on 7/11/02 2:51 PM, Walter Knapp at wrote:
> Some of the places I got to are probably still quiet. Alice and vicinity
> was pretty busy when I went through even back then, after long stretches
> where I saw very few cars in a whole day it was rush hour. I enjoyed the
> Olga's more than Ayer's rock as the tourists mostly only went that way
> as far as the sunset spot. The road out to Ayers Rock was not paved back
> then.
>
> I spent a lot of time looking under rock underhangs at the paintings
> too. Ones where you would stop at the station and they would hand you a
> key to the gate and send you on your way were real enjoyable. I remember
> one like that out in western NSW where a bower bird had set up just
> outside of the gate. So I got extra there.
>
> Walt
>
>
Walt
So I must have almost bumped into you, I was camped (with permission) right
near the Olgas in 1979 (such things are not possible these days), I had no
vehicle and was carrying canvas and paints and a backpack, walking out each
day to capture the landscape. I walked all through the Olgas and saw maybe
one person in three weeks. Now the road is tar all the way from the Stuart
Highway to Ayers Rock, and not only that, a whole new road has gone in from
Ayers Rock to the Olgas and that too is tarred, taking away all the magic of
that old and winding orange road leading to the distant pink and purple
humpy mountains of the Olgas. You can't walk through the Olgas any more I
don't think, just maybe stand on a square marked X to take a pretty snapshot
before retiring to your international hotel with swimming pool back at the
new vast 'village' site out from Ayers Rock. In 1979 I was whistling
polyphonic harmonies with three Pied Butcherbirds, as I painted, and at
night I slept in the folds of red sandhills and woke to the chimes of
Crested Bellbirds. (Ahh, those were the days!)
Vicki Powys
Australia
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