Australia Red Center, Part I (photos)

14 March - 19 March

From Adelaide we headed north to Port Augusta, arriving there 14 March. We wanted to find a mechanic to fix a few things on the car and check it out again before we headed up into the outback. We were told that if you break down in the outback, it is so remote and desolate that you have no choice but to pack your bags and get on a bus since it costs more to tow a car than the car is worth. So, we wanted to be sure. We found an odd mechanic named Cootsie and had him check over the car. We replaced the oil pressure switch and the fuel filter and a couple of radiator hoses and flushed out the cooling system. We felt pretty good about things so we headed back to the caravan park and enjoyed a nice bottle of sparkling red wine. If you haven't tried this, you should. It's kind of like red champagne but tastes better and you can drink it like beer as opposed to drinking it like wine (e.g. quickly). The next step was to fill up our 40 liter fuel can and our 40 liter water bottles and all our other various water bottles and hit the road (on 16 March).


In the outback, you are on a two lane road and the one scary thing are the road trains, which are trucks carrying two to four trailers. They can't slow down and they take a long time to pass so no matter what your speed, they are scary.

We made good progress on the first day, making it all the way to Coober Pedy, which is an opal mining town. The place is so hot that most of the people who live there build their houses underground, dug into the sides of hills. We checked out the town for a bit and looked at some opal stores and then got some beer and went back to the caravan park. We set our tent up on some gravel and I found some bits of opal right under my feet. It was in Coober Pedy where we first encounter the outback black flies, which swarm you in search of moisture, which means they go for your eyes and nose and mouth. It's maddening. More on them later.

The next day (17 March) we woke up and packed up and went to The Old Timers Mine, where we went on tour of an opal mine. It was pretty interesting and they had seams of opal in there worth thousands. Then we headed north, passing opal mining fields. The next stop was The Breakaways which is where Mad Max Beyond Thunderdown was filmed. Here is a photo of us with Betty. It was here where we first started seeing the huge wedge-tailed eagles. Further along we would see them feeding on dead kangaroos. Sometimes we would even pass hugely bloated dead cows with eagles picking away at the carcass. Sometimes you would smell an awful smell and then you would see a deflated dead cow that just popped. It was pretty cool.

We made it all the way from Coober Pedy to Ayers Rock that day and enjoyed some beer in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. My notes don't say what we ate, but I bet it was pasta.

The next day (18 March) we woke up and drove out to The Olgas, seeing Ayers Rock for the first time seeing Ayers Rock for the first time on our way. We stopped at the car park where the hikes begin and got so attacked by flies that we retreated into the car and proceeded to kill the ones that came in with us. We sat there and watched people running across the parking lot to their cars. On account of the flies, and the fact that it was near noon and wicked hot, we decided to abort the mission and head back to the caravan park. We sat and had lunch and I was determined to save the eight dollars required to buy a fly hat. Our car had come with some mosquito netting and I made us some fly hats by stitching some string through it and tying it on top. Here is Dara modelling my creation.
After lunch we went over to the rock and went into the visitors center. It was about how the aboriginals used the land and found food in the area and the spiritual significance of the rock. We considered climbing it, but the locals consider it sacreligious and it was pretty windy and hot, and we didn't really feel like it, so we didn't. We decided instead to drive around the rock a couple times, once clockwise and once counter-clockwise. I have more film of this than I care to admit.

We went back to the caravan park, met some French people who sold us their New Zealand guide book and then we went to watch the sunset over the rock. The colors really come out in the sunset.

The next day (19 March), having learned our lesson the previous day, we went EARLY and with fly hats to hike the Olgas. Here is a nice shot of a valley. We were covered in flies, but we had our our fly hats on, so it wasn't so bad.

After our hike we had our final look at Ayers Rock and headed to Kings Canyon, arriving there and camping for the night.