Sunday, August 24, 2008

The Red Centre

Today we headed out of the big city for good, starting the beautiful landscapes portion of the tour. Our first stop was Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) a monolith listed as a UN World Heritage Site for both it's natural and cultural importance.

Uluru lies in the middle of the Red Centre, the large desert region in the middle of the Australian continent. In the desert thrives a fungus that can go for years without water--this fungus binds iron oxide, giving the soil and rocks their characteristic red color. It is at sunset where this becomes truly amazing. As the sun sets, the golden shade of Ululu darkens slowly to a rust color. Then as the suns rays turn reddish, for about five minutes or so the entire monolith glows an unearthly orange color that takes the breadth away.

After the sunset, we headed back to Ayer's Rock Resort--essentially the only place within a few hundred kilometers to spend the night. They have a great Australian BBQ set up: for a set price you get the Crocodile, Kangaroo, and Emu meat, and then it's up to you to grill it. They also have live music, our night it was Mal Clarke. Mal is an excellent guitarist who performed a range of Aussie favorites. It was a no brainer to get his CD to keep us company driving the next few days.

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