Off the rails and on to Uluru!

Our last night in Alice Springs Marlene had her purse stolen!  She was standing on the sidewalk out front of our hotel (Aurora Hotel) taking a picture of the hotel when a young aboriginal man suddenly came up from behind her and grabbed her purse.  He quickly ran across the street and in to the park by the river.  It all happened so fast.  The police came and were very good.  Hoping that the purse is found somewhere as this is a small community,  Marlene was not hurt but her passport and $80 were gone.  Thank heaven we’re not leaving the country until April but we have to figure out how to get a replacement passport.  Very frustrating.

The scene of the crime!  Our hotel in Alice Springs.

Our carriage awaits!

As we leave town we drive over the Todd River.  The fact that it is full of water is an amazing thing as there hasn’t been rain in over a year.  It rained huge amounts on the day we arrived.  They haven’t seen this much rain in one day EVER!  It’s much needed and now I understand why they were all so excited!

It’s pretty flat but greener than I anticipated.  Apparently there is a huge water supply (basin) underground that allows the bush and trees to grow and is the only water supply for all people.

There are several cattle stations (roadhouses) along the route to Uluru.  Pretty isolated.

Pretty old saddle...pretty neat memorabilia in this place.

They also raise camels and ship them to buyers all over the world.  There are wild camels in Australia but apparently they are very destructive and ranchers shoot and kill them if they’re on their property.  A camel will drink all the water at a watering hole leaving nothing for other animals.  Not good.

Long, flat with no end in sight.  Easy driving but boring and that is the issue.  Drivers fall asleep.  There are trucks that consist of three trailers and these are referred to as trains.  The longest one was 1.2 kms with two ‘trucks’ in front to pull and two in the rear as breakers.  Wouldn’t want to look in my rear view mirror and see that barreling down the road behind my economy car!

We met this little aboriginal boy at one of the cattle stations.  He had found two horny toads on the road.  He said he uses them to comb his hair!

Horny toads.

We arrive at our hotel.  

And so starts our adventure!