ULURU!! (Ayers Rock)

Yeah! We did it!!

After hours and hours and hours of endless travel along streets so straight that a plane could land on them without a problem, through the hostile Outback where there's nothing but red earth, some bushes, the cadaver of a cow or dingo once in a while or a hay bale which is being driven alongside the road by the hot wind, we made it! Uluru (or Ayers Rock) was there in front of us.

Well, actually we first took Mount Conner for Uluru :) but we soon remembered one of the first lessons learnt during our travels: things are often different than what they appear and you sometimes need to look twice to discover the real thing! So we enjoyed Mount Conner with all its beauty, we just turned around (what probably only one out of ten travellers does) and enjoyed the beautiful salt lake glimmering near the horizon, and then we went on to Uluru.

And there it was, the red mountain rising out of the flat desert. It was more than impressive. The texture of the mountain is really bizarre, not at all like a rock. The formations of the rock seem to inspire a rusting space shuttle that has broken down on earth and there is definitely something spiritual about the place. No wonder the aboriginies worship Uluru as a sacred place. We respected their wish and did not climb the mountain, we justed hiked around it and watched (a rather cloudy) sunrise in the morning.

For you, Anne, Tine and Gerrit, I particularly thought of you when visiting this place. I know that we wanted to visit Uluru together one day so I just took you with me in my heart and I thought of you and of August when playing with the red earth and wondering about the origin of the fascinating rock.

Of course, this was also the right place for a first "Germany T-Shirt-proof picture" so here we go (and don't laugh about me, it was really, really, really, really, really cold.

After Uluru we also visited Kings Canyon, a place many of you would have loved to play around it. A fascinating canyon rising out of the desert with extremely steep walls and not one restricted area or barrier: just a huge playground to climb and wander around. And of course, good old traditions need to be continued so here comes the proof that I also went swimming in the "Garden of Eden". But seriously, if they have such a pool in Eden, they need to heat it a little more because I don't just want to hop in, suffer for the picture, and run out again! But I did it and I can tell you it was not much warmer than our glacier lakes in the Rockies !

So, here we are back in Alice Springs now, we have already found a new fellow traveller (this time an Austrian girl) who will replace Johanna soon and come to Cairns with us and Jakob and we are heading back out into the mountains, the MacDonnell Ranges, tomorrow! They say it'll get really cold, about 2 degree celcius, but we are not afraid! No, we are not afraid at all! No, no!

In any case, we are spending the time of our lives here, Australia is really such an amazing place and I just can't imagine being any happier! So, as the locals say: Easy mate! Till the next time!