Ready to Rock
From Alice we set out on the 450 kilometre drive to Uluru (Ayre's Rock) hoping to reach it by sunset. No problem when you are driving on dead straight roads with almost no traffic apart from the occasional road train, comprising a tractor and three trailors 55 metres long all in all. In Ireland you cannot drive for a quarter of an hour at 100 mph without lifting off (I timed it). Well, maybe Ling excepted.
The outside temperature was 39 degrees which means that after two minutes outside it's time for water and certainly for hat. Mr Poodles hat was left behind in the Art Gallery in Alice later on the trip.
We were very much alert for Kangaroos. We saw them ok but all dead, roadkill every few kilometres and roasted like steaks beside the road. One or two were being feasted on by the biggest bastards, sorry bustards, that I've ever seen. Then we saw the larger meat; two dead cows and two dead camels. Yes, there are 25,000 thousand feral camels in the interior and they are doubling in number every year. They were brought here by Afghani cameleers in the pioneering days.
Wildlife that we did see in spades were fies, I cannot begin to describe their persistence around the face. Many shops sell face nets a bit like beekeepers masks. It makes a strange sight to see two Irish Poodles draped in these, with and without hats, and holding a stuffed monkey for a photo opportunity. The things one does far from home!
If I was a botanist I could write reams about the bush. I was always of the opinion that the interior was one vast barren sandy desert. In fact it is an everchanging prospect of small and large shrubs and grasses, spinafex mostly, punctuated by the occasional gum tree and stands of the most lovely 'Desert Oaks', which are ramrod straight trees with weeping leaves a bit like pine needles. The background is a rusty indian red sand/earth which has to be seen to be believed. The colour of the bush changes by the hour from many blue greens to dusty olive colours and then the red of the gum and the blackened bark of some, like soot. The wonderful 'Ghost Gum' with it's pure white bark is to be seen also. This is one vast garden and brings into comprehension the aboriginal art. In fact our drive was like travelling through a vast canvas.
About 100 ks out from Uluru we saw the giant shape of Mt Connors on the horizon, a long symetrical table shaped mass with diagonal sides falling away at each end and about half a kilometre long . We had stopped at a fuel/refreshment settlement about 200 ks back and the proprietor, Jim, directed us to Uluru by saying "watch out for the second lump on the left".
As to Jim; he was a man in his late fifties, aren't we all, somewhat embittered and most likely too fond of the drink. With a few minutes conversation I learnt and read from newspaper clippings on the wall that he was twice married with 7 kids, 5 living. He is son of a famous pioneer who opened up King's Canyon and another tourist destination with little more than a Dodge ammunition carrier with a large v-shaped girder on the front. In other words he built a 50k road in the seraing heat of the bush on his own. Jim succeeded him and built up a thriving business in the outback only to have his landlady foreclose on him. He offered a partnership or buy-out. She refused so he bulldozed the whole site which encompassed 15 buildings. I don't think the word forgiveness has entered his head. He lost a three month old daughter through cot death and she is buried under a tree at his old property. There were tears in the eyes of this hardbitten man as he related this. If I hadn't read it in the paper I might have thought I was audience fodder for an actor .
The outside temperature was 39 degrees which means that after two minutes outside it's time for water and certainly for hat. Mr Poodles hat was left behind in the Art Gallery in Alice later on the trip.
We were very much alert for Kangaroos. We saw them ok but all dead, roadkill every few kilometres and roasted like steaks beside the road. One or two were being feasted on by the biggest bastards, sorry bustards, that I've ever seen. Then we saw the larger meat; two dead cows and two dead camels. Yes, there are 25,000 thousand feral camels in the interior and they are doubling in number every year. They were brought here by Afghani cameleers in the pioneering days.
Wildlife that we did see in spades were fies, I cannot begin to describe their persistence around the face. Many shops sell face nets a bit like beekeepers masks. It makes a strange sight to see two Irish Poodles draped in these, with and without hats, and holding a stuffed monkey for a photo opportunity. The things one does far from home!
If I was a botanist I could write reams about the bush. I was always of the opinion that the interior was one vast barren sandy desert. In fact it is an everchanging prospect of small and large shrubs and grasses, spinafex mostly, punctuated by the occasional gum tree and stands of the most lovely 'Desert Oaks', which are ramrod straight trees with weeping leaves a bit like pine needles. The background is a rusty indian red sand/earth which has to be seen to be believed. The colour of the bush changes by the hour from many blue greens to dusty olive colours and then the red of the gum and the blackened bark of some, like soot. The wonderful 'Ghost Gum' with it's pure white bark is to be seen also. This is one vast garden and brings into comprehension the aboriginal art. In fact our drive was like travelling through a vast canvas.
About 100 ks out from Uluru we saw the giant shape of Mt Connors on the horizon, a long symetrical table shaped mass with diagonal sides falling away at each end and about half a kilometre long . We had stopped at a fuel/refreshment settlement about 200 ks back and the proprietor, Jim, directed us to Uluru by saying "watch out for the second lump on the left".
As to Jim; he was a man in his late fifties, aren't we all, somewhat embittered and most likely too fond of the drink. With a few minutes conversation I learnt and read from newspaper clippings on the wall that he was twice married with 7 kids, 5 living. He is son of a famous pioneer who opened up King's Canyon and another tourist destination with little more than a Dodge ammunition carrier with a large v-shaped girder on the front. In other words he built a 50k road in the seraing heat of the bush on his own. Jim succeeded him and built up a thriving business in the outback only to have his landlady foreclose on him. He offered a partnership or buy-out. She refused so he bulldozed the whole site which encompassed 15 buildings. I don't think the word forgiveness has entered his head. He lost a three month old daughter through cot death and she is buried under a tree at his old property. There were tears in the eyes of this hardbitten man as he related this. If I hadn't read it in the paper I might have thought I was audience fodder for an actor .
posted by Tim Goulding at Monday, February 14, 2005
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home