Out of all of our
plans for the trip, we were looking forward to our Sounds of Silence dinner the
most. It was a fancy dinner in the
outback, located between Uluru and the Olgas, including sunset canapés and a
dinner under the stars.
We were picked up by
bus from our campground, and then went to all of the other hotels to pick up
the rest of the group. When we arrived
at the site (only 5 minutes down the road), we were herded out to this small patio
and served sparkling wine and yummy snacks.
During that time there was a man playing the digiridoo, and everyone was
taking pictures of the setting sun. We
were a but disappointed because this part was very touristy and annoying, but
we made the best of it and enjoyed our wine and music.
Next we were called
to the dining area where we were seated in tables of 10. At first we were upset because we were hoping
to enjoy the dinner without making small talk, but it turned out to be so much
fun. At our table we had 4 French
Canadians, one Dutch guy, 2 Scots, us, and only one real Australian. I got to practice my French a little bit, and
had some fun with the old Dutch guy sitting next to me. We were definitely the rowdiest table of the
night, and we didn't stop laughing the entire time. Instead of the typical small talk of
"where are you from, what do you do, why are you in Australia…." it
was more about everyone's recent travel adventures.
In amongst the wine
was also a lot of delicious food. This
should be prefaced by saying that Ryan and I have completely changed our diets
and are very strict about what we eat now, but we had decided that this entire
night was a freebie. (Brett, if you're reading this, stop now!) With that in mind, we almost cried when we
ate the white dinner rolls with butter while we were waiting for dinner! Dinner was served buffet style, and I had
some of everything: crocodile caesar salad, kangaroo satay, lamb, barramundi
(fish), etc. Dessert was to die for,
including a deadly brownie and cheesecake combo, carrot cake, bread and butter
pudding, wattleseed crisp, and more. It
was the ultimate in indulgence! Oh, and
then I finished off with another bread roll….
After dinner and
dessert they turned off all of the lights/candles and a guy did a star talk,
pointing out different constellations and telling Australian astrology
stories. They had a telescope set up as
well, so later we went and looked at Mars and even saw the rings around
Saturn. It was the perfect way to end
off a memorable night. In the end, the
experience was more touristy than we were expecting, but it really was amazing.
The bus ride home
was quite rowdy and a bit woozy, but surprisingly camping after that much wine
wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
It must have been the food coma we were in!
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