Day 297: October 24th – Alice Springs and Ayers Rock

Sunny, HOT, and windy (se)

Ayer's Rock

       It was a long, really long day today that began early this morning in Melbourne and ended up with sunset at Ayers Rock, half way across the country.  As we moved across the country, the temperature steadily rose although we didn’t really experience the gradual change since we were at 37,000 feet above sea level and travelling at over 600 miles per hour.  That being said, when we left Melbourne, it was barely 60 degrees and when we touched down at Alice Springs, the mercury was sitting at the 104 degree mark.  They say it’s a dry heat.  I say it was hot, plain and simple.

        We were only in Alice Springs for a layover and a brief lunch.  The town of 27,000 people in the middle of a barren desert was certainly interesting, but how people live here in this heat and aridity is beyond me.  We spotted a few birds which turned out to be miners and Magpie-larks, but hardly had time to explore and find anything new before it was back on the airplane for another 50 minutes to get to Ayers Rock.

       When we got to the rock, a national landmark and resort in the “center” as Australians call the outback, the temperature had dropped to a balmy 96, but fires in the area led to smoky conditions which were afraid might lead to poor birding.  As it so happened, we were so hot and tired, we decided to hit the pool before heading out the “rock”.  At poolside, we were quite delighted to find another life bird the Yellow-throated miner which spent most of its time chasing a second lifer, the Yellow honeyeater.  Quite a find and some of the most comfortable bird photography I’ve ever done as I shot the birds while standing waist deep in a cool swimming pool in the middle of a gigantic desert.

Yellow honeyeater

Yellow-throated miners

        We later traveled out to Ayers Rock to see the light of the setting sunlight up the red rocks of the geologic phenomenon.  Well, the smoke from the fires had other plans for us and pretty much blocked out the beams of sunlight from the rock.  The sunset itself was made all the more magnificent by the smoky skies, however and before the sun did set, we got some initial shots of the feature in all its glory.

        We’ll return here tomorrow morning to get more photos and hopefully more birds.  Until then, we’ll lay our heads on the pillow and get some much needed rest.