It was another early morning start in the freezing cold for us today. The bus collected us from the hotel at 5.30 and we headed out to the Field of Lights. The Field of Lights is an installation of 50,000 lights on the foothills of Uluru by British artist Bruce Munro.  It is an incredible display and we had access to different vantage points. From the top of a sand dune you got the perspective of the scale of the installation and it’s changing colours. From ground level you could walk through the maze of lights and get an insight into the complexity of the installation.

The sand dune viewing area also provided the perfect vantage point to see the sun rise over the horizon and the changing colours of Uluru. The Field of Lights faded as the sun rose and the sky went from deep, dark red to orange to yellow and blue in a matter of minutes.

We rented a car and headed out to the Kata-Tjuta national park to walk around the base of Uluru. It is hard to describe the sheer size of the rock and pictures don’t do it justice. The total circumference at the bottom is nearly 10kms and the rock is over 400mts high. From a distance it looks like one sheer rock, however from close up you can see different parts to it with lots of erosion and degradation over time. We found a little watering hole with rock art as well as saw the footprints where the rock climb used to be. There are aboriginal legends about the existence of the rock as well as it’s erosion which is depicted all around. As we had headed out late we only walked halfway around the base and intend to go back in a couple of days to complete the walk.

We had dinner at a restaurant called Ilkari in the resort which had a buffet that catered to everyone. The boys enjoyed the wild buffalo, kangaroo and oysters while the little ones were enthralled by the chocolate fountain. We don’t have an early start tomorrow so everyone can sleep in.