We started this morning with a camel ride (Yep!) from the Ayers Rock Resort that left here around 4:30 am. What a HOOT! There were about 20 camels and about 35 people who made the morning Sunrise trip. They do this three times a day, sunrise, mid-day, and sunset. The "trip" was actually a loop about 3 miles in circumference and it actually only took about an hour. But it was a blast. We were seated in a double saddle and when the camel gets up off its folded legs, it does so "arse first" as the tour guide said. Since their legs must be six feet long, that means the rear portion goes up about three feet before the front section does. Hang on! The animals sort of meander around the loop, tied nose to tail to one another, and after a short time, it was pretty easy to get used to the gait. They each had an individual personality and you could see some of that during the time we were with them. One of the guides, Hanna, walked alongside the caravan and made a running commentary about the camels in Australia and she was very interesting. All the camels were "rescued" from the wild, many having been orphaned when the local cattle ranchers shot their mothers. There was one baby girl, three months old, and she was head-high already. She was also very curious and let us approach her and pet her...pretty cool.
After the camel ride, we headed out to Kata Tjura, a rock formation about 30 miles west of Ayers Rock. According to Wikipedia, Kata Tjuta and Ayers Rock were both formed about 550 million years ago and are of the same composition. Kata Tjuta is about the same size (maybe a little bigger) than Ayers Rock and is composed of the same mix of granite and basalt covered with sandstone. Kata Tjuta consists of 36 individual domes clustered together and is about the same height above the valley floor as Ayers Rock.
Sorry...once again, not enough band width to upload pictures. We're leaving tomorrow for King's Canyon, about halfway between here and Alice Springs. It may be later next week, when we get to Cairns, before I'll be able to upload any pictures, but when I do, I'll update the individual blogs.
Having a great time, Mates!
Here we are on "Jimbo" at sunrise:
Here you can see the intrepid cameleers making their way through the desert in search of unknown riches:
And here's Jimbo, who was quite the charmer:
And this is "Milkshake", a baby girl who is about 9 months old and must weigh about 600 lbs:
Pat's Paragraph........... How 'bout that aussie hat!? And we all carried water. Pretty cool in the desert in the mornings. Our Jimbo was a sweetie and very well mannered. He liked being scratched while he sat and chewed his cud like a big hairy cow. Their feet are the size of big dinner plates and are soft on the bottom so they don't damage the vegetation because that could be tomorrow's lunch. Jonnie was in front of us and Hercules was behing us. Jonnie was 36 years old and camels can live to be 50 in captivity. The ranchers are killing the wild camels because they don't want competition for the vegetation that their cattle could eat but as it was explained to us, and as we also watched, the camels eat roughage, like brush and tree twigs. They didn't touch the grass as we stopped and took pictures. They do eat hay because that's what they're fed. So really the ranchers are killing them for no reason. The babies depend on their moms totally so they starve when the mothers are shot. Look at that baby sweet face. So sad. I'm so happy this group of 'wranglers' have the heart to save her.
This is a view of the Desert Gardens Hotel, where we were staying:
Here are a few pics of Tata Kjuta:
