"Don't get heatstroke at Ayers Rock"...

...that's what mum said. Fat chance, we were more likely to get frostbite!

We've just arrived in Sydney from Ayers Rock. Had a great time there, but the weather wasn't quite what we were expecting - 1.5 degrees for our first trip to the rock meant my shorts weren't quite the best attire.

We went out to the Rock several times, for sunrise, sunset, and to walk around the base (we didn't climb it - it's disrespectful to the aboriginees, plus we were already shattered!). Sharon found the base walk rather tedious, but then I always said she had the attention span of a budgie (Hello Smokey!) . The walk is rather circular, with flat rock on one side and outback on the other for three hours! The rock was very impressive in the way it changed colour at sunrise and sunset - well worth visiting.

We also walked around the Olgas (Kata Tjuta for the politically correct...), which was a bit more exciting, and as we were the only people there was a bit more atmospheric. We also saw a lot more bird-life, which kept Sharon happy - hundreds of zebra finches making strange squeaking noises.

Went to an observatory last night and had a talk about general astronomical stuff (that's as much detail as I can remember!). We did get to see Jupiter and some of its moons through a telescope, which was very cool. The sky in the outback is amazing - without light pollution, the sky is just full of stars, and the milky way shows up really clearly.

We've now arrived in Sydney, and just been out to Chinatown for some food. Annoyingly there is no way to add photo's from the internet place we're in, so you've been spared another picture of Craig in shorts.

Thanks for all the comments, it's nice to know that people are reading this, and that we're not just updating it for nothing!