A friend and I decided to drive to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) from Melbourne when we were living in Australia back in 2000. Feelings of isolation and solitude were so prominent during our travels through the outback, it was surreal. We could drive for an hour without even passing a single car, and when we did, we always received a big wave. There was a certain camaraderie when driving those lonely highways that people felt the need to acknowledge each other. I liked it.

The outback was so amazing, so different than the landscape of our native, Canada. The brilliant red hues, the aridness, the scorching heat, the flatness...all so beautiful. We stopped often to capture a moment, to document our path. At one point, we passed a sanctuary of white cockatiels on the side of the road. Here was a bird that we normally see in a cage and there were 20 to 30 of them. It was breathtaking. We even saw a flock of galahs flying together in a v-shape reminiscent to the Snowbirds of the Canadian Air Force.

It wasn't advised to drive at night for the kangaroos did most of their moving at dawn/dusk, so we stopped one night in a place called Marla, population 150. The choices for stopping were few and far between on this journey, so we were just glad to have a bed for the night. We had experienced an unbelievable sunset the evening before in Cooberpedy, but this particular night there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

We ventured out, cameras in tow, a few kilometres up the road to experience what would be one of the most incredible sunsets I have ever witnessed. I can't really begin to describe the mood but I will try. Silence. Complete and utter silence. It was July, so it was winter and it cooled off quickly once the sun dipped. So it was chilly. Often when the sun sets without a cloud to absorb it's light, it's less than spectacular. Tonight, it was magic. We could turn 360 degrees and see nothing but these incredible opaque hues. As the sun was setting in front of us, the sky behind was turning this iridescent pink and the moon was a mere crescent, so the stars were even more prominent in the sky. As the sun fell, the sky began turning these incredibly dreamlike colours. I hadn’t experienced big sky like that since I drove through Canada’s prairie provinces. All good.

This photo was taken hand held on my pentax SLR and when I received my photos back, I was in awe of its beauty and appeal. The moon had this embryo-like shape to it, hence the name of this image.

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