Not much to report today! I've been playing with a "panorama" generator from my photographs in Central Australia. Here's the result of my first attempt with the view in to the valley near Ormiston Gorge (click on the photo for a larger version).
... and here's one of Uluru at sunset.
... and finally, this is a very different landscape taken from a mountain in Thailand!
Just arrived back at Parkes with Rutger and Jonathan. We had an enjoyable drive across the mountains. We've just been admiring the Milky Way and the Large and Small Magellanic clouds. I'm almost ready for bed, but Jonathan seems to be keen on getting some work done! The photos were taken as we crossed the mountains!
This was the route that Rutger and I took to the Epping shops. We were rather wet by the end of the walk! On Friday evening we cooked a stunning (and huge) Italian meal that was basically pasta in a brie and cream sauce! We then spent the evening watching the Pink Panther and listening to music.
We again woke early, had a leisurely breakfast (with a bird that I still haven't identified - see photo) and undertook two fun, but quite short walks (both about an hour in length) around Trephina gorge. We started with the "Panorama Walk" ("Grade: Difficult") which took us up the side of the cliff. The views were, as always, ........ amazing!
In the second photo you can see the gorge that we walked up from. We then undertook the "Trephina Gorge Walk" which was more dramatic. There were some impressive drops that I stood well back from whilst Joris and Christine sat on the edge!
We finished our walks by the early morning and, as we wanted to fit as much in as possible (this was our last full day), we drove back to Alice. We first stopped at the camel park (very interesting) and Christine and I got a ride around on a camel which had been caught in the wild.
About an hour later Joris turned up again in the car (good man!) and drove us back into the town. We spent much of the evening in the "Bojangles Saloon" where, if you had known, you could have watched us on their internet link and "shouted us some beers" (for next time). This was quite a saloon - I ate a medley of crocodile, emu, kangaroo, buffalo and camel, drank a lot of NT beer and chatted with a friendly waitress (who was from New Zealand, but spent all her life in Alice Springs - she had never been to Uluru). She was thinking of travelling to see some friends in a place called Toronto that she thought might be in Canada or Scotland. We talked about the Aboriginal population (none of whom were in the saloon - "we let the clean ones in"). In fact there were plenty of Aboriginal people around Alice, but none of them were working in the shops or chatting with the tourists. The only interaction we saw was a security guard throwing out an young Aboriginal man from the shopping centre. Otherwise .... they ignored us and we ignored them. It was strange.
Gosh, I'd better keep writing this blog about Central Australia otherwise I'll be getting distracted by walks in Sydney. I've just been for a stunning (and extremely wet) walk with Rutger (it's ANZAC day today and so we have a day off work). This walk was so different to the walk on day 4 in the Macdonnell ranges. Rutger and I were just now wading through raging torrents (getting soaked up to our knees) and slipping off wet rocks. 
In contrast, Joris, Christine and I were walking through the driest terrain that I've seen. We walked down the dry river bed feeling very small under the huge gorge cliff edges. We spotted a few birds (such as the heron hiding in the second photograph) and had breakfast sitting on huge rocks in the river b
ed. As we came out of the gorge the scenery changed to a huge, relatively flat valley surrounded by high hills.
y enough water!
But, it was great! We saw an informative film around the region and then separated and made our own way around the park (although we did all meet again in the nocturnal house for a tour - with the guide being so emotional about releasing native animals back in the area that she almost burst into tears - and for the bird show).
Trephina gorge is beautiful, but not nearly as dramatic as Ormiston gorge.
In the evening we again sat outside watching the moon (now almost full) rising above the gorge edges, but this time we didn't see any animals. The silence was amazing.
We travelled a long way on day 3. We woke early to see the sun rise over Uluru. Unfortunately, we underestimated the time that it would take to get to the sunrise viewing area (and we got stuck behind a tour bus), but still managed to get to the viewing area before the rock became deep red. Sunrise was not as dramatic as sunset. The colour changes were much slower (and it was rather cold - the snowman in the photograph is actually Christine trying to keep warm).
Half-way back to Alice Springs, we decided to take our little hire car along a long (30km) dirt road. I had the pleasure of this drive. We went bouncing along and skidding in the sand dunes (hoping that we wouldn't get a punture). Anyway, the reason for this detour was to see the Henbury Meteorite conservation park (I'm not sure how you conserve meteorites!). The meteor that formed the many craters in the area fell about 5000 yrs ago (interestingly, the guy in the road house told us that it fell in the 1960s - he was only out by a few thousand years!)
The two photos of this area are of Joris and Christine on the first, large crater and the second is of Christine walking along the rim between two craters.
was my favourite drive. Christine and Joris were snoozing and so I had the mountainous scenery to myself for quite a bit of the trip.
We finally made it to the camp ground by 5pm, set up our tents 
and went on the "Ghost Gum" walk. Wow! We walked high up the cliff edges and looked down on the dry river bed below. As it was getting dark, I sneaked away from cooking (leaving Christine and Joris to make a great meal) and sat in the gorge next to a water hole and tried to photograph the little rock wallabies that were bouncing around.
I still cannot think how to describe the walk around Kata Tjuta. I knew at the time that the photos wouldn't even give a basic impression of the scenery. It was a place where you wouldn't want to be claustrophobic or agoraphobic. You walk from huge open expanses to very narrow gorges. The basic colour is red, but the number of shades is incredible. The walk took a few hours and was a great introduction to the area.
After the walk we headed back towards Uluru. We stopped at the camp ground to claim some grass, put our tents up and then headed back to see the rock. We first stopped at the extremely informative visitor centre, before doing some short walks around the base of Uluru. 
It was, as is getting a little repetitive on this blog, wonderful! The next photo (under the zebra finch) is of Christine and myself just before going on another short walk to see some Aboriginal rock paintings and a permanent water hole.
We woke early and headed West toward Uluru. The landscape was stunning - flat open expanses followed by (surprisingly) quite hilly terrain. Our first main stop was the Mt. Connor view point which we, rather embarrassing, thought was Uluru (apparently, this is quite common for "eager travellers").
Everybody that I've met who has been to Uluru was expecting to be disappointed by a huge rock in the desert and they all reported an amazing experience. The same happened for me. The rock really is incredible. I expected it to be in the middle of a vast, flat area, but our first views came from quite hilly areas (with high sand-dunes).
We landed in Alice Springs airport in the early afternoon (note: there is a 30 minute time difference between Sydney and Alice) and met Joris who had come in on an earlier flight from Melbourne. We picked up the rental car (which, at that time, was nice and clean) and drove off into the town of Alice (Christine spotting a camel on the way).
The Blue Mountains are stunning. We had a "work" hike - Dick, Barbara, David, Jonathan, Rutger, Peter and myself - around Wentworth Falls yesterday. We started from the conservation hut and walked the "overcliff-undercliff" hike in the opposite direction to my normal walk, but then we headed down into the canyon. Wow! This involved clambering down ladders, lowering ourselves on ropes, wading through water, trying not to look down, Joris treading on David's head, Jonathan discovering that the ladders were not fixed down very well ...
