Place 161 - Ayers Rock, Northern Territory, Australia:

It was a rash decision. On a round the world flight I had 4 segments to use up or lose…and so I decided that rather than flying direct from Perth to Sydney, Id go via Ayers Rock for a day, spend the next day diving on the Barrier Reef, shoot down to Sydney and tack on Japan. Thankfully, they were all in relatively the same time zones so there was no jetlag excuse and it was a case on onwards and….outwards.

The flight was spectacular- almost as good as doing a day flight from Sydney to Singapore which flies right over the desert and finally exits in the Kimberley’s before heading over the waters to Asia. The landing as we circled over Ayers Rock before touching down was quite moving. Red dirt as far as the eye could see, scrub bush, and rising in the middle of nowhere, literally, the huge monalith of Ayers Rock.

It was a short matter to organise a hire car- loved that there was an excess of AUS$1200 due to tourists not knowing how to drive on dirt tracks, let alone 4 wheel drives, and causing some significant car damage as they went off-road in uncontrollable driving. And so I set off for a pleasant one hour drive through the bush to see Ayers Rock as well as the nearby Olga’s (the two should really be in the 1000 places to see before you die book as a combined thing to see).

Ayers Rock was named in 1873 after the then Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers, but, given the move to acknowledge Aboriginal Heritage, it is perhaps better known, at least in Australia, as Uluru- its Aboriginal name. Climbing the rock however as the 1000 places to see before you die book suggests to do, is actually no longer encouraged. When the Federal Government handed the rights to the Aboriginal people, they agreed to follow their customs which did not allow the climbing of a sacred site. The reason being is that certain areas were used for tribal customs and it was forbidden for the opposite sex to stray into these areas. In an about face however since handing over, they did not ban climbing. Nonetheless I didn’t have the option to decide either way when I arrived as high winds meant they had closed the hiking trail for safety reasons.

Uluru lies almost dead splat in the middle of Australia, rising some 350m and 9000metres in circumference out of the flat, featureless, red desert it is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Photography taking at the rock is remarkable as it changes colour- from red at sunset, to a brown during the day, and silvery-grey during rain. Dotted around its entrance was a horde of tourists with tripods all taking photos as well as the usual plethora of drive-around-Australia hippies in their Kombie vans.

The whole site was spectacular- with walking trails around the rock, local areas of interest such as cave drawings and water holes signposted and some wonderful Aboriginal education centres. Uluru is the world's largest monolith and revered as a spritual centre of power by the aborigines whose ancestors are believed to have lived there as much as 20,000 years ago. It rises some 1142 feet above the plain and has a circumference of about 5 miles.

After a pleasant day wandering around the rock I checked into what could only be described as an exorbitantly priced hotel. Mind you, nearby was the even more expensive Sails Hotel. I guess when the nearest town is some 450km away (Alice Springs) they have what you can call a captive market.

The next morning I got up early to drive some 25km to The Olgas, or to be correct with its Aboriginal name, Kata Tjuta. I actually found this formation to be the most moving. The rocks are beautiful, but to scramble up and down the range forming the Olga’s was for me quite a spiritual moment.

There is nothing like the Australian bush- ignoring the chatter of tourists- it was the silence that was so peaceful. The earthy waft from the sand, the scratch of the bushes against your clothing as you walked, the call of the kookaburras in the trees, the faint marks of lizards criss-crossing over tiny trails barely noticeable in the sand, the sun beating down on you, and the moving silence that only comes from being in the middle of the bush….in the middle of the desert.

From out of nowhere, I suddenly thought of a poem I heard in my teens, called My Country by Dorothea McKeller.

MY COUNTRY

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Definitely Uluru should be in the 1000 places to see before you die book and it should be combined with Kata Tjuta.