Into the middle
So it turns out that they’ve built an airport and resort near to Uluru now, so there was no real need for me to fly to Alice Springs and then travel on a bus for four hours there and four hours back, but I actually enjoyed visiting Alice so everything worked out. It’s a strange town, properly in the middle of nowhere, populated by aboriginals, australians and tourists, none of whom seem to notice the existence of the others. It’s like three different ghost towns laid on top of each other. The atmosphere was a bit edgy on the whole, but I had a pleasant evening there when I arrived, and saw a beautiful sunset from Anzac hill.
The next day I was up at 5am to meet my tour bus for the epic drive out to Uluru. It’s well worth the trip! The rock is just awesome. This enormous boulder just erupts out of the surrounding, flat landscape; so smooth that you’d think it was a sculpture. It curves and flows like it’s melting in the heat, but it is just enormous - and old. At sunset it changes from a brilliant orange to a greyish purple, and standing around watching it do this while drinking champagne was very pleasant!
So after my brief visit it was back on a plane to Sydney, which I can’t quite get a handle on. It’s a beautiful city, the weather is fantastic and everyone is laid back, but I’m not entirely sure what there is to do here when you’re just visiting. It has shops, and art galleries and all that, not to mention the bridge and the opera house, but I’ve seen them before! I have been having fun though. Spent yesterday exploring the graffitied walls of Newtown, followed by a visit to the Sydney Dr Sketchy’s, and today I went to the Archibald prize at the art gallery of New South Wales. The Archibald is the national portrait prize of Australia and on Wednesdays the art gallery is open late, and it’s always nice to see the mixed crowd of art lovers that the offer of late night opening and a bar draws out.
Tomorrow I’m off to the countryside up north for a bit, to a place called Bellingen. Hopefully there are some adventures to be had up that way! see ya.