First, I'm sorry for being away for so long. The week I've spent in Perth has been rather busy.

Second, Internet access in The Red Centre (Uluru) was about $1/6 minutes online, so.. I didn't stay online very long.

I am glad to say that I have safely arrived at Mrs L's in Perth. She is a lovely woman who lives on her own with a one eyed, almost blind dog named Jackson.

Before I go on to tell you about the rest of my travels I do want to give you a bit of an explanation as to why I've not kept up, other than being busy. I'm having computer problems. What they are exactly, I'm not sure. I can type, but it comes out a bit messed up, and it also seems that I'm no longer able to upload photos. So, those of you who were following the pics on facebook, well, all I can say is, I'll do what I can.

Dates: from August 25-August 28th

Back to Melbourne. man alive it feels like about 100 years ago! So I left there on August 25th for Uluru. The flights were uneventful, which is always the way you want flights to go. Got to Yulara (the resort/village about 20km away from The Rock) and settled into my bed in the 20 bed female dorm room. That evening, I climbed up on the local sand dune (with a bunch of other recently arrived tourists) to watch the sun set on Uluru. I was supposed to go and see the stars afterward, but the guide said it was too cloudy, and that I'd have to try the following night. Uluru is quite lovely and rather majestic I have to say. It's kind of like seeing Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon for the first time. It's impressive and beautiful. What I also found impressive was the red sand. It wasn't dirt. it's sand in the centre. It really is red.. the photos I took really don't do it justice.

That night I met my co-bunkie a lovely german woman in her mid 20's and her new found travel buddy another german girl of 18. Both were lots of fun and we went to the nightly entertainment at our resort together. it was really basic, but really great. It was a guy named Mark, on a stage with a guitar and some kind of electronic gadget that changed the sound of his guitar, singing and playing for the crowd. We all loved it. He played all the good dancing tunes. Everyone had a great time.

Off to bed, the next morning I had free, and in the afternoon, I went to learn how to do aboriginal dot paintings, by an aboriginal artist. She was lovely. She taught us the meanings of some of the symbols in the artwork and then got us to try out our own paintings. (well, they looked like they were all paintings by non-artists) but we all had fun. I painted (I should take a picture of it and try to post it) my journey as I saw it: I'd crossed a large body of water, then landed and saw lush green lands where I saw a sea turtle (in Cairns) and Koalas (in Brisbane and Kuranda) and Kangaroos (Brisbane and Kuranda). Then travelled again to the red centre. So, I don't know.. I think it was ok for a first try.. lol, though I think I'll be able to do a better job with a bit of practice.

So again, that night, which was, I believe the 26th, I tried again to see the stars. The sky had a few little clouds, and the guide cancelled. sigh. Though.. He DID show us the Star of Bethlehem, also known as Jupiter! yeah.. a great big Orange thing in the sky.. very neat. Then he showed us Scorpio, and the southern cross.

The next morning was an early one for me, as I was scheduled to see the sunrise on Uluru. Woke up at 5:30am for this sunrise.. The tour bus was late in picking us up, then when we finally got to the base of the rock, (I had signed up for the 14km base of Uluru walk) we still had to walk another 15 minutes or so (at a good pace mind you) to get to the Sunrise point. That, we missed. The sun was already up by the time we parked the van. Oh well. What we did get was great descriptions of the animals and plants and a bit of the aboriginal stories about the rock.

There are some great formations on the rock face. the first thing I thought of when I saw it was that someone covered a mountain with wet red sand that dried. There were patches that we could see through the red sand cover to the rock underneath.. It was interesting. It was in these formations that we could see images, kind of like looking at clouds and seeing shapes. Well, those shapes had stories by the aboriginal population that lived there. Only problem being that some of the shapes and stories were so sacred, that the uninitiated (us) are not allowed to know them. We got to see cave paintings and all sorts of fun things on the rock. There were even some water holes around the base of the rock. Rather impressive in a desert. In any case. The brisk walk was done by about 11:00 am then we headed back into town. I had booked a second trip for the day to see Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). I actually liked this trip better than the speed walk around Uluru. This was 1 hour or so to casually walk about 2.4 km on my own into the gorge between the rocks. This was just beautiful. There were great water spots and greenery .. it was just beautiful. What was also interesting was hearing rocks falling around when we reached the end of the gorge (impass). I told our driver about this and he said he'd not heard rocks falling in there in something like hundreds of years. So it was quite the privilege to feel terrified that we were deep in a gorge surrounded by massive rocks that were tumbling in on us crashing making sounds like gun shots being fired. lol. great! :)

What was very interesting though, was on the way back from Kata Tjuta, we drove by Uluru, where (because of the clouds showing a possibility of rain) we got to see a rainbow over Uluru! (don't know how well that turned out in the pictures)

That night we got a pretty decent rain, again, no chance for the star show.. so I got a refund... (very frustrated).

Then the next day I was off on another plane.. this time... To Perth!