Australia Day Sixteen: Farewell To The Desert Heat, Some Delays, And A Late Night Arrival In Much Cooler Tasmania
I awoke early on my last day in Central Australia, wanting to see the spectacular Milky Way and alignment of planets, one last time before I left this wonderful area. It was worth it and I enjoyed the nighttime sky until it slowly faded in the twilight of the approaching sunrise. Lastly only brilliant Venus was the last planet shining in the dawn sky.
I walked to the observation post near my hotel and waited for the sun to appear near the massive silhouette of Uluru in the east. It didn’t disappoint, it never does, and I thought about my friends and family in the Northern Hemisphere and how the same object appeared to be setting to them. It does give one a different perspective on things.
I spent sometime watching the sunrise, and how it changed the two large rock formations, Uluru and Kanta Tjuta, that brought me and the Anangu people here so many centuries apart. Here is a link to some more photographs of my last sunrise in Central Australia. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/australia/nggallery/australia/australia-day-sixteen-desert-gardens-sunrise-walk-february-19-2016
It was with a sad feeling I walked back to my hotel knowing in a short time I would be living this magical place in the desert. I returned to my room finished packing and was off to the airport for my flight south to Tasmania.
The first leg of my journey was a short flight to the desert town of Alice Springs. I wanted to spend some time here but couldn’t fit it into me schedule. We landed and I learned how hot it can be on my short walk from the plane to the terminal. It was a short layover and I was soon on another plane heading to Melbourne.
It was a nice two hour flight and we again crossed the red soils of the outback deserts and salt lakes. I had a window seat and spent my time watching the vast territory pass beneath our plane.
The landscape became more green and brown as the desert gave way to ranches and farm land as we neared Melbourne. We descended into the airport over a vast metropolis. I wasn’t aware Melbourne was so large. I had expected a short layover, but, as often occurs on one’s travels, and in life, my expectations were not met.
I left the plane, found my gate for my next flight, and a message on a screen that the flight would be delayed. No other information, nor anyone to ask, was available. So I sat and waited, for almost three hours. Needles to say I wasn’t happy, not where and other of the passengers on the flight, I edited some photographs and did some reading, I brought along Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad but hadn’t had much of an opportunity to read it, since my train ride from Sydney to Perth. I did some reading and was happy to finally board the plane around 9 o’clock p.m. for the short flight to Hobart on the Island of Tasmania.
I had planned to get into Hobart around 7:30 p.m and to have some light to explore the city before it got dark. Well my plans changed since it was dark when we landed around 10 p.m and I still had a twenty minute ride to my hotel. I checked in quickly, and although I was tired from a long day of travel, I decided to walk to the harbour under the waxing gibbous moon.
I have heard of Tasmania for many years, since my days of watching the famous Bugs Bunny cartoon and that crazy character, the Tasmanian Devil. The quaint harbour I found under the moonlight was nothing like I imagined. I always love port cities and the dark just added to my curiousity. I roamed the streets, in the much cooler temperatures, it was in the mid 50’s, around the waterfront for a bit but I was tired and anxious to get some sleep and get up early the next morning to explore this city in the daylight. I returned to my room, tired from the traveling, but anxious for what i will find in the morning. It was another good day in the land down under. Here is a link to some more photographs from my travel to Hobart. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/australia/nggallery/australia/australia-day-sixteen-desert-gardens-sunrise-walk-february-19-2016
“Stop ye travellers as you pass by
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, soon you shall be –
Prepare yourself to follow me. ―Tombstone epitaph in Tasmania Australia
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