Friday February 27...our trip to Uluru

  Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Northern Territory, Australia
Friday, May 8, 2009

Our bus for the Emu Tour to Uluru and the Olgas came to the hotel at 5.50am. We toured about town picking up at various lodgings, all the time getting glimpses of the sunrise. The trip is 1100 kilometres altogether. By 8.30 we had arrived at Elundra 200kms from Alice Springs.at the junction of the Stuart Highway and Lassiter Highway which turns off to Yulara. We were advised to acquire fly nets and a 600ml minimum bottle for water. We had brought both with us. As the day progressed we refilled our bottles from a huge tank under the bus and were exceedingly glad of it. If we thought flies in Alice bad, these were infernal! The surrounding areas so far have been red scrubland with surprising amounts of trees and shrubs. Apparently in December there was a fair amount of rain (all things are relative however, so how much - who knows!) which encouraged the greenery we saw. We saw lots of cattle grazing. There are 5 cattle stations between Alice and Uluru 500 kilometres apart. It seems there are also wild camels, kangaroos   and wild horses called brumbies but we didn't see any. We saw Mount Ebenezer a  ranch which has has an artesian basin 800 feet underground which was discovered when drilling took place looking for oil Right aligned photo tag:
In the distance we saw a settlement of the Amamfa people, the local aborigines. The guide said that their houses have a large veranda all around. There is a living room for women and children with a kitchen adjacent. The men's room is accessed only from outside with no entry to or from the main house. It seems these homes are prefabricated and installed on site.
Angus Downs is the smallest station we crossed only 50,000acres. Ocasionally we saw clumps of eucalyptus trees in amongst the scrub at "water holes" This shows that water is very close to the surface - like an oasis I guess. When we passed the turn off for Kings' Canyon we still had 136kms left and it was 10:05am. The driver talked of how the old road had been "bituminized" what we call "tarred". A water soak is a kind of pond or water hole where cattle go to drink and soak themselves to cool off.. We saw them from time to time. Desert oak trees drop their cones which are only burst open by bush fires. Fires are started by lightening.. When it rains in November the "starting rains" cause the seeds to germinate. The young trees are very thin until they get roots deep enough, about 30 feet. Then they fill out and the greenery is high up to survive the grass fires. The bark is thick enough to withstand the heat and the roots deep enough to not suffer.Left aligned photo tag:   We had a toilet break at a "long drop dunny" and then climbed a steep,very red sand dune. Left aligned photo tag:
At the top we saw a salt lake and in the distance Uluru and the Olgas. In 1985 was the "Hand Back" when aboriginal peoples were given back some of their lands. (Reminiscent of Canadian First Nations land claims).   The National Park has a board of 4 aboriginal men, 4 aboriginal women and 3 park rangers. They oversee the running of the park. We stopped at Yulara the rsort village outside the national park. It can house 5000 in high season and gets 500,000 people a year. It is expensive and why we stayed in Alice Springs. We quickly visited the Cultural Centre which is made of Tasmaian Pine in the shape of two snakes, Kuna and Leura (spelling?) Kuna python represents culture; Leura, poisonous black snake, contains gift shop and snack bar ( pretty expensive).