The West Macdonnells and Uluru

I should have said Glen Helen instead of Helenvale in blog3. Sorry!

We have now seen the gorges of the West MacDonnell Ranges and every gorge was different and spectacular. Ormiston Gorge is the favourite of painters and the rock sides glow with the red centre brightness. The waters are cool to cold so no-one dares to take the plunge. The biggest event for Barry is to see and photograph the Black breasted buzzard which we have all now seen; how could we mistake it! There are plenty of flowering bushes too with honey grevillea seen in many places. We now can identify the witchety bush, the wattle 'dead finish' and the bright blue isotoma which grew in the rocks. We saw the one and only grass tree but neglected to photograph it.

We are now at Uluru and have completed the circuit around the base of the rock. It is hard to call it just a rock as it glows at sunset and sunrise and has multiple facets depending on your vantage point of life. Amazingly we had rain a day ago and this has encouraged more plant life. Animal life is very scarce: dingoes howl in the night and e have seen a few lizards/goannas.

No thorny devils, except in captivity.