Coober Pedy to Uluru.

9/04/2009. Driving on towards Coober Pedy we had a Massive blow out on our caravan, second one in two years, the last one,at Walkabout Creek in outback Queensland.

We passed through the dog fence on our way to Coober Pedy, it is the longest fence in the world at 5300km and passes through 3 states, QLD, NSW and South Australia CooberPedy is the Opal capital of the world, there is a slim chance of finding an opal by sifting through the thousand's of Mullock heaps that stretch as far as the eye can see, but not for us theweather is too hot. I was lucky to get a new tyre and the wheel repaired, as tomorrow is the start of Easter.
Good Friday, San & I decided to have a look around town. Very interesting just about every 2nd shop is selling Opals and some are really expensive, glad Sandra bought some last year back at Winton. There are underground Restaurants, Motels,shops, dug out mines that sell Opals and even an underground caravan park.







The biggest opal ever found in

Australia was here, it weighed (uncut) 3.5 Kilo and was named Olympic Australia, for that was the year the 1st modern Olympic games were held.

A big population of Aboriginals live in Coober Pedy, it is a sorry sight to see
a lot of them so drunk and arguing amongst themselves, the Police sure have there work cut.


11/04. This morning we filled up our water containers from a water dispensing pump, and at 20c for 40 litres of treated drinking water it was a bargain, water is very scarce up through the middle, as a lot of places have not that much to give away and will refuse you if you ask.
Moving further North we stopped for the night at the Marla Roadhouse caravan park and at $18.00 a night good value, with a swimming pool and plenty of green grass to park on. The price of beer is a little steep at $6.90 a
stubbie I only had 2, for the price of 5-6 stubbies here I could have bought a slab of 24 back home.
12/04. Today San & I stoped at the S.A - Northern Territory border and had our photos taken, no sign of Joan & Stan, who left before us as we had tyre trouble once again.
The country side is ever changing, it is quiet different again in the N.T.
The temperature has hit 35c, we have pulled in to a roadside pub - Kulgera pub, for the night, we are in luck once again there is a swimming pool out the back. Kulgera Pub is the 1st and last pub in the Territory, and still no sighting of Joan & Stan, we are starting to get a little worried as to where they are. The temperature here in the summer months are between 31 and 35c and winter months 20 to 27c not to bad considering we are not to far from the middle of Australia.
13/04. Up early this morning at 5.30 a bloody truckie pulled up for a loo stop and left his motor running for about 30 minutes, no consideration for other travelers.
Turned off the Stuart highway and are now heading out towards Uluru. Stopping at Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse for a Coffee and met Joan & Stan who were just about to leave. The 4 of us

pushed on to Curtain Springs to a rest stop that we will spend the night.
In this rest stop there is an Emu that walks about checking everybody out, it scared the living daylights out of an Italian back packer, who had never heard of a Emu less coming face to face with one, she was yelling and swearing in her own language boy was she embarrassed when she later found out that we had a son in Law who is from an Italian background.
We packed up early next morning and drove further west to Ayers Rock Reserve. What a sight to see this huge rock from a distance, words cannot explain the feeling we had upon seeing this wondrous Monolith.
After checking in to the reserve had a swim to cool of and then drove out to see the Olga's ( Kata Tjuta ), what a wow of a sight, they are truly amazing, there are 36 rocks in all that make up the Olga's. Driving back from the Olga's we then pulled into the viewing area to watch the sun going down over Uluru.
Went early next morning for a few kilometers walk around the Rock, it is 348 meters high and most of its bulk is below the surface ( I was told about 8 kilometers ) and a girth of nine and a half kilometers. Sandra could only do about 3 kilometers as her knee was playing up. there are some truly unbelievable shapes in this huge rock.