Sun 17 Oct – Wed -20 Oct – ‘Dirt piles, weird cars & a cup’

We reluctantly left Yulara on Sunday morning, bound for somewhere with a TV, as the Rugby W.C semi Oz vs NZ was on.  Headed back east to the Stuart Highway, and after a quick lunch stop at Erldunda, then turned right and kept going, with headwinds belting us all the way.  Stopped again at Kulgera for fuel, after covering 400kms since Yulara. Usually get further, but I seem to have a knack for travelling into the wind – it’s doing my head in!!    Returned the worst fuel figures yet of 14.5l/100km, after averaging 12.5 – 13l/100km so far.  Could be worse I suppose (eg 20+ l/100km with a big V6 petrol guzzler….).

Anyway,  we stopped a couple of hrs down the road at the Cadney pk roadhouse for an overnighter and, more importantly, watch the rugby on a big screen.  Naturally, the AB’s owned the wallabies in a one sided affairJ.

Next morning, we were originally going to head of the bitumen east across the painted desert to Ackaringa homestead before heading to Coober Pedy.  After hearing mixed reports about both places, and also finding out that the solar car challenge from Darwin to Adelaide was due thru in the next day, we decided to head straight to Coober Pedy for 3 nights.  The drive down shows that the real flat land of nothing is in the S.A outback, more so than the Northern Territory, from what we saw. 

As we neared Coober Pedy, we saw the thousands of piles of dirt from all the mining holes dug in search of Opal.   Very appropriate to break out the one liner from the movie ‘The Castle” – “Hey dad, dug a hole”!

Well, coming here early proved to be a great move on several counts.  We called into the info centre to….get some info (as you do) and were told to come back around 3pm for afternoon tea as the Melbourne cup (the actual one) will be here for photos etc.  So we did and got some great pics holding it etc.

The solar cars also came through town for a compulsory control stop (30mins each) before heading of again.   We saw the leading cars come through and got a good look at the weird little machines, worth over $400k apparently..

Over the next few days, we:

-          took a trip out to an area called ‘the breakaways’, which is an area of contrasting landscapes and colours, formed back when much of the area was under water.

-          Did a self guided tour of the old timers underground mine, where life back in the old days is portrayed in an original underground mine

-          Did some ‘noodling’ (finding small stones with opal in them)

-          Went through a typical underground home.  About 2/3rds of the towns population live underground (the houses are really built into hillsides, with vent pipes all over the hills).  The area is all very stable sandstone, and they simply dig out to whatever shape they want, with the temperature always a constant 21-23deg.

-          Shouted ourselves to lunch in the desert cave underground hotel.

On our last night, we celebrated Scotts 9^th birthday by having some nationally acclaimed Pizza from the place we were staying at.   Scott had been looking forward to this for a long time, and the Pizza lived up to expectations.

For all of Coober Pedy’s quirky attractions, at the end of the day, it is a bit of a dump in the middle of nowhere, but still very interesting all the same.

Part of Coober Pedy (old timers mine) with vents in hillside typical of underground dwellings

Melb cup in town - the winner keeps it & they make a new one every year at $170k ea.

Inside an undergrond home

'Noodling' - we found quite a few small rocks with opals

A scene from 'the breakaways' nth of town.  This is natural, and the area is not mined.

The dog (dingo) fence that stretches thousands of km's through the middle of Aus.

Inside the old timers mine.  Bit like caving at Chillagoe!

What Opal looks like when digging.
When one of the towns hotels was dug out, $300k of opal seams were found.

solar car pit stop - take the top of and angle towards sun

inside a solar car

Aurora - the Australian entrant, ready to leave

Wed 12 Oct – Sat 16 Oct – ‘The Rocks’

Wednesday morning we packed up and left Kings Canyon bound for Ayers Rock (Uluru).   I aired the tyres back up (free air, which is a rare thing for Kings Canyon, as everything else is horrendous (eg $40 for a six pack – yep, $40. Easy justification to Karen as to why I had to stock up with beer in Qld!)   Then put 30l of fuel in at a cost of $65 ($2-19 / L), the rest from jerry can fuel that cost 80c/ L less from back in Qld.   Fuel management – I’m all over it…..

Checked into the only camping ground in Yulara after lunch and set up camp with the family from Sth Oz, whom we met back at Ormiston Gorge. They had also arrived at Kings Canyon the same time as us, so we travelled together a bit.   Did a bit of a shop at the local IGA (quite reasonable given the location) before heading out to the rock national park.   First up, we had to purchase a pass to enter - $25 each (kids free), that was good for three days.  We then headed to the sunset lookout with the others and cooked dinner out there.  That was quite a scene – very special indeed.

