Day 3 - Coober Pedy to Uluru...Where the bloody hell are ya???

The Beer We needed Paper for...
Strange Signs on Aussie Roads
Uluru

Mount Conner

SA/NT Border

Welcome to the NT

The Breakaways

The Sign...

Well we experienced our first night in a backpackers joint last night. The place itself was great. We were in an underground dorm room of 4 beds (2 bunks) and we settled ourselves into the bottom beds before making some sandwiches for dinner. We had showers then decided to call it an early night. So like a pair of nanna’s we were in bed by 7. Which was all good for the first 30 minutes, then some Germans came down to the dorms...they were laughing and talking so loudly it was unbelievable. The dorm rooms had no doors and the walls in between didn’t reach the ceiling so if other people were being noisy it was like they were sitting in your room. But by 830 they were quiet and we ended up with a fairly good night sleep...untill all their alarms started going off at 5. As we weren’t planning to get up till 6 both of us laid there as long as we could. But by 540 we were up and at it again.
A bowl of coco pops and a fruit box for brekkie each and we were on the road. Before the sun had even risen. It seems a couple of the locals in Coober Pedy think it to be fun to do burn outs around the corners at 6 in the morning. We saw at least 2 different cars do it at the same corner. When Mel grows up she wants to be that cool too!!!
Just out of Coober Pedy on the road north we came across a sign for the Breakaways. This is when I discover I’ve lost my sunglasses. Must have left them back at the hostel. The sign says 11kms to the Breakaways. It was a dirt road so it took us awhile to get to the lookout but it was well worth it when we got there. The sun was just rising and the view was breath taking. While we were in the Breakaways we saw 3 live Kangaroos...something a little different to dead decaying ones on the side of the road. Getting back into the car Mel smacks her head on the door...Ouch...and I know as I did it last night and now have a bruised head and still have a headache...nothing a bit of ibuprophen wont fix...
Now back on the road heading to Marla which is about 230kms North of Coober Pedy I decide I needed my laptop to charge my ipod so I climb into the back of the van like a minda to get it, luckily the driver is a big minda too and while she is driving at 110km an hour she manages to capture the moment on digital film. We see a couple of dingos crossing the road...and Mel goes...”Oh look some baby cows”...well from a distance they could well pass for baby cows...but they were dingos. Travelling along and now we are seeing Cockatoos, lots of them. It looked like someone had dropped some fruit on the road, so one tree had about 30 in there chewing on the fruit. Now we have seen cows and horses as well. Clearly we have driven past a Station of some kind. But as I’m busy writing this I didn’t get photo’s or see the name of the station!!!
About 50kms north of Coober Pedy we see a Chinamen riding a bike along the highway...now where did he come from and where the hell is he going on his bike...does he realise he is in the desert??? Although with all credit to him he was riding so fast we could only get a photo in the rear vision mirror...
We are really in the desert now. The ground is very dry and very red. Even the road is red. I was only saying to Mel yesterday that I was surprised at how green it was. But it’s not grass or crop green...it’s arid lands bush/shrub green...now we hardly even have them...Also surprises me the amount of glass bottles I’ve seen along the side of the road...and also cars on the side of the road...all rusted out and missing the tyres...makes you wonder how they came about to be left there.
We have also found the further north we go the friendlier the people become. Everyone waves up here..
We stop in Marla as this is the last place in South Australia for fuel before hitting the NT border. This is our first real experience with Australian Outback flies. And flies there were. I have never seen so many flies in one place....Thought maybe because the place was such a dump...
We are on the road again and the only exciting thing between Marla and the before mentioned border was a herd of cows crossing the road. But they had well crossed by the time we reached them. So there was no fear of hitting any...
So now were at the border. So excited there was a line crossing the road off to the side so we had to have pictures taken with one foot on each side. Different states and different time zones (no day light savings in NT)...also the Welcome to the Northern Territory sign got a good work out with us both taking plenty of photos. The only disappointment to this stop was no Your Leaving South Australia sign. That we could see anyway...
We are all happy it was a major milestone to hit the NT. And we are off again for next stop Uluru. We stop off at Erlunda at the turn off from the Stuart Highway fill up with petrol have a quick bite to eat with a can of coke and then Bubble’O’Bill for Mel and a lemon Callipo for me and we are heading down the last stretch of road. The flies are unbelievable out here. I know I have heard that Australian flies are bad...but I never believed it till now!!!
We come across a big rock looking thing along the side of the road...Strange looking Ayres rock I thought to myself (Mel tells me the next day she thought the same thing). Only to see a sign saying Uluru was still 220kms away. Then we come across a lookout and discover it is Mt Conner. Took some pictures stretched our legs and back on the road for the last 200+kms. We pull into Ayres Rock Resort and find our campsite, to find someone else had parked there. So we moved ourselves along a bit further and spend half an hour charging our camera’s then we were off to the Rock.
Uluru is about 15kms from the resort. It is $25 each for National park entrance for 3 days. Best $25 I have ever spent. Driving in the park you get to see the rock about 5 minutes in and we were both speechless at the sheer beauty of it...Ok I know that sounds silly but it just takes your breath away. It truly is a beautiful site. We drove around to a lookout got out took many many photo’s. But as it was the afternoon and 40+ degrees we didn’t get out and walk around it. We drove but got out at a couple of places to have a better look. There is a cultural center that we checked out. We weren’t allowed to take photo’s in there. But interesting all the same.
Back into the resort to ask about our new campsite for the evening and were told to park anywhere that was free...So we found a nice shady spot, went and had showers and thought we would hit the Pioneer Outback Bar and BBQ so we could enjoy some air conditioned drinks and food before bed...Our dreams of air con were quickly dashed when we found the bar is an open “outback” bar with only a few fans around the place. We had a couple of drinks, I had to show our “permit” (a piece of paper) to buy a beer at the bar, some burgers for dinner and a couple of games of pool, where some complete bogans were also playing pool. When the glassy chick came to collect the glasses he tried using a pick up line like “I just wanted you to walk back so I can see you from behind again” she just shrugged him off and went about her work. We decided we had had enough for the night and went to bed. Slept with the back of the campervan open as it is too stuffy not too...didn’t even think about dingos...I was more concerned for bugs. At 3 in the morning both Mel and I are awake freezing as we didn’t listen to anyone about how cold the desert nights really get and didn’t bother to get the sleeping bags down (lessons learnt)...Off to see the Olga’s in the morning then out to Kings Canyon for the night...till then stay safe as we will...