacred and of considerable spiritual significance. They really do come out of nowhere and are truly impressive!
The flight was smooth, and as we approached the airport from above, we saw the massive monolith standing in the middle of nothing. It was awe-inspiring. We landed, grabbed the shuttle to the resort complex (where all of the hotels are owned by the same company – talk about a monopoly!), and checked in to our room. At the reception desk, we met a sweet Dutch girl who caught us off-guard because she was wearing a mangal sutra (traditional necklace won by married women in India). We asked her about it and she told us she was married to an Indian guy (go figure, there are Indians everywhere – even in the middle of nowhere!)
So we got to our room and there was a nice bottle of champagne waiting for us (because it’s our honeymoon)! We then started looking at all the things we wanted to do during our visit here, and realized we would definitely need to rent a car. So we rushed to the visitor’s centre and literally got the last car available in town, as people lined up behind us! Yay for good karma! It was expensive but much less so than taking the various tours, so we were happy! After that, we got some groceries for our long day tomorrow, and got ready for our dinner plans – aptly named the “Sounds of Silence”.
The bus picked us up for dinner and took us out to a little setup in the middle of the flatlands, where the sands were a deep burnt orange, the sweet scent of desert flowers took over our senses, and there was nothing but flat land for miles. We watched the sun set over Uluru and Kata Tjuta, with champagne, beer, and various hors d’oeuvres of kangaroo, crocodile, and smoked salmon! Rachna cannot believe she tried it all! We were then seated at our table with two other honeymooning couples from Italy. A musician played the didgeridoo, a very interesting looking and sounding aboriginal instrument. Then, we were served appetizers and wine, as we mingled before dinner. As darkness settled over us, we could see nothing except the vast and mesmerizing night sky full of more stars than either of us could imagine ever seeing. Then, they extinguished all the lights around us and we spent a few moments surrounded by darkness and utter silence – hence our dinner was called the Sounds of Silence.
Before dessert, a star expert came out and spoke about the various stars, constellations, and galaxies out there. He pointed out the Milky Way, which we could see so clearly here, and other constellations like the Southern Cross (none of the constellations that we could see in the northern hemisphere, though!). We learned that there are more visible galaxies than there are grains of sand on earth – how mind-boggling! Another cool thing we learned is that the indigenous people define their constellations, not by “connecting the dots” like us, but by looking at the dark spots in between the stars! So we saw the “emu constellation” in the darkness between the stars. It’s just amazing how different perspectives can see the world in such different ways. But we have to say that probably by far the most amazing thing was looking through the telescope and seeing Saturn, with all its rings!!! It looked like a little black and white drawing, but it was such a spectacular sight to actually see a planet!
After dessert and digestifs, we bid farewell to the stars, climbed onto the bus, and made our way back to the hotel for a nice night’s sleep. Tomorrow is a packed day so we will definitely need our rest tonight!
p.s. Halfway through the night, around 2am, Gaurav heard some tin foil moving in the room. We turned the lights on to find a chocolate egg on the floor with half the tin foil wrapper missing. Needless to say, we were a bit freaked out. We stayed quiet for a bit and then Rachna saw the mouse sneak out from behind the fridge. We quickly called down to reception, who told us that when it gets cold, the mice want to come in! So he switched our room and told us to put a towel in front of our door because since these are desert mice, they are a protected species and cannot be harmed! The bigger mystery here is that the chocolate egg had been in Rachna’s purse… so how did the mouse get it? Perhaps we’ll never know. Perhaps we’ll pretend we don’t know.
We headed to the airport this morning for our flight to Ayer’s Rock, which is in the middle of the country, in what is known as the Australian Outback. Basically, the middle of nowhere. We are here to visit Uluru, a huge monolith that juts out of the earth in the middle of vast flatlands as far as the eye can see. There are other such mountains in the area, including Kata Tjuta, but they are very few and far between, and we can understand why the Anangu (pronounced Ananu) people of the region consider the monolith, Uluru, and the nearby Kata Tjuta (meaning “many heads”) range to be very sacred and of considerable spiritual significance. They really do come out of nowhere and are truly impressive!
The flight was smooth, and as we approached the airport from above, we saw the massive monolith standing in the middle of nothing. It was awe-inspiring. We landed, grabbed the shuttle to the resort complex (where all of the hotels are owned by the same company – talk about a monopoly!), and checked in to our room. At the reception desk, we met a sweet Dutch girl who caught us off-guard because she was wearing a mangal sutra (traditional necklace won by married women in India). We asked her about it and she told us she was married to an Indian guy (go figure, there are Indians everywhere – even in the middle of nowhere!)
So we got to our room and there was a nice bottle of champagne waiting for us (because it’s our honeymoon)! We then started looking at all the things we wanted to do during our visit here, and realized we would definitely need to rent a car. So we rushed to the visitor’s centre and literally got the last car available in town, as people lined up behind us! Yay for good karma! It was expensive but much less so than taking the various tours, so we were happy! After that, we got some groceries for our long day tomorrow, and got ready for our dinner plans – aptly named the “Sounds of Silence”.
The bus picked us up for dinner and took us out to a little setup in the middle of the flatlands, where the sands were a deep burnt orange, the sweet scent of desert flowers took over our senses, and there was nothing but flat land for miles. We watched the sun set over Uluru and Kata Tjuta, with champagne, beer, and various hors d’oeuvres of kangaroo, crocodile, and smoked salmon! Rachna cannot believe she tried it all! We were then seated at our table with two other honeymooning couples from Italy. A musician played the didgeridoo, a very interesting looking and sounding aboriginal instrument. Then, we were served appetizers and wine, as we mingled before dinner. As darkness settled over us, we could see nothing except the vast and mesmerizing night sky full of more stars than either of us could imagine ever seeing. Then, they extinguished all the lights around us and we spent a few moments surrounded by darkness and utter silence – hence our dinner was called the Sounds of Silence.
Before dessert, a star expert came out and spoke about the various stars, constellations, and galaxies out there. He pointed out the Milky Way, which we could see so clearly here, and other constellations like the Southern Cross (none of the constellations that we could see in the northern hemisphere, though!). We learned that there are more visible galaxies than there are grains of sand on earth – how mind-boggling! Another cool thing we learned is that the indigenous people define their constellations, not by “connecting the dots” like us, but by looking at the dark spots in between the stars! So we saw the “emu constellation” in the darkness between the stars. It’s just amazing how different perspectives can see the world in such different ways. But we have to say that probably by far the most amazing thing was looking through the telescope and seeing Saturn, with all its rings!!! It looked like a little black and white drawing, but it was such a spectacular sight to actually see a planet!
After dessert and digestifs, we bid farewell to the stars, climbed onto the bus, and made our way back to the hotel for a nice night’s sleep. Tomorrow is a packed day so we will definitely need our rest tonight!
p.s. Halfway through the night, around 2am, Gaurav heard some tin foil moving in the room. We turned the lights on to find a chocolate egg on the floor with half the tin foil wrapper missing. Needless to say, we were a bit freaked out. We stayed quiet for a bit and then Rachna saw the mouse sneak out from behind the fridge. We quickly called down to reception, who told us that when it gets cold, the mice want to come in! So he switched our room and told us to put a towel in front of our door because since these are desert mice, they are a protected species and cannot be harmed! The bigger mystery here is that the chocolate egg had been in Rachna’s purse… so how did the mouse get it? Perhaps we’ll never know. Perhaps we’ll pretend we don’t know.
The sunset in the Outback
Sounds of Silence dinner
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