Our weekend at Longitude 131 was simply stunning, everything was perfect. Uluru itself is spellbinding. EVERYONE should go there and experience this place. They say a picture says a thousand words - however as I just learnt, it may tell only part of the story. To fill in the missing lines, you need to be a part of the story itself...
The day was approaching fast when my partner and I braced ourselves to celebrate the fact that we had survived together for 10 years. Deciding that this anniversary was a special one, and a dinner at a fancy restaurant would not suffice, we decided to head out to the Territory. I wanted to show Trev the always spectacular Uluru as I have been telling him for years just how special Uluru is. I decided to make the trip that extra bit special, I booked us at Longitude 131.
If you haven't been to
Uluru, there are a few choices of accommodation. You can stay in
Ayers Rock Resort, which has 5 hotels and the campgrounds OR you can really live it up and stay at Longitude 131, which is 5 star all the way (AND eco friendly!)
It's quite exclusive, there are only 15 "tents", each with an uninterrupted view over
Uluru and it's located up a secret road so no one can simply wander in.
So we arrived and were welcomed by sparkling wine and given details of our itinerary for the next few days (the beauty of this place is that the price includes your room, touring and all meals and drinks). We had arrived early evening, as we had driven out from
Alice Springs, so went straight to our room to freshen up and go straight to dinner. What a surprise when we got there to find a special congratulations card for our anniversary and a lovely bottle of French champagne!
The next morning we got up at 530am and were taken on our sunrise tour. The tour was a walk around the base of
Uluru with a guide explaining many of the cultural stories. To watch the sky transform from night to day was simply stunning. The photos don't give it justice... There's nothing like it..the clouds looked like they were on fire at times and the colours are so vibrant. As the first sun rays hit
Uluru, the Rock turns a vivid red. This is spectacular to see, but the thing that I won't ever forget is that, due some recent rain and a sky still filled with rain laden clouds, just as the sun hit
Uluru it also created a full rainbow. I was practically speechless at the beauty.
We headed to the Cultural Centre where the Longitude staff were waiting for us with a big breakfast with bagels filled with smoked salmon, ham & cheese croissants, homemade damper and banana bread. After breakfast we went to the Mutujulu Waterhole before heading back to Longitude. After that Trev and I sat in our room, had a few beers and simply looked at the view. It's hard to describe, that no matter how many photos I've seen, there are no words to describe the almost spiritual feeling to the place. We were talking about how you just can't stop looking at
Uluru - it's like you're eyes automatically seek it out.
That afternoon we went back to the Cultural Centre for the Dot Painting Workshop. Where we learnt Dot Painting and we together, created paintings that told our story and commemorated our anniversary.
We headed back to Longitude to then freshen up for pre dinner drinks. We were due to have Table 131, which is dining under the stars, but as we left our tent it started to pour with rain. So the dinner got moved back inside, though the pre dinner drinks still ended up being at the look out as the rain suddenly stopped. After dinner we had a star talk and you get to look through a telescope (lucky the sky had cleared up). As the land is so flat, the sky seems never ending and there are millions upon millions of stars. I saw craters on the moon, the moons of Jupiter and a nebula.
The next morning we headed to Kata Tjuta which is otherwise known as The Olgas. We went into Walpa Gorge. Walpa means windy in the traditional language and it was soooo very windy and that wind...was freezing. I would have liked to do the Valley of the Winds walk, but we had to head back to Longitude to pack/check out/have lunch and then go to the airport.
I have to say this weekend was simply stunning. Everything was perfect. Longitude is an amazing place. The service, the food, the touring and of course the fabulous room just made our anniversary weekend so very memorable.
Uluru itself is spellbinding. EVERYONE should go there and experience this place. They say a picture says a thousand words - however as I just learnt, it may tell only part of the story. To fill in the missing lines, you need to be a part of the story itself.
Do you have any holiday ideas for visitors travelling to
Uluru? Comment below and share your Northern Territory holiday ideas!