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Published: October 16th 2014
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Salt Pan Near Mt Connor Lookout
This is only a small salt pan compared to some others in the area but we couldn't see the far side. We awoke to discover that it was still too windy and in the wrong direction to travel to Coober Pedy so we paid for another night.
After breakfast, I did some reading on the local area and discovered that Mt Olga, the tallest peak in the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) that we saw on Tuesday, is 206 metres taller than Uluru – which was a surprise. Even Mt Connor, that we can see from the caravan park and is actually part of the Curtin Springs Cattle Station property, is 6 metres taller than Uluru, at 354 metres. It isn’t a monolith (a single large rock), though, but a 700 million year old sandstone mesa. It was named by the explorer William Gosse in 1873.
Having read about Mt Connor, I suggested to Barry that we go and have another look at it and the nearby salt pan that I’d just learned about. He agreed, so we set off for the Mt Connor Lookout, 11 kms down the road.
Mt Connor is quite a distance away across the Station’s private land so it looked a bit misty and not as red as it would be close up but was still
Wild Flowers on the Sand Dune
This was the sand dune we climbed from the road to see the salt pan. The soft sand quickly filled my shoes so I took them off. The sand was hot but lovely to sink your feet into. imposing and I took a few photos. There was also a fresh rainwater tank at the rest area and someone had put a plastic container under the tap for people to top up for the birds (a common practice in the outback). The Zebra Finches were making good use of it and large numbers kept coming down to drink and then taking fright and rising up into the trees nearby where they squeaked away noisily – just to return a few minutes later.
I had found out that the salt pan was visible from the top of the sand dune on the opposite side of the road so we crossed the Highway and climbed up. It was quite hard going as the sand was very fine and our feet sank into it. It also got into our shoes so we were walking on little piles of sand inside them. I decided it would be easier to take them off and go bare footed. It felt wonderful and smooth, although a little too hot unless you sank your feet below the surface, which I did.
There were lots of clumps of wildflowers all over the very red dune, which
Zebra Finches Enjoying the Water
The water tank at the Mt Connor Lookout has a sign to say give the birds water. Dozens of the flighty little birds come down. made a lovely contrast. We didn’t see any animals, although there were footprints of birds, kangaroos and lizards and what appeared to be a snake trail (I kept my eye out for that one – very carefully!).
At the top we had a clear view right across the large salt pan. It looked very firm but evidently water from below rises and falls like the tides. Some vehicles that have been taken onto the pan have been stuck for weeks and one – a prime mover- was there 18 months before it could be recovered! I bet there wasn’t much metal left after all that time in the wet salt.
We read later that the salt used on the tables at “The Bough” – the covered meals area at Curtin Springs Wayside Inn – comes from rock salt taken from the salt pan.
We enjoyed looking around but then several bus-loads of tourists arrived so we decided it was time to leave. As we climbed back down the dune I noticed one man half filling a plastic zip top bag with the red sand as a souvenir. I’d just emptied nearly as much out of my shoes!
Bit of Fun from Curtin Springs
The bar at Curtin Springs Wayside Inn was full of silly signs and fun like this. On the way back to the van the fuel warning beeper went off. We only had enough left to do about 20kms so the first job on returning was filling the tank – at the exorbitant price of $2.18 per litre – our most expensive so far!
We had lunch and then I spent the whole afternoon peeling, cutting and preparing all the fresh fruit and vegetables we had in the fridge ready to cook it all before we crossed into South Australia. There are heavy penalties if you get caught with anything bought in another state and I didn’t want to waste it. I turned the vegetables into a Vegetable Stew, which I cooked in my Dreampot (the first time I’ve used it on our travels) and boiled the mandarins in honey syrup and chopped naked ginger. The rest of the fruit became fruit salad, which we’d have for dessert and snacks. The whole job took me more than four hours and I was feeling thoroughly fed up by the end of it. I don’t know how anyone can do it as a job all day every day – I’d go crazy!
While I was cooking the food there was a muted shout from Barry outside. He’d gone for a walk and taken an apple with him. A Yellow Throated Miner Bird had landed on his arm looking for water and pecked his sweaty skin. Barry offered it the apple core and it began to sip the juice from it. Unfortunately, it flew away when I came outside with some water, but I put it down anyway. Maybe he’ll come back.
Barry shouted us dinner at the Inn’s restaurant as I couldn’t face any more cooking tonight. The menu was limited but included some of their own beef (which they have to send away to an abattoir to be slaughtered so it wasn’t cheap) and some Barramundi (imported and fairly tasteless, as it turned out). It was served with salad and chips and some large slices of bread with garlic butter, all very nice. Barry had a Four X beer and I had a cider called 5 Seeds. It was nice but it went straight to my head so I only drank half and brought the rest back to the van for another day (stoppered with a gadget from my kitchen to keep it fresh).
While we were eating, sitting in the covered meals area, we read a board that said it was called “The Bough” and had been the original homestead in 1956 for three years – with walls, of course! We’d finished our meal and then I noticed a large pepper grinder further up the long table with a sign on it. Turned out to be full of the rock salt from their salt pan – bit late now! I tried a bit anyway and it tasted just like salt – surprise, surprise!
We also noticed a really large fluffy backed moth on the ground against one of the log pillars. He was various shades of brown and blended in well with the background. It was just as well he was tucked in so close to the pillar as the waitress kept walking along that way to serve the meals.
When we got back to the van, I emptied out the Dreampot and put everything into plastic boxes in the fridge ready for travelling.
Barry checked the weather forecast and it looked as though it was going to be just as bad tomorrow. We’d noticed that the wind dropped considerably overnight and seemed to increase as soon as the sun came up. We decided to get up really early in the morning and try to get along the road a bit before sunup so we hitched the ute on and got everything shipshape for departure. Then early to bed.
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