Ayers Rock 14th Feb - 16th Feb 2006 We first saw Ayers Rock from the plane as we arrived into the purpose built airport, as you can imagine a rock that sticks out so obviously on the landscape was pretty impressive at first sight. We couldn't believe the heat when we arrived (despite knowing that it was a desert, we're not that stupid). As we stepped out of the airport the heat was like someone hitting you in the face with a spade. Today it's a mild 38 degrees oh yes and it's Valentines day as well. We checked into our hostel (we were sharing a 4 bed room and sleeping on bunk beds for the first time since the infamous train journeys in SE Asia). Our room mates for the next two nights were bizarre Italians who spoke only German and English? Try and work that one out then. They said that they were from some wort of Alpine region near the border with Germany but we knew that they we just Italian Wannabees. We got the bus out to see the sunset over Uluru (the Rock to you and me) as part of the "Sounds of Silence" dinner. With Champagne in hand we were having a great time. Except for the flies. The flies in the Red Center of Oz are just a little misunderstood I think. Most people felt that they were annoying little pests but we just thought that they were very inquisitive creatures. trying to get up our noses and in our mouths and ears, really willing to learn about the human anatomy. Of course this wouldn't do on such a romantic evening would it? As the sun went down the flies dissappeared (where do flies go to sleep then?) and we had a great evening with the wine flowing and a lovely buffet including kangaroo and a fantastic chocolate pudding. We both were pretty drunk by the end of the night alright. The next day we got up at stupid o'clock to go see the sunrise over Uluru (we nearly missed it because some lazy Germans couldn't be arsed getting out of bed) Then we walked around the rock (10km and very sweaty) taking in all the different angles and we confirmed that it definitely was a rock. By this time we had bought a fly net to keep the little b*****s out of every orifice. The next day we did something similar and got up at stupid O'clock again to go walk through Katja Tuta (probable incorrect spelling) an 8km walk which was more interesting that the day before. The weather was a roasting 44 degrees by the time we finished the walk at 9am. We just got to the plane in time to board for Sydney, our next stop on the trip. We were pretty glad to get away from the oven like surroundings and were also impressed by the rock and it's shear size. Lots of love Stu & Amy