i've had some time now to start to process and reflect on the impact of my second trip to alice springs.

this time i was with my wonderful in-laws and my kids and got to explore more of the country and to see uluru and kata tjuta - both striking in their presence and tangible spirituality. like unexpected cathedrals they rise up from unremarkable, scrubby plains.

uluru i found almost frightening in its severe presence and size and the unexpectedness of it in the surrounding flatness.

it also had a weird over-familiarity that it seemed to resent - white australia has conscripted it for an icon when it is so much itself. kata tjuta i found more welcoming and accepting perhaps because it has less symbolic ownership by whitefellas.


i had the same feeling of desire for connection with the landscape that struck me so powerfully last year. The country, the colours and textures just blow me away – this might sound daft but I can also feel something that’s like a low vibration – not a sound but something like a frequency just out of range. i'm sure that this is because it is not my country. and yet it affects me like a deep continuous yearning – I want to go back and just sit and listen.