Yesterday, after written you, booking dives to Cairns and have a nice nap, we went out to say goodbye to Sydney.Destination: Darling Harbour. A fancy spot, just across the harbor which has the Opera House and Rocks.Walked arround Chinatown - the garden was already closed - and went to the port. Several yatchs, good atmosphere and many restaurants and bars. An Italian bar with a bella ragazza indicating the tables and how Happy Hour work, drink several gins at half price. After that was the goodbye and return home to cook dinner packing for today.Today everything was running as usual; it's not like we do on purpose to always walk in the nick of time.So
after we left home, there is a blurring whether or not
to load the metro card - don`t recharge it - when we got to Central, on the sound system: "Emergency, emergency: please evacuate the
station. All passangers "and everyone ran out of the station."- Let's take a taxi?- Where's a taxi?- Are we entering on the station!- Let's go by underground ".Off we went running to take the metro to the airport.The
flight, internal, full of Spanish, some Portuguese as well as we,
French, German, Chinese and some Australians, had several windy shake that made
it very interesting from the point of view of adrenaline.
The landing was with the plane unbalanced due to the wind, on a track that seemed the lunar surface. Love it!Ayeres Rock has a smaller airport that the bus stop at Batalha. But that's not important, the important thing was to land in the desert to see Uluru, the sacred mountain.Carry
the Mitsubishi, decorate with the logos of fluidotrónica, Norfer, eni,
Arax Gazzo, Roadgalaxy, Agência Paraíso, Hama, Monte Campo, Vida Económica,
Alpinestars,
Nau Helmets and Konica Minolta spent at the hostel to leave bags -
there gone are the hotels and apartments luxury - change clothes - put the Monte Campo leggins to be able
to walk freely in the middle of vegetation without me poking and without
the bugs sting me - and headed to Uluru.20 km of asphalt road in the middle of a red surface, reminiscent of Mars, with some low vegetation and few trees. Signs of reptiles and other wildlife. All towards the mountain worshiped by the natives.In the middle of everything, like a giant ship or a meteorite if erge from the flat land a red mountain without vegetation.Walk around - you can not go up, it is disrespectful towards local - took pictures and saw the setting of the sun on it.Beautiful, wonderful. A peace, an atmosphere, a feeling that can match what I lived in Abu Simbel; those things that I will remember forever.The trip was worth it.So much so that it's not worth writing anything ... See you tomorrow.
Fisrt of all, i start this chronicle by saying that I'm a day late in writing. The desert has these things, despite the modern times we live in, there wireless isn`t every were, electricity either.Uluru was so magical that I don´t tell you the rest.We were sleeping at Outback Pioneer Lodge, a hostel prepared for
walkers and people crossing the desert, very military style: houses
with tin ceiling, hot tub and barbeque.Thankfully, the bathroom was scalding because the temperature was down to 3 ° C!The barbeque was community; ie, each bought their meat and would grill it. The monitoring was included with the meat but the beer was apart. I bought crocodile; It was not as good as one that I ate at Sony Platz in Berlin and later
in Tasquinha Alentejana in Cucujães but it was good and I was the man of
my barbecue.Rooms at the hostel were 4 people and therefore, João was with the Chicas and I was making new friends. It happened to me a German couple with a child of 13 or 14 years. They snored all night and the kid woke in the night talking. Not sleep at all, to top the dawn was early.At 6:30 am we were on the road to watch the sunrise in the mountains of Kata Tjuta, also considered sacred by the natives.Among Uluro and Kata Tjuca there are highs and despite 40 kilometers away from each other, are clearly visible. After sunrise on the mountain, we walked a bit around it, the path of Karu in the Valley of the Winds.From Ayeres Rock to Kings Canyon, our destination, were more or less 300 km in full Australian desert. With expectations at most to seeing kangaroos, camels and snakes to cross us ahead, we put the road. Wild life here we go.
After
about 100 km from our departure, a gas station, I talked with couple
biker, from Melbourne, crossing the country in two Harleys. It is the first time they go to Uluru, having shown them pictures from yesterday. They were between 50 and 60 years; yesterday at sunset in Uluru, another couple of Melbourn,
older than this, also mentioned to me that it was the first time we were
there; travel in Australia is expensive, not everyone can do it. It
is in these moments, to hear this, which I think is worth enjoying,
enjoy the trip, focus on me in the landscapes, the places that I know,
gastronomy, culture; I'm lucky to be here; and that luke has a lot of work.The trip went peacefully and in three hours we reached the destination.If Uluru is magical, Kings Canyon is the true work of God. Like any fault, like any disaster of nature, creates unique, brutal and beautiful surroundings.We walked for 5 hours by 6 km of paths allowed in the Canyon, where we saw the tectonic plates above and below; I looked into the abyss and feel vertigo to sit on it, with nothing between me and the ground, hundreds of meters below.If Uluru is magical for the sanctification that local gave him, Kings
Canyon overwhelms us with its size and the orange rock that acts as a
real cell.At night, looking at the sky, with the Milky Way and its 1000 constellations, I saw once again how tiny and our reality.
