Half-lap Day 18: Uluru

I was up at 5.30 and some of the other campers were already leaving. The rest of the family got up at 6 and quickly ate some breakfast, I made tea and coffee for Tony and I and we were in the car by just after 6.30. The sky was beginning to lighten as we started to drive. Approaching Uluru, it was a black silhouette against the slightly orange background of the eastern sky – very very impressive. We bought our National Parks pass on the way (and were given an information sheet in German – could be handy if we want to learn some German on our trip) and kept driving around to the sunrise viewing area at Talinguru Nyakunytjuta (I might need to check the spelling of that!), watching the changing light on Uluru as we went.

There were already a lot of people there but the sun was still below the horizon. Uluru was quite visible now, still a dark brown mass rising out of the ground. We walked up to the main viewing platform but there were too many people there for me and the kids so we moved back down to one of the lower areas. It was exciting to watch the sunlight slowly hit different bits of the rock, and gradually light up the face of it. We could also see Kata Tjuta from here and they were lit with sunlight earlier than Uluru, quite impressive from a distance. While the sun was rising some of us noticed a kestrel fly into a nearby tree. Another, smaller bird (who may have had a nest in the tree) starting scolding the kestrel loudly. As we watched she moved closer and closer to the big bird, sounding warning calls the whole time, and eventually she started dive bombing the kestrel. It held it’s ground for a while (it seemed to just be ignoring the smaller bird) but eventually had enough and flew away, being chased for some time by the smaller bird, who kept diving at it the whole way – into another tree and down near the ground and eventually across the plains until the small bird was happy it was far enough away from her tree.

LiAM is happy that we gave him his birthday present early - he was very keen to get a photo of Uluru (or in this case, a photo of me taking a photo of Uluru...)

The kids and I wandered along the paths and watched the changing light from several different view points. The one we ended up at seemed to have the best view, on ground level, straight across to the rock. Many of the other vantage points had trees in our line of sight – which didn’t detract from how amazing the sunrise was. We eventually wandered back up to where Tony was, and found him chatting to a guy who used to supply presses to De Bortoli. Nearly everyone we’ve spoken to has lived near somewhere we used to live, or near some of our family, or works somewhere we’ve had something to do with… There’s always a connection.

Back at the carpark we were happy to find flush toilets – my worst ever toilet experience was a Uluru in 1997, so it was a relief to see that the toilets have been upgraded quite a bit since then! Once we’d used the facilities we drove all the way around Uluru – so amazing to see it from so many different angles. I’d forgotten how wriggly the outline is, I tend to think of it as just being a big oval. We stopped near the place where people can climb it (the climb was closed and we had no intention of climbing anyway) so the kids could get close to it. Then we popped around to the cultural centre as LiAM wanted to get a souvenir.

Caitlin and I spent quite a bit of time in the art gallery, watching two indigenous women painting – one woman was working on a dot painting that I loved more than anything else I’d seen in the gallery. I would have loved to buy it – someone else had already said they wanted, and it was a little out of my price range anyway. I could have stayed there all day watching them work. LiAM bought a little Uluru snow globe, and Millie bought a note book with a dot painting on the front, and Caitlin a scrunchie with a dot pattern on it. Tony bought an Uluru tea towel – we figure tea towels are handy and practical souvenirs! LiAM was eyeing off the cakes at the café – they were $6 a piece so I said we could buy a whole cake to share from the IGA later and it would probably be cheaper. He was happy to wait.

Back to the campground where I waited in line to find out the details of our new site. It was a good sized site (I’d been worried, some of the sites here are really narrow, and we wouldn’t be able to put our awing up), right near a toilet block, and with shade. We had a bit more to eat back at our tent, then started to do a weird sort of pack up – we put things away where we could, and shoved a heap of stuff in the car – it still took a while and it was a little frustrating to have to pack up so much to move such a short distance – but we needed to put the tent all the way down to move it. We didn’t put the cover on though, just piled everything on top of the folded tent and tied it down for the short drive. Tony and Caitlin had already ridden their bikes over and Caitlin helped Millie ride hers.

Setting up was also a bit of a pain since we normally have a break in between putting the tent down and back up again and we weren’t really in the mood. I hadn’t really eaten enough and I think the busyness of the last couple of weeks was catching up with me and I was rather grumpy. Everyone seemed tired so we decided to simply spend the rest of the day at the campground rather than going out for more sight seeing – sometimes we need to rest! We got everything set up and had some lunch, and I eventually got our washing hung out to dry. LiAM and I went to the IGA to get milk and cake and a few other supplies, which picked up everyone’s mood a little. After lunch Tony took the kids to have a swim and I stayed at the tent, catching up on some banking and email and so on, and enjoying the down time.

