In March this year we made a 3 week trip, with my brother Mike and his wife Marg, to explore the south eastern part of Australia. We had spent the first months of the year in New Zealand, mostly in our house near Whangerei. The trip was made possible because Ursula had a sabbatical this year, and this gave us the extra time to visit Australia.
We flew from Auckland to Sydney to begin our visit and on to Uluru (aka Ayre’s Rock). From there we drove to Alice Springs, then flew to Adelaide before driving to Melbourne and finely flying back to Switzerland, Mike and Marg returning to NZ..
In Sydney we stayed for a few days at a hotel near the city centre. Fairly typical of big cities anywhere, a lot of high-rise, but with really good public transport right outside the hotel. This was something we were discover throughout our trip; the excellent public transport in the cities we visited.
Of course, if you go to Sydney you have to see the opera house. Like every other visitor we viewed and photographed it from many angles, but this is the one I liked the best, taken from the Sydney Harbour Bridge, famous in its own right.
Many of the photographs of the opera house that I have seen seem to detach it from the city, making it seem like some isolated colossus. In reality it is fully integrated into the city. While we were there the opera house was lit-up at night in an impressive light show.
3. The opera house at night lit up by the light show
But Sydney is much more than the opera house. It is a huge city sprawling out to the west and north is built and centred around the Sydney harbour. a large estuary of bays and inlets, of bays and beaches and small boat harbours. The preferred method of travelling between these are the water taxis where possible and we took a ferry to Watson’s Bay giving us a view of the imposing harbour bridge
4. Watson’s bay looking back to the city centre
Walking the streets and municipal gardens of Sydney I was surprised to see what we initially took to be Sacred Ibis scavenging around dustbins. A little research revealed them to be the Australian White Ibis (T. Molucca), related to the Sacred Ibis (T. aethiopicus).
5.Also disparagingly known as Bin Chickens and Dumpster Ducks, the Australian white Ibis is common in Sydney
We visited the state art gallery, the first of the visits we would make to the art galleries in Victoria and South Australia. We were impressed, particularly at the display of art indigenous to Australia. We spent the better part of an afternoon there and could easily have continued, but the gallery closed at 5pm.
6 Aboriginal art was prominently displayed, but to properly appreciate it you need to understand the cultural context in which it was created.
7. Taking a lunch break between galleries. From left, Chris, Mike, Ursula and Marg
ULURU
From Sydney we flew to Uluru, formerly known as Ayre’s Rock; Well, what can one say about Uluru. It is a rock, a very large rock; about 3km in length and 2 km wide. The trail around it is 10km in length. Like an iceberg, there is far more of Uluru below ground than above. It has been estimated that Uluru extends down about 6km below the surface.
Uluru is considered a holy mountain by the Aboriginal people, and particularly holy places on the rock are off limits to the public, and photography is prohibited in these places.
8. Massive, it lies like a sleeping giant in the desert.
The week before we arrived, it had rained, and this had brought the desert to life, and everywhere it was green, with water standing in pools. The downside was that this brought out the flies. In their millions, and we were forced into wearing black funereal veils over our heads. (Black was the only colour available). Without this protection, being outside would have been almost impossible.
9. Ursula modelling her veil
But back to the Rock. It is indeed impressive that, spectacularly, seems to change colour during the course of the day, from grey at dawn, to brown to ochre and red and finally to an almost purple as the sun sets. We had intended to walk around it, but the flooded paths and mud prevented that.
Photographs had not prepared us for the sheer size of it. But these same photos always seem present it as a beautifully rounded rock. What we found was wonderfully eroded rock of spectacular caves and overhangs and streams running down water smoothed undulations.
10. The erosion creates a nesting/ roosting opportunity for birds in an otherwise almost featureless desert landscape
But, to us there was something we found almost as impressive. KATA TJUTA. This is an enormous rock formation rising out of the desert about 30 km from Uluru.
11.Kata Tjuta
We were able to walk a trail between these rocks, feeling dwarfed by these massive monoliths. Everywhere was green and we had to splash through streams and puddles in places.
12. Chris, head down, walking in Kata Tjuta. Don’t be fooled by the green. This is usually a dry desert.
Rising out of the red earth that stretches flat to the horizon in all directions, it is easy to understand the awe which they inspired in Aboriginal culture and mythology.
13. Kata Tjuta at sunset