Lap Around Australia Curtin Springs to Uluru

Curtin Springs to Uluru

We got away from Alice Springs quite early in the morning. It has been very cold in the mornings here, getting down as low as -4 degrees! We drove down the Stuart Highway towards Erldunda, where we were told the fuel was relatively cheaper than most. By the queues of cars waiting to fuel up here they weren't wrong.
After getting fuel we stopped a while in their carpark for some morning tea. Beautiful moist sultana cake cooked in the Weber last night. Yum!

 

We stopped off on our way to Curtin Springs at a viewing point to see Mt Conner. It's easy to see how some people might confuse this with Uluru. We passed a road train of seven carriages being pulled by a Landrover Discovery. It turns out they were filming a commercial  for Landrover. We found this out because we ran into the film crew later that evening at Curtin Springs while we were having dinner there..

Staying at Curtin Springs was a real hoot! The campground (unpowered sites) was free. You had to pay $3 each for showers, which were pretty basic and rustic but at least reasonably clean. The cleaning crew came through with hoses and hosed down everything. Toilets showers the lot. Cleaning done!

That night we dined out at the restaurant. Meals were around $25 and very generously portioned. We had a really fun evening hearing stories of why Steve fell out of bed last night. Turns out he was dreaming he was being chased by a dinosaur!

We got away early the next morning as we'd been able to stay hitched up in this campsite, and drove on to Ayres Rock campground.
We'd booked in a few days ago, and had three powered sites side by side. It wasn't too difficult backing in and getting level either.

We went to have a look around at the Yulara precinct and book in for the "Field of Light" tour the next day. We chose the $39/person option although some that included dinner were hideously expensive!

We had a brief look around at the shops, museum and art gallery near the Desert Gardens Hotel.
They had several dioramas of stuffed birds and animals and an old aboriginal lady was doing dot painting in the upper level. A young aboriginal man gave us a demonstration of didgeridoo playing too. Karen, Kathy and Barb all bought matching aboriginal art print hats. A great memento of our stay.

Just before sunset we all drove out to the National park, where we had to purchase a three day pass for $25/person to enter, so we could view Uluru at sunset. They had a very long strip of parking for this purpose and people were strung out along the pathway snapping photos as the light changed.
The area was roped off with signs everywhere saying not to go beyond as this disturbs the ecology of the fragile native environment. One young foreign man ( who we nicknamed "Harlequin man" because of his weird attire) angered those around him, by flagrantly ignoring the signs and climbing over the ropes to set up his tripod to take his photos. He was blocking the view of many people, and when challenged was completely disrespectful to all and just couldn't give a stuff about anyone else. Such a narcissist!
We managed to get some good shots anyway. Our Uluru experience has begun!