Going...going...gone.
Australia's best known landscapes and natural wonders are disappearing.

Not literally of course, but they are vanishing behind a fog of tourist busses and red tape.

There was a time for example when you could experience Uluru (or Ayres Rock it was called), you could actually camp in the shadow of the rock and feel the mysticism of the place.

Or so I'm told, I didn't come to central Australia until this year, way too late for anything like that. These days you can't camp within a bull's roar of the rock. You can't even see it from the campground at Yulara, which is probably just as well because at $30 per night most of us can't afford to camp there anyway.

It's not the fault of the rangers, nor the traditional land owners; not even the bollard-wielding bureaucrats.

The problem lies with all of us, there's just too damn many people, and where there's more people there's more idiots who do the wrong thing, and more rules to curtail the idiots.

So yes, we've now seen Uluru, but I will never be able to say I've experienced it, and neither will you unless you've already done so.

Still, despite my grumbling, Uluru and Kata Tjuta really should be seen by every Australian (and non-Australian for that matter) before they die. They are quite amazing.

Now what have I learned from this experience, I learned that I should have come here in the 70s when I was last in the Territory. I also learned that we should now go and experience as many places as possible before they too vanish into the fog.

There's no time like now, don't wait until you retire in twenty years, unless you're happy to just see things, and not experience them.

Till next time then, and remember,

don't dream it, be it!