18 March (Ayer’s Rock):

This morning’s activity was a walk through the Kata Tjuta (a companion rock formation to Ayer’s Rock) followed by a visit to an Aboriginal Cultural Center for a talk by a village elder about Aboriginal history and culture. In many ways it reminded me of hearing talks about Navajo arts and crafts in Arizona given by an authentic Navajo wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt and Nike running shoes…..but it was very nice anyway.

We had an afternoon break with leisure time during which we turned on the TV to see reports that Cyclone Larry (I’m not making up the name) is bearing down on the Queensland coast heading toward Cairns where it will make landfall on Monday morning……coincidentally, we are heading for Cairns tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon for the next 2 days of our tour. Larry is currently a category 2 storm.

The evening was spent at the "Sounds of Silence" dinner. This is a nice dinner catered out in the middle of the desert. You drink champagne and watch the sunset, then after dark you eat dinner and watch the stars as you hear a lecture on the constellations of the southern hemisphere.

We awoke this morning to find that Cyclone Larry was now a category 4 storm (the worst to hit the coast of Queensland in the last 30 years) and is still heading towards Cairns. The current plan is still to go to Cairns, but that may require re-thinking if the path of the storm doesn’t shift soon. (More later).