Tag Archives: lightning

November 17th, leaving day

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Evija writes:
In a while, getting up at 7:30am is wonderful! However, from another point of view – strange. Anders and Rūdolfs most likely are in the airport already… I say goodbye to Emīls after the breakfast (we were both hosted by Inga and Mārtiņš Česlis family) – he will do some sightseeing around Brisbane center and then go to the airport as well. Guna, Gunta, Agnese are trying to get some beach experience, did it work out? – there were heavy downpours, lightnings, thunders in the morning.

Me – Evija, and Ilgonis have the last meeting with Latvians today – in Brisbane Latvia house. I tell very shortly about the activities of the University of Latvia fund, but I definitely want to share the video with the “thank you”s by the stipendiaries. The gathered Latvians are keen to listen to Ilgonis’ Solar Eclipse story, and to view photos and video – this is the first time it is shown in public. The Latvians of Brisbane are warm-hearted, sunny, open and joyful! It looks like the honorary consul Juris Meija has come as well. Also he had some stories about the life here.

In general I defined my feelings about Australians here in Brisbane today – calm, leisurely, harmonic and happy. I think that such are indeed the Latvians all around Australia.

After the nice meeting with Latvians, the host Andris Francis takes and follows me and Ilgonis to Brisbane planetarium – we watch a 3D film – ooh, my head is spinning! Impressive! After that a view from the highest hilltop to Brisbane’s big buildings and then we are ready to go to Inga and Mārtiņš Česlis house where there is a do for Mārtiņdiena (day of Mārtiņš) being organized. Many local Latvians (and not only Latvians) have turned up, we are around 30 people all together. It is interesting that most of the people are in their forties come with their families and a few children – hubbub, alacrity, laughter and conversations non stop!!! Zigrīda Francis’ big pretzel has baked well and was very tasty! The cheese salad made by another Latvian were gone from the table very quickly as well… Looks like I’m in Latvia in my mind already. From our group only me, Ilgonis, Guna, Gunta, Agnese have stayed here for couple of hours – the last 4 will go straight to airport after the party while I’ll be still waiting for the morning…

To get to know Australia at least a little bit – nature, Latvians, dare oneselve’s egoism in different situations in combination of 8 people – that’s fantastic and worth the experience!

Bye, till the next Total solar eclipse!!!

November 5th – to Uluru

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Guna writes:
The alarm goes of at 5.30am, but since we had a very restless night and it’s still quite dark, I continue sleeping wondering how are our friends doing in the tent as the wind is still howling, as the storm has seemingly moved on. Luckily the rain has stopped and lightning can be seen only far away near horizon. After half an hour consciousness kicks in and I get up, wake up Gunta and Evija and after a while also Agnese and the others.

At first we decide to make fried eggs but as we all get to assess the situation outside, we opt against any cooking as the wind is so strong that it would classify as storm in Latvia. So the breakfast turn out to be exclusive yoghurt, musli, banana and rock melon. Still the food is flying straight into Emils’ mouth when facing the wind.

Despite the late start we manage to leave our campsite at 8am and a little bit later cross the SA/NA border where the time zone is +9.30 so we have even saved an extra hour.
We decided against going to Kings canyon so that at least one day could be spent in a more leisurely manner. And we were right :)
Finally the day has come when we manage to see real, close-up emus… in a petrol station, in captive…. still some baby emus and grown-ups. Very beautiful and majestic birds though I don’t quite get it, why they are kept there.

We turn to Uluru and after some 240km, false sightings and spotting of the Ayer’s rock… twice… we arrive at the national park, which belongs to the Anangu people. By the way one of the false Uluru mountains is supposed to be the most photographed mountain in Australia after Uluru. Exactly for the same reason. Unfortunately we were not exception and got excited as soon as we saw it. The real Uluru hides behind the national park border. The entrance fee is for whole 3 days which might justify its price – 25$.
First stop in the national park is Mt Olgas [Kata Tjuta] where despite the heat we manage to eat some lunch at the same time as getting 360 degrees view on the mountains.
It’s hot, some 39 degrees in the sun. So it’s cooler than the day before.

We hope the heat would stop as a walk into the Olgas would be quite hot. But we get lucky because the nearby and never ceasing storm is getting nearer and the day becomes pleasantly cloudy.
The mountains and gorge is of course spectacular and enormous (approx 500m high). However probably the best experience is on our leaving when finally a kangaroo (probably the big red one) crosses our way. We’re lucky and everybody is only happily surprised.

The weather worsens and clouds are impenetrable with occasional rain droplets when we arrive at Uluru. We have abandoned any hopes to see Uluru in sunset and settle for information center and drive around the rock. However the weather surprises us again and presents us with almost wonderful sunset which we watch reflected against the Ayer’s red rock.
We are ready to leave the national park and planning to return tomorrow and witness also the sunrise.

Our camp site again is located some place on the way back in the middle of no where but as we approach the place the sky on the horizon is weirdly sunset colors but the direction is wrong. There is again another fire, a much bigger from the looks of it and directly towards the place we need to camp.

We decide to stay on a side of the road but and watch out for the fire. The site is much nicer than the last one with some water proved.
Beef steak with pasta and salads is arranged as very satisfying dinner and at 10 pm we’re ready to go to sleep in order to get up early and see the sunrise over Uluru.