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Published: December 10th 2008
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The Rock
Get ready for alot of rock photos.... I really mean alot. 22/11/08 = Sunset at Uluru
Set off early for Uluru, but decided to call in at K-Mart and have a look at clothes first - ours looking really tatty after all handwashing now. Know I shouldn't say it....but that 30mins shopping in K-Mart was one of most enjoyable things I've done so far! Loved it! Floated round like I was in a dream world. Not even that good a shop - only like George at Asda, but shopping is shopping and it's the first time I've really done it here! Didn't even matter when I got attacked by a mentally disabled lady who tried to grab me and ended up scratching all of my arm - her carer looked mortified and was really apologetic, but it didn't even matter, just carried on smiling and looking through my rails like I had died and gone to heaven. Only had 30mins, so grabbed as much stuff as possible and ended up buying 3 tops, a dress and some flip flops. Whole experience only heightened when got to till and realised it was 40% off day. Excellent! You can take the girl out of the shops, but you can't take shopping out of
the girl!
Re-filled petrol and set off on journey to Ayers Rock. Was a short journey compared to rest, only 500km. Stopped at Stuarts Well on route to check out camel farm. Camels are so much bigger than I thought they were. Wanted to do a camel ride, but decided to wait until got to rock. Also stoppped in Erlunda to swap drivers and re-fill petrol. Yulara resort (place next to rock) was really nice, but expensive to stay in. Only option though, because not allowed to stay anywhere else. Arrived fairly early, so had big lunch (the magic of spaghetti on toast) and chilled out by pool (got to make the most of facilities). Set off for Uluru sunset in plenty of time and got a great spot right in front of the rock. Had to pay $25 for entry to park, but lasts 3 days, so good price.
Sunset was really nice and plenty of people there to watch it. Shame it was cloudy because the sun didn't break through as well as it could, so rock didn't turn bright red for us. Looked nice when bits of sun hit it, but wish it had been
sunny. Still chilled out on our fishing chairs with our vodka drink and waited until it got dark. Headed back after that and got sorted for an early night. Actually cold here, so made hot chocolates - never buy the cheapest hot chocolate in the supermarket, it's just not worth it! Went to bed early ready for our 4:15 wake up to see the sunrise on the rock.
23/11/08 = Sunrise on Uluru
Woke up at 4:15 to darkness and coldness. Suppose it was a reminder of what it must be like for you guys getting up for work in winter. Never really thought about it before, but we have just been getting up whenever and then just snoozing if we are still tired...sorry, don't mean to rub it in. Anyway, scrabbled around in dark getting ready, then set off for rock at 4:45. Quite a few people were up and on road, guess everybody was there for same thing. When we found sunrise point there were loads of people there; loads of people on coach tours. Put on just about all the clothes I have brought with me and joined everybody else, still shivering. Was a
nice experience, especially with atmosphere of all people around, but actual sunrise wasn't that good because was even cloudier this morning, so again rock didn't really light up. Waited for a while, but then moved on and prepared for the walk around Uluru.
Decided to wait until was a little warmer outside before we did the walk around the rock. Is a 9.6km walk and didn't want to get half way round and suddenly get too warm because had too many layers on. Had breakfast and little snooze, then set off on walk at 7:45. Was an interesting walk and good exercise for our lazy trucker bodies that we seem to be developing. Saw some cool aboriginal art on rock and just interesting to see how it has been shaped over years, definately spoiled a little by amount of flies though. Still can't get used to that yet. I wil never be happy for flies to swarm round my face or lay all over my back like they do here - next investment is going to be a Crocodile Dundee cork hat...maybe I could make one?
Drove back to campsite after that and was really hot - typical
Uluru in full light
(Well, for us anyway). that sun was out now! Did mundane stuff, like washing of clothes and cleaning (v.minimal cleaning though) and then went to laze round pool again. Managed to top up tan and do a little swimming, then went to shopping centre and camel park. Was really disappointed because camel park was unexpectedly closed, so no camel ride for me 😞.
That night, went to see sunset on other rock formation in park = Kata Tjuta. Bit further away than Uluru, not as many people there and a little rainy, but was actually one of best things we saw. Sun came out on rock really nicely and could see all stages of it changing colour. Really glad we went to see it. Drove home in darkness after that and passed a storm on our way. Fork lightning on both sides of the road and looked really cool - had fingers crossed the the rubber tyre thing I have heard is true! Went to bed shattered from the day and had a brilliant, COOL night's sleep in Chubby 😊
24/11/08 = The Storm to Coober Pedy
Brilliant night's sleep but still woke up a little sleepy. Had to set
Uluru and us x
Few drinks and a sunset - good combination. off early for Coober Pedy - big drive = 700km. Deb drove us back to Stuart Highway, then we stopped, re-fueled and swapped drivers at Erlunda. I drove us to Marla and was fairly normal drive until hit thunderstorm. Could see the storm on our right side ages before we hit it. Sky was dark grey colour, lots of rain, thunder and fork lightning. Really wierd how can see weather in patches here; must be because country is so big. Carried on. Could see storm was moving over us, but no-where else to go. Never driven through anything like it. Rain was so thick, had to drive at walking speed because just couldn't see out of the window. Wind was so strong it was moving van side to side and it looked like we were trapped in a fog bubble - could only see grey on all 4 sides. Don't know if I wsa more worried about fork lightning or an animal running out in front of us - no way would be able to see either of them coming. After about 10minutes, it moved over us and we drove out of it. So glad to be out of it.
It was on our left then and could see it was still moving on.
Got to Marla in one piece and treated oursleves to lunch in cafe to celebrate our near death escape. By lunch I mean chips and gravy, but we were both deeply disappointed as they weren't even nice. Disheartened, carried on to Coober Pedy and checked in to caravan site. Strange little town, but kind of cool. Based entirely on opal mining industry (passed all of opal mines on way in) and so nearly every shop was an opal museum or an opal jewellers. Loads of underground shops, hotels and museums - really cool. Went to visit underground bar, which wasn't that good really, then treated selves to cornetto after being so let down by lunch treat, which was really good. Back to site then an watched The Guardian in TV room - brilliant film. Also realised here that there was another time difference of an hour...so hard to keep up with it all!
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