Hi Everyone,

The Olgas is an area of outstanding natural beauty, it is a sacred site to the Aboriginal people and really is impressive, the range was formed in a similar way to the marbles but stands 300 meters high and was formed from whole rocks some 30cm in diameter, washed down from an ancient glacier, compressed into limstone and then erroded over millions of years leaving the current formations.

We walked for about an hour in and out of the towering mounds and came to appreciate the grand scale of the area. For several nights some of us have slept in swags which are mattresses housed in a large canvas bag with a flap at the top to prevent creepy things crawling into the roll when it is done up, place your sleeping bag inside this and it is night night Vienna. The only point which spoilt the experience ofd sleeping outside, was that we were actually in a tented resort so it was never actually totally dark. Why would this matter when there were small Monitor lizards, about 3 feet long running around, well it meant there was ambient light in the Outback, the one place I had really hoped I could experience total darkness under the stars. The sky was impressive but it sounded a bit like sour grapes when I siad that it was better in South America.I didnt mean to sound negative and I guess that there are not many Aussies who would agree, but for me it was the case.

We got up early to watch the sun rise over Uluru (Ayres rock to you Foriegners) and we were greeted with so much sand in the atmosphere that it was rather likea fog. So moving on from that failure let's go and walk around it. By the time we arrived the sun was boiling. The thoughtof walking 10K's in open sun with no shade (don't believe anyone who tells you it is shaded on the other side, it isn't) so i opted for the 5K walk on the shady side! Yep that's me! Having boiled myself to pieces we were on the back straight when we came across a Horny Lizard, no it just has a spiky skin, (honestly you lot!) They are wonderous little creatures which look almost like little military tanks painted to blend in with a Desert Storm invasion, only they have little horny spikes all over them to deter predators. This little chap was digging a hole in the middle of the path ahead of us and gave us a really good photo opportunity.

We eventually reached the pick up point and departed for an early supperbefore heading offfor the sunset over Uluru. This time it was rather more successful but a manual style camera may have done more justice to the spectacle than my little automatic, never mind, I took some decent shots and had some taken of me. Thanks guys.

I had the impression that Uluru was smoother and more rounded than it is. The rock has many deep sears in and around it and looks very differnetwhen you are up close. It is impressive when you considerthat two thirds of it are underground and at some point in time the whole rock has been picked up and inverted 90 degrees before sitting in its current position. How much natural power is involved in such movement, it is very impressive indeed.

We moved on again travelling South, the ground is almost totally arid dessert and very red, it is formidable terrain and not a place to break down in. Every opportunity which presented itself saw us filling up with fuel whether it needed it or not . On the way we visited several more areas of natural beauty in areas where you would struggle to believe that vegitation could survive, we visited the 'cable station' where the first inter-continental cable wire began and led all the way to Europe and Britain. There is a terribel history behind all this and involves the death of 2000 Aboriginal people. I do not intend to go into details here because I find it quite distasteful and is still an ongoing matter with the Australian Govenrment, even today.

Our next really interesting stop was the Opal fields of Coober Pedy, but more on that shortly,

Bye for now,

Chris