Uluru, (Ayer's Rock) Northwest Territory, Australia

Uluru, Ayer's Rock, Australia                                      Saturday, March 23-25, 2018

We took a cab into the Melbourne Airport (half an hour ride) to fly out to the Northern Territory to see the Australian equivalent of the American Grand Canyon.....Uluru or the more modern name Ayer's Rock. It was about a three hour flight.

So long to Melbourne....What did we like most about Melbourne? The bicycling around the city.

Our first sight of Uluru was amazing from our airplane. 10.6 kilometers around the base...Now that is one BIG rock!

"Palya"....the Aboriginese way of saying welcome and how's your day.

We are in the Outback now!

Desert Garden Resort, our home for the next two nights

During the late afternoon we drove by Uluru and then about an hour further to see Kata Tjuta, another enormous rock formation.

                             We watched the affect of the sunset on the rock. It was ever changing.

                                        The blue sky contrasting the red rock was stunning.

                                The sun sank very fast making the rock turn even more redder.
                                                  We hiked up close to the domes.

        The Aboriginese held these rocks to be very scacred and named the rocks....Uluru and Kata Tjuta long ago before the country became Australia. When explorers came in the 1800's they gave the rocks other names. Uluru was called Ayers Rock.
         In 1985 the Australian government agreed to manage the area around the rocks in cooperation with the Aboriginese....making it a shared responsibility. This made the native Australians very happy. Since then the original name seems to be more customary to use.

            We were told that this was the best sunset all week....how lucky to capture it.

       The next morning we were up at 5:30am to capture the affects  of the sunrise on Uluru.   WOW!

We were so happy to see this rock actually looking like the pictures that we have been studying for years before actually coming here.

                               As the sun rose higher in the sky, the rock's colors changed.

After the sunrise we hiked up into the Kata Gorge.  Awesome!

                 We are wearing  nets to keep the bugs from flying in our faces....they worked great!

The boulders that had fallen from the huge rocks laying along the trail were tremendous!

This was a wonderful hike between domes.

                                                   We came across a trickling stream.

                                           The surrounding foliage was very unusual for us.
The Australian desert runs a cycle of being green for two or three years and then having a drought for six or seven years. We were fortunate to experience the green year.

                                                             These are desert oaks.

                                                   Native Minor Birds....eating some sugar.

                        During the late afternoon on our second day we hiked up close to Uluru.

              We enjoyed sitting under the shade of a hut and talking with the other tourist after our hike.

                  It is easy to see the effects of the sun setting on Uluru with this before.....

 and after picture.

                                                            Final rays of the day

We toasted the sunset with a few other world travelers and then attended a tasty Australian barbecue dinner under the stars. What great way to end our stay at Uluru!

                                    The next morning we went to the Wintjuri Art  Museum.

                                                               They had baby emus....

                                                           a stuffed king size kangaroo.....

                                   and  a wild looking lizards that love to eat the venemus snakes

as well as the Thorny Devil.

We caught our coach out of the Desert Flower Resort at 12:45pm and headed toward Kings Canyon.
                                                   Off we go on a new adventure!

Great Ocean Highway, Victoria, Australia

Great Ocean Highway, Victoria, Australia                               Wednesday, March 22-24, 2018

Larry and I left  Melbourne  around 9:00am...trying to avoid the city commuting traffic. No such luck. The traffic in Melbourne is nonstop.
We enjoyed not having a car for this past week because as bicyclers we got to by pass by most of the car traffic and pedal nonstop to the places that we wanted to see. Melbourne really a great place to bike around, even in the city traffic.

We took the M1 to Geelong and then Princes Highway to Colac. From there we cut through the country side avoiding the fierce wild fires that have taken away at least 90 homes from Victorian residents. So sad. At this time of year everything is a golden brown and dry. We have been told that everything is really green in the spring but summer dries everything up pretty crispy.

Anyway we arrived at Port Campbell (picture above) in time to have a picnic lunch on the beach.

