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Published: October 27th 2008
Stuart Highway
The M1 for the OutbackEarly start about 05:30 phone call quickly packed, checked out, called Stephen, had breakfast and then caught the AAT Kings bus out of Alice Springs along the Stuart Highway.
Within an hour in the middle of nowhere we passed the federal prison where the murderer of Peter Falconio is currently being held. The incident occured along this main highway basically the outbacks M1.
Soon we arrived at our first stop which was a “Camel Station”, the station doubles up as a service station with the option of camel rides in the paddock for $5, thankfully I was just happy to watch this time. I wandered around the station only to find that they had llama’s and baby camels in the next paddock. When I wandered into the restaurant which seemed to be the original shed the walls were covered old photographs showing teams of camels pulling huge loads through the outback. They were originally imported from Afghanistan and were used to bring the provisions from Adelaide to all parts of the Outback right up to Darwin about 2,000 k.m’s away. Within the restaurant I opted for an apple juice and Anzac biscuit, with time running out I took them
Camel Farm
Watching my fellow passengers onto the bus to finish there.
Suitably refreshed we motored on down the Stuart Highway to the next stop which was MT Ebenezer Cattle Ranch, where I saw my first glimpse of Aboriginal Art. I ended up by being served by a very large biker guy, when asked he took great pleasure in explaining what a lampton was with the description I decided to buy one to go with the tea that I had bought. It seems that a lampton is a large square of Victoria sandwich covered in chocolate and dipped into desicated coconut. We were soon off again and this time, I seemed to fall asleep until we arrived at the Uluru Resort.
After I arrived at the resort I again discovered that my room was not ready so I kicked around the hotel until I was ready for the next tour which was the Olga sunset and BBQ tour.
On the Bus I met up with two lovely people Mary and Joanne they very kindly looked out for me during this time. We went to the Olga’s look out point then drove round to the other side after topping the water up we went
Camel Farm
My first Dingo for a walk with the bus driver Hank. Although the walk was fairly short by UK standards 1.6 Km it was very very hot about 45 degrees C, with an empty water bottle we all headed back to the bus to get some more water, on my return I realised that I had drunk over 1 litre of water. Although lovely it reminded me of the heat in Dubai when we lived there.
In the bus Hank took us up to the other end of the Olgas where we walked up the Walpa Gorge, it was very unusual as the breeze made a sound as it went through the Gorge, the locals originally thought that it was someone talking. Although the breeze was refreshing it was still hot so we did not stay long.
We motored back to the Sunset viewing poing and with my tripod in position and a glass of champagne in hand (provided by Hank) I took some sunset photos and chatted to my fellow passengers about the tour and trip in general.
In the dark we motored on to the BBQ where I had a kangaroo kebab and salad. Sitting there in the
Mt Ebernezer
Looking at the art on the pilars middle of nowhere eating my meal with bugs and kangaroo mice at my feet was quite an experience. The guides then turned all the lights off and we saw the splendor of the stars above. With a lazer pointer the guide pointed out all of the stars such as orions belt, pegasus etc.
With these lovely thoughts we motored down to the hotel and finally my room was ready, so dragging my case through the hotel grounds I located my bungalow room 311 and fell into bed at 22:30, with the fresh air I crashed out quickly.
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