The next morning, Brad, arrived to take us on our two-day adventure. Brad was ...a typical Australian, nothing was a bother and his motto was "it's all good, no worries". He took us to the Oak Valley Aboriginal community where we met Craig, an Aboriginal rocker, just back from the AC/DC concert in Sydney, having driven for 28 hours... He proudly showed us around his land, explaining his heritage and by the time we were leaving I dared to address him as "cous".
And then it was off to camp, where we gathered wood and built a campfire (well, Brad was the one who actually built it), and the girls prepared the potato bake while the men stood around the barbie sipping beer. Nothing changes. Sparkling wine, steaks and potato bake under a star-filled sky. What more could you want? Brad maybe. We slept under the stars in swags which are, to the uninitiated, a sleeping bag and mattress all in one.
After a hearty hot breakfast cooked by Brad, we motored on towards Ayers Rock ...We stopped off at Kings Canyon, a spectacular sandstone gorge in Watarrka National Park, where we undertook a three and a half hour walk, the first half of which was vertical. Given that I'm no longer young and a smoker, I must admit I did lose the plot a small bit on the vertical stretch. In fact my legs started to turn to jelly, but with the constant exhortations of our hero Brad, I got to the top. We travelled around the rim of the gorge amid amazing scenery and those, unlike me, who were not afraid of being out of their depth enjoyed a swim in the water hole.
We arrived at Uluru, the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock in time for the much talked-about sunset and it wasn't a let down. It was spellbinding and what better way to enjoy its ever changing copper, ochre and orange hues than sipping a glass of champagne.
(Irish Independent, April 25, 2010, Eleanor Goggin)