Out walking with Rufus today in the dank wet, cold finger tips, fizzy hair in the damp air . . . I decided to come back to my nice warm Shed, hot coffee - perhaps a spoonful to two of cream . . . and look at our Oz photos.
On this dark grey little island with the clouds sitting on my head, I think back to Australia . . . all the cliches rush in, blue skies, bright sunshine, warm long days, being outside, T shirts . . . ohh it was wonderful!
And I look back at these photographs and daydream, about a time not so very long ago (although it feels like forever) when I felt warm and sunny, and because I was on holiday, not a care in the world!
cliche no. 9 back to reality with a bump.
Driving over unmade roads, looking at an amazingly beautiful landscape
with unusual and surprising plants
Approaching
Kings Canyon in the Watarrka national park in the Northern Territory.
An early morning stroll into Kings Canyon
and the astonishing rock formations.
On the road to Uluru is Mount Connor, a flat topped inselberg, part of the same vast rocky substrate thought to be beneath Uluru and Kata Tjuta.
The road goes ever on . . .
Early evening and the four of us arrive at
Uluru,
me photographing the sunset,
and returning the next morning to photograph the sunrise
Kata Tjuta in the middle of the day
The landscape around Alice Springs is dry, scrubby grassland
perfect for kangaroos to hide in
The 'spring' which gives Alice its name.
The MacDonnell Ranges run east west of the town, I was surprised by how very much I liked Alice and the surrounding country and I would love to return and walk some of the trails there.
Leaving Alice and looking down at what I think must be the Central Australian desert
you can see the colours change as we head east to Sydney.
So much of a city is . . . idiosyncratic.
This is the reception to our hotel,
the Q Hotel, in Sydney, very hip, but also very lovely to stay at and conveniently within walking distance of the botanic gardens, the Opera house and the quaysides.
This, the room number
