Following our visit yesterday to the Pioneering Women's Museum I decided to get a taste of the pioneering spirit and opted to travel the 300 miles from Alice to Uluru by camel (see photo). David on the other hand said those women did it all in the name of progress and we should respect that and go by luxury air conditioned coach. Whilst Miranda the camel was very sweet, I have to say after a 200 meter trot around the paddock I was joining David and the others in the coach!
Camels, mainly brought in from Afghanistan, were used by those early settlers to make long journeys across the outback. When the railway finally linked Adelaide to Darwin the camels were no longer needed and many of them were set free. There are now hundreds of thousand of camels and dromedaries living wild in the Australian deserts and in many cases are considered pests.
Our journey today took us through mile after mile of bush that is now used to farm cattle. Over the 300 mile journey we passed through about 3 ranches, all huge by our standards and the biggest being almost the size of Belgium. There was some greenery as it has rained last April (5months ago) but basically it is extremely arid and usually only gets meaningful rain about every 9 years. All the river creeks we saw were completely dry. Today was dry, hot and windy, the conditions most likely to give rise to fire. Our driver pointed out a vast area of charred scrub which had burned last week causing the only road from Alice to Uluru to close for 12 hours or so. A common occurrence around here.
On arrival at the Yulara resort we just had time to drop off our bags and grab a quick bite before heading off into the Uluru-KataTjuta National Park for a tour based mainly on the geology of the area. The National Park is Aboriginal Land,managed by its traditional owners and we are asked at all times to respect their cultural values such as not climbing on the rocks.
The main focus of this afternoon was a walk at the base of Kata Tjuta (silent T) or as we are more familiar with The Olgas. We learned from our guide Peter The geographical explanation as to how these most amazing rocks were formed. They are so old they even predate any life form likely to leave fossils remains. Our afternoon continued into early evening when we were treated to wine & nibbles whilst watching the sunset over that most iconic of Australian rocks, Uluru. Just amazing. Far too many photos of course but will worry about that later. Collapsed in to bed for any early night as much more to follow tomorrow.