The kids came back and had showers and we had pizza rolls for tea (tomato paste, ham, kabana, cheese and pineapple wrapped up in flat bread and cooked in the fry pan). Not quite pizza but the closest we could get with the equipment we had! Everyone was exhausted, LiAM went to bed and listened to music before the rest of us wandered in and we read Brisingr for a very short time before people started falling asleep.

Half-Lap Day 15: Coober Pedy

LiAM and I were up before the sun and saw the gorgeous red clouds above the white rock piles. LiAM had a shower while I sat and watched the changing sky, then we climbed to the top of the hill above the TV room to get a larger view. It was cool to see the sun hitting the hillsides and the doors to the dugouts. The rocks on the hill were quite sharp and almost too much even for LiAM’s very tough feet.

our tent nestled among the scrap heaps

We spent much of the morning in the underground room, I had lots of blogging, email, photos, audio books and money stuff to catch up on so was happy to sit and use the power and wifi provided. LiAM and Millie watched Minecraft videos and Caitlin played with her Music.ly app. It was warming up outside so Tony put the roof of the annex on – at first we thought we might just attach it to the fence around our camping bay, then decided it would be safer to put the poles up. We did it quite quickly and easily, and then put the front wall on to provide shade to the tent. It was warm in the annex and lovely and cool in the tent. There were a lot of flies and Tony was grateful for the fly nets we’d bought at Spuds Roadhouse the day before, it gave him some relief.

This caravan park offers a mine tour, and the first night of camping is free if you do the mine tour. When we figured out the price though it still seemed to be more than we wanted to pay for a tour for the 5 of us, so we skipped the local tour and went in to town to Umoona Mine and Museum. On the way we stopped to fill up our gas bottle for the stove – the guy weighed it and said that it’s still half full, so it’s good to know we can get 3 or 4 weeks out of a bottle.

We arrived at the mine just before 2, in time for the 2pm tour. It started with a little movie about the history of opal in general and in Coober Pedy in particular. The movie explained how they used to get opal out by hand and how the machines help now – it explains the function of the machines we see everywhere here, they vacuum the rocks and dust out of the mine and dump it outside. Much easier than carting it out in a bullock skin bag like they used to. The tour then went into an old dugout, very basic and dug by hand, then into a more modern dugout, well furnished, dug by machine. It felt like a very pleasant place to live, although it did smell slightly musty. The tour guide was very funny and friendly and we really enjoyed her stories. We then went down into the mine below the dugouts and saw where they’d dug tunnels, where they’d found opal, and tried to imagine being down in the mine for hours and hours at a time. The guide said not to feel sorry for the guys who dug this mine – they are now millionaires! There were orange lines on the walls of the mine - apparently these are where the worms made their way through the rocks in ancient times.

An old opal mine

One of the machines they use to suck the dirt and rock out of the mines

Back in the shop we browsed the opals and LiAM bought a small stud, and Caitlin bought a beautiful ring. We chatted to the women behind the counter about the different types of opal and jewellery and overall we learned a lot. On the way out we took our time through the museum (also underground), especially the bit about the dinosaurs – this part of Australia used to be an inland sea and there were ichthyosaurs here – one of my favourite dinosaurs. Also a lot of other marine dinosaurs, and several fossils have been found here. The museum also had lots of information on how the area was settled and some of the history of this part of the world.

Once outside, Tony took Millie and LiAM to the playground, and Caitlin and I wandered up and down the street looking at the shops. We explored another underground opal, arts and crafts shop, and saw beautiful paintings and bowls and opals, and Caitlin met a very friendly cat. We got Caitlin some swimming shorts which she desperately needed at the local sports store, and spent quite a bit of time browsing the underground bookstore – full of books and maps and stationery and it had a wonderful feel to it. The lady at the counter gave us some activity books for the kids to use in the car and we chatted to her about her life in the outback since she left Sydney in her early twenties.

We went to the IGA to pick up some groceries and spent ages browsing in there too, it was also a hardware and camping store and was very well set out. Tony picked us up from the IGA and on the way out of town we stopped to get some photos of the warning signs and the large machine mounted on the Coober Pedy sign. Our car is now coated in a light red dust - Millie's feet were as well after walking around without shoes.

Back at the caravan park the kids went back to the underground room and Tony and I relaxed a little before starting dinner. I did my puzzle book and we chatted while he cooked in the kitchen. We also talked to some of the other campers, trying to figure out the best place to stop between here and Uluru – it seems everyone here has either just come from Uluru or is heading there next. We also saw a few people who camped near us at Pimba a couple of nights ago. Sunset was gorgeous again, very red and constantly changing.

After dinner the kids watched some more videos and Millie had a shower, I got a few things packed up so that the morning will be easier. Millie hung out on our chair for a while under the stars, really enjoying the pleasant night air. Once we were all ready we jumped in to bed and read Brisingr.