Before continuing with the dragons, I should write first about Australia… Well, the plans for Australia had been made almost one year ago and unfortunately my flight to Perth was cancelled in last minute. That’s why I changed my itinerary with a new one to Indonesia.
But, life is hard, I had lots of new responsibilities at work in the recent months and I couldn’t write the part about the dragons as promised. But, then, the life is also plenty of surprises and hopes, and right now I’m in Australia for a short trip. And this time, I want to share my third Australian experience with you without passing time.
After a flight of almost 10 hours, I arrived to Hong Kong where I stayed one night. Hong Kong is lively as it is always. Mainland Chinese people are filling up the narrow streets of the city to celebrate the new year, the expats are having fun after work on a Friday evening and you become surprised to see how traffic is under control in the most populated tiny country of the world. I tried to enjoy the dynamism of the city as much as I can because I know that in my next destination I would miss the crowds(!)
Then, with another 8 hours of flight, I arrived to Sydney on Sunday. The weather is hot, very hot for a traveller like me coming from a snowy city. As do most of the tourists of Sydney, I rushed to take a picture of Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, which are the symbols of the city.
Next day, I took a flight for Ayers Rock, in the center of Australia, known also as Red Rock or Uluru. Finally, I’m in my targeted destination….
Tranquility everywhere. I’m in the middle of nowhere and Anangu – Aboriginal people of Western Desert think this is the center of the world. The Anangu people have been living here for over 30,000 years. Uluru is the biggest monolithic rock formation on earth where Anangu people have been settled. It dates back to 550 million years and the caves of Uluru had become so far home for Anangu people.
Today, I woke up early and did a trekking around Uluru. Some of the caves walls are painted – dating back to 5,000 – 7,000 years ago; the stories of those paintings are still unknown. Hence lots of imagination required. What we know as of today are few childish stories and legends.
But, for the history part;
In 1873, an Englishman, William Christie Gosse became the first European to climb Uluru.
In 1930, the first airplane, ‘Love Bird’ landed at Uluru.
In 1950, first tourists arrived at Uluru. Now, it’s the tourism icon of Australia.
I write these lines right after my camel tour. My camel, Daisy, is well-known in this part of the world, he appeared in many ads… I liked it, and I will continue my touring with Daisy for another couple of days in this beautiful desert….
