Getting warmer....

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November 5

Flight to Uluru

What a day.  Getting to Australia is a long trip, but once on the flight there was nothing to do for the next day while we winged our way to the other side of the planet.  It’s a fair exchange.   I actually don’t mind the journey – I think of our ancestors for whom travel was much more of an ordeal.  We’re so lucky that we live in a time when we can be in Toronto one day, and Sydney the next (although it’s actually 2 days later with the time difference!).

However, today we woke in Sydney and spent the evening watching the sunset at Uluru – was a very busy day.  Hauling bags, getting on a plane, getting on a bus, getting to a hotel, getting back on a bus, touring around to check out the environs, etc. 

Clouds, thunderstorms and turbulence on the way to Uluru – wasn’t expecting that!  The last time I was here many years ago it was just a hot desert.  Now, there was green everywhere.  Stepping off the plane onto the tarmac is fun – I miss doing that.  As we stepped out we were greeted with the blast of hot air.  Ahhhhhhh – I was in heaven.  The cold dreary Toronto weather of late and my illness had me craving heat.

http://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/desert/

Your shoes will get stained red – this omnipresent colour is at the moment punctuated with green, yellow and black from all of the rain.   The green grasses that follow the rain, the Mowbara trees that the local Aboriginal population have depended on for millennia, the yellow spinifex grasses, and the black charred earth from recent fires (thunderstorms – although the fires are an important part of a healthy changing landscape here – seeds from some of the plants are only released via the heat from the fires, etc).

http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/uluru/

Kata Tjuda walk for only about 40 minutes – not enough time to see this impressive chain.  The downside to being on a bus tour – sticking to a schedule.

Sunset at Uluru – rain earlier in the day, but we were still able to see it. 

The most glorious sunset opposite the rock in the sky.  That particulate matter from earlier bushfires came in handy.