Months ago, when we booked our camp sites at Ayers Rock Campground, we’d also booked for a special night out at The Field of Light Dinner. This combines the Sounds of Silence Dinner with the Field of Light Experience. We were quite excited by the thought of this night out.

Rich and I put on our glad rags and set off to the Campground Bus Stop to wait for our ride. When we arrived at the bus stop there were already a few people waiting for various tours.

Each night, every day of the year, multiple dinners are held out in the desert under the night sky. We found out there is the Field of Light Dinner site, two Sounds of Silence dinner sites and one site for the extra special, top of the range, fine-dining experience called Tali Wiru.

You can also book just to visit the Field of Light and this is what Katie and the kids were doing. They planned to go to the Outback Pioneer Pub for an early dinner before meeting their bus for the ride out to the Field of Light. We hoped we’d catch up with them there.

There were two big coaches that collected all booked for the Field of Light Dinner and we were driven out into the desert, across sand dunes to be dropped off at the base of one dune. A pathway led to the top and along the crest of the dune to a lookout where staff were waiting to serve us drinks and delicious canapés. The canapés included things like a crocodile quiche, small bite-sized pieces of kangaroo served on crusty bread, scrumptious little caramelised onion tartlets, a prawn bite and another tartlet with sweet potato cream. Bubbles, red and white wine were available and soft drink for the no-alcohol guests.

We did have a bit of a laugh when we discovered the wine being served was De Bortoli’s. We travel all this way to be served wine from home.

The staff were very attentive and passed by frequently with platters and to top up your drinks. The flat area had a great view out towards Uluru and we stayed up on top of the dune until the sun set.

We were then led down the hill to our dining site. This was amazing. Large round tables set with white tablecloths under the stars on the red desert sand. Along one side was a large buffet and delicious smells were wafting from there as we sat down for dinner.

We sat a table with a couple from Sydney that we’d met at the top of the dune, three young ladies also from Sydney and a young couple from Italy who were on their honeymoon in Australia. Everyone was great company.

Our lovely waiter introduced himself as Amos and he would be looking after our table all evening. The first course was served to the table and consisted of a native tomato soup. It was spicy and delicious.

Second course was from the buffet and we were invited up table by table. There were 4-5 salads, grilled barramundi, kangaroo in dukkah, a chicken dish and lamb cutlets as well as a couple of vegetable dishes. All dishes had a bush tucker theme using native ingredients.

The variety of food mean there was something for all tastes. I had the barramundi and kangaroo with lots of veggies and it was all very tasty.

Dessert was buffet again and tables were called up in the reverse order to help themselves to a wide selection of desserts. Tea and coffee was also available.

During dinner we had the haunting sound of a didgeroo playing. This really added to the atmosphere of the occasion.

Following dinner the resident star talker discussed the southern night sky. He used his laser to locate the Southern Cross, the signs of the zodiac, the Milky Way, as well as any planets that were visible. Unfortunately for us we had a super moon and the sky was so bight that not many stars were visible. Still, we could easily see Saturn.

I was fascinated to learn the the light from Beta Centauri takes 400 years to reach us on earth. The light you see when you look up at that star left sometime in the 1600’s. Isn’t that amazing!!!

Amos was a most attentive waiter and ensured that our wines and water were topped up regularly.

By the time dinner was over it was 9.30pm and we had 45 minutes to set off down the hill to explore the Field of Light art installation. As the sun went down we could see the lights begin to light up and gradually they became brighter and brighter.

The Field of Light is an art installation that was created by British artist Bruce Munro. It was meant to be on display for six months however, due to it’s popularity, it is still going.

There are over 50,000 lights in their frosted glass spheres that sway gently on their stems in the colours of the desert, red, ochre, deep blue and white. The area covers the size of four football fields.

Over 15 tonnes of solar powered lights were transported 19,000 miles via 32 international and domestic flights to the middle of Australia.

The Field of Light has been entrancing visitors since 2016 and will do for some time to come.

45 minutes was just enough time to walk through the magical field of coloured lights.

The evening was definitely a highlight of our visit to Yulara.

We arrived back at camp to find all the lights out next door. They must have all been asleep. We found out the next morning they’d had a lovely dinner at the pub and also enjoyed their walk through the Field of Light.