Ayers Rock at sunrise

Hi everyone!

Phewy – think we’ll need a holiday soon if things continue at the pace of the first week 😉   ….have to say that First Class is THE way to travel… we had a fab flight over here … you get free pajamas and slippers… which made us laugh as it made everyone “at the front of the plane” look line chain-gang convicts! J  …rather ironic considering we were heading to Oz!

Anyway… we have spent the last week in Southern Oz, with a quick detour to the Northern Territories (as you do!)…  We started in Sydney (more of a re-visit as we had spent a few weeks in Sydney a few years ago anyway)…..then onto Melbourne which was fun – caught up with an old friend from the UK which was great … and did a whistlestop tour of the city which we just loved…  Melbourne is definitely somewhere we want to go back to…

…then we hot footed it across country to the hottest place on earth – mercifully only for a day ;-)……if anyoneever feels the urge to stop, as we did, for more than a bottle of water in Alice Springs (en route to Ayers Rock/Uluru) – all we can suggest is – DON’T………never have we been to a more godforsaken flyblown tip……. 😉

One short hopper flight later to the Rock (not a minute too soon)….and we discovered some thoughtful mega corporation had decided to build an airport 5 minutes drive from the resort so you don’t, any longer, have to drive for 6 hours from said flyblown tip across some of themost inhospitable land on earth to see the giant rock…yippeeeeee!;-)

….and best of all some even kinder corporation had built a resort with a nice(ish!) hotel right next to Ayers Rock so that made it a lot easier to be an intrepid desert explorer 😉

…soooooo…..the rock was kinda cool …in an astoundingly hot deserty kind of way ;-)…….you couldn’t walk more than 5 paces without drying out like a prune and gasping for the next drop of water……..and I have to add here that all we did is the sunset visit and the sunrise visit……which started at 5am and by 7am wewere already wilting……..luckily as I am (conveniently) still “recovering” from my broken foot I didn’t think it sounded like a good idea to do the 5 mile hike round the huge rock…..can’t think why…….so we had to do the rather nice air-conditioned ecotour by bus with selected hiking spots instead……which was MORE than enough desert heat for any sane traveler ;-)…….anyone thinking about visiting might want to try winter instead ;-)!!   It really was worth the visit though and did take your breath away (not just the heat!) 😉

….then……back to Sydney for another couple of days…….well..what the hell…..we LOVE Sydney J……visited some of the northern shore beaches……went hiking in Ku-Ring-Gai National Park (happily – not 100F in the shade)…….also went beach walking in Royal National Park …..and finally up to Hunter Valley vineyards a couple of hours outside of the city which was really beautiful……and made the California vineyards (previously revered) look a bit rubbish by comparison… 😉

So……………now we’re in Auckland……  which is fab…. got here a few days ago….. but more about that in our next installment …as and when!!

Ayers Rock/Melbourne  photo’s are at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ekhBGE9yS424IGfTpHW4QUrThOKVET_r?usp=sharing

Sydney photo’s are at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GN_N8RxLDn8SzetPCJFOMCplsxiZb9NS?usp=sharing