15-06-01Hi guys, you'll all no doubt be pleased to hear that its bloody cold down here. Thoroughly misinformed by our detailed studies of Home and Away, we were led to believe that winter here meant knee length swimwear in place of speedo's and a mild reduction in one's suntan cream factor.
The tour guides at Ayers Rock desperately try to compensate for the misery caused by torrential rain and howling winds by claiming that you are among the "lucky 2 per cent" of tourists who are able to view the rock in these conditions.
Actually, although this disgraceful weather heralded our arrival to the rock resort, we were fortunate enough for it to have cleaned up for our sunrise, sunset and base walk tours.
We did not, admittedly climb the rock - though I hasten to add that this was out of cultural respect for the local aboriginal wishes - and not that because once we had reached ''chickens rock'' (approximately the ankle of Ayers Rock itself) our pulse rates and blood pressure had doubled, and our resolve and determination had halved.
We settled instead for a leisurely nine kilometer trudge around the bottom from which I must say the sights were fantastic (still no sign of a bloody kangaroo, wallaby, wombat or any other cute and cuddly marsupial the Australian Heritage Board would have you believe frollics gaily around visiting tourists!).
The rock itself is over 300 metres high, 9km in circumference, and they believe that it continues for a further 6km beneath the earth. Water from recent rains was still pouring down the sides into crystal clear pools at the bottom, though we were warned against drinking from it as apparently there are no toilet facilities at the top of the rock and therefore whatever pennies are spent at the top find their way down to the pools at the bottom. Aboriginal rock paintings mark several sights, and once or twice we managed to worm our way into guided tour groups and get a little local history.
"The Olga's
16-06-01Arrived in Melbourne last night. Its now seriously cold. Pedestrian signs warn against turning sharply as you can take someones eye out with a cold nipple. A fire alarm went off in the hostel last night - half the residents fled into the street, while the others tried to head for the source to get some warmth. It was a false alarm. We're off to explore Melbourne now (about a million Greeks here - this smells and spells souvlaki for dinner!).
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