After Kelli’s
relentless planning and desire to drive 15 hours to see a red rock, sorry, an ‘ageless Australian icon’, we finally set sail on our 3200 km roundtrip to see Uluru, or Ayers Rock. For those like me that aren’t very cultured, it’s the big red monolith that dons the many tourism ads and events showcasing
We began around 
claimed were infamous on that stretch of road, especially at the hours we were traveling. But, to our fortune (and chagrin) we didn’t see any. The kids did pretty well, especially with the new portable DVD players that G-pa and G-ma brought with them from the States. Hunter is a little harder to please, but he’s all for the Australian soft licorice … Collin had a hard time, once again, when it started getting dark. We kept telling him we were getting closer but that only works so long. And then you see the town lights off in the distance and that only works for so long, too. One nice distraction to the ‘are we there yet’ question was the amazing sunset. The skyline was as if you were looking out over the ocean, only it was endless dirt. Once i
t turned dark, though, it didn’t really matter. The rainbow or red, orange, yellow, green, blue and black was amazing. That and it stretched around a 1/3rd of the skyline and stayed around for probably 20 minutes. We finally made it to Woomera where we stayed a couple months ago for the rocket trial. To Collin’s delight, the rocket with the red nose was still there and he was happy to show it off to G-ma and G-pa. The night at the Eldo was uneventful. The stars were out in full force and provided an awesome scene to go to bed to. The only negative is that we went to bed around 9 and had to get up at 3 so we could make sure we made the next 1100 kms in enough time to see ‘the rock’ at sunset … and so the next leg begins …
11 August
Yes, today did begin at 3:30 in the morning … and didn’t end until we had seen Uluru at sunset. I think we were the only people stirring in all of Woomera at that hour of the morning and it was quite serene. The kids didn’t bat an eye about getting up and getting back in the car. They just asked for the DVD players and were content until later in the morning when they crashed and went back to sleep. We had roughly 1100 kms to go in one day and guessed it would be about 11 hours. Traveling through the outback doesn’t offer much opportunity for stopping or sightseeing, so really there was only one place to go … north. But, starting around 4 in the morning also meant that we were traveling in the middle of the night and that meant kangaroo danger. No sooner were we on the main 
town is built around the opal mines which are basically surface holes. Everywhere you look there are mounds of dirt cast up around the countryside where they’ve used equipment to dig out the rocks … and they don’t bother to fill them so they have to quarantine off the entire area so people don’t fall into random holes and shafts. We stopped for gas and at a Podunk bakery for some nummy quiche and cheese/bacon rolls, a quick stop at a park full of dirt and dust to let the kids play and get dressed, and then were on the road again. It honestly reminded me of an old west town with sandy roads and weather-beaten wooden overhangs. It was quite the sight. There were tons of aborigines as well. All seemed to have the same type of look about them with is the same as you may see in a movie or such. The rest of the travel up through the upper end of South Australia was fairly uneventful. We did see a ‘heap’ of wedge-tailed eagles munching on the carcasses of dead kangaroos and cows – yes, the other road obstacle is the cow which aren’t too bright and not fenced from the roads. The eagles are amazing though. We didn’t get any good pictures of them on the way up, but hopefully we’ll have more luck on the way back. Someone said they are bigger than our bald eagles, and I wouldn’t doubt it. The legs themselves give the impression of a dog eating the road kill from a distance until you actually get closer and realize it’s a bird. We probably saw upwards of 20 of these eagles on the ground and in the air.
We crossed into the
The kids all did surprisingly well until we were within 20 kms of our destination and Collin had to stop for a bathroom break on the side of the road. That was entertaining in and of itself without going into further details. (I'll give you a hint--it's hard to go in a steady stream when you're laughing!) We got a simple one-room hotel room complete with a queen bed, two bunk beds and a fridge … and that’s about it. It was a nice little resort though which had everything from un-powered camp sites to a 5-star hotel which cost $1000 a night. Ours still cost $180 a night which is highway robbery, but it’s the only option for 50 miles around and you are stuck with it – and they can charge whatever they want. That’s ok though, all part of the adventure … and Australian economy.
