Due to rescheduling our flights to Uluru and Western Australia beyond, we found ourselves on the red eye from Brisbane to Sydney and waking at 2:40am for a AUD$60 taxi fare to the airport. Our connection in Sydney to the Uluru flight was very short, so we were a little concerned when the flight was delayed for 20 minutes due to a fault. In the end we were 30 minutes late landing in Sydney and had to sprint across to the terminal to get to our flight.

Out of breath at the gate, we were asked where our boarding passes were – we hadn’t received any in Brisbane, but she checked us in anyway. We asked her whether our bags would make it and she simply hurried us on to the plane. Phew, we made it!

On landing we found that, as expected, our bags had not made it between planes – we were assured they would be on the next flight and delivered to the hotel. We had immediately rushed to the Hertz car hire desk and picked up a very nice, very reasonably priced car – it works out so much cheaper and so much easier to hire a car than worry about the expensive tourist bus to and from Uluru.

Ultimately the lack of bags worked out very nicely with no need to check in, we simply drove a fellow bag-less passenger from Brisbane down to the resort (where she worked as a waitress) and then headed straight for Kata Tjuta, a rock formation some 50km west of Uluru.

We drove to the ‘Valley of the Winds’ walk and walked the first few hundred metres. The heat was intense (around 39 degrees Celsius) and the flies were numerous, so we were almost relieved when the rest of the track was closed due to the extreme temperatures. We then did the neighbouring gorge walk and returned to the car sweating and red faced.

On returning to the hotel, we found our bags had arrived and checked into our room in the Outback Pioneer Hotel. For AUD$170 the room was beyond basic, but as there are few options – and all in the same resort – there is little choice.

It was at this point that, while munching into a delicious bag of natural flavoured gummy sweets, I managed to pop out a filling – ouch! Laura saved the day by applying a filling of Dentex – thank goodness she was so well prepared, especially as we were booked to eat out that night at the Sounds Of Silence tour.

Shattered from our early morning start, we grabbed a tiny one hour of sleep before being picked up by a coach at 6pm for the tour. The site of the Sounds of Silence was actually some distance from both Uluru and Kata Tjutu and provided a good observation point for neither. This was a bit disappointing as we only had one chance to watch the sun set over the rock.

We were provided with a nice sparkling wine and orange juice and a few canapés were passed around – salmon, crocodile and feta, kangaroo steak and mustard. These were ok, but not particularly tasty or well cooked. We then all watched the sun set over Kata Tjuta before being led down to the dining area.

The tables sat about 10 people and we found ourselves with two English couples and a Scottish family from Dundee and their daughter who was travelling Australia. This was the highlight of the experience – lovely people and very interesting conversation, although as usual one fellow was a bit of an English boor. I wonder if that person is ever me?

The starter was a nice red pepper soup, accompanied by red or white wine. The main course was a buffet (served in the dark as they were having elecrical issues) that included: salads, crocodile Caesar salad, lamb sausages, kangaroo, chicken on a skewer (undercooked), beef caserole and very undercooked potatoes. Dessert was a buffet of brownies, bread and butter pudding, apple and wattle seed slice, fresh fruit and sauces. This was then followed by coffee, tea and port.

For something sold as a gourmet dining experience (and priced to match), the food itself was almost uniformly underwhelming and I certainly wouldn’t be able to recommend this as an eating experience. However, the astronomy talk then commenced and the view of the stars was completely awe inspiring, with the band of the milky way in plain view. The astronomer proceeded to point out the likes of Mars, Saturn and Orion before ushering us over to a telescope to view the rings of Saturn.

Some time later we all got back on the bus and headed back to the resort.