Beware the sleeping Emu!

---

Kings Canyon - Curtin Springs

I was out of bed at 7.30 and we soon got into packing up mode, Andy re inflated the tyres as we will now be on bitumen all the way to Uluru, unfortunately one side of the compressor has stopped working which meant that he had to finish re inflating the tyres at the garage before we left the resort.



We both had a thoroughly great time at Kings Canyon it felt like a holiday, I would be tempted to do the rim walk again this morning, but we do need to move on, we actually pulled out of the Kings Canyon Resort at 8.53



Our plan for the day is to drive to Curtin Springs which is only about 50k's before you get to Uluru, otherwise we have a 314k drive ahead of us and that means we may not get to the camp site until late and as we have been told it gets exceptionally busy there and they start squeezing people in at the back near the noisy generators.



So I devised a plan to break the journey today and then drive the short distance to Uluru tomorrow morning, get ourselves booked into the campsite and then we hope to make the most of the day tomorrow.



We look at the fabulous view of the ranges disappear as we drive out of the area, spooking couple of camels as they run away from us into the scrub, this brings our camel count in the wild to12 out of the 700,000.



I had been rummaging around my music collection a couple of days ago and found an album that I did not know I had, or at the very least, forgotten that I had, so this morning we are driving to some great tunes from "The Very Best of School Disco" superb compilation album giving a mixture of both Andy and my favourites.



At 10am we pull over at a rest area for a short break and what most travellers classify as morning tea. Andy made a flask of hot water earlier so it does not take long to make a cup of tea, a quick ginger biscuit and we are mobile again.



Eventually we take our turn to the Lasseter Highway and in the distance I can see Mount Connor this massive red rock sticks out across the scrubby landscape, eventually we get to the lookout to take pictures, across the road we climb over a red sand dune and there is a massive salt lake on the other side, the stark white sticks out against the red landscape. The only reason why we went over the dune was because we saw other people going over it otherwise we may have missed it.



It was midday when we arrived at Curtin Springs and our allocated overnight spot which gives us a nice easy run into Uluru tomorrow. Camping is free here unless you have a powered site, but we have been on power for a couple of nights so perfectly happy to go without tonight,



Finding North on the compass we find a nice spot to camp, we need the rear end of Gypsy to point North as we want the sun directly on the solar panel. We get the awning up for some shade but very quickly we find that we need our fly nets, now we have come across some places where the flies are just plain annoying but here there a thousands of the damn things buzzing around you, it is so bad that one guy offered Andy $100 for his fly net, but no chance we are keeping these fly nets, I wonder if he would have paid $200?



We had a steak sandwich in the roadhouse, they use their own beef, it is a working station, but personally I did not think much of the sandwich, for the price of it there was barely any steak and what was there was gristle and a little too rare for my taste. The upshot was that I think I just paid $15 for two slices of bread, some lettuce, tomato and a few chips. I know it is the outback, but I did expect a bit more steak.



The rest of the afternoon was spent hiding in the trailer in the hope that the flies would vanish, they will but when it gets dark.



This area is tour bus heaven, there are so many tour buses on this route, the road is busy and I think this is the way it will be for us while we are in this area, one of the biggest attractions in Australia and a must see on most bucket lists.



I showered for $3 it was ok, but it was a shower.

In the late afternoon, we head off for a refreshing drink in the bar, an old gentlemen was sat at the bar with a dog at his feet, the dog looked just as old and weary, Andy said "g'day old fella" he looked at Andy and said "are you talking to me?" Andy said "no, the dog, I was always taught to respect my elders". Turns out to be the station owner, Peter Severin.



The night cools down, we have soup for our tea which is nice and warming, we had to eat indoors, we thought the flies had gone when we prepared our tea, but as soon as the food was there they swarmed again, so we sat inside until we had eaten.



Emu, found herself a nice cosy little spot in the bush next to us, she sat down and tucked her head in and then went to sleep, we had a little friend for the night, we walked past her and she was sound asleep, I wondered how long she would be there. It looks like she has been here for a long while and obviously knows how to scavenge, signs in the pub and restaurant tell people not to feed the emu.



An uneventful evening and an early night.

---

Photos

Beware the sleeping Emu
The camp site Emu, seemed to have a place of its own, which just happened to be about 10 feet from Gypsy.

Wandering Emu
The camp Emu just wandered in to have a look around.

Just walking past
Minding my own business

Comments

[holamundo]

the famous emu
We loved seeing the pictures of the emu in Curtin Springs. Just Great. We spend a night there more than 3 years ago - and also had the emu around us all the time we were there: http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/4232592 And you are right - the shower was, well, a shower. ;-) But at our time, at least, it was for free. Hope you will enjoy Uluru. We loved it, but the amount of tourists was really annoying. Safe travels, Nina & Mark