The Ghan Expedition – Uluru

Up again at 5am and on the road at our usual time. Our first stop today was at Curtain Springs Station, a cattle property of 1 million acres. We had a talk from an amazing lady, Lyndy, who with her husband owns this station. Her husband’s parents bought it in 1956 in a foreclosure sale. Her husband’s father and mother moved onto the station and immediately experienced a 9 year drought. Their arrival also coincided with the start of people traveling out to see the Rock and the track ran through the middle of their station so as an alternate source of income they started catering to tourists, firstly with fuel and food, and latterly with accommodation units and a caravan park. In the days before air conditioning, the mother used to be able to hear a car coming from 20 miles away and would be waiting for it in the middle of the road with a tray of scones.

We had lunch in a modified version of what had originally been the station homestead . It wasn’t till the 9 year drought broke that the family realised that their roof was not waterproof. The other amazing feature of this property is their cattle management. No mustering here. All the water points on the property are enclosed in stockyards with one way gates in and out. The cows teach their calves how to use the gates and when the station needs to collect the cattle they just shut the ‘out’ gate.

Back on the road, after a couple of hours we saw our first glimpses of Uluṟu as we crested some sand dunes. With the wet summer and some rains persisting into the normal dry season, the surrounding country was really at its prime. Lyndy had mentioned in her talk that she didn’t expect  to see the country looking this good again in her lifetime.

It is quite amazing to see the Rock appear in the distance. It just looks unreal. We drove up to the parking area near one side and walked along it. It was quite an emotional sensation being alongside it. All the Rock’s waterholes were filled with clear water and there was even a small waterfall off it on one side. 

My words cannot adequately describe Uluṟu and our pictures really don’t do it justice. The best I can do is to say that if you haven’t been there you really have to go, to see and feel the sensations it generates for yourself. It is a truly amazing place.

We checked into our hotel, Sails in the Desert. We had a beautiful room and the staff were great. At 5pm we were picked up for the ‘Sounds of Silence’ Dinner. We were wearing every piece of warm clothing we had.

We were dropped off near a sandhill which we climbed to the top, and had drinks and canapes while we watched the sun set. Very impressive.

We then wandered down the other side of the sandhill where they had tables set out and under a Milky Way like you have never seen, had a lovely buffet dinner after which a guy with a powerful laser pointer talked about the various constellations, pointing them out as he did.

Only downside was that it was absolutely freezing cold and we wound up in a tight ring of people surrounding a gas outdoor heater trying to get just a bit of warm.

All in all a very memorable day.