On Thursday, we headed back out along the 18km route south of Yulara to the base of the rock to check out the climb.  It was closed due to the howling wind (no wind back at camp), so we did the 10km base walk around the rock.   Scott reckoned it was a bit boring – looking at a rock for 3 hrs!  Yeah, whatever, Scott!  The rest of the day, we were pretty much good for nothing, so we hopped on the shuttle bus that runs continuously around the Yulara loop road.  This road links all the different resorts and campground that are owned by the same outfit and also meant that we could use any of the resort pools.  Now, Sails in the desert resort is a flash outfit, so all we did was go over there, grab a sun lounger, a nice white towel off the rack and kick back around the pool, all whilst being waited on for food & drinks – now that’s camping!

Friday saw us head out to the Olgas, some 50kms west of Yulara.   This area is just as specky as the rock itself, with the massive dome like rocks comprising of 36 ‘heads’.

We did the 7.5km valley of the winds walk, which took about 3hrs.  This walk was more work than the flat, base walk the previous day, so in the afternoon, we were good for nothing except the resort pool with a book again!!  That evening, we headed out to another lookout around the other side of the rock, so that we could get some shots of the Olgas.

Saturday, and the White family from S.A  (‘White’ as in surname..) left, so we were on our own again.  We were over walking, having covered our fair share by foot, so we spent the day getting things ready for life on the road again. Got one last session over at the resort pool



Us + rock = highly original pic....

You know those postcards you see....? They are real!

Gourmet sunset tea at Uluru

The dinner setting with full moon rising at dusk.
We had to improvise serviettes...

Close up of Ayers rock surface - the worlds biggest cheese grater...

she's pretty big rock....!

The Olgas and another walk...

Us with the White Family from S.A

Boys on Camels, as you do.....

Sunset with Olgas sillouette (taken through my sunglasses lense!)

Olgas in the distance at sunset

Sunset pic taken by Scott on his camera

Sunset colours taken by Trent on his camera

Scotts 'red photo'

Olgas shot c/- Trent



Mon 10 Oct – Tues 11 Oct 2011 – ‘The Canyon’

We left Ormiston Gorge around 10am and called into Glen Helen again to ‘put some’ fuel in.  $2-10 a litre made me cringe, but only needed 20L  - still, I told the girl who was in charge of the pump that it must be broken cos the $’s & L’s are the wrong way around!  It was also better than the $2-19/L that they sting you for at Kings Canyon! 

So, we were on the road again (bit early for that cliché’ I know).  We stopped in at Gosses bluff, which is a massive crater left by a comet that crashed to earth a very long time ago..   The road sign in said ‘4wd only’…  red rag to a bull for me, as long as you could turn around at the end.   We drove in on the sandy, then rocky road and didn’t realise that we had actually driven into the centre of the crater until we got to the picnic area at the end of the road.  We didn’t drop down into it or anything, must have passed through a gap in the wall, as the crater base was the same level as the ground outside it.   Must check it out on google earth – would be interesting.

Anyways – back out on the main road, and then we hit the 150km section of dirt road that is the Mereenie loop.   I had aired down the tyres for this trip, (for those that care, front down from 40psi to 27, back 45psi to 31, camper 40psi to 28).   This would ensure that I did not shake the whole kit to bits and give a better ride, but also meant not going over 80km/hr to avoid overheating tyre sidewalls.  Not an issue – not in a hurry.

It was a pretty scenic drive, and the road was in good nick, with only a few bad corrugations that slowed you right down, but most of the road could be done at speed (80 in my case). 

We arrived at Kings Canyon at around 2-30pm, and booked in 2 nights at the only campground there.   We then set of later in the day, just before sunset to do a short 2.4km walk up the valley of the Canyon.  This was a good time to do it , as the setting sun provided a glow on the canyon walls.

Next morning, we were up early to start the main 6km Canyon rim walk.   We set of at about qtr to 7 and did the hike straight up to the top and around, with drop into the ‘garden of eden’ thrown in the mix too.

This is by far the most impressive walk we have done – just amazing.....



The walls of the Gosses bluff crater in the distance

inside the 'crater'

At the base of the climb up to the rim of Kings Canyon

Ready for the climb up 'heart attack hill'.   Didn't stop Scott from talking all the way up....

How fit are we!!!

atop the Canyon, with cliff behind...

Follow me, I know where I'm going...

Not the place to walk around in the dark....

