G'Day to ya all, its jackanory time again so get your reading goggles on and have a nosey at what we got up to in the Red Centre.........

Our first sight of the morning was as we were flying over the top of Uluru (Ayres Rock) and what a magnificent sight to behold, we had a birds eye view and managed to sneak a couple of pics from the plane.

We had a little luxury while we were staying in Ayres Rock Resort as there were no hostels in the vicinity and we took great advantage of that fact......well we had been staying in tents and hostels for the past ten weeks and we thought we deserved a break! Luxury it was....we even had our own en-suite bathroom which means we didnt have to get dressed if you needed a wee during the night....honestly you dont know what luxuries you have back home!!!

The night we got there we went on the Sounds of Silence dinner which means you are ferried out into the desert at sunset, you watch the sun set over Kata Tjuta with a glass of champagne and a lone fellow playing the didgeridoo. Then you are treated to an amazing buffet dinner consisting of 5 courses including kangaroo, crocodile and bush tucker.....oh and as much wine as you can stomach...which we obviously took advantage of!!

Next day we have a well earned rest and spent the entire day lazing by the pool and nursed our hangovers from the evening before.

We headed to Uluru, the great Australian monolith, for sunrise on day 3 to complete a 10km / 4 hour walk around the base of Ayres Rock. We learned how the rock was formed and some of the Aboriginal stories and history that relates to the rock. We even had breakfast sitting on Uluru, not at the top though as the climb looks like it would be a bit of a nightmare in the 35 degree heat! Oh and if you dont enjoy flies making their way up your nose and in your ears or hitching a lift on your rucksack all the way dont go to Ayres Rock...unless you have a fly net (which we didnt!).

Heard a story of an Irish man who was completing the climb in a pair of rubber sandals....yip you heard right RUBBER SANDALS....the sole of the sandals started to melt from the heat of the rock so the wise Irish man decided to take them off and gave himself 3rd degree burns to his feet and had to be airlifted to hospital in Alice Springs...though that was a pretty funny story and a costly one for him, airlift cost him around $6,000!!!!

After completing the 10km walk we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap and then headed out to Kata Tjuta in the afternoon. Kata Tjuta is a bizarre collection of huge rounded rocks and once again the hiking boots were dorned to complete another shorter walk into Olga Gorge. Kata Tjuta is beautiful and we were at the gorge at the right time of day with the sunlight flooding in.

Left Ayres Rock the following day for Perth where we hired a car and followed on our journey to Wave Rock which is around a 3 hour drive outside Perth....and it is as it says.....a rock that looks like a wave!!!  Of course we had to have the obligatory photo with ourselves surfing ont he rock...as you do!!!  Oh and take a look at the photo of the highway...no kidding...the highway was 1 lane in a lot of places which aint no fun when you are facing one of the roadtrains let us tell you!

Well you are now nearly up to date again on what we have been up to, now heading to Kalgoorlie to meet my other Uncle Gordon who I have never met...cant wait to catch up with him.

As always hope everyone is fine and well back home, not long til we get back now and we can catch up with a drink in one of the fine drinking establishments in the Old 'Well!!!

Luv,

Maz and Flem xxxx