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Published: August 3rd 2011
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Now where was I??? Ahh yes. Numerous typing errors & Alice Springs. We ended up staying at the BIG 4 in Alice Springs for two nights. We spent Sunday travelling through the beginning of the West McDonnell Ranges. First stop was at Simpson’s Gap. It is a break in the range following creek that they used to transport defence force gear north during WWII. From there we potted about a bit as the scenery was awesome. Took some photos & stuff like that. Eventually Suz decided on visiting an old Lutheran mission called Hermannsburg that had some interesting history & beautiful paintings by a famous Aboriginal landscape artist named Albert Namatjira. That took us a fair while so we headed back to camp via yet another servo. The camp had some cool things like a didgeridoo player/teacher fella called Marshall Whyler who put on a show while teaching us how he was making the sounds he was. Nathan won a prize for being the best player in the kids’ competition! There was also the obligatory pools, parks & jumping pillow to keep the kids entertained. I am also reliably informed that one Phillip A Rigby was seen undertaking dangerous manoeuvres in
a pedal powered cart around the park. He said when he took it back with Jen they noticed the rules board & that Phil had broken every rule!
Monday morning was to be our last with the Rigby’s. We said our goodbyes once again & they headed off south toward Coober Pedy while we went south-east toward Uluru. I think it was on this drive that we saw the Devil’s Marbles. They were pretty cool. Heaps of them too. Luckily we met a bloke at the photo opportunity place on the side of the road that said if we had come from the north then there are two better spots that we might miss. We took his advice & found some much better spots.
Eventually we arrived at a station called Curtin Springs. There are a lot of places with “Springs” at the end of their name up here & not once have I seen a spot of water or some tightly coiled bits of metal. This place was a free camp & we were allowed to have fires so we set up camp & then Nath & I went for a drive through the bush for some
firewood. There were marshmallows for all!
The next day we headed off to Uluru & The Olgas. In my opinion Uluru is impressive as it is one piece of bloody big rock but The Olgas are far more eerie as they are a collection of slightly smaller rocks in crazy formations. Nath & I attempted to climb the rock. We got about three quarters of the way up & I was buggered. Sore back from the chain that was so low to the ground, sore legs from the big unyielding heavy boots I was wearing & general all around lack of fitness. We sat at a sort of flat spot for a while, took some pics & then headed back down. We did a walk around the base that was good & listened in to some of the local people explaining what was what. We headed off to The Olgas in the arvo & did a short walk to the first look out as we were all a bit stuffed. They are an amazing feature. You have to see them up close to appreciate them, same as Ayers Rock. Headed back to camp, the kids made some friends &
we holed up for the coldest night we have had since Echuca ten odd weeks ago!
Yesterday we drove down to Coober Pedy. It is a pretty long drive of 610+ kilometres. Very boring. Someone recently said to me that South Australia pretty much is in the way of the good parts of Australia. In some ways I agree. Lots of nothingness except the odd CB relay station, random solar panel & wrecked/burnt out car. Once we got close to Coober Pedy it started to get interesting. The opal mines on the sides of the road leave some odd lumps of dirt here, there & everywhere. It was sort of like being on a different planet – mounds of sand/dirt as far as the eye could see. We stopped in at the local Big 4 for two nights, so today we will spend looking around Coober Pedy at the mining & underground stuff & tomorrow we’ll head out toward Lake Eyre, William Creek & maybe Coward Springs before hitting Roxby Downs to see my cousin Leah & family.
Just to finish with - for all of those of you who are concerned that I have not mentioned beer
in this post (yes, I mean you Maree) hear this. I paid $56.99 for a carton of VB last night. Things are grim...
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