Day 359 – Coober Pedy

• Marla - Coober Pedy
• 237kms
• 35°c

I think today topped the scoreboard in the "spot the burnt out car" game with a score of at least 15!

We were looking forward to Coober Pedy, there is something intriguing about a town that is 80% underground.

It became quickly apparent that we were nearing the town by the piles of dirt & rocks that lined the roadside, filling in the holes is not required.

I have to say the highlight for us all was definitely the visit to "Faye's House", we were given a tour by a lovely gentleman, the current tenant. This was the first underground building in Coober Pedy and was originally the garage for the postie when he came through town.

Faye dug out the house over a period of ten years, all by hand and with the help of 2 other women that decided they would like to live underground too. It was amazing the size of it, he explained that the further underground you go the larger the rooms could be, the house is around 25 degrees all year round.

Faye was employed by the Mine as a cook for the miners, but was soon fired as she refused to cook "green meat". The miners stopped her from leaving town and helped her get set up in a cafe where she then went on to provide accommodation and tours of the area. It is said she is responsible for bringing tourism to the area.

The house was amazing and Ella & Occy loved that if the furniture didn't fit, they just dug out around it to make it fit! The same went for if they needed a shelf, just dig one out wherever you like, as Faye did in her bedroom for her dogs as she was sick of them getting on her bed. 

We then headed out to the Town mine fields for a spot of "noodling", it was hot and the flies were determined to be annoying even though we were wearing our uber cool flynets. After about 45 minutes of digging in the rocks and a few sparkly bits that were either ponch or gypsum we decided to call it a day.

Ella & Occy tried out their didgeridoos and made a noise of sorts, I think a bit more practice is needed! We found a vintage store in town and scored 11 awesome books for our library, even better is that Ella is absolutely engrossed in "Dead Famous - Queen Victoria" history books sure have come a long way!

Some travellers we had met in Ayers Rock put us on to this camp spot and happened to be there today, so the kiddos thought they would do some mining in their own spot.

The Clothes Barn Op Shop Caravan Park, $15 a night, power, water, dump point

Day 358 – Crossing the Border

• Kings Canyon - Marla
• 523kms
• 35°c

Today was another long day of driving, which usually means an ice cream stop somewhere along the way!

Ella & Occy had much delight doing a bit of time travelling across the state lines, that was until Steve reminded us that the time line goes East West, not North South!

Goodbye Northern Territory, Hello South Australia!

Marla Travellers Rest Caravan Park, $36 a night, power, no water, amenities, pool

Day 357 – Kings Canyon

• Yulara – Kings Canyon
• 304kms
• 32°c

Happy Fathers Day! Ella & Oscar awoke Daddy with beautiful kisses and snuggles before getting up to make him a special breakfast and coffee in his new Kombi mug.

We packed up camp and bid Ayers Rock farewell as we drove East again before turning off to Kings Canyon. A fairly quiet drive, other than a moment of concern for the vans new tyres, when on a very narrow stretch of road a truck approaching decided it wasn’t moving over at all and so sent our tyres into the crumbled side of the road. We pulled over to check and thankfully they were still looking good.

Kings Canyon resort is the only place out here that allows camping other than a station we passed about 30kms earlier and with almost no difference in price we chose the resort. After checking in and grabbing a bite to eat we drove out to Kings Canyon to have just a short stroll, seeing as the shortest walk is about 1.5kms and the walk around the rim is about 6kms. 

Despite the heat, the flies and Ella’s sore ankle, curiosity got the better of us and so we climbed what is noted as the steepest part of the climb (they should try Ayers Rock) the steps leading up to the rim of the canyon. It was a fairly easy climb on the manmade unobtrusive natural looking steps to a lookout that allowed us a pretty awesome view of the canyon and the landscape on the horizon. The clouds seemed to be getting darker overhead so we decided to head back to camp, seeing as we were out of water we couldn’t go on any further anyways.

