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Published: January 26th 2006
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"Our Emu Run Tour Bus"
"The bus was well equipped, air conditioned and had a large tank of fresh water stowed below, thank goodness" 21st December 2005
Oh dear! I have been under the misapprehension that Uluru was a
short bus or taxi ride out of Alice Springs. How wrong can a person be? It is actually 440 Km, or 41/2 hours away. In other words the distance between London and Exeter.
Well too late, the trip was booked on the internet in London so we are committed, so we were picked up at 6.00am by the Emu Run Bus and after a couple of pick- ups, we headed out on the Stuart Highway into the countryside. We had two guides who were probably in their late fifties or early sixties but were really informative and shared the driving between them. To me the bush was interesting, I kept scanning the countryside for a Kangaroo or Wallaby but nothing showed, then I found out that in fact they only show at early dawn or evening and are mostly nocturnal creatures and come out for prey or forage for food after dark. The bush surprisingly was alive with plant life, flowering bushes, trees and rich grass clumps. Ray, one of our guides stated that they had had plenty of rain recently and the desert
"Mount Connor"
"It looked like Arthur Conan Doyles Lost World rising out of the bush" had bloomed.
Then turning right onto the Lassiter Highway after about 2 hours we stopped at the Mount Ebenezer roadhouse where we had a call of nature stop and cold drinks, we looked around the gift shop and bought a few souvenirs caps and stubby cooler holders. In Oz speak for the uninitiated stubbies are small bottles of beer. Soon we were on our way again, the roads are incredibly straight and once the sun was at its zenith you get shimmering mirage’s on the road so that objects that are in the distance appear larger. In fact there was so little traffic on the road that you could count the number of vehicles on two hands that passed us in the opposite direction. There were a few enormous road trains; these consisted of a front lorry and trailer with two other trailers behind it. These monster transports can be up to 53.5 metres long. Soon we were informed that we would be getting a photo opportunity of Mount Connor, which is on a huge cattle ranch property of over a million Hectares, including Mount Connor.
Then in the distance out of the bush appeared what looked like
"The Olgas"
"Like the upper bodies of a herd of Elephants, set into the bush" a Lost World elevated plateau, the walls which looked very shear rose out of the red flat plain. The coach stopped and we got out and climbed up a red sand dune to take panoramic photos of it and also a drying white salt lake which really was a contrast to the surrounding red oxide landscape we were standing in and the piercing blue sky. The temperature was 40 deg C plus but very dry, so once we got back to the coach we drank deeply from the large bottles of water we had brought with us.
On our way again, Ray one of our guides, told us that we would be getting to the first stop at Yalara, the visitors centre in Kata Djuta National Park. We arrived at 11.30am however once there we found the visitors centre was closed for lunch, between 11.30 - 12.30am (very useful hmmm!!) Ray our guide, told us that the park and centre were owned by one company and that they were a Law unto themselves. There was even a strong rumour that Uluru (Ayres Rock) would be closed off in the future and visitors would only view it from a distance,
"The Canyon Walk"
"The scenery was spectacular, but the flies were a pest" a bit like Stone Henge in the UK. Soon we were on our way again and heading for the Olga's, named by an explorer who chose to name it after the ruling European Princess of his central European Country.
The Olga's looked like a series of large red oxide rounded heads rising out of the bush. We made a stop and went on an hour walk through a cleft canyon on a gritty then rocky path marked out with little walkways. The scenery was spectacular; the heat was fantastic 45 deg C in the shade making it 50 deg C in the sun. The flies were really terrible, very persistent so we were glad to get back in the bus and air conditioning and away from the flies. We were also drinking loads of water however the bus was well equipped with a fresh water storage tank stowed below, where we could refill our bottles when required. They also had Melon, (three different types); apples, oranges and plenty of other food refrigerated so even if we did get stuck we would survive!
Then we were driven to Uluru (or Ayres Rock, as it was once known). We drove
"Our jovial intrepid guide Ray"
"Complete with Jomo Kenyata fly wisk" around the rock (much larger than I had imagined). Ray regaled us with Aborigine stories of Giant Snakes, Emu and Kangaroo, battles between good and evil really in their legends. Shapes that looked like these mystical creatures could be made out in the rock, scorpions, snakes, emu and holes in the rock made by spears from giant men. We then went out on one of two walks, the first one with Ray who told us further legends and also of bush tucker, the bush plum, a berry the size of a small grape which I tasted and can confirm, it did have a jammy taste to it... The Aborigine would gather these in as well as other bush tucker and sweet substances too numerous to mention, but they did manage to survive on these. One of these is the Honey Ant that swallows a sticky root substance and its body fills and expands and becomes transparent. The Aborigine dig for these and hold the body and eat the yellow sticky substance, the ant obviously dies. But there are millions of them so it has no effect on the eco system. In the bush as elsewhere in Australia, moisture is the
"Uluru" (Ayres Rock)
"The sun just dropped through the clouds on the horizon to light the rock like a burning ember" prime importance, water is gold here in the temperatures we were experiencing a body can soon dehydrate.
While we walked around a girl in our party suddenly exclaimed “What’s that on my leg?” Ray sprang into action and said "it’s a centipede, get it off her it will bite". It was at least 150mm long her partner brushed it off and ray picked it up and put it in the bush. He explained that centipedes here did indeed bite but that they are not poisonous and would only give a nasty nip. He further explained that if we came across any snakes and were in a distance of 1 metre to any, we were to stand perfectly still. Apparently they have such short memories and bad eyesight they forget and only strike on movement if you move within the striking distance they can strike you in a fraction of a second. If you are further away you can back off slowly “then run like hell”. At this point in the tour I was looking down at my legs and the surrounding path a lot, imagining what horrors awaited. But in truth these creatures were more afraid of us than
"Wave Rock"
"The grey colour is the original rock colour,the red is caused by Oxidisation of the iron in the rock" we were of them. We also went on a further walk with Bob, the other guide, and looked at the Aborigine rock paintings and water hole in a sort of Oasis at the base of the Rock which was also very interesting. I just had not realised that all this existed at the rock, so it was all very illuminating. The only real pest, were the flies which were really bad, there were a lot of Aussie salutes going on (waving of hands in front of the face).
Soon we returned to the blessed air-conditioned coach and drove a few km from the rock to wait on the sunset. Once at the viewing place, the coach was parked, we were treated to an Aussie beef sausage BBQ, cooked by Ray and Bob and a salad, Champagne and red wine. Really nice apart from the flies, but as the sun got lower in the sky, the flies went to bed and it was more bearable. There were quite a few clouds in the sky and we wondered what the sunset would be like, but on the horizon in the west there was a break and the sun sank nicely towards
"Buds, at the base of the rock"
"Third from left with the hat and a smile" this. The rock changed from a dark brown, grey to golden orange then most spectacularly almost a crimson red. Soon it was gone and we made our way back to the coach and were soon on our way home. We were soon in the dark and sleepily travelling the 440 Km back to Alice Springs. We stopped once again at the Mount Ebenezer road house, then back in Alice Springs by 1.15 am in the morning straight to bed and exhausted we went straight to sleep.
Keep Logging on, “A Town like Alice” next.
Regards
Richie
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