Coober Pedy to Alice Springs

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Hello again. We left Coober Pedy and 'the brothers' this morning, what a dusty place that is. Onward to Curtin Springs.... past a few emus racing along the side of the road and also a HUGE Eagle, bravely guarding his road kill. Not much else to see along the way. Stopped at Kulgara Station for fuel, had to leave Jac in the shop for collateral just in case we drove off. Apparantly the station was infested with mice and stunk, glad i didn't have to go in. Almost at Curtin Springs Station and the kids yelled out "there is Ayers rock, we can see Ayers Rock"! Yes, we were all getting very excited, although I didn't think we were close enough. Later inspection tells us that it is Mount Connor an equally amazing rock formation, just not as friendly to climb. It happens to be part of the Severin families' land, and 3 of the family members are buried there. Spoke to Pete, the owner, not sure how old he was but many years past 80 is my guess. A quick look around the station before dinner, then beddies as we have a big day tomorrow.

After camping our at the cattle station, listening to "Moooos" all night, we had a good Aussie fry up on the BBQ for brekky, then headed off for "the ROCK!" With only 80kms to get there, We came across a few wild Camels in the middle of the road who were not too happy to see us and quickly made tracks.

Our first port of call was to climb Uluru. It had been closed in the morning due to high winds, but we were lucky it had just opened again. The climb look very onimous. Tackling a little bit at a time, we managed to get our way to the top! It was an awesome view. Something you can't put on paper, on in a photo. It was very windy and cold at the top, so the jackets stayed on and we found a sheltered area to ring the grandparents. Going back down was a little more difficult due to the slippery nature of the rock, though we made it safely.

Interesting diversity of people we met climbing the rock. Many Asian tourists struggling to make it up, many kids running up and down it (????) and some English lass wearing a miniskirt and singlet, not quite climbing gear!!! Someone even has his kid roped to himself, not sure if that is good or bad? Some girl lost her water bottle half way down and was looking over the edge for it! Crazy.

After conquering the rock, we setup our table and chairs and had a picnic lunch and had a cheeky climbing beer (to celebrate) and chilled out watching the other climbers traverse the rock and swaped our stories about our climb.

You can't visit the rock and not buy some tourist things so we headed to the Uluru Cultural centre and picked out a few souvenirs. They were all locally made (not from China like most of the souvenirs). We would have like to get a painting, however the were rather expensive. Then fuel at the resort, only $1.78 a litre, quite cheap compared to $2.13 at the station!!!!!

After a few afternoon photos as the sun was starting to go down, we tootled back to Curtain Springs for dinner. We stopped short to pick up some firewood for our fire. We made up some pizzas with the dough from the bread machine and sat by our bonfire with our new French speaking friends and gazed at the stars. I had bought some sticky date pudding (Jac's favourite of course!!!!) and after that we rolled into bed.

Another big day tomorrow, 350km to Alice, the beanie festival hopefully and we can publish this blog with some photos ... maybe.

Packed up up the camper and headed for Alice, not much to see on the way ... few camels ... stopped at Eldunda Roadhouse ... or El dud!!! Crappiest, stinkiest, mouse infested roadhouse ever, as well as worst coffee and burnt pies!!! On the road again and finally we arrived in Alice Springs.

We relaxed in the caravan park for a while and then choofed out to Simpsons Gap. It was a bout 4.30pm when we arrived and it was awesome. The cliffs were magic with the setting sun. The water in the Gap was freezing, however it took some convincing for the boys not to get in !!!. Jac may have used the line "there might be crocodiles in there!"

Home for burgers and dessert, doing it hard... apple pie. Apologies for very few photos. We will publish more when we can, they are very slow to upload .....

chow for now ....

RJJMB xoxo.

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Photos

Picnic at Ayers Rock
Nice backdrop to enjoy a few beers hey?

Us on the Rock
Awesome view from here!

Simpsons Gap
This was very peaceful (until the boys arrived!!!) ... would camp here if you were allowed!!!!!

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Nice blog
I would have loved listening to the "moos" all night. Too bad you didn't have photos of the camels. We'll stay away from the Eldunda roadhouse if we get back that way.