That night, we started to get a bit of a lightning show in the distance…..last time we had that, it got a bit blowy, so I wasn’t taking any chances again.   Out came the ratchet straps around the camper, only this time, we had the awning up too, so had to baton that down as well.   Nothing happened for a few hours, and then Bang! It hit….when these storms out here hit, they arrive with a massive howl of wind for a few minutes before settling down.   Those first few minutes wreck havoc    Everything held together OK, but the boys were terrified, so told them to get in the car with Mum while I stood inside bracing the roof and still hoped the awning ropes held – they did, thanks to man-size pegs...

Looking out the window was not dissimilar to a mini-cyclone, with horizontal rain streaming past the camp ground lights, caravan awnings flipping up everywhere (glad I didn’t have a fiamma wind-out awning).

            

Sat 8 Oct – Sun 9 Oct – ‘ The West Macs’

Saturday morning saw us pack up  after breakfast and head out to the West MacDonnell ranges that start 15km west of Alice and stretch another 150km further west.   This area is quite impressive, with massive steep gorges & he plan was to explore the gorges, before setting up camp somewhere at one of them. Well, we checked them all out (except Stanleys chasm – privately owned by the Abo’s (that’s what they are – deal with it…), who wanted 40 odd bucks to look at it…  imagine my reaction to that…..?)

Ellery Creek Big Hole was the first of the gorges with a big freezing cold swimming hole, followed by Ormiston gorge, whee the boys had a swim on big log ‘boats’, which seemed to take the focus away from the water temperature.   We then decided to go on to the last gorge with a camping area, Redbank Gorge.    The road into this place was badly corrugated in places, so it was slow going for the 6kms in.  We arrived at the first campground in this area of the National Park and there was no-one else around.  Great! And all the individual campsites had their own gas bbq’s & cooktops.

We set up for an overnight camp, and relaxed a bit.  We noticed a few bees around, but thought nothing of it.   Well, next time I went outside, there were a heap of bees around the camp – so much so, that we had that camper packed down in 6 minutes flat, and bailed outa there.  No wonder the place was deserted!    We went 1km further up the road to the second campsite at the top of the hill.  By this time. It was near on dark, and this camp was much better….until the wind started.   Great vistas but windy as all night.      Next morning, we decided that Redbank Gorge pretty well sucked as a camp spot, and packed up at first light. We did the 1hr return walk into the Gorge, before going back to Ormiston Gorge for the next night.   This Gorge was also close to Glen Helen ‘resort’, which had a TV for the rugby.   Watched the Wallabies bumble their way past the Springboks before the All Blacks easily accounted for Argentina.

We met up with a family from Perth at Ormiston, who had kids the same age as the boys, and they hit it off straight away. We should have stayed here the first night instead of Redbank, but it’s all part of the experience I guess.

Had a few drinks with some other campers, including a family who had just come from Kings Canyon via the unsealed Mereenie loop rd that day with a new Jayco Swan Outback.  We were going that way tomorrow, and they reported no issues with the road, which was interesting, as we also got chatting with a family from Sth Oz earlier in the day and they were going the long way around to Kings Canyon via sealed roads as they were told in Alice that it is ‘not suitable for trailers’.   I never came across this advice when I collected my permit in Alice to do ‘the loop’.

I guess I’ll be the judge tomorrow….

'Ellery Ck big hole'

Boys on their boat at Ormiston Gorge

cold?  what cold water?

The boys & I at the 'boat station'

Our overnight camp at Redbank Gorge  - wind & all..

Ormiston Gorge campground

Wed 5 Oct – Fri 7 Oct 2011 – ‘A Town like Alice’

We checked into a camping ground with a powered site for 3 nights to charge up, re-stock essential items and actually use a washing machine (as opposed to handwashing).

It seemed that the park we chose to stay at was in an area with a high population of out indigenous cousins. One night was a bit like being in a community, with all the yelling & carrying on…..that’s how they roll, and I’m certainly no stranger to it.

Probably explained why the park was security gated.

During our stay here, we visited the reptile park, where Karen confronted her snake phobia by having a python draped around here – hehe, she was crapping herself! The boys though it was great, holding all sorts of Lizards & Goannas.

Karen then got in some retail therapy, while I took the boys to the aquatic centre to run amuck.  It was good to soak in the pool for a few hours to try & fix hard cracked feet as a result of living in jandals (thongs for you ozzies) for weeks in the dry heat.

We found another geocache at the lookout and had a bit of a look around Alice.

Interesting place for a desert town and we were certainly token white fellas when in a supermarket on a Friday.  Apparently you try to avoid going to shops on Fridays in Alice.



Thorny Devil....

Serious Scott with the snake at the reptile park

Trent with the snake....

Penny for your thoughts Scottie!

I think he's comfortable with it.....?

'Hold this for me will you dear (honour & obey...)'

"umm - not entirely comfortable with this"
"umm - not my probelem dear.....bye"

New pet...