Bill Bryson's Uluru
I've just finished Bill Bryson's terrific travel book 'Down Under' and was stunned at how magically he described what I've tried to explain so many times. Yes, yes, he's the master of the pen, I'm far from it even in my dreams. Anyway, this is what he says: ".... And then you see it, and you are instantly transfixed. (...) It's not that Uluru is bigger than you had supposed or more perfectly formed or in any way different from the impression you had created in your mind, but the very opposite. It is exactly what you expected it to be. You know this rock. You know it in a way that has nothing to do with calendars and the covers of souvenir books. Your knowledge of this rock is grounded in something much more elemental. In some odd way that you don't understand and can't begin to articulate an acquaintance with it - a familiarity on an unfamiliar level...." Thank you, Mr Bryson, for expressing the feelings I had when I first saw Stoneheng