ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

A breeding pair of Betoota Heights residents were saddened they missed the deadline to climb Uluru earlier this year – but they’re not going to let political correctness ruin their holiday.

Instead of travelling to the Red Centre this year, Mark and Glenda Pooley are going to Sydney to climb the fabled Mount Druitt, which is still open to climbing for the time being.

They hope to do the trek before the end of the month before temperature start to climb in Sydney’s Western Suburbs National Park.

“We won’t go into why we can’t climb Ayers Rock. As an Australian, I feel it’s part of who I am to climb it. Anyway, that’s not why we’re here,” said Glenda.

The Advocate joined the aging patriots in their Marx Cresent display home this morning.

Mark sat on the Natuzzi with Glenda opposite our reporter. The dull hum of the ducted airconditioning cut through the aroma left in the air by our reporter’s shoes and socks he was asked to take off at the door.

He slapped his bergen and laughed.

“So we’re climbing Mount Druitt down in Sydney. I’ve heard it’s one of the hardest climbs in Australia. Especially, if you try to climb it after dark! I thought about going to Tasmania and doing something like a Franklin River rafting trip or climbing Cradle Mountain but it’s all a bit overrated if you ask me. If you want to do something like that, then go to New Zealand and do it properly,” he said.

“We’re heading down in two weeks. We’ve been training up on the Grey Range and Glenda’s been walking up the sandhills on the edge of town. But I’ve been teaching myself how to handle a ‘ching’ in case we get approached by somebody who wants to ‘dip Glenda and I in shhhhh’. I’m getting to the point were ‘opps will disperse’ if they see us coming, I’m sure.”

More to come.