Approaching the resort we finally caught a glimpse of the rock. It was pretty impressive. Rising up out of the sand without hardly another formations of rock or hills all around. There was another outcroppings of rocks called ‘the Olgas’ some 32 kms away from Uluru. After getting somew
hat settled we ventured into the park (another $25 per person!) and went right up the base. Everywhere you are bombarded with requests from the native aborigines to respect the rock as a spiritual part of there culture and not to climb it, yet they don’t forbid you from climbing (unless there is a 5% chance of rain or winds higher than 25 knots on the summit and they wouldn’t let you climb it.) They’ve apparently had 38 deaths and in their brochure of the park they have someone being taken off by ambulance wrapped in a sheet to try and dissuade you. Yet, when we got up to the base of the rock there were plenty of people make the ascent. It was kind of intimidating as this chain guides you up the face of a cliff with a shear drop on one side. Jerry climbed up to the point where the chain starts and I took the kids part way up where we took some pictures. The weather was a perfect calm and just right temperature. The rock was a brilliant red and in m
ost places appeared as a smooth, one-piece rock. In some places there was color disfiguration from rain and where whole pieces of rock had broken off. But, from a distance it just looked like a single large stone that someone plopped from the middle of the sky into the Australian outback. Pretty cool … We found a place to park for the sunset show. It reminded me of a drive in for watching movies as people were on top of their vehicles --- someone setting up dinners with champagne and the whole lot. As the sun set the rock went from an orangish-red to a brilliant, bright red. It was amazing … and continued to change different shades of red until the sun got too low and then it turned to a dull brown surrounded by a blue/purple haze of the night sky. I had my doubts about coming this far to see it, but the view we got for those brief 10 minutes was well worth the trip.
We summed up the evening with an ‘outback’ burger of fried egg, beets, beef, lettuce, and pineapple – plus a pizza of pumpkin, spinach, and ricotta cheese (Kelli’s choice (she wanted veggie pizza), and quite gross!) It was a fun setting with an old timer playing music on his guitar and a comfortable, peaceful evening.
Collin did provide us one unforgettable memory. We were traveling on the road and
12 August
So after the endless fun of the evening before, we decided we hadn’t had enough so we got up at 
gum trees creating a shelter from the sun. In each ‘canyon’ of the rock was a black stripe down the middle where to water collected together and ran to ground. Quite spectacular ... So we kept stopping and taking pictures … and the kids kept trudging along. Hunter was in his stroller and quite content to take in the view. At times we had to lift him out of the sandy trail to keep moving, but by taking turns we managed. About half way through both Collin and 
was, ‘a little’. But, Collin said he enjoyed the hike as evident by the number of rocks and sticks he collected along the way. When we did get back the wind had died down and they were letting people on the rock. So, Jerry and I took a swig of water, a granola bar, and headed up. The chain leading up the face of the cliff went only about ¾’s of the way to the top, albeit the steepest portion. At one point you were literally 2 feet from a shear dropoff to the bottom. Slightly unnerving but you just kept your eyes in front of you and on the chain and next footing place. There was this litte Chinese girl and her parents who were moving up the rock. She couldn’t have been more than 7 and she just kept moving up the mountain with her parents in tow. There’s no way I would have let
We had another 7 hour drive back to Coober Pedy, and it was already 2 in the afternoon so we decided we’d better set off. Kelli had the first shift so I sneaked a nap … after the obligatory 5 times of buckling and unbuckling my seat belt to fix DVD players, getting kids something to drink, settling disputes, etc. We did stop for gas at another Podunk station at $1.73 per liter before getting too far! There was an emu roaming the premises and a lady with a Mohawk behind the counter, and a bloke pumped our gas for us, gave us a paper receipt with a handwritten total for the amount of gas … and we were out of there. And then we weren’t down the road before Jerry shouted that there were camels on the hill – sure enough, up 
