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Jacobs Creek
Pilgrimage to Jacobs Creek After leaving Adelaide for the outback we spent a few days in the Barossa Valley (it would be rude not to
!). The Barossa is beautiful, rolling hills and fields full of grape vines with international and boutique vineyards dotted around the place. We spent our time at Jacobs Creek and Wolf Blass and it was just awesome.
Traveling through the outback I had expected it to be largely flat with few trees, the odd kangaroo and spinifex grass whistling erily past. The reality is very different with undulating landscapes, mountain ranges and lots of wildlife and vegetation at times.
Our first night stop in the outback was at Coober Pedy, the opal capital of Australia and possibly the world. We had been told that Coober Pedy is a strange place, and it is. The town does not have any natural water, or any natural vegetation, it's just rock and stones. It looks like a town on Mars. The shops, houses, hotels etc are all either built into the hillside or underground to limit exposure to the intense sun.
We arrived in Coober Pedy around 8pm and the place was deserted except for a few people milling around
the grocery store. We spent that night on a campsite in town and wondered what we were doing in this ghost town. (The campsite incidentally had some trees, but these had each been hand planted by drilling through the rock and watered regularly by the owners.) The following day we went down an opal mine and bought an opal ring for me. There's not much else to do in Coober Pedy so we left.
It took another day to drive up to the turn off to Uluru. The rock is then about 3 hours drive off the main Stuart Highway. About 2hours off the highway we were looking into th distance and saw the rock begin to appear. We were both quite excited as the rock began to get bigger and we stopped at a lookout to take some pictures. The rock looked similar to how we remember from photos, though it looked a bit flatter on the top. anyhow, we were quite excited by it all, until I looked closer at the map and realised that the rock was not Uluru at all, but a different rock called Mount Connor!!!!!! hahahahaha, how stupid, thought I expect it catches
many people out. I had expected Uluru to be the only rock for miles around, but it's not the case, there are more out there!!!!
The real Uluru is awesome. We spent about 3 days in the national park and did Uluru twice at sunset and sunrise. My favourite was sunset as the rock changes colour as the sun goes down. The sounds of the outback come alive after sunset and it's a very special moment.
Within the national park there is a cultural centre where aboriginal explain the dreaming stories associated with the rock and some of their customs and way of life including how they live off the land which is quite remarkable as out there there's just nothing I could see to eat. We also spent time walking around the rock which takes about 2 hours and is damn hot during the afternoon. Round the base of the rock are caves, waterholes and small valleys, each place has a different meaning and importance for the aboriginal people. We were also surprised to learn that the rock extends up to 7km underground, with about 800m above ground. It is also a rock in the ground (rather
than a land form), that has risen up and turned through 90 degrees. Millions of years ago when inland Australia was a sea, waves carved a cave out of the base of Uluru and you can now walk inside this cave (amazing). Also the iron in the rock is also oxidising so the surface of Uluru is pitted, unlike the smooth surface that appears in photos.
About 40km from Uluru is Kata Tjuta (pronounced 'cata choota'), another amazing formation of rocks that appear like a small mountain range. We spent a day walking around them and taking in the awesome views. Kata Tjuta also looks great at sunset as the colour of the rock changes.
We visited King Canyon on the way from Uluru back to the Stuart Highway, it's a 3hour detour, but well worth it. Kings Canyon is Australia's mini grand canyon, though the interest is not so much the canyon, but the walk over the ridge and down into the 'Garden of Eden'. It contains pre-historic plants that remain from the inland sea and a time when the Australian interior was lush and tropical. The rock formations up on the ridge are breathtaking and of
1st Tree in Coober Pedy
Tree is made from the remains of the first truck to visit the town. course there are the views into Kings Canyon. For me it's one of my favourite bush walks in Australia and I'd probably prefer it to Uluru.
From Kings Canyon, we traveled into Alice and had a day in Alice before flying to Melbourne for the F1. As we arrive into The Alice as it is known, th Ghan also pulled into town on it's way from Adelaide to Darwin. I've never seen a train so long, over 20 passenger carriages, plus freight carriages and a carriage for vehicles. There's a huge flurry of activity as the Ghan pulls into town with passengers disembarking to go on trips whilst the train re-fuels for the second leg up to Darwin.
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