Week Twelve Day Eighty

The locomotive of The Ghan!

Wow, what a trip! We left Darwin on Saturday morning for the Ghan. We arrived at the train station and what a sight. The Ghan looked quite impressive standing there with its bright red regalia and silver compartments. We watched as the train was shunted into position and all allowed to board. Some of the sleeper compartments were very expensive so we opted for "Sleeper seats" in the Red compartment. Not much sleeping happened but what a great journey and scenery.

Our coach.

The train stopped off at Katherine, allowing passengers to do whistle stop tours. We ended up going to Springvale Homestead, for afternoon cream tea (yummy).

The camel at Alice Springs train station.

Back on the train we settled in for the night. We arrived in Alice Springs mid morning, where we were met by our motel's shuttle bus. While waiting for our room we wandered down to the

Todd river as it had flooded a few days before. As this does not happen very often we had to witness it with water in it. John and Hope where not feeling well, so they went straight to bed when we returned. Wendy walked into Alice to look for a pharmacy. After stocking up with medicine and some food she returned. We must say we were not impressed with Alice, it was incredibly dirty. There was so much litter on the streets.

The Todd river, Alice Springs.

We where up early on the Monday morning as we where being picked up by "Emu Run Tours". For a trip to Ayers Rock and the Olgas. This was a round trip of 1100km's, glad we where not driving. It departed at 6.00am and returned at midnight, mmmmmmm.

The four main domes of The Olgas

What a fantastic day we stopped and looked at "Fooluru" Mt Connor. Then we started seeing the Olga's and Uluru. Wow, what a sight we couldn't wait to get up nice and close. We stopped off at Yalara the resort for lunch then went to the Olga's. Impressive, we walked between two of the domes, there are 36 domes in all. The Aboriginal dreaming story of how the Olga's came about is quite fascinating. They are supposed to be that of a marauding party of Aborigines that had abducted women and children from another tribe. When their men tracked them down, they buried the surviving marauders up to their necks in the sand. They then turned to stones, Kata Tjuta means "Many Headed Mountain".

The Olga's at sunset, taken from "Sunset Boulevard".

We then headed for Uluru, unfortunately due to a possible thunderstorm, the rangers had closed the climb. However it did look impressive the area where one could climb. We walked a part way round the base exploring a cave and listening to more Aboriginal stories on what had transpired years before. This explained imprints in the rock, for instance there appears to be huge dog print in one of the caves. This was suppose to be a huge dog called up to destroy a tribe living there.

The dog paw print, embedded into the wall.

We where sceptical about Uluru, as one always is when something is hyped up. But to be there, touching it and just being in its presence proves that there is something magical about the place.

Uluru at sunset, notice the sunset creeping up the side.

A couple of minutes later.

We went to "Sunset Boulevard" for a BBQ and glass of champagne to watch the sunset on Uluru. It was magnificent, it was amazing to watch the sun climb the mountain. The colours changed and Uluru seemed to come alive. Beautiful!!!!!

The sunset, wow it was beautiful.

We where grateful to climb into bed that night as the next morning we where catching the Greyhound to Coober Pedy.

We where looking forward to experiencing the redness and dustiness of the "Red Centre", hey right, we go when they have had unprecedented rainfall and everything is green. Never mind, it will be good for the animals.

33km's from Coober Pedy we started seeing mounds of sand from the opal mining. We later discovered that next to each mound was a huge gaping hole about a meter wide and anything up to 30 meters deep. These holes are left uncovered so definitely not a place to wonder around in.

Two of the sand mounds with equipment.


Our underground motel room.

We entered Coober Pedy and was met by a representative of our motel. After checking in we made our way to our underground motel room. As our nephew Max (2) would say, Ahh cool! There is only one word to describe it, pretty, the colours of the natural rock is salmon pink and white. We wondered down to John's Pizza Bar and Restaurant. There we ran into an American couple and their two children who was on the same Emu Run Tour. We had a great chat and swapped details.

