6.22.06

Uluru / Ayers Rock

I miss my boyfriend.

It’s nice to be in a desert. I really love the desert. Despite being across the globe, central Australia resembles the Southwestern US quite a bit - similar topography, similar vegetation. There are even popcorn plants here (ok, popcorn plants aren’t really popcorn plants, but they have yellow flowers that look like popcorn and smell awesome – the smell reminds me of being little).

Something I’ve noticed is that people in Australia are environmentally conscious because they’re smart, rather than because it’s trendy. Most of the hotels, especially in the outback, have master power switches that can are turned on by the key used to open the door, to save electricity. They also don’t use harsh detergents or chemicals to clean things, and aside from things looking fairly clean, I didn’t get any bizarre infections or sicknesses, so I’d say things are sanitary.

The “township” of Yulara is where our hotel was, and the township was literally created to support the hotel and the tourism brought by the rock. Ayers rock is a pretty rad site, and it has a lot of interesting geographical history. Also interesting is its importance in desert Aboriginal religions, and how, as usual, the white man came and turned it into a spectacle to be viewed by tourists on motorcoaches.

I got to eat kangaroo and crocodile today. Kangaroo is pretty damn delicious, and crocodile is alright I guess; it was in a pastry thing so it just tasted like butter for the most part.