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Day one - Alice Springs to Kings Canyon and camping
at Curtin Springs
You will
be picked up from your Alice Springs accommodation at 6 am ( Pick up
from Ayers Rock is possible ). Our first destination is Kings Canyon in
Wattarka National Park. Enjoy a guided three hour hike through
the weathered sandstone domes of the ‘Lost City’, pass the remains of an
ancient sea bed and follow the path down to the ‘Garden of Eden’ - a
hidden waterhole with lush vegetation and wildlife.
Next we
drive to Curtin Springs, a working cattle station on the Lasseter
Highway, 85 kilometres from Uluru. This is where we set up camp for the night
as your guide prepares a healthy camp-oven dinner. Relax around the fire then
curl up in your swag and fall asleep looking up at the millions of
stars in central Australia’s clear night sky.
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Pick up was at 515am. I was first and driver was
Tom, a nice young man. All up there were 21 guests on the bus – a mixed bag of
backpackers and older overseas couples and an Aussie couple in their sixties I
guess. We briefly introduced ourselves and created a "guide" on the front window - worked well!
Our first stop was at Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse for a coffee and, as we were
leaving, the TDA Riders rocked up in their luxury coach en route to Uluru.
By the time we arrived at Kings Canyon the main
trail was closed due to the heat so we did the shorter walk and then went to
Kathleen Springs for a “make up” walk.
Lunch was a cheese and ham roll. After a
while we stopped by the side of the road to find fire wood for tonight’s camp
dinner.
On the way to camp we were fooled by Mt Conner
which looked like Uluru in the distance. We stopped at the lookout and also checked out the salt lake across the road. We had a pit stop at the Curtin
Springs Roadhouse before rolling into camp at high speed with loud music along
a dirt track.
Tom made a great fire and used the glowing charcoals as his bush oven. Dinner was good!
I was very tired and went to my
swag earlier than the others. Tom convinced the youngsters that there were
dingoes snakes and big spiders out there and the only way to protect themselves
was to have a dingo rock (to throw at the dingo), to get a stick and carve out
a rut around the swag to keep the snakes away and to spread salt around the
swag to deter spiders! See next morning's photo for the evidence!
It had been a long, tiring and jam packed day and I slept well in my swag under the stars.
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