Emma’s 40th Birth Day!

Breakfast for ten this morning, Amey, Paul, Evie and Suzanna joined us for pancakes! There was of course also the customary birthday cake with candles to sing around too.  Rohan presented me with a lovely necklace pendant, the stone looks like the desert at night, red orange at the bottom, black sky with just a hint of white at the top for the stars.  Lots of cards and text messages made the morning a little more grounded in reality as being here is almost surreal.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...

Emma, the birthday girl

We got organised and headed out to Kata Juta – the Olgas.  We all met up and walked out to the lookout at the Valley of the Winds, great group photo taken by one of our fellow “base walkers” from the previous day.  Not exactly the right terrain for walking with little girls but collectively we managed just the same. We took Sarah, Matilda, Colleen & John back to Maggie Springs/Waterhole and the east end of Uluru which were the pick of the places to visit from the base walk.  The little waterfall was trickling after yesterday’s rain – sounding lovely and we all had a scramble over the rock at the east end.

The Olgas (a.k.a. Kata Tjuta)

Our motley crew made their way to the Karu lookout in The Valley of the Winds

The girls go for a bit of a walk on Ayers Rock (a.k.a. Uluru)

Family photo at Maggie's Waterhole, one of the many features around Ayers Rock

The girls returned to camp with Colleen & John for lunch and we returned to the Cultural centre on a mission for mouse mats (at $17 we passed) only purchasing aerial photo post card of Uluru and blanket badge.  We purchased mouse mats at the Five Star resort gallery for $10 instead!  Checked out the Information Centre which showed the geological formation of the rocks and named some of the local wildlife.  Returned to camp to “chillax” before we got ready for dinner.

The late afternoon was still warm so two long sleeve layers felt rather roasty, but after two champagnes and the sun hitting the horizon I flung on the pashmina as well and added a coat when we went down to the telescopes.  The canapes were delicious (kangaroo, crocodile and salmon for the less adventurous), we had a few photos of the skyline with Olgas and sunset and met a couple from Canberra (Chris & Susan) who we adopted in order to sit close in the middle surrounded by heaters.  We walked down to the tables and were seated with another two couples, Mary & Lawrence and Susan & Ian from Swansea, Wales.  The food was delicious and the company was excellent and the star talker, Emma, was great, showed us many constellations including the “teapot” (the perfect reminiscence of my tea party), I’ll probably never find it again but it’s up there, kind of opposite the Southern Cross.  The aborigines find “constellations” differently, they are in the blank spaces between the stars, the emu curves out from the Southern Cross.  Wattleseed Apple Crumble was wonderful – mostly for its warmth, it was hard to believe how quickly a BLACK coffee got cold!  The buses pulled up and we were soon toasty warm again on our way home through the dark.

Sunset on my 40th birthday - bubbly in hand with Ayers Rock as the back drop

Watching the sun go down over the Olgas accompanied by the didgeridoo

Dinner under the stars