Wow, Wow, Wow!! The Rock is huge!!!

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Coober Pedy was a very interesting town. The landscape surrounding the town is just piles of what looks like sand for approximately 30k north, south, east and west. Beside the piles of sand is mines (holes) that people have been looking for opals in. The town is also famous for its underground buildings including churches, motels and houses. We stayed at a caravan park in town and due to water shortages (because it very rarely rains there) we had to pay for any water we used, that included showers lol.
We went for a walk down the main street and looked at an underground museum. We also did a bit of noodling (called this in Coober Pedy but more commonly known as fossicking) and found a few opals which was really exciting! for me anyway lol. In the main street was a spaceship looking thing, that we found out was used in a movie starring Vin Diesel called Pitch Black, other movies filmed in the are include Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and the Red Planet.
After lunch we went for a drive to The Old Timers Mine, which is an old mine from around 1916, we got to see how opal mining was done in those early days. There was also a couple of display houses (underground) that was lived in by owners of this mine from the 60's to the 90's. The houses were really cool. The current owner of the mine and museum showed us a display of machines used in todays mining, these included a blower ( a truck converted into a vaccuum cleaner that sucks the dirt and and rock out of the holes), and a tunnel digger.
After we left there we drove up to the big winch, which looks like it once was a tourist attraction but has been closed down, though we were able to take some photos of the view. We then went in to a couple of underground churches.
It is certainly a different way of life there lol.
The next morning we drove northwards and crossed the border into Northern Territory, we carried on and stopped at a free camoing spot about 160k east of Ayres Rock (Uluru). We met 2 couples also traveling and shared a camp fire with them. It was a good night listening to stories about places people have visted and the places they are from.
This morning we woke up and it was pretty cool about 4.2 deg in the van, no power so no heater lol. We had breaky then set out for the rock.
We could see Ayres Rock in the distance when our GPS said we still had about 50k to go........ It is huge! We set up in the Resort/Caravan Park near the rock. After lunch we headed out to check it out. We had to pay 25 dollars each to enter the area, but that gives us 3 days to come and go as we like. We decided to walk around the base of the rock, the map said it was 9.3k around, but we added in some extra walks going to a gorge and a waterhole, so we think it was more like 11k trip round. The view of the rock while walking around it was awesome. It is amazing that a rock could be sooo huge. We noticed most people seem to just do the shorter walks to parts of the rock and not all the way round, so we were quite proud of ourselves for doing it, especially me. After the walk we sat and watched some people climbing it for a bit. It is so steep and high that you need to pull yourself up with a chain. We watched alot of people attempting it but coming back down after making it up a certain way, but there was also many who made it. We were talking to a man who said that once you get to the top of the chain, you are only half way to the top the rest of the way is with out assistance! We read that around 35 people have died on Ayres Rock with most of them being from heart attacks, scary stuff!! Nathan is going to climb it tomorrow, I will stay at the bottom and cheer hime on. There is a list at the bottom of reasons why you can't climb the rock and I'm one of those that shouldn't, I would love to though I bet the view will be amazing!! Nathan will take some pictures for me 😊
Well time to go, its late and I've had a long day.
Till next time 😊

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Photos

Coober Pedy
The Coober Pedy sign is an old blower truck once used to mine in the area.

Undergound Church
Inside one of the underground Churches in Coober Pedy.

Ayres Rock
Now known as Uluru.

Artwork on the Rock
Some of the art by the local indiginous people who used to live around the rock many years ago.

Climbing the Rock
People looked like ants while climbing.