Middle of Outback Tour

April 23
Up at 4am - yes you heard right 4am! Got on the bus and slept on and off (except James who was at the front keeping Horty company) until sunrise where we watched through bleary eyes.
Stopped at Port Augusta for snacks and loo stop, then started the 500+km drive along stewarts Highway. Another loo stop at Pimble. We saw a couple of road trains with 3 carriages. We stopped at Hart lake - this is a massive Salt Lake, that actually tastes of salt (we tried it!)

Salt Lake

We stopped for "sangas" at Glendambo, which was the last stop for 250km! The flies were everywhere - Arghh!
We arrived at Coober Pedy around 3pm, playing the Imperial March (from Star Wars) as Horty found it on James iPod - this turned out to be our trip anthem!. This place is bizarre as half of the building have been built inthe side of hills, because of the lack of building materials and also the abundance of opals in the ground here.We went round the town in the bus then got dropped off at Umoona mine - we got showed around the underground house and part of the old mine where they have opals. Had to resist buying them though.
Got shown to our accommodation - an underground camp!

Underground Home Extension

For dinner we went out for pizza. It was Jenny's birthday so we had poppers and sparklers.
We went to an underground bar - surprisingly it wasn't dark and dingy, but suppose they do have electricity!

April 24
Up at 4am again. We stopped again at 6.30am to watchg and take photos of the sunrise. This time James got his tripod out and was laying in the road just to get that perfect shot. We also had to get some firewood from the side of the road for the campfire tonight.
We stopped off at Marla for a bit of Brekkie and loo stop.
When we set off again a Black Wedge Tailed Eagle flew really close to the bus, James was too slow with the camera though so you'll just have to take our word for it.
We stopped off at the South Australia and Northern Territory border - so far done 1746km (thats 1091 miles!)
We stopped off for some fuel and to pick up some food supplies, plus the all important fly veil!. We had lunch at Mount Endevour, we had a look at some Aboriginal art work.
The next part of the journey we had to try and spot Uluru (or Ayres Rock to you and me!) Some people got caught out by spotting the "giant toothbrush" (Mount Connor) which meant they had to buy Horty a drink In Alice Springs. We arrived in Yulara and headed towards Uluru to do a short walk called the Mala walk. We drove a bit away (along with many others) to watch the sunset on the rock - However the sun was not playing as it hid behind some clouds, but we still enjoyed some bubbly and crisps and dip.

Outback Tour Group

We went back to the Uluru campsite where we had bbq rice and sausages for dinner. Sat round the campfire then we slept under the stars in swags with the dingoes howling in the night.

April 25
Up at 5am (so a bit of a lie in) cleared up camp. We went to Uluru to start a walk at 6.40am. We walked around teh bottom of the rock to watch the sunrise and got to see the colour change of the rock - awesome!

Red Uluru

We walked 9.6km (just under 6 miles) all before 8.30am - what an achievement! All the time wearing our fly veils - which was the best thing we have ever bought!
Next stop was to Kata Tjuta where we only walked a couple of km to a clearing they call the toaster. James had his picture taken trying to separate the 2 rocks - to show how strong he is!
After lunch we drove to a lookout for Mount Connor or the giant toothbrush to take some photos. Back on the bus for a 4 hour bus ride to Kings Canyon.
We had a campfire where the food was cooked. Sat around the fire.

Middle of Outback Tour

Coober Pedy, Australia