Day 19 – Ayres Rock Resort

Another gorgeous day.  We were both feeling a lot more stiff and sore than we had anticipated, so we again took things quite easy today.

Although we regularly walk the distance we did yesterday at Uluru and Kata Tjuta, it isn’t usually on gravel, stones and boulders.  If anyone is contemplating the walks, we strongly suggest that you wear good quality hiking boots, preferably with ankle support.  Sneakers or runners just aren’t really good enough for the terrain.

After doing a few chores around Bertha and having lunch in the sun, we caught the shuttle bus to the Desert Gardens Hotel for a look around.

Our actual destination was the Wintjiri Arts & Museum area.  This is a new Indigenous art gallery that exhibits the works of various “Artists in Residence”.  The retail area showcases local indigenous products including weapons, tools, clothing with local designs, quilting material packs, books and souvenirs, and so on.  The most interesting aspect of Wintijiri however is the information about the local area, history, inhabitants, wildlife, and so on.  There were a number of displays of native flora, fauna and bugs with taxidermy specimens, which was fascinating.  Unfortunately photographs are prohibited.

From Wintijiri we walked through the resort to the Town Centre and did some shopping at the IGA supermarket before catching the shuttle bus back to the Campground.

Wintjiri Arts & Museum

Before long it was time to get changed as we were excited to be going to the “Field of Light” art installation at Uluru.  This was one of our “Bucket List” must-do items.

Field of Light information booklet

The tour bus collected us near the Campground entrance 30 minutes before sunset and took us to a “secret location”.  After a short walk to the crest of a sand hill, we were greeted with formally attired waiters and waitresses who served us champagne and a variety of canapes with distinctly outback flavours, including beetroot, crocodile, prawns and kangaroo.

Enjoying the Field of Light

Field of Light – Early

From our vantage point overlooking Uluru, as the sky darkened we could see lights coming on along pathways, and then a huge area lit up in different colours.  The “Field of Light” is an art piece by UK artist Bruce Munro who has done 17 of these mass installations across the globe.  This is the first to be solar powered and the biggest installation to date.  There are 50,000 individual blown glass globes, covering 49,000 square metres.  The globes, which are on different height stalks, are connected by 380 kilometres of fibre optic cable to 36 portable solar panels.  The artist, Bruce Munro, happened to be at Uluru tonight, although we didn’t recognise him in the dark.  We were allowed to wander freely along the paths through the globes for a considerable period of time.

Field of Light

Field of Light

Field of Light

SENSATIONAL !!  That really is the only word to describe it.  My photos totally fail to capture the impact of this place, but hopefully provide some sort of indication as to the experience we felt.  There are a variety of different tours from the resort to see the “Field of Light” including a full gourmet dinner.

If you are coming to Uluru in the next 12 months or so, do yourself a favour and make sure to visit the “Field of Light”.

Eventually the bus collected us and dropped us off at the Campground where we happily walked back to Bertha and settled in to watch Q&A on TV.

Very happy campers today!