Wasn't that a different day!
Woke up at 7ish in the camp grounds at Uluru. We had a breakfast and set off for Kings Creek. It is about 300km north of Uluru. Basically drive east 100km, north 100km and then west 100km. And we saw 3 vehicles all day. To say its big vast emptiness would be kind.
Here is a lovely picture of Uluru.
On the way we stopped at a roadhouse for tea and cake. Excellent place. The shop sold petrol, pharmacy stuff, food, tea, was a campsite, car repair, had a few injured animals and had a wall full of Aussie jokes. It felt like the real outback - and nothing like Christmas day.
We arrived at Kings Creek camel station around lunch time. Its a camel station because a major part of their business is to round up camels in the desert and sell them. Camels were introduced when Europeans settled the outback as beasts of burden because they were better adapted than horses. However, once cars and the railway came along they were set loose amongst the desert to natrulise. And now they are considered pests as they eat too much. Same story actually for rabbits, cats, foxes. All were introduced by Europeans and are all now ruining the natural habitat.
After resting from the midday sun we then went for a walk around Kings Canyon - which is called the Grand Canyon of Australia. Its not quite that spectacular but its still pretty impressive. Heat had cooled to 34C by 4 o'clock and with the cooling breeze it felt pretty good. We are being told that we are lucky to only have a temperature of 34C at the moment (today , Friday its 36C) as it should be over 40 at this time of year. It is increasing day by day though.
In the evening we cooked Christmas tea. We had no oven so no turkey. However all 6 of us had bought a Christmas treat. So we had nibbles, Christmas pudding, mince pies, gin and tonic. Very nice and very hot too.
Made a few phone calls and then to bed. A different experience and one to remember!
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