Encountering Wildlife

Left Riba's early and hit the road towards Uluru (Ayers Rock). Once we crossed the border into the Northern Territory, the speed limit became 130 km/hr, making the journey considerably quicker than expected. We stopped at a couple of rest stops/road houses to fill up on LPG and get some snacks, as well as kill some time.

The only place to stay at Uluru is the Ayers Rock Resort, with exorbitant prices even for camping, so we planned to stay about 100km away from the park. Before we got there we stopped for a quick view of Mt Connor, often confused for Uluru. A little bit further on we reached Curtin Springs, a roadhouse that offers free unpowered camping. $3 fee for showers, but all in all, a pretty good deal. As we pulled in, we were treated to a unique sight: an emu was chasing a mid-sized dog around the camp!

It turned out that this emu was in fact very friendly, probably used to being fed, as he walked around to all the campers and then took a little nap next to our car. Though it was a bit windy, we decided to have a campfire and use up the last of our wood we got in the Flinders. Once we went to bed a huge wind/dust storm picked up, luckily we had just put the fire out or things could have gotten ugly.