The next morning we headed off to the "Old Timers Museum", we donned hard hats and wondered through the mine looking at opal seams and loads of gypsum seams as well. We discovered that opal was first found in 1915. After our tour we scratched around the noodle pit and picked up bits of opal. Wandering through the town one can't help noticing the uniqueness and eccentricity that you see around you. Most of the homes and motels are underground, so you see these hills with ventilation chimneys sticking out. There is no grass and very little of anything else green. You might find a few cacti around but that is about it.

Inside the mine.

The underground Church.

We headed back to Radeka Downunder to catch our Coober Pedy tour. We visited an underground church, the golf course, the first tree in Coober Pedy, made out of metal and was taken to see old movie props, because as it turns out quite a few films have been shot in and around Coober Pedy. "Pitch Black", "Mad Max beyond the Thunderdome" and "ground Zero" is probably the most well known films. Our tour guide Jimmy Nikoloudis, a resident of 46 years was most interesting and we learnt a lot on the area.

Props from Pitch Black.

Boot Hill Cemetery sign.

We went to "Boot Hill Cemetery" to look at a couple of interesting grave sites and to learn a bit about the characters that have made up Coober Pedy. One such character was "Crocodile Harry" whose home has been turned into a museum. What an eclectic collection this man acquired over the years. He also made all sorts of art work from metal and skeletons of animals.

The outside of Crocodile Harry's house.

Inside his entrance hall.

We then drove into the mining fields and where shown how deep these holes were, when Jimmy pulled up next to them. Thank goodness he knew what he was doing, because we where close. He stopped off at a "safe area" where we were allowed out to fossik for some opal. Hope found a really nice piece, and John and Wendy some small pieces.

One of the tunnel holes.

We then drove to the "Breakaways". What an unexpected sight. We drove to the end of the escarpment, which fell away sharply to reveal miles and miles of nothing.... a few hills, but the rest as flat as a pancake. It is amazing to know that over 70 000 years ago this was an inland sea. One can still find petrified mussels and other fossils of sea creatures at the bottom.


A view of the old inland sea bed, showing how the escarpment drops off.

From the top, looking along the ridge of the escarpment a person can see caves that had been dug into the outcrops. These have been made by kangaroos, foxes and other animals. The dessert reaches temperatures of up to 70 degrees Celsius and there are no trees to hide under.

Caves dug by animals.

From the viewing area you can see two rock formations. One white and one brown, the salt and pepper hills. According to Aboriginal folk lore these are two dogs that had turned to stone.

The story of the two dogs.

The "Two Dogs"

We also came across a rock formation that looked like a sleeping camel. It is amazing what you find out there.


The sleeping camel.

We then drove to the "Dingo Fence". It is the longest fence in the world, covering 5300 km's through three Australian States. Each state looks after their section, South Australia has broken this into seven sections with the Coober Pedy section covering some 360km's. We where shown loads of dents in the fence where the kangaroos bang into it.

The dog fence story.


Hope standing by a small part of the fence.

Thank you Coober Pedy you where everything we expected and more. We where told that we would either love it or hate it....... We loved it and would recommend you to visit!

From Coober Pedy we headed for Adelaide on the overnight Greyhound. The bus driver very kindly stopped in a really dark section of the motorway at about 3.00 in the morning, to show Wendy the stars. She had mentioned to him that she had been disappointed with what she had seen. She was amazed and saw about six shooting stars in the five minutes she had outside.

From the bus station we caught a taxi to the airport for a flight to Sydney.

A few days of rest in Sydney and then we are sure that we will be ready for some sightseeing.

Hope's Blog.............. It was fantastic to find my own opal. It is so beautiful. I liked Coober Pedy very much. It was fun looking for it among the rocks as it is a bit difficult. I did find lots of gypsum, which was nice and sparkly. I enjoyed walking around Alice Springs with Daddy looking for breakfast, while Mummy waited with the bags at the bus stop.

me