Love these boys

. . . even if it has been like nine months since this photo was taken and I'm only just now getting around to catching up the blog!

Brothers

Hidden treasure

With Jeff and Deb just about to embark on their round Australia road trip, Paul suggested the brilliant idea of hiding some treasure for them to find in the middle of the outback. The boys jumped at the idea, and we were soon collecting silly things from roadhouses to put in the bright yellow water bottle that we picked up at a roadside wee stop. Then came the important tasks of finding the perfect hiding place, protecting it with a fake snake (hee-hee), and then writing up the clues. Hope you find the treasure, Jeff and Deb!!

Uluru Birthday

There are not too many better places to spend one's birthday than at Uluru. And because it was my birthday, I decided that I wanted to walk around the whole thing. At ten kilometers, I knew the walk would be long for the boys. What I didn't imagine is that because it is such a flat walk, it would also be a bit tedious for Paul and I. We started envying the folks who decided to rent bikes to circumnavigate the rock.

Thankfully, Uluru changed shapes and colours throughout our walk and kept things interesting. We took time to take the little side trips in to look at cave paintings and other places of significance for the indigenous people of the area which gave us a real feel for the history and importance of this special place.

When we finally made it all the way around, Elliot decided that he really wanted to climb the rock, something only possible for another couple months before they ban climbing altogether. Paul, Ollie and I made the decision to not climb on the rock because Uluru is so sacred and climbing it is considered very disrespectful to indigenous people. As a compromise, we let Elliot climb up a couple of hundred meters. I'm not proud of his decision, but the photos of Elliot only about a tenth of the way up to the top, sure do give perspective of the size of this massive monolith.

Uluru Sunset

On our way back from Kata Tjuta, we couldn't help ourselves and had to pull over and snap some photos of the very photogenic Uluru, first in the distance and then again a bit closer to see the rock change colour in the setting sun. While watching the sun set on the rock, I ticked off something from my bucket list: having a glass of wine while watching the sun set on Uluru. It was just as special as I imagined it would be!

Kata Tjuta

From King's Canyon, we finally made our way to Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park. We decided to save Uluru (Ayer's Rock) for the next day, and headed to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), Uluru's nearby little sisters. The boys were still a bit tired from the hiking the day before so we didn't manage to complete the Valley of the Winds hike, but we still had an amazing time exploring these amazing formations.

King's Canyon

What a delightful surprise King's Canyon turned out to be! The rim walk ended up being our favourite hike of our NT holiday. The boys were amazing little hikers and walked the whole seven kilometres and didn't fall off the sheer cliffs, which pleased Paul and I.