Day 6 Ayers Rock (Uluru)

I don’t know what I can add to what has been said and written about the rock. It is, simply, beautiful. I would quickly run out of superlatives attempting to describe it. It’s just as good as it looks in photos, if not better. Every time we have turned a corner and caught sight of it in the distance I’ve had to catch my breath.

We started the day with a ranger led tour around part of the base of the rock. The kids were very interested in the climb (still available but somewhat politically incorrect- we didn’t do it) and the rock art. One of the destinations on the walk was a ‘women’s sacred site’. The ranger informed us that a rock formation above the site was said to resemble a local kangaroo’s pouch and the site was named for the kangaroo. Interestingly, Sarah and I both felt the rock formation strongly resembled a part of the human female anatomy located just south of the pouch! Subtlety doesn’t seem to play an important part in the choosing of women’s sacred sites, although plenty of my mates reckon that site is plenty sacred! As to the kangaroo’s pouch version of the story, let’s just say I remain unconvinced. Sarah informs me that the men’s sacred sites seemed a tad, shall we say, phallic.

As an example of it being a small world, we ran into a fellow Qantas pilot from Melbourne. Pilots being pilots, and this being Australia, we arranged to meet for drinks and watch the sunset. He hadn’t stocked up as much as we had and so had to stop in at the pub on the way. A six-pack of beer and a bottle of white later and he was down $74. If you come this way, BYO. Tomorrow, the Olgas.