Around the world in 108 days: March 10 (March 3

March 3 – Sydney to Ayers Rock

Today is actually March 10 (March 9 for you, as we are a day ahead since crossing the International Date line weeks ago). Sad to report that the ship has had two medical emergency evacuations in the last 4 days! The first was after we left Melbourne and at least close enough to land and a harbor, that the ship was able to evacuate the patient via tender to the town. Yesterday the second emergency led to the ship having to reverse course for 4 hours to get us back close enough to Adelaide for a Rescue helicopter to meet us and airlift the patient and take them back to the Adelaide hospital! It was amazing to watch the skills of both the Captain of the ship and the helicopter pilot. We were in 8 to 10 foot swells with heavy winds. Hopefully, both patients are doing better.

As you can see I am still behind, but slowly catching up. We were really surprised and slightly unprepared for the cooler temperatures and cloudy to rainy days we encountered in New Zealand. Luckily we had a relatively smooth crossing of the Tasman Sea which isn’t always the case.. We were told the day before that our ship had be “bumped” from mooring at the Circular Quay pier i Sydney, because the QE2 arrived before we did, so the Serenity would be anchored in the harbor and have to tender in.

We arrived at the harbor early in the morning which allowed us to view a beautiful sunrise over the city and Opera House. Unfortunately, our stay in Sydney was short, because we left the ship before 8:00am heading to the airport for our Overland Excursion to Australia’s Red Centre, smack in the middle of the continent. Therefore, I only have a few pictures from the tender, but they are really good ones.

Our flight was fascinating, watching the terrain below us change drastically as we got closer to the Ayers Rock Airport. We crossed over Sydney suburbs, farmland, deserts & the dried remains of the huge salt water Lake Amadeus. It was a 3 hour flight from Sydney, When we left it was in the mid 60’s. When we landed, the temperature was 108! Wow!

Renowned as the spiritual heart of Australia, The Red Centre in the Northern Territory is rich in Aboriginal culture and rugged outback beauty. Dual World Heritage-listed Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is a living cultural landscape, covering an area over 311,000 acres. Australia’s most recognizable natural icon and one of the world’s largest monoliths, Uluru (Ayers Rock) is the region’s gem and the sacred red domes of Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) stand nearby. The two monoliths are located 16 miles apart within the park.

We stayed 2 nights at the amazing Longitude 131, a tented lodge just outside the National Park. With only fifteen tents overlooking Uluru (Ayers Rock). Each luxury, raised platform tent is named for an Australian Explorer. The Dune House is the central building with dining room, open bar and library. A second dining experience is at Table 131 – it is an after sunset “atmospheric alfresco dining experience” which we enjoyed on our second evening and concluded with the most amazing comet racing across the sky right overhead. It was magical!

Our interest in this area was peaked after talking to one of our neighbors, Tony Gosse. Tony is originally from Australia, but retired with his wife Teri and lives half the year in Fairvue Plantation and “winters” in Sydney. In talking to him about our upcoming World Cruise, he casually mentioned that he had a connection to Ayer’s Rock through his Great-Grandfather, William Christie Gosse. The story gets better…going back in time to 1873 and the race to find a route from the recently opened Centre to the western coast of Perth.

“Two men, William Christie Gosse and Peter Warburton, were equally determined to lead the expedition that would do it. Warburton set off on 15 April, 1873. Gosse led his party of four Europeans, three Afghan camel drivers and an Aboriginal guide out of Alice Springs a week later. After eight months they had proved between them that not practical route existed. Warburton’s ravaged group managed to struggle across the Great Sandy Desert to the North West coast near present-day Port Hedland. All the camels were dead, the men were shriveled wrecks, Warbuton himself was half-blind…and they were still a couple of thousand kilometers from Perth. Gosse had less fortune reaching the coast, but achieved a good deal more on his travels. He accurately documented substantial information on more than a hundred thousand square kilometers of previously unknown country and collected valuable specimens of native flora that are still retained in Melbourne. He also discovered and named many of the features for which the Centre is now famous. Although Ernest Giles had preceded him by just nine months to be the first to sight, Uluru, it was from the other side of the evidently impassable Lake Amadeus. Gosse found a way around the salt lake and became the first non-Aborgininal to lay a foot on the world’s biggest rock, stating ‘This rock is certainly the most wonderful natural feature I have ever seen.’ He gave it the name Ayers Rock, after the Secretary-General of South Australia, a name that it retained for more than a century"

The Aboriginal Tribe, Anangu share the operations of the National Park with the Australian government and now the Anangu names Ulura (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) are the more commonly used names to refer to these magnificent monoliths standing in the middle of the desert.

Enjoy the pictures! Cheers!

Sydney, AUS

Sydney Opera House & the QE2 in our parking spot!!

Opera House - Sydney is a beautiful city

Our lodge at Ayres Rock

Perfect view of Ayres Rock (Uluru) from our tent

Our tent was named for E.J Connellan who stared the first air service to Ayers Rock
The airport is named for him.

The pool felt great after hiking in 108 degree temperatures!!

The Dune House

Inside the Dune House

Uluru changes colors during the day with the changes in light. When it rose our of the
ground during a catastrophic event it fell over on it's side exposing the different layers
of rock that had fused together over millions of years.

Looking at the back side of Uluru. The light makes is look dark on this side.
The flies are such a nuisance, you have to wear nets to keep them out of your eyes,
nose and mouth...a lovely effect!