Coober Pedy, Yulara
(Uluru) & Kings Canyon
Hello again
folks, here is a brief description of our journey tthrough the red centre...
Coober Pedy SA
A 500km
radius of absolutely nothing but road kill and burnt out cars along the Stuart
Hwy surrounds the bustling metropolis of Coober Pedy. Originally planning to
stay 3 nights Nai and I quickly culled back the stopover to 2 nights after
driving into town!
Lets just
say Coober Pedy is the weirdest place in Australia. A cross between Bangalore
Road, Phuket, Thailand and a cheap 80’s film. Neon signs, Opal
shops/mines/tours and underground buildings everywhere. And just heaps of
seriously strange shit like this.... go figure... that’s what happens if you
spend too long in the desert looking for Opals kids.
At least
they give you a go at looking for Opals yourself. I reckon I found a little
slither of opal but nai shut me down quickly ‘thats not opal’! A lot of work
for what I reckon is an ugly gemstone thats worth bugger all anyway!
Some more
weird stuff around town! Guess the bloke didn’t know what to do with his 40
rusted cars sitting in his front yard so he decided to chop them up! Of course
the Ranger was allowed to pass though...
Apart from
visiting underground buildings and avoiding falling down the mine shafts Coober
Pedy has some spectacular geological features called the ‘Breakaways’ and the underground mine tour we did was very interesting!
Yulara (Uluru) NT
Everyone has
seen pics or postcards of Ayers Rock and never thought much of it. But its
definitely a must see especially if your travelling through the guts anyway,
you’ve come this far!
Up close
Uluru is amazing. So many caves, water holes, and rock features. Once inhabited
by our native friends. Now a Mecca for Asian and German tourists, oh and the
odd Aussie like nai and I.
They say you
shouldn’t climb the rock and that 35 people have died trying..but yet they give
you a chain all the way up to follow! Go figure. Bugger that I’m going for it.
I’m the small red spec about halfway up. Thats as far as I made it though, too
steep and dangerous. Found out the hard way why they encourage you NOT TO
CLIMB.
Probably underrated, The Olgas (Uluru’s little cousin about 50 clicks down the road) is
as good if not more impressive than Uluru itself. We did an 8km circuit walk into the Olgas - amazing sights!
Kings Canyon NT
Just a lazy
350km down the road from Uluru is Kings Canyon. There is absolutely bugger all
in between apart from the odd roo, camel, dingo or cow, most of which are dead,
victims of the road train massacre. Kings Canyon is an amazing oasis in the
middle of the desert.
The 6km hike
around the canyon rim is not recommended for those who are unfit as it is steep
and wearing. The 1 km hike through the creek in the centre of the canyon is
recommended for those people. Nai and I did both hikes and the sign at the
entrance says that both are as good as each other, i guess to convince those
who cant make that they're not missing out. Well sorry guys you missed out big
time, the canyon rim walk shits all over the creek walk.
Probably the
worst part of Kings Canyon would be the howling dingos at night followed
closely by the price of fuel! $2.15 /L! I nearly had a heart attack. Luckily I drink booze for my kicks and don't sniff petrol.
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