Down Under

To get the 2017 blog off to a head start, here's a couple of my mini-adventures whilst on holiday in Oz.

We took a brief trip to the Red Centre, spending a couple of nights in Alice Springs and one at Ayer's Rock Resort (yes - they still call the resort by the old name). We did a tour round Alice, which included a visit to the old Telegraph Station, where there were a number of great walking and cycling tracks - if you could stand the heat. The biggest hill I could find in the time we had was hardly a challenge, however:

Trig Hill

I just about managed to conquer it:

Our trip to see Uluru - 460 kms south west of Alice - for the first time, was well worth it:

 From a distance, there doesn't seem to be any way up there, unless you're a rock-climber, but, as you get nearer, you notice that there is a chainlink up one of the slightly less steep slopes:

Unfortunately, climbing is banned during the summer months of December, January, February and March, partly as a sop to local Aboriginal culture - they regard it as sacred - but also because of the heat - the rock itself acts as a radiator.

We took a walk up nearby Walpa Gorge, however:

Hoping for similar weather for our UK walks this year - but less flies.