With the alarms set at 4.40, it was another very early start! We quickly showered and dressed and left to catch the 5.20 bus. 

At 6.10 we arrived at the sunrise viewing platform with the sun due to make an appearance at 6.53. It wasn’t long until the first rays appeared on the horizon at first vivid red before going orange and then yellow. By the way it was freezing, probably around 11 degrees.

The sun finally hit the rock just before 7. We were then back on the coach to get up close to the 348 metre high sandstone monolith.

We chose to get off at the Mututjulu Waterhole and we started to walk anticlockwise around the base. It was now 7.20 and it was still a little chilly.

The rock was definitely impressive and up close when taking photos you could now only get segments of it, in a few places you were close enough to touch it, others you were walking quite a few metres away.

We had grabbed some cheese and bacon topped rolls from the supermarket yesterday so we had those as we walked for breakfast. 

By 8, you could start to feel the heat coming through from the sun. By 9 we had to put the sun cream on. A little later the flies were becoming a real problem and we had to put the fly nets on. We then came to a huge sacred section that we were not allowed to photograph nor walk anywhere near.

Up until 2019 you were able to climb the 800 metre very steep ascent by use of a chain rail to the top which generally took an hour. It looked absolutely horrendous and there had been 37 deaths. Even if it had been open today I’m not sure we would have attempted it.

There were a couple of extra little walks you could do, along a gorge, by a rock cave and another waterhole. The final distance we had clocked up the whole way round the base was 8 miles. 

We got back to the starting point around 11 and we then had an hour to wait for the bus to take us back. Luckily there was some shade so we had a well deserved rest and ate some crisps, the temperature now hot, around 26. 

Once back at our hotel room we had a beer on our patio and then decided to have a little nap before showering and dressing up for dinner.

Tonight’s excursion The Field of Lights dinner. We were collected at 5.30 for the short drive to the site.

First we were welcomed with drinks and canapies whilst watching the sun go down and the colours changing on Uluru. There were still loads of flies about but it’s hard to eat and drink with a flynet on!

We then headed to the tables still in the open air, there was just 8 of us on our table, 2 from Canada, 2 from USA, 2 from Brisbane (originally UK) and us. It was pleasantly warm with the moon shining bright and we had live music from a didgeridoo player.

The wine and beer flowed freely all night. For starters we had gazpacho, main course a fabulous buffet of salads, potatos, veg as well as barramundi, chicken, lamb and kangaroo. Of course we tried it all and all the meat was fantastic. By now it was pitch black and we only had the table lamps for light. 

Dessert was a selection of cakes of which Dave tried most of them. 

Next was an interesting talk by Harry on the stars and planets. They turned all the lights out now so it was just all by moonlight. With hardly any clouds he pointed out constellations such as Orions Belt, Canis Major (headless dog) and the Southern Cross with this amazing torch beam. 

The final part of the evening was the field of lights. Basically 50,000 lights installed over an area the size of 7 football pitches which changed colour. We were able to then spend some time walking through them.

The coach collected up just before 10 and dropped us off at the hotel, having done 30,000 steps we went straight to bed.