The Outback Bistro was our destination for dinner and we were treated to a show as well by the in house performers: The Roadies. Reuben & Petrea came up for a weekend 13 years ago and have been here for 8 months of the year every year since. Petrea spent some time chatting with us and told Ella & Oscar that she would really appreciated their assistance up on stage later on in the evening, they were happy to oblige and were paid in kind with a giant ice cream sundae!

They played country music and were great entertainers, they had a group of kids up on the stage performing with them and had the adults chuckling when she got one of the kids to play the “seweridgeridoo” made from a piece of pvc pipe and a joiner and she assured us that it was not a bong!

For their next act, they got the Dads up on stage for a little performance, being Fathers day and all, or so I thought… because the next thing I knew it was the Mums turn. All of a sudden there was a really strange sound… it was rain! We haven’t seen or heard rain in months, the kiddos found in quite novel to stand out in it.

In true travelling style we got chatting to the parents and spent the rest of the evening swapping stories and experiences whilst the kids played, happy to have other kids around. As “The Roadies” were getting ready to leave Petrea told me there was a paper bag under the table and not to leave without it? Earlier I had asked her about the small didgeridoos in the shop next door & whether they were any good. In the bag were two didgeridoos! she said they’d had them out the back and they didn’t use them in the show. I couldn’t believe the generosity we were shown but yet at the same time I wasn’t that surprised. Karma is amazing!

Day 356 – Ayers Rock & The Olgas

• Yulara
• 33°c

Even though we were up early this morning, we had never intended to see the sunrise at Uluru although judging by the amount of cars that were gone from the campground we may have been the only ones?!

As we neared Ayers Rock, the sheer size of it became apparent, it is absolutely massive and has striations running across the width of it, I would love to see the rain falling on it in the wet season.

We hadn't decided whether or not we would actually climb Ayers Rock but once we got out of the car and walked up to it, we all decided that we would. It is a controversial issue and a choice for each individual to make, they ask that you don't climb and are trying to get it closed to climbers next year. No cultural ceremonies are held here anymore and from what I can gather the main reason they don't want you to climb is that they feel responsible for any injuries that happen. 

It is a really steep climb and there is only a small chain to hold onto, we weren't sure how far we would go up but it became quickly apparent that it is no feat. We made it about halfway up and Steve & Oscar decided that was far enough for them, Ella really wanted to keep going "It's on my bucket list"! How could I not after that comment, so up us girls went. It didn't get any easier the further up we got, but we made it to the top, well the top part where the chain ends and Ella was happy with that, I wasn't going up any higher with her with nothing to hold onto.

We sat in the shade and rested whilst soaking in the view around us, boy were we high and what an amazing piece of nature we were sitting atop. Then it was time to make the journey down to sea level, we had seen people as we were going up with gloves on and I thought to myself that's a bit precious but as we were making our way down I realised they were just smart! Going down we let the chain run through our hands so if need be we could grab it and gloves sure would've been a lot kinder on the hands. 

We were all glad we had seen, touched and climbed Ayers Rock and we truly appreciated it for the magnificent piece of Australian nature that it is. The texture of the rock was really different to anything else we've seen. Ella & Oscar had commented that it didn't seem like a real rock because when you knocked on it, it sounded fake, I think it looks like a meteor that's fallen from space. They also said that parts of the rock looked like there could be a waterslide when it rained.

Needless to say we were all buggered, so Ella & Occy had a little shut eye whilst we drove the 50kms to The Olgas. Again these were some amazing natural formations but to get to them was a bit of a walk and the day was starting to heat up, so we admired them and then it was back home for a rest.

A family pulled into the campspot next to us, they're on a 3 month trip, like so many we meet, taking long service leave or a leave of absence and seeing as much as they can in that time. The kids headed off to the playground, I think Ella & Occy were happy to have some "little people" around again.

Ayers Rock at sunset was something we'd decided would be a must see, so we headed back out to The Rock and found ourselves a good spot in the Sunset Observation Area. It was really quite amazing to watch the shadow cast as the sunset and the changing colours of not only the rock, but the surrounding horizon as well.