Uluru Bound

Hello once more good readers.

As stated in the previous post here is the entry about our trip to Ayers Rock / Uluru (now that we’ve done it).

As you can see from this graphic Uluru is quite a size, not only in height but in circumference too. Apparently the rock is also bigger below the surface and is mooted to stretch five to six kilometres into the ground. It’s perimeter is about 10km and takes in the region of three to three-and-a-half hours to traipse around at a comfortable pace. Not something we planned to do in the couple of hours we gave ourselves to visit this iconic attraction.

After paying an extortionate amount of cash for the half hour transfer to Uluru, and a further truck load of dollars to enter the National Park Uluru is situated in, we arrived at the reason we had come to the centre of Australia. The first thing we noticed was a sign informing us the path to ascend Uluru was closed due to high winds, and looking up at the path I was glad it was closed. Describing the ascent as perilous would be generous.

To begin with Uluru didn’t seem that large and certainly looked shorter than the Eiffel Tower it is reputedly taller than, but the more we walked around it’s base the grander it became. We realised it’s magnitude was lost on us because there was nothing nearby to give it a sense of scale, just trees, shrubs and a magnificent blue sky. At times there were parts of the rock you could lay on or climb into that sometimes gave you a sense of Uluru’s size, and every now and again there was a sheer rock face to stare up at but it just disappeared into the heavens; it’s height lost on us once again.

After a couple of hours, and a stern chat to some people about things they shouldn’t be doing, we headed back to Uluru’s Cultural Centre for our hugely overpriced shuttle ride back to our hotel, and it was on this walk that we were able to finally see Uluru’s size and grandeur. A little bit of distance created a sense of scale that we couldn’t find when we were up close and personal with it a little earlier, and it didn’t disappoint. It was a captivating site.

After a 2km walk we finally arrived at the cultural centre and waited for our bus back to the hotel complex. Being careful not to choke on my words of thanks to the driver of the most-expensive-shuttle-bus-journey-in-the-world the three of us were glad we had finally got to see Australia’s most iconic landmark. I wonder which one is next? The Great Barrier Reef?

Until next time, goodbye.

Us Cassons.

 

 

 

JHC – That is Some Rock

Hello one and all.

It’s currently 21oC by the side of our hotel’s pool (the pool water though is so cold the staff are actually re-enacting the final moments of the Titanic in it). Suffice to say I shall remain in the sunshine on my lounger.

We have been at the Ayres Rock resort for three days now and enjoying a slower pace of life. From our room we can see the big rock and it is quite something. However, we haven’t visited it yet. We are saving that for the next few days. We have, however, visited a lesser known one that goes by the name of Mount Connor; and although not so well known it is just as impressive.

To get to Mount Connor we had to book a tour since it is on private property (a cattle ranch some 1100 square kilometres in size) and meant there would be a lot of off-road driving, so a specialist vehicle was required to traverse the tracks to Mount Connor.

The tour didn’t start until 1PM so we had a lazy start to the day. At just after the designated time we were on our way to Curtin Springs, the place the ranch owners whose land Mount Connor sits on first settled some sixty years ago, when there was nothing there. Not even a house for them to live in. Curtin Springs is now a major refuelling point, stopover, camp site, restaurant and home, still, to the family that settled there all those years ago.

The stop at Curtin Springs was a short one (and in my view that’s the best sort of stop) and our off-road outback experience to Mount Connor begun. For the next six hours we did not see a conventional road, instead we travelled along bumpy, pot-holed, sandy, stone covered orange tracks that are synonymous with Australia; and if you had any defects in your skeleton they would have surely been shaken out of you. It was bu-u-u-u-mpy!

The ride was worth it though as we saw a bit of Australia that no-one else was touring. A massive piece of stunning outback countryside all to ourselves. Beautiful.

Along the way to the Mount Connor we walked on a salt lake, checked out some cattle pens, drove all the way around Mount Connor, saw eagles, kangaroos and dingoes; and drank some sparkling wine whilst watching the sun set on the impressive Mount Connor. It was a truly phenomenal day out.

Our day did not end at sunset though. Once the life giving orange star had gone down we made our way back for a delicious three course meal at Curtin Springs (the dessert was Bread Pudding of all things, a favourite English dish of mine). Once this had been scoffed it was time to head back to our hotel, but not before our fabulous tour guide found a flat stretch of straight road for us to lay down on and do some stargazing. Yep! That’s right. We laid down on a busy(ish) highway to look up into the night sky. It was beautiful. No light pollution to spoil the view, and a great way to end a memorable day in the center(ish) of Australia.

So what else have we got planned?

Well, we’ll let you know over the coming days so keep checking back for updates.

Laters!

Us Cassons.

Fluff & Stuff

Greetings, greetings, greetings readers. Thanks for coming back to our blog. It’s time to let you know what we’ve been up to recently.

Firstly, as the post before this one alluded to, Bec turned 40. She had a terrific day that was filled with some great surprises and will be remembered for some time for all the right reasons. Phew! I managed to keep some stuff from her and, at one point, managed to convince her I was out enjoying a drive in the countryside with a coffee on her special day, which she wasn’t that amused by. In actual fact I was picking up her best friend Jayne and, unbeknownst to me, Jayne’s husband Ronnie (a surprise Jayne kept from me). Suffice to say when I returned from my pretend jaunt in the countryside Bec was pleasantly surprised with what I had come back with. In the evening we had a drop in function at a posh bar in Geelong.

 

Next up comes an adventure of untold feats and danger. Sounds good huh? Well it sort of is but only revolves around some downhill biking. Maybe not something I’d put at the top of my bucket list but something I have always wanted to do. So a few weeks back I met a couple of friends at a range of hills / mountains just outside of Geelong called the You-Yangs. My friends got their space age, multi-thousand dollar bikes ready whilst I dragged my ninety dollar pretend mountain bike out the back of my car (a car that is small enough to double up as a roller-skate). After a quick study of the bike routes available to us we peddled off in search of downhill thrills, and we weren’t disappointed. The You-Yangs caters for all skill levels of rider and is constantly having its bike paths updated and adjusted. Suffice to say some of the routes my friends chose were very challenging (to me anyway) and in places required a bit of uphill cycling in order to get to the more exciting downhill parts. I decided that these bits were best done at walking pace, just so I could take in the scenery. No point racing past some wonderful vistas. That would be plain rude! Thankfully my friends waited for me at the beginning of the downhill sections so that we could enjoy the thrills as a group, and there were thrills aplenty but, more surprisingly, there were also some sections that had to be done at walking pace because they were pretty complicated to negotiate and, if stuffed up, would launch you into some nasty situations. Not something I wanted to court but my friends did, and did so very well. After quite a few hours we were on the track that took us back to our cars, and the end of my first ever downhill biking experience.

 

 

The last thing to mention in this blog entry is about becoming Australian Citizens. On Thursday the 3rd July 2014 we were finally sworn in as citizens of Australia. After five years of being on the other side of the world we are now allowed to officially reside here as long as we want and to come and go as we want (once we get our Ozzy passports). Although we became permanent residents a while back this status had some irksome conditions. Nothing major but irksome nonetheless. So, by becoming citizens we removed these thorny issues and can now live and travel freely in and out of Australia. We also retain our British Citizenship status so will have two sets of passports. Yay! It also means twice the sports stars too, and I’ll never have a losing team in the Ashes. Woooohooo! However, none of this changes who we are and where we come from. We will always be British. We will always be proud to be British, but now we can legally be Pomms in Oz. Ta-Dah!