Welcome to Uluru (pronounced ooo-loo-roo). For my American folk, Uluru is a world heritage listed sight and literally in the middle of nowhere. It's basically flat red desert, 2 or 3 trees and a couple massive rock formations (Uluru & Kata Tjuta). Whatever you pictured in your mind about the great outback, that's Uluru. In its simplicity, it's also one of the most achingly beautiful scenes I've set eyes on. Even with all the wildlife, spiders the size of my face and world's most dangerous snakes, Uluru has a hushed peace about it. I really do owe the earth an attitude of gratitude. To the great outback...
Thank you for making me feel small. Thanks for reminding me that amongst all the trillions of stars, I am but a speck; my problems small, but my hopes expansive. Thanks for allowing conversation to flow easily and for giving me room to think. Thanks for letting my imagination run wild with all your stories. And although my knowledge on the history behind the rock and those who have guarded it for so long is limited, thank you to the Anangu people for allowing me to glimpse the love you must have for the place. This rock and the way you've cared for it is beautiful.
Kata Tjuta National Park (The Olgas)
I spy with my little eye Anangu paintings. I completely lost it with all the Indigenous artwork and bought 10 trillion souvenirs. I don't think I've ever looked more like a tourist.
My clique. It's strange when you move to a new place and you're just like...who wants to be my friend? These are a few of the beautiful humans I've added to my list of rad people in Australia. It's so refreshing to get lost with good company. Thanks for all the educational conversations, being patient with my bladder (made for ants) and not allowing me to wear my Tevas in the wilderness. Yeah, that probably sounds strange, but they laughed at my plans of wearing trendy hipster hiking sandals so I took them off and changed to my runners. Later that night we heard some screams and a few cuss words coming from outside the bathrooms and we went out to make sense of the commotion. We found a girl who was just walking on a dirt road (in her flip flops) and had been bitten by a spider. We also found said spider (all 5 hairy inches) just a few feet away, lurking in the shadows. Don't wear your Tevas in the Australian wilderness people.
Uluru is so ugly.
Meet Diesel the camel. He's a camel racing champ (yeah, that's a thing) and may have tried to buck us off once or twice, but I think he came around eventually.
We found this big dirt road that seemed to roll out just for us. It was soft, virtually untouched and most importantly, free of bull ants.
Gypsy vibes.
Yup, you can bet we found orange sand in some pretty unique places after our dirt road dance sesh.
XO, Cass
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