on top of this little knoll about 50 yards away were 5 camels. Two of them were standing up looking at us, but the other three were just lying down. All of them were kind of looking at us like, what in the world – just as we were with them. We’d seen a dead carcass of a camel on the way in, but were quite surprised to see a live camel. Somehow they ended up here from immigrants and apparently they’ve really thrived in the outback … must remind them of home. At this point I fell asleep but they saw another group of them not too far away from the car … this time 8 of them! After 3 hours of driving it was my turn. We stopped at the N. Territory/S. Australia border and took some pictures and visited the outhouse of a rest stop. As Jerry pointed out, there wasn’t any smell in the outhouse --- crazy! Hunter was fighting mad getting back into the car, but he loved to play ‘little piggies’ and go ‘oh’ by hitting his head against the car seat while mimicking G-pa … so between that and food we managed to keep him distracted. Before we knew it, though, the sun was going down again and we were in ‘roo country going at 120 k’s an hour (~70 mph) keeping our eyes peeled for more kangaroos. There were also tons of ‘cow’ signs and handwritten ‘cattle caution’ signs. We rarely passed another car and only averaging a passing vehicle every 50 miles or so. It was nuts – probably the first car we saw in the distance was approaching and then all of the sudden he stopped on the other side of the road about 100 yards from us. I slowed down and then realized that there were 2 kan’d’aroos (as Collin would say) right in front of him just looking at us and him. We kept on going past, but I saw in my rearview mirror that he pulled further off the side of the road – as Jerry mentioned, he didn’t look like the type that was going to be taking pictures. We think they were going to have kangaroo steaks for dinner. We only saw another 3 kangaroos the rest of the evening, which was a relief. That doesn’t mean we didn’t spend the 4 hour drive on the edge of our seat. It was kind of like watching the climax of a horror movie for hours on end just waiting and anticipating another kangaroo from the plethora of bushes lining the road. At one point we had to pull over because Collin had to use the bathroom again (G-pa did the honors this time to avoid Kelli the embarrassment), and I took the opportunity to turn off the car lights in the middle of the outback with no other lights around. The amount of stars was incredible. It honestly looked like there was a cloud in the sky – but it was ‘only’ the milky way. I could have star gazed all night in that location. Anyway, driving the rest of the way was very eerie. It was as if we were in a fog of black. Even with your brights on, you could only see ¼ of a mile in front of you at one time – and at times it was as if the car road was floating in the middle of space with no land on either side of the road. Kind of cool until you realize that if you got a flat tire or had car problems you were just plumb out of luck (not to mention we remembered batteries but forgot a flashlight!) We finally did make it to Coober Pedy at around 10 at night. We stayed at a really nice underground motel with the room built into the side of the hill (to avoid the heat in the summer). It was awesome and I slept like a baby on the top bunk next to the rock ceiling …
We also had another 2 moments of Collin’s collinism. We were running back from the lookout and Collin was racing me. As I came up on his side he would run in front of me cutting me off. When we got back to the car, I mentioned that he was cutting me off as we ran back. Collin was then getting into the car and said, ‘yeh, I was flipping you off!’ Uh yeah … what do you say to that?
The other was when we stopped at a gas station in Marla – last town in S. Australia … anyway, Kelli was getting everyone settled with the DVD players, waters, blankets, whatever … then she turned and asked if there was anything else anyone needed, to which Collin responded, “Uh yeah, what about my birthday party next year?” Got to admit the kid has some serious forward thinking going on …
13 August
Contrary to some people (no names mentioned), the ceiling didn’t collapse on top of us and we survived the 
night in the hill. We had a quick breakfast and then spent the morning packing the car again and letting the kids run all over the place collecting their rocks into a collection. We did some prospecting, or ‘noodling’, in a local park where some ‘old timer’ at one time struck it rich looking for opals. The kids didn’t mind turning old rocks over and just enjoyed being out of the car and getting all dusty again. This dust was more of a white compared with the red from Uluru. But, when all’s said and done, dirt is dirt and it was everywhere! We wondered over to mainstreet and there was shop after shop of opals and aboriginal artifacts … not to mention aborigines themselves. The funning thing is that most of the shop owners were Europeans – Serbians, mainly. Guess if you want to escape everything they’ve gone through then the Outback is really getting out of the way. They were nice and we had a good chat with some of them. There were actually a lot of tourists around browsing the shops. They have a little airport nearby which takes tourists, probably from
Kelli ended up buying some opal jewelry and I got a didgeridoo (or however you spell it). The prices were a whole lot lower than anywhere else – a necklace that looked identical to Kelli’s
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