Heading towards Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia

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On our recent three-week trip to the centre of Australia, we travelled without too many interruptions to Erldunda which, depending on how the measurement is done, is just about as close to the centre of Australia as it is possible to get. From Erldunda, the road goes north to Alice Springs or west to Uluru. We stayed at the caravan park there then headed east to Uluru. Erldunda has a variety of accommodation options, a swimming pool, restaurant, café, fuel and a modest range of supplies. We stayed in the caravan park where the water bowls put down for the birds were very popular. I've included photos of pink and grey galahs, a black-and-white mudlark and the crested spinifex pigeons which are very similar to the crested pigeons we have in the West. The males also spread their tails like peacocks when attempting to entice a female. There are two large enclosures, one of which contains a number of red kangaroos and the other a number of emus including a baby chick. Can you see a patch of blue under the bushes in one of the photos? That is the head of an emu sitting on a clutch of eggs. The male does the hatching and subsequent raising of the chicks. From Erldunda, you can head north 200kms to Alice Springs or west 267kms to Uluru. We headed west to Ulurua and, like many before us, we thought we'd spotted Uluru only to find out it was Mt Conner, another huge monolith which is visible about 100 kilometres before reaching Uluru. Mt Conner reaches 300 metres above ground level. Despite being regarded as the 'dead centre', there had been good rains and there was a lot of vegetation and wildflowers along the sides of the roads. We were aware that we were seeing the country at its best.