This gull enjoyed eating our apple cores....he reminded Larry of Ralph because he dined at the picnic table with us.

We hiked a trail after lunch. It was windy and very breezy.

Port Campbell is a cute little touristy town with a great little protected beach.

After dinner we headed west to see " The Arch".... An amazing site created by the force of the ocean and wind. This is actually the middle stage of forming a stack (Apostle).

The fantastic bi-plane zoomed over us putting on a show. It was exciting to watch.

Our second stop for the evening was the London Bridge. A natural formation  that previously featured a double arch. The inner arch collapsed in 1989 leaving two people stranded on the outer side. They were rescued by helicopter.

The Grotto was our third stop for the evening. It too had an arch. It also was a cave and sinkhole located about halfway up the cliff from sea level.

The sun was quickly setting. We raced in our car to get to our fourth and final stop for the evening, the Twelve Apostles

The twelve Apostles are actually seven. Five of the twelve have been wind  and ocean whipped totally down.  The waves and winds from the Southern Ocean batter the coast, eroding the softer limestone to form the Apostles. 

You can see where the ocean is wearing away the bottom of the one on the right. It too will be gone one day.

Nature has a way of making the most incredible structures out of the rock. 

The cliffs were enormous and incredibly dangerous. Signs were everywhere to stay away from them. 

The sunset was spectcular. 

We walked all the way to the point to enjoy every minute of the sunset and the Apostles, one of the top ten Australian wonders. 

A memorable sunset at the Twelve Apostles

Thursday, we headed down the Great Ocean Road.

After a good night of sleep in Port  Campbell, we headed out for Loch Ard Gorge.

The area was known for a ship (Loch Ard) wreck. We took three self guided walks through this scenic area.

Great little beach at the end of the cove.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside.

Muttonbird Island

Our drive was truly an ocean drive of  beautiful coastal scenery....the camera just does not capture the beauty.

We decided to stop again at the Twelve Apostles to see the effect of morning sunshine on them.                                                                                Magnificent!

Still in love after all these years....Larry and I have known each other for 49 years. My does time fly!

Incredible beauty!

Heading east, the next part of the Great Ocean Road went through the mountain ranges of forest in Otways National Park. Larry calls this "motorcycle country" because of the  curvy roads.

We passed through lots of eucalyptus forests. The bark on these trees peels off leaving curled strips of bark at its base.

We stopped for a hike at Melba Gully, known for the big fern trees and glow worms.

                       These trees at Melba Gully reminded us the redwoods because of their color.

The view from the mountains showed a green valley below. This is very different from what we have seen in Southern Australia. Much of the landscape along the roads that we have traveled  is brown, cooked by the summer sun.

                                    We stopped at Castle Cove. What stunning views!

It was just one awesome sight after another.

                                              You can see how close the road is to the surf.

Isn't this just incredible?

We had a picnic lunch while being mesmerized by the action of the waves.

Our car heading east...we could not have asked for a better day than driving the Great Ocean Road in Australia.

We stopped in the little town of Marengo and then on to

Lorne...a larger seaside town with surfers out riding the waves.

 We came up on this pedestal house looking out to the ocean. Can you imagine living there? Wow!

We came to the end of the Great Ocean Road and stopped at a cute little Air BnB in Anglesea.

                                                           Lighthouse near Anglesea

Hiking through these naked trees was unusual/

          Before dinner Larry and I walked out to the beach in Anglesea....our final hike of the day.  

               The tide was out far enough for us to walk up next to the ocean and wind whipped rocks.                                                They were very unusual....another kind of beauty.

                                           Before the sun set we headed back into Anglesea.

What a trip! Incredible scenery! Awesome Aussies chats. What great memories we have of our final days in South Australia. Tomorrow we drive back to Melbourne, dinner with our friends, Dick and Stephanie Patterson, and pack up to fly to the center of the country, Ayres Rock, Australia's iconic landmark. It rates high like our Grand Canyon and we can't wait to see it.