The Red (hot) Centre

Are you looking at this picture and thinking Ostrich? You'd be wrong - this is the other big flightless bird that you see around these parts (and I don't mean Dame Edna Everage!) This is a very friendly Emu. Good job it's friendly, because unlike a pigeon or sea gull, this chap is a little difficult to frighten off when he gets too close to your sandwich!! Call me old fashioned - but I kept looking for Rod Hull's arm!



This was about 10am and if you click the picture and check, you'll see it was around 105F. By midday it got to 120F in the shade - our guide reckons that this was the hottest place on earth that day!

This is early afternoon in Watarrka (Kings Canyon) National Park, famous for it's sheer 100m high walls. The walk started off with a near vertical climb (affectionately known as 'Heart attack Hill') for about 15 mins then luckily 'levelled' off! We were promised a swim mid-way around the walk so we were well motivated. The next picture is the said 'watering hole' as us Ozzies like to call them. It's called the Garden of Eden and with its tranquil pools let me tell you it is like Eden after walking in temperatures in excess of 45 degrees (in the shade!)

More pictures around the canyons.

Sometime during our trip Elvis must have turned Muslim, because she turned up that morning wearing the veil! That was my theory anyway, although Elvis will tell you it was to keep the very friendly flies at bay.

A picture from the rim of Kings Canyon which overlooks the sheer cliff faces.







This was our campsite! Don't look for any facilities cos there aren't any!. We slept on thick canvas bags called 'swags' and just made a circle around the fire and looked at the stars. The sky is so clear that it is literally full of bright stars everywhere you look. A free cup of tea if you can guess who was in charge of the fire!

This is the next morning and a walk around Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), a bizarre collection of huge rounded rocks. (Just for info Kata Tjuta means 'many heads'). The Olgas may look like Uluru, but they're made of bits of rock that's bonded together in a kind of natural cement, where as Uluru is made from a single piece of rock. This picture was taken towards the end of a challenging walk, given the heat and the swarms of flies - all of which want to kiss you on the lips! we deserved a medal at the end! (We settled for salsa dip and crackers!)

This is us in front of the Olgas being sucked up into the air by a strange mystical force of radiation gamma waves thingy that lifts you up in the air. Or perhaps we just jumped. As you can see, Elvis has still got that lamp shade on her head.

Wild ostriches, kangaroos and emus I can believe, but we didn't expect to see wild camels. We also saw some wild horses too, but the worst thing we saw was sheep! Who could be so cruel to bring an animal that has no choice but to wear a woolly coat all day into this heat!



This is the majestic Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) at sunset. It's the largest monolith in the world, 3.6km long and rises a towering 348m and because it is made of a type of sandstone (which is a red/brown colour) when the setting sun hits it, it illuminates the Rock in burnishing orange, then a series of deeper and darker reds in front of your eyes. It is quite amazing, you'll see in the other pictures how it looks a different colour again when the sun is higher - more brown and grey looking. This picture is especially for Christopher and Nicola Elves who visited Uluru a few years ago but unfortunately had bad weather on the day they went to see it at sunset. Nicola asked me to get her a picture of the rock at sunset, so here we are Nicola, we hope this will do!

Uluru they say is one of the most recognisable landmarks of Australia throughout the world. I suppose it's a bit like Penshaw Monument!

This is the Olgas as viewed from Uluru at sunset.

This is the next day - this time first thing in the morning. This is some of our group getting a prime seat for the sunrise on Uluru. That's Elvis there in the middle! We were up at 5:30 am at camp to get here on time - our guide is busy making breakfast!


....and this is how Uluru looks at sunrise - not as impressive as sunset I think, it needs a few little clouds in the sky to help catch the colour of the light!

When you get close to Uluru it is full of holes and caves, like this one here (see picture below - notice also how the colour of the sandstone looks different depending how the light hits it - the part in the background looks almost grey). The Aboriginals have stories that they believe explain all these holes and caves. They call it 'Dreamtime', for instance one of the caves is supposed to be a place where Aboriginal children hid from a giant dog, they waited for their parents to return but unfortunately the giant dog had killed their parents - so they waited in the cave so long they turned to stone. When you look in the cave it has four stone columns inside. Now you may be thinking 'hang on - this dreamtime business sounds like someone has been on the happy baccy'! You wouldn't be wrong, the Aboriginals did chew some leaves from a local bush that had hallucinogenic properties. Nowadays the Aboriginals don't chew the leaves anymore, they drink beer instead! If they're not careful they'll have no time for 'dreamtime' they'll be too busy playing bingo and dominoes!

This is the cave with the stone columns inside.

If you wanted to upset the Aboriginal people you can climb the rock. The Aboriginal people hold Uluru as a major part of their heritage and as such no one should walk on it or take fragments from it - but as you see from the picture, plenty of people have climbed it as you can see the beaten track up to the summit of the rock. If you click on the picture you can see the handrails leading up. Most people don't climb the rock out of respect to the Aboriginal beliefs, however, our guide reckons visitors from a certain nationality often climb the rock. A free cup of tea if you can name that country! To save any embarrassment I'll give you a clue - this time it's not the British!

This is our group - another mixed bunch! We have Germans, English, Irish, Scottish, Australian, American, Hong Kong and Korean. That's Leith (the guide) sitting dead centre - just about to be kicked by the Korean girl. Leith was a real star, in fact he and I got on really well, Keith and Leith - it was destiny really with names like that!!

Here's Leith and I having a few Vitamin B's after the trip. Shortly after this picture I collapsed into bed (you can tell by my face I have about 30 seconds left) while Leith and the others went in search for a night club! I blamed the heat but they reckon that age might have something to do with it too!



This is Duncan, Kate and Elvis. Duncan and Kate are from England - when they're not somewhere else in the world! They've been to some of the places we're going to next so they helped us put some plans together for that (when I say 'helped us' I mean Elvis - I was gone after a few drinks!). With a bit luck we might meet Duncan and Kate in Malaysia - fingers crossed!

This is 30,000 feet up looking down on the salt lakes that we passed in the Ghan train.

You can also see where the farmers are starting to be able to grow crops.

More salt lakes and then an unexpected look at the wondrous Uluru for the last time.

The plane is heading to Perth - but that's the subject of another blog!!!!

Ps Well done Christopher, Nicola and Samuel - first to comment on the blog and although everyone is dissing your efforts we can confirm there was NO tipping off this time! A cup of tea, pot of tea and a canteen of cutlery to Shirley who got the Ghan question right - we loved the use of Ghan in the local dialect too. We like your comments Shirley, if only those other rude people would take heed!

Happy Birthday to Pamela Hodgson (aka Windy Miller) and Andy Reekie (pioneer of tomato based sun defence products). Have a great day you two.

Special hello to Boiled Ham (Phil Armstrong) - thanks for your e-mail, you can make comments if you like but don't follow the lead of the 'cheeky ones'.