Uluru, the Olgas and on to the Barossa Valley via Coober Pedy
NORDLYS
David and Annette Ridout
Sat 23 Sep 2006 10:46
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The Red Centre to the south coast of
Australia
Barossa Valley,
24th September 2006
I am sitting at a table in our room in the heart of
the Barossa Valley, the primary wine producing area of South
Australia. A far cry from the outback camp site of my last
report.
Our walk around King's Canyon, we opted for the
long route round the top of the gorge, turned out to be one of the most
spectacular six kilometres I have ever walked in my life. I will try to
show this in a couple of photos. The only snag was that this area is
accessible on sealed tarred road thus there were a lot more tourists, including
those who came for a long day trip from Alice Springs. The initial part of
the walk is uphill, seriously uphill and as we were surrounded by a large group
of teenage school children I had a slight sense of humour failure. This
was however soon overcome by watching the different groups of the kids.
Lead by a hyper fit lady teacher the leading group disappeared into the
distance. There were slightly more girls than boys in this group. We
tried to sit the group out and let them go ahead but this was impossible because
of the large group of trailing 'Billy Bunter' type students. Overweight,
not interested in their surroundings and very unfit. Again more girls than
boys. Anyway this problem sorted itself out as time progressed and
we were often only in the company of a couple or so tourists. Again we
were enjoying the cheerful company of our Queensland friends Michael and
Lynne. In every direction the views were stunning.
 Lynne, Annette and Michael get near the edge of the
canyon
 where there are people in the photo
was the edge mentioned above!
A days drive and we were in Uluru camp site.
This we were dreading having heard bad reports. How wrong we were.
We camped in quiet with few others near us and on grass, not dust. Again
probably too much was drunk because of the great company of our above mentioned
friends. The success of our tour was we found because we had adapted
the tactic of getting up very early due to the coolness, lack of flies and also
because the tourist numbers were down then. On our first sortie we went
and watched the sun set over Uluru, with a glass of wine in hand and good
company. Then at 0530hrs we left for the 45km drive to the Olgas. A
seven Kilometre walk through them in the cool of early morning was something
none of us will forget. How satisfactory to get back to the car at about
1030hrs as the sun was getting hot and the coaches were dropping off a lot of
non too keen students! Sounds smug, well perhaps we were. The same
was done next day for the walk of ten km round Uluru. This we found to be
rather a let down after the previous days walk but came in the 'had to be done'
category. That afternoon while having a siesta in our tent a small twister
similar to the one that came at me in the car, started up in the nearby car park
and full of wind and dust hurled itself straight at the tent. Miraculously
little damage was done. Several metal clips were bent straight, we felt
for a second that we might get airborne, and two tent pegs came out. The
inside of our home was as if someone had thrown a large bin of grass cuttings
and dust inside it! Madam was not amused!
 The Olgas at dawn
 Annette walking amongst the Olgas
 Uluru at sunset. Please note this photo is 'as was' and
is not tweaked digitally
 Uluru at dawn, 'as was'.
Our final night in Uluru was celebrated at the
upmarket restaurant in the resort. It was our last night with Michael and
Lynne and also our 36th wedding anniversary. A memorable
evening.
 36 years and still smiling
Unfortunately Annette's back/neck pain while
getting better was far from cured so again we made up a bed for her in the back
and I set about driving the 720 km to Coober Pedy. This place was
something else and like nowhere else I have ever been. It is the opal
mining capital of Australia. Opals I should point out are not things that
can be found by throwing huge sums of money at the problem thus the big boys
never get involved. It was and still is a task undertaken by enthusiastic
individualistic prospectors, rather like gold in the old days. Until
recently they were a wild bunch and I understand that Coober Pedy was similar to
the Wild West towns of yore. Today there is more order and tourists are
welcome. Until the '80s there was no running water in a place that is very
dusty and where the summer temperatures are in the top forties and sometimes
fifties. The record being 56.5C. Water was brought in, originally by
camel but then by truck and sold at great price in 44 gallon casks. One
per person per week was the ration. The whole area around the town is now
designated a mining only reserve so back fill is not needed. The
countryside thus looks rather like a rocky desert that is covered in small white
conical pustules. Most people live underground and our hotel was like
this. Our room being part of an old mine. Now the idea of staying
long in this place of dust and dryness did not appeal but I would strongly
recommend a visit. It is unique and we found the people we met to be
charming.
 Annette leaving our bedroom at Coober Pedy Comfort Inn
 Coober Pedy House. Note the vent pipes from the majority
of the rooms.
These houses often go 30 metres into the hillside.
The drive south was over some of the most desolate
country we have crossed. A large part of it over the Woomera Range.
We kept passing over the Ghan railway line several times as it wended its way
from Darwin to Adelaide. We passed lakes of salt that were so
bright white and flat they looked as if they were frozen
over. The endless ribbon of tarmac eventually metamorphosed into a normal
highway and we entered Port Augusta and saw the sea. We had driven from
one side of this amazing continent to the other. Today we have driven
through green fields and normal farmland. We have walked through
bush that is more like parkland than desert and tomorrow we will set about a bit
of serious wine tasting!
Happy times
David and
Annette
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