Day 2 #4: Mt Conner revisited

10th June 2012
After our walk around Kata Tjuta and lunch at the Yulara campsite near Uluru, we headed back east along the Lasseter Highway past Curtin Springs to turn left along Luritja Road towards King’s Canyon.

Map from http://www.kingscanyonresort.com.au/Getting-Here.aspx
Before turning onto Luritja Road, we made a stop for a better look at Mt Conner (“Fooleroo”), to the south of the road, a little past Curtin Springs (not shown on this map). 


Mt Conner, also known as Attila and Artilla, is quite stunning in its own right – I was surprised I had never heard of it.

	Attila/Mt Conner	Uluru/Ayer’s Rock
Position	About 100 km east of Uluru	335 km SW of Alice Springs, (450 km by road)
Height above sea level:	859 metres	863 metres
Height above plain:	300 metres	348 metres
Shape from above:	Roughly oval on NE/SW axis, smooth on NW side, jagged on SE side	Triangular, apex pointing east
Size:	5 km long and 2 km wide	9.4 km in circumference
Age:	Approx 800 – 900 million years	Approx 600 million years
English name given by:	William Gosse in 1873	William Gosse in 1873
English name given for:	SA politician M.L.Conner	Chief Secretary of SA, Sir Henry Ayers
Owned by:	On Curtin Springs Cattle Station, owned by Severin family.	Local Pitjantjatjara people, leased to National Parks & Wildlife Agency for 99 years and jointly managed.

An aerial view of Mt Conner can be seen at:
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&z=14&ll=-25.496897,131.899881&spn=0.050744,0.066175&t=k&om=1

The side of Mt Conner you can see from the road is quite smooth, the far side, apparently, is quite indented.
The Severin family took over the pastoral lease of Curtin Springs, which includes Mt Conner, in 1956.  The family still lives on and runs the station today.  1956 was the first year of a nine year drought, so to help make ends meet, Peter Severin decided to sell petrol to travellers to Uluru.  In the first year, they had six customers.
As well as being a successful cattle station, Curtin Springs is now a flourishing roadhouse, offering tourist accommodation and other facilities, including tours of Mt Conner.


After we had been admiring (and photographing) Mt Conner for some time, Jason suggested that we should take a walk up the small rise on the other side of the road.
I collected a sample of the red sand on the way.  It is currently sitting in the kitchen in a small container.  I had better move it soon before it is confused with paprika or chilli powder.


Walking up the rise.


What a surprise!
There on the other side of the rise was a salt lake!


Mt Conner from the top of the rise, with red foreground.


Mt Conner from the top of the rise, with less red foreground.


The desert blooms.
There has been some rain recently, so the desert is greener than it normally is.


The road back to Uluru and Kata Tjuta, from the top of the rise.


Mt Conner, looking pinker from the top of the rise.


Mt Conner disappears into the distance as we head off for King’s Canyon.


Gathering wood for the evening campfire.
Is Megan conducting a choir?


Wood gathered, back onto the bus, and heading for King’s Canyon.
We’re all quite tired and hungry now after another colourful, energetic, jam-packed, exhilarating day.

Day 2 #3: Yulara Campsite

10th June 2012.

 

This is the permanent campsite at Yulara where we stayed while visiting Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

The tents were raised slightly above ground level, with hard floors, proper beds and electricity!  They were very comfortable and cosy at night (as long as you had enough blankets).  There was also a kitchen/dining area, and a fireplace where we would have a fire each night.

By the early 1970s, the pressure of tourism was having detrimental effects on the environment around Uluru and Kata Tjuta so the government agreed in 1973 to relocate accommodation facilities to a new site.  In 1976, the Governor General proclaimed the new town of Yulara, 14 kilometres from Uluru. In 1979, in recognition of the existence of traditional Aboriginal owners of Uluru and Kata Tjuta, a national park was acknowledged. In 1983 Prime Minister Hawke announced the government's intention to grant ownership of the land back to the traditional owners. The agreement, however, required the traditional owners to lease the park to the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service for a period of 99 years.

The town of Yulara, which has a population of around 1,000, has an airport and provides different levels of accommodation including hotel, apartments, cabins, permanent campsites like this one, and provision for caravans and camping.

Day 2 #2: Valley of the Winds walk, Kata Tjuta/The Olgas.

10th June 2012.
Back into the bus and off to Kata Tjuta, about 25 kilometres west of Uluru, for the Valley of the Winds Walk.


Aerial view of Kata Tjuta from John Woodward, Wikipedia.  I’m guessing this picture is taken from the north, looking south.


While this map shows the walk as 6 kilometres, I don’t know if that takes into account all the ups and downs, of which there were many.
Kata Tjuta covers an area of about 26 square kilometres, and is made up of 36 domes, of which the highest is Mt Olga.  At 1069 metres above sea level, Mt Olga is 198 metres higher than Uluru.


Kata Tjuta is estimated to be over 500 million years old.


The first section of the Valley of the Winds Walk was, in fact, quite windy.


Karu Lookout, hot weather closure point.  Because there is no road access to this walk, it is closed in hot weather as it is too difficult to rescue people who succumb to the heat.  As you can see, the weather on this particular day was not hot.
Kata Tjuta in the Aboriginal language means “many heads” as they had no need for specific words for numbers greater than four or five.  While there are 36 heads in the Kata Tjuta formation, Hoi’s cheery little head now makes it 37.


Some more heads.


Jason gives us a geology lesson.
Along the walk:



















Climbing up.

View from the top.

Down the other side.

Although the way down was quite steep, it was rough enough to get a grip on.


Unlike Uluru, which is composed mainly of sandstone, Kata Tjuta is composed of conglomerate, a sedimentary rock consisting of cobbles and boulders of varying rock types including granite and basalt, cemented by a matrix of sandstone (this bit from my friend Wikipedia.)
It reminded me of Rocky Road. 



Looking back on Kata Tjuta.  We felt quite proud of ourselves for having completed the exhilarating 6km walk.



Then it was camel burgers for lunch.

Day 2 #1: Sunrise at Kata Tjuta & Uluru

10th June 2012.

Breakfast at 5.45am on another freezing morning.


Then into the bus to the sunrise viewing point.


After yet another trip of driving through emptiness, we arrived at the viewing point which was as busy as Central Station.  Apparently in summer this raised platform is even more crowded. 
Not standing a chance of getting any sunrise shots of Uluru which weren’t full of people, I wriggled in to the front on my knees on the steel mesh platform so as not to be in front of other people’s shots.
The steel mesh was excruciatingly painful to kneel on, but by inserting a glove under each knee I was able to stay there long enough to take a few Uluru shots:







Then the problem was, how to photograph Kata Tjuta.

As you can see, some of the people in front were unnecessarily tall.
I solved this one by clambering up and balancing on the railing, at some peril to both my camera and myself, and photographing over their heads: