Today was a travel heavy day as we made our way down from Darwin to our last and final stop of the Contiki tour- Uluru. We flew from Darwin to Alice Springs from where we took a 5 hour bus ride to Uluru. We had reached the outback of Australia and it was hot and arid with temperatures in the 100s. The only thing that grew were some desert shrubs. It was a harsh territory to live on and therefore not many people lived here at all. There is one singular road known as the Stuart Highway that connects North to South that we were on for most of the way. Then, we turned onto the Lasseter Highway which connects Northern Australia to Western Australia. The Lasseter Highway is so long and after Uluru there is a stretch that takes 7 days to cover and is known as the Truck Graveyard as you have to be able to last that stretch without any services including gas. It was a hard no for me.
On the way to Uluru we stopped at a service stop in Ghan where they had emus that we could feed. Emus look similar to ostriches but are not as tall. The emus are endemic to Australia and inhabit the outback territory and have a reputation for being pests. In the 1940s Australia had such a big problem with the Emus, they went to war with them. Following the world wars, there was a movement to move out of cities and into the countryside. These farmers set up their farms with a loose fence around it. Soon enough, the wild emu’s came and attacked the crops. The farmers desperately called up on the government to help and appealed to the department of defense. The government sent in the Australian military to shoot the birds. The first attempt to kill the birds was a disaster as once they opened fire, the birds scattered everywhere. They had a success ratio of 1000 to 1 which is not successful at all. The second time the military was sent in was just as bad as well and then they gave up. It was known as the time Australia went to war with the emus.
The emu’s are still wild and at this rest stop, there was an enclosure with about a dozen emus. They look a little terrifying and very ugly. When you put the food in your hand they come and immediately peck at it a little too aggressively. The first time I did it the birds scared me the way they quickly pecked at my hand. After a little I learned that feeding them one at a time was much better. They were fun to feed and we managed to occupy our time at the rest stop quite well.
We arrived in Uluru in the afternoon just in time for a swim at the hostel before our group dinner. Uluru is known as the Red Center of Australia and is most known for the red rock called Uluru. The small resort town is known as Yalara and it is very tiny with just one grocery store, one medical facility, etc.
I had to catch the Uluru sunset with the light on the rock so in the evening I headed up to the lookout point. The rock was much further out than expected but I was still able to catch the glow of the evening.
Once sunset fell, we were picked up for a special night time activity called Field of Lights. Field of Lights is an acclaimed art installation done by Bruce Munro. It was originally created in 2011 as a 6 month temporary exhibition, but people have loved it so much it is still running. The exhibition consists of 50,000 solar powered lights that are placed over a 49 square kilometer area. Every couple seconds they change colors between the colors of the rainbow.
The lights in the exhibition are not too bright so you can have both the dimly light colors and the beautiful starry sky above! The Australian outback has the most amazing display of stars! I had never seen so many stars in my life. I was also super excited to finally be able to utilize the Pixel night sight mode to capture the starry night with the lights below. It was such a stunning sight to be able to see both at once! It was so dark you could even see the Milky Way.
I was entranced by the stars more than the lights themselves but it definitely enhanced the whole experience. Everyone was competing for who could take the best photos of the night sky. The lights zig zagged across the ground in wavy formations with little bulbs on the top. It felt like a very dreamy magical experience. We spent as much time as we could wandering the fairytale fields.
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