To Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Original Curtin Springs Station

The road from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock takes about 5 hours of driving. Most of this land (as is ¼ of Australia) is covered with Spinifex grass and Acadia Trees. Spinifex is indigestible for most animals, but is eaten by termites which then provide food for other animals, particularly reptiles which are better adapted to this desert environment. We passed the Finke River on our way out of town, and Wayne remarked that this was only the second time in his 20 years of tours, that he has seen water in the riverbed. We stopped a few times along our route: for bathrooms, a camel ride, tea time, and just before lunch. Here we saw Mount Connor which Wayne fooled us into believing was Ayers Rock and a salt lake. But our most interesting was our lunch stop at Curtin Springs Station (Ranch). This is a family ranch which was started in 1956. They moved into temporary quarters (just a reed roof with no walls) and they started their cattle ranch. For the first week, it rained all week. However, it didn’t rain again for 9 years. That is the problem with this area, there is a 7-10 year cycle of dry, then rain, making it difficult to ranch. Thus every ranch needs a secondary source of income, and these folks chose to build accommodations, a bar and restaurant for tourists. Of course, this took a while to establish. The first year here, only 6 people passed by the road (dirt at that time) and two of those were relatives checking whether they were okay? In the 60’s it rained most of the decade so they got up to 1600 cattle on their 1600 square mile ranch. Eventually, a tour bus started running between Alice Springs and Ayers Rock, it took 2 days to get here and another day to get to the rock. As cars started driving through the area, they always needed gas, so the family established a ‘petro station’ that eventually grew to their current operation. While they had cattle, there was no licensed slaughter house, so they established that here and began flying slaughtered beef throughout Australia. Eventually they shut this down, but a few years later, learned that they could make paper from the spinifex grass, so the slaughter house was repurposed for this and they sell the paper to tourists. The water for the cattle always has to be pumped from underground, originally by windmills, then by diesel, and now by solar power. They position the wells along their fence lines, so that the cattle can easily be moved from one paddock (field) to another. The cattle enter by a one directional gate to the water trough and then leave by another. If they need to work the cows they lock the out gate. Today, they employ 17 people to staff the place, only one of which is a cowhand. Because of the safety rules and limited hours for employees, most of the cattle operations are actually run by the 4 family members.

Kata Tjuta

Later that afternoon, we visited Kata Tjuta, a rock formation, we never heard of, but which is quite famous as a complement to Uhulu or Ayers Rock. The flies were everywhere, so we wore nets over our faces to avoid them. The formation is made of sandstone conglomerate and was quite picturesque. The Petersen Range formed here 500 Million years ago, before plant life. Eventually, an alluvial plain was formed as the range was eroded. The plain sank below the sea and the pressure of the numerous rocks formed sedimentary rock, which rose out of the sea some 300 million years ago.

The highlight of the day was sunset at Uluru rock. We had Champaign and hor d’ouerves while we watch the sun gradually set. It was a beautiful sight, and we are eager to get a closer look tomorrow.