We headed south to Uluru, which is 500 km return off the Stuart Highway. We arrived in time to photograph Ayres Rock and a quick photo of The Olgas. You are limited in where you are allowed to go. Dozens of other snap-happy photographers from every corner of the globe were there to take photos of these two icons. There is a 45 minute drive from Ayres Rock to The Olgas. I climbed the rocks when I was 16, but today they request people not to climb it because so many have died attempting to do so. It was good to see the new town that has sprung up about 20 km from the Rock. Everything was World Class and very clean and upmarket. We also joined the mob to do the sunrise photography.
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| Ayres Rock at Sunset |
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| Olgas near sunset |
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| Olgas in the morning |
We were glad to be on the road the following day and noticed that the unfenced cattle found their shade in a strange and unexpected place. Beside the road there is sometimes a bit of a red sandy cutting, which may be about ¾ of a metre high. The cattle would lie in the shady space that was afforded by the sand in the cutting. This was the only shade available for them. Needless to say, quite a few of the cattle are run over when they seek shade so near the roads. The properties in the outback are so vast that they are not fenced, so the cattle can wander where they like. You have to keep an eye out for them all the time.
We made our way down the centre to Coober Pedy, on the highway. One sight of that place of piles of coloured sand has to be checked out. So we stayed the night and went into an old underground mine and an underground house and church. The town has to be seen to be believed. The opal lies between 20 and 30 feet depth, but some is much deeper and the beautiful stones are caused by being in the ground for a very long period. Even seashells can turn into opal. Must have been a very tough life in the early days – gouging with a pick, but today much of it is mechanized. An almighty wind storm with rain struck SA including Coober Pedy and driving in that wind was hard work. The huge black storms were raging around us, but we were directed to places between the fronts, so that was a great blessing, as we followed the road. We spent about 3 or more days out there. Flowering shrubs were in many places and the territory was often quite pretty.
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| What is this? |
The opals are found in land that looks flat and almost lifeless. You could never dream what was buried under the earth.
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| Coober Pedy |
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| Graeme in opal mine |
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| Opal overburden |
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| Opals |
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| Underground bedroom |
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| Underground church |
I’d been wanting to see a few more emus and we had 18 of them right where we were, close to Womera. We had a quick look around there and found more emus.
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| Emus at Woomera |
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| Rocket launcher at Woomera |
We had been out of fresh food since handing in our fresh food at the SA border, so we were delighted to find everything we needed at Pt Augusta. It has turned really cold since the windy and wet front came in 2 days ago, so we are back in to winter woollies again and expect to stay in them from now on.
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| Port Augusta Sand Cliffs at Flinders Lookout |
The highlight for me at Pt Augusta was the WADLATA Outback Centre. We took about 3 hours to take a fairly quick look at it. It is also the Visitor’s Information Centre as far as I know. Seeing it on the way to the desert lands would be one thing, but to see it after having done all the hard yards, it was just fantastic, World Class and I talked with the Artistic Director who has been there for 20 years and has won all the awards except the National Award – and is deserving of that one as well. So remember that one. I felt it was something akin to Expo for those of you who went there when it was on in Brisbane – a smaller scale of course.
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| Wadlata Outback Centre Port Augusta |
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