'Coober Pedy' - July 6th - Day 11

Hold up!! Are you starting at the beginning? Check out Darwin (Kakadu) June 26th - Day one!!
Another sleep in day!! We got to sleep in until 7:30am… Wow!!

So along we went driving on this flat, flat road with flat scenery out the windows and then we reached our first stop – drove up this little hill and then all of a sudden there were hills and cliffs called the breakaways! It was pretty cool!

We then stopped at the Dog Fence which is a fence that is 5300km long! It was built to stop the dingoes and stray dogs running everywhere and keep them to one side of the road I suppose. We then had lunch which was chicken wings and headed to Coober Pedy which was our home for the night! Now when you ask the locals they’ll say CP is a hole – but I loved it! It’s an old opal mine town and most of the houses are underground – when you want to renovate or put on an addition on you just start digging! In fact we were staying underground for the night! So cool!!

We did an opal tour – of course in an underground opal mind! Which was pretty cool – we learnt that the white opals are worthless and they are called botch, it’s the coloured opals that are worth pretty pennies! We also learnt how the jewellers cut them into jewellery, did a tour of an old miner’s house and then of course into a mine where we saw botch and a piece of coloured opal left in the mine. I even bought some Christmas presents in July – who do you reckon they’re for??? Hmmmmm……

We then actually ‘went noodling for opals’ – unfortunately I didn’t find millions…

And then we went out for Pizza – for dinner – provided by the tour! It was awesome! After that we went to Josephine’s Kangaroo Sanctuary. We met Jo and Terry (the owners) and their 6 kangaroos. When Mom kangaroos get hit by cars little joey’s get brought there to get better. There was a little baby Joey named Willabe who was a week or two old… he was wrapped up like a little baby – so cute!

We then went to Desert Cave Hotel to watch the final ‘State of Origin’ game (which is like a 3 game series of the East vs. West All Stars Hockey game back at home). After that we went back to our cave to sleep!

Kings Canyon - July 5th - Day 10

Sleep in day – we got to sleep in until 7am!!! As for the swags last night – it definitely was warmer however having mice crawl over my face in the middle of the night really isn’t my cup of tea! Yes that’s right the mouse plague affected our faces at night!

We headed to Kings Canyon for our first stop and our 3 hours walk up a hill that’s called ‘heart attack hill’ sounds fun. We learnt up there that canyon is a rock that has moved up from the Earth’s core, whereas a gorge is produced from water chipping it away. Therefore it should be called ‘The Grand Gorge’.

Isn't it funny that next year the three of us will be teaching kids this age - yet we still get put in the kids photo?!

We then stopped at a gas station for a break where we said goodbye to Ducky (Dave) and picked up another family of 5 (Tom, Melanie, Chris, Stevie, and Amy from Philadelphia) for the rest of our trip. We then stopped at the very last pub on the Northern Territory side – where we took silly pictures of head cut outs and big beer cans.

Next stop was the Northern Territory / South Australia border where we stood two places at once!

Northern Territory

South Australia! Two states covered!

At camp we had some dinner of chicken stir-fry with noodles made by Shane and Team Canada! We slept in tents that night – there were no more swags for us – besides I couldn’t really be bothered – good thing because it ended up pouring down during the night!

Uluru to Kings Canyon - July 4th - Day 9

So last night in our swags – the stars were amazing – however we did absolutely freeze! And therefore didn’t get much sleep… actually I think it would be safe to say that we got no sleep… So early wake-up call freezing cold weather, and (possibly) ant bites ALL over my legs made for one very cranky Alyssa…

We went back to Uluru for the sunrise – we did a 9.4km walk around the base as the sun was rising over Uluru.

After that we went to the cultural centre where we read some stories and saw some art. Next up was another walk with a native who didn’t speak much English so we also had a translator. We learnt a lot about the Mala tribe – pretty cool but we were all pretty drained.

We headed back to camp had some hamburgers for lunch packed up and hit the road towards Kings Canyon – finally nap on the bus!

First stop along the way was at Mt. Connor and a lake (which was the first of a salt lake junction).  Next stop along the way was to find some ‘Bushtaka’. We went looking for grubs… Witchity Grubs that is… oh how I wish I was kidding. So basically we dug up the roots of this tree and if there was a cocoon that would mean there could be a witchity grub in it – if we took one out of the cocoon we had to eat it alive – but if we managed to keep it in the cocoon we could bring it back to camp and cook it on the bonfire… Thank Goodness we didn’t find one! Apparently they have all the amino acids and vitamins that a human body needs – I was willing to take their word for it.

Headed back to camp for dinner (which our guides made for us), sat around the campfire and pulled our swags for round 2 hopefully it’ll be warmer…

Uluru - July 3rd - Day 8

We waited downstairs at the hostel for our new guide to come get us for the next leg of the trip. Dave came in to get us and introduced himself as our guide! We also have Shane (because Dave is still in training) and on our trip we have a family of five from Sydney (Steve, Lucy, Will, Penny and Chris) and the three of us and that was it!

First stop of the day was – CAMEL RIDES! Oh I’m not joking….

We stopped at a truck stop for some gas as our next stop – and that’s where we saw our first mouse…. Oh yesss there is a mouse plague where we are camping… yay…

Went to camp (tonight’s camp was called Yulara) and had some delicious sandwiches for lunch. Next stop of the day was Kata Juta (Valley of the Winds) for our first big walk on this trip – took an hour and a half (It was fast paced – no time for stopping – uphill of course, boulders to climb over – for a view that was ok)

After Kata Juta we went to Uluru for sunset – where our wonderful guides provided champagne and crackers! We watched the sunset over Uluru – as the magnificent rock changed colours we managed to get some great pictures!

(some silly ones of course too!)

Headed back to camp for dinner which was camel sausages, kangaroo steak, beef steak, potatoes and veggies (yummmm)!

Set up swags for the first time so we could sleep under the stars