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Published: September 1st 2010
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So we had finished our time working in Oz and were straight off to Alice Springs to see the red centre. We had a flight booked for early the next morning after our farewell dinner in Sydney. We woke early and walked to the domestic terminal from our hotel. We were slightly lighter than when we had previously travelled as we left about 10kg each at the farm. First we had to fly to Melbourne then change planes for a 3 hour flight to Alice. When we reached Alice it was considerably warmer and more humid.
We were picked up by the hostel shuttle from Annies place and checked in by late lunch time. We had a stroll into the city centre to find out some information and had a wonderful lunch in Sporties. After lunch we attempted to find the camper pick up location but it was too far out of town to see from Anzec Hill, but we did have a nice view of the city and the East MacDonnell mountain Range.
The next day we picked our giant Britz camper up and headed south. We got about 10m down the road when a warning light
flashed on. We turned back and when the mechanic came out he said to ignore it as the computers were broken anyway. So off we went hoping we wouldnt break down in the outback. It wasnt long before we saw our first rusted brokendown vehicle of the trip and we only hoped this would not be our fate as the little orange light was still showing.
Craig did the majority of the 495 km driving though he asked me to drive about 50km from Uluru, here we did a switcharoo whilst still moving. This was made easy by the cruise control and spacious front area. We stopped briefly at the visitor centre after paying $25 each for entrance and then drove to the big red rock. We had time for a quick half hour walk round the side before we headed off for the sunset viewing area. We were told that at sunset the rock changes colour and truth be told it did. I had a very good view from the top
of the campervan and im sure craig will tell you it was very entertaining watching me trying to get down afterwards. Just outside the park gates
was a camp site, unfortunatly it was fully booked but they allowed us to stay on an overflow site out back along with a hundred other poeple. We didnt have any electricity but we managed by using our gas cooker. We set off on the next leg to Coober Pedy.
The journey from uluru to Coober Pedy (CP) was very boring. There was no scenery apart from red soil and blue sky and the occasional rusted car. As we got closer to CP we started to see mounds of dirt which looked like pyramids, they were interesting and we later found out that this is where poeple had been
mining for opal. In CP poeple that had been mining were not allowed to close the holes they made incase there were poeple still down the tunnels and they could get stuck. There would be signs posts all around saying walk forwards n look where you are going, all to stop people from falling in those holes. That night we stayed at Oasis caravan park and it was full of grey nomads, old poeple travelling OZ. We found an art
gallery that also took in orphaned kangaroos and we were
just in time for the 5:30pm feeding. We watched as the owner bottlefed 3 18month old kangaroos and then he brought out a 6 month old who was in a little carry pouch. The baby would lie in the pouch and drink its milk then hop around, still unsteady on its feet at fast speed and then roll back into the carry pouch to get warm. The milk he used was suitable for young children and baby kangaroos it even showed you on the label of the tub.
The next day we went out on a tour of coober pedy. The tour consisted of myself and Caig and 4 old couples along with the driver who was over 70 but had a wicked sense of humour. It turned out that the old folks were really cool. I must mention that approx 70% of CP's population live in dugouts and there regular town facilities are built into or under the ground. This is due to the extreme temperatures in the summer months. First we were shown into an underground serbian church, then off to fossick for opal, a qiuck look at the local golf course (which looked like a desert)
and into the mining fields. Our last stop was the museum where we were shown an underground house. The houses are built this way so they are warm in winter and cool in summer. It was here that i bought my very unique opal charm and i hope it was true when the lady said yoou couldnt get them anywhere else, but we will see.
That night we stayed in Port Augusta and drove through Mildura and Balranald to reach Hay for another nights kip. We had such a long journey we had to drive literally all day for 3 days to reach the farm for our last night before we took the campervan back to Sydney. Relocating campervans are a really cheap way to
travel as long as you have time to see the things you want on the way. This camper we had did not cost us more than $40 and we had a fuel allowance that turned out to be too little but we only put $200 in the tank which still was less than what we would have paid doing this trip by any other means. Our real aim for this trip was to see
Uluru (Ayers Rock) and everything else was a bonus.
On our last day driving we became excited at the thought of arriving home, and i know it sounds strange cos its not our real home but after spending four months here it sure did feel homely to us. We had missed the pooches and the poeple. That day i felt Craig did not want to travel anymore, i felt this because he kept telling me. I however still had unfinished business with my travelling urge. After a short chat we came to a decision that if Shane and Nikki would take us back we would return to OZ after travelling Fiji and New
Zealand. So Craig went off to speak to shane and came back a happy chappy. The decsion was made we would travel the next 2 countries, ditch our flights to South America and return to work on the farm. This meant staying away longer and missing another christmas plus my sisters baby being born but we still decided to go ahead with the change. Now all that was left was to break the news to our families & freinds and that was what worried me the
most, dissappointing them. And so We waited a few weeks before telling anyone just to make sure we were certain of our long term plans.
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