8/10/25 Coober Pedy

 

    Today we head into town to check out the Serbian Church . Built into the side of a hill , with a large parking area and forecourt . We ventured in for a look .

   We walked in and down a ramp to the main area . The roof line is amazing , being machined out in the pattern below .

     Next was down to Old Timers Mine and a walk through the old mine . This is a small seam of opal that has been left to show everyone what it would look like - it's about the size as it is in the photo .

    This is how the miners used to get in and out of the mines . They cut foot and hand holds in the walls and had to climb up and down that way .

     The miners also built their home below ground , cutting in rooms as required . Following are some of the rooms .

    The owners have also put in a museum , This is the drive in theatre projector , from the drive in theatre in town .

    More of the museum .

     And now to the shop , here's the expensive end  , several of these pendants are over $2000 . They are of course in the shop at the front of the mine . The workshop that makes all these trinkets is just behind the shop .

    After the mine self guided tour , we headed across the road to a bar with a view over town . You can see the supermarket down below , but most residences are underground .

      Wouldn't be us without a sunset to seal the deal .

6/10/25 To the Quarry

 

   Next morning we headed off back to the highway , heading south toward South Australia . There was nothing remarkable on the drive , and we found ourselves a camp site just north of the border . It was covered in these small white everlasting daisies .

   We had the campsite to ourselves , which was nice , apart from the flies - there's been about a billion of them . Back out on the road , the kilometres rolled by with only a fuel stop . This is one of the most uninteresting sections of road we've driven . Our destination was Coober Pedy and we finally arrived at it's northern edges , mounds of different coloured dirt all over the place .

     Glad we didn't wait around for them to fill the ute up , might have been waiting for a while . Seriously though , there are hundreds of these trucks , or ones similar scattered over the opal fields .

    Next day we headed out to the Breakaways , it's a spectacular area about 30klms north of Coober Pedy . The colours are amazing , while at this viewpoint , a busload of tourists from The Ghan arrived , followed by another 2 bus loads from the Ghan . We got our photos and went across to another lookout .

 So many different colours here .

     The road took us down into the coloured valleys below to another lookout . This photo gives you an idea of scale 

   Stunning views .

   This is Two Dogs - supposedly like 2 dogs lying down .

     Multiple colours in this section .

     The road then took us to the dog fence . It was built to keep dingoes out of the sheep grazing areas and went for a long way .

     

     After the road left the dog fence we arrived at a spot called Mica Hill . The phot doesn't do it justice - all the small white areas are actually mica and were shining in the sun .

       The area that Mica Hill is in , is called the Moon Plains , and for good reason - there's nothing for       miles.

 

    A thoroughly enjoyable day , tomorrow we'll check out more of town . Cheers                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

30/9/25 Uluru & Kata Juta ( Ayers Rock & The Olgas )

 

      Okay , here it is Ayers Rock or Uluru as it's' known now . This is looking from the sunrise viewing area .

    One of our days here I rode my bike around the base and took some different shots of the rock , capturing some of the contours . There was lots of grass ( now very dead ) around this visit , so not as many wildflowers as last time . Everything did look like it wanted to be there though , trees healthy & green .

     The benches in the shelters are a work of art , creating great seats that were reasonably comfortable as well .

     This is from the every popular sunset viewing side of the rock .

 Here's a few shots of the colour change at sunset .

The carpark at the viewing area is about 700m long and it was pretty full this time .

    Next day we headed out to The Olga's ( Kata Juta as it's known now) . This is the view fro the sand dune lookout . It's about 48klm drive from Yulara to get out here , and you require a park pass to get access to it & the rock - a 3 day pass is $38 each for a 3 day pass .

This is on the way up to the Valley of the winds walk .

This is Walpa Gorge , we didn't walk this one as it was to hot , and after a 7.4klm walk around the valley of the winds we decided not to bother with it , we'd done this one last time we were here .

    This Perentie was enjoying the shade and didn't budge as I walked past .

The morning we were leaving Yulara , we went for a helicopter ride to the rock & back , Thanks to the red balloon voucher we got for a christmas present a few years ago - Thanks kids .

     Doesn't look like it's 383m tall does it .

 

    After the flight we headed out toward the Stuart Hwy again , stopping at another free camp along the way . More to come . Cheers

26/9/25 To Yulara

 

    Leaving Alice Springs , we head south ( not a lot of choice really , it's either north or south ) . Stopping at Stuarts Well Roadhouse to top up with fuel , before continuing on . We were informed that there was an accident near the turnoff at Erldunda and the highway was closed while investigations were being carried out - it was a fatality unfortunately. We carried on , there were 2 rest areas we could stop at . We chose the first one and pulled in , finding a spot to set up for the rest of the day & night . There were a couple of cars, and one guy sitting under the shelter - I went over to see if he knew anything about the crash , but he'd broken down last night , someone towed him into the rest area and said they'd get a tow truck to come and get him in the morning . There was no phone service here , so he was stranded . We offered the use of Starlink to make a call for roadside assistance , and within 1.5 hrs he was picked up by a tilt tray truck and on his way to Alice Springs . He was a 32year old German tourist , and was most grateful for us assisting him - he'd been there for about 14 hours before we got there .

   The road reopened later in the afternoon and there was a flurry of trucks & cars etc , all in a rush to make up lost ground . It quietened down after dark , but we were only about 30m from the highway and beside a bridge , so road noise was bit louder as a result . 

   We slept okay and got ourselves sorted , heading down to Erldunda , turning there to get to another free camp spot . It was about 120klm in , and in red sand country . There were some wildflowers out , so I battled the flies and the sun to check things out . Here's some of them .

Next morning a guy pulled into the rest area , it looked a bit strange , he had a motorbike with him , but not on a trailer , it was partly inside the back of his car , with the rear door fully open - would have been great for exhaust fumes in the car !!!

    AFter that we packed and headed up the road a bit until we got to a lookout - a red sand dune overlooking a salt lake .

    And on the other side was Mt Conner , comically known as "Fooleroo " , as it's the first mountain you see on the way to see Uluru

     A first for us was seeing our first feral camel wandering along the side of the road , we were still 60 or 70 kms from Yulara , so it wasn't an escapee from the camel farm . It's taken 10 and a half years to finally spot one in the wild .

 With that we kept trucking into Yulara and paid for a very expensive camp site in the caravan park , it's been 9 years since we were here , so I guess we forgot about the extortionate prices for everything . yes I know we're in the middle of Australia , but prices were way higher than anywhere else , they're taking advantage of the captive audience they have . 

  That's it for today , more epic stuff coming .