Now Australia is bigger than most people think, so a flight from Perth to Cairns is quite a long way. Australia's main airline Qantas doesn't fly the route directly, as far as I know, and almost any flight plan from Perth to Cairns stops in Brisbane first. Sometimes, though, the route involves a layover not in Brisbane, but in a little single gate airport in the center of the outback. Our flight plan was the one that included the stop at this little airport, which is known as the Ayers Rock airport.
I was really excited to hear that this would be our layover. I wasn't sure to what extent we would be able to see the giant rock, since our layover lasted a very quick 2 hours, but I figured since it was so massive and in the middle of nowhere, it must be visible from the plane at least. And that is why my sister I fixed ourselves to the airplane window as we prepared to land, near the end of the flight. My dad, against everything I'd ever learned from riding in planes all my life, insisted we take some pictures with his camera, an electronic device no less. We did end up getting some good pictures from the air though because just as we were about to land, we spotted the rock, quite close to the airport and looking massive amongst a flat and barren outback. I fully expected to be able to see it from the ground.
I eagerly made my way off the airplane, but was immediately caught off guard by something quite sudden and unexpected. The moment I stepped out of the plane and onto the stairs outside, I was hit with a hot wind like nothing I'd felt before. It felt like someone had just opened an oven door. I soon found out that the temperature was 109 degrees. I'm pretty sure I'd never been in that kind of heat before. It was a dry heat though, and I think I finally found out what the heck that meant because even though it felt like a sauna outside, it wasn't too unbearable.
The second thing I discovered upon disembarking the aircraft was more of a disappointment. The landscape which had looked completely flat from the air was actually relatively hilly, blocking any possible view of the only reason anyone would think about coming to this airport in the first place. Obviously anyone who really wanted to see the rock, took a car from the airport and drove to the resort nearby. I was disappointed, but I wasn't ready to give up. I tracked down a bloke in a bright yellow vest who appeared to be an airport employee and simply asked if there was any way I could see Ayers Rock from the airport. He responded by saying that most people just hiked about five minutes up the road and over the hill to get a pretty good view of the thing. I relayed the message to my family and grabbed my camera. Unfortunately, due to extreme heat and extreme flies, not all members of my family were able to make the trip, but someone had to watch the bags too. The hike wasn't bad, and after pausing for a brief while to convince myself that the local deadly snakes would be too afraid of me to stick around the area, i was able to reach the top of the hill. And there was my reward, a giant rock formation, one solid piece rising out from the ground and dominating an otherwise vast and barren landscape.
Ayers Rock was quite a sight to behold, even if it was still quite a ways off in the distance. The pictures I took won't do it justice. It is one of those things you have to see with your own eyes to truly appreciate. Either way here are my pictures. I don't have the ones from the plane cause they were taken with my dads camera, but if I do get a copy of the photos, I'll be sure to post them. After taking an ample load of pictures, we made our way back to the airport and waited for our connecting flight to Cairns, which would prove to be a much different destination than the hot, arid desert outback of Ayers Rock.
