Hills, Valleys and Underground

T: do you want to stay more than one night in Broken Hill?
G: nah, we've been there before.
(26 years ago!)
T: yep, and I think I've been 3 times
(more than 26 years ago)

Then we remembered the long weekend in October and realised that we didn't want to be near the coast or any popular long weekend spots at that time.
So we opted for a soujourn in Broken Hill.

During which time we went down 't mine.

We viewed the Sculptures in the desert at sunset (along with a couple of hundred other people)

And we popped off for an overnight trip to Mutawinji National Park, a couple of hours drive North-East, leaving our van in the very capable custody of Broken Hill racecourse.

There had been a bit of rain the week before and the road had just reopened.
Also we were incredibly lucky to see the creeks with so much water in.
Enough for a dip!

Unfortunately there are lots of weeds, a legacy of it's grazing past.
This Patersons curse looks spectacular, but - it's a weed.
There are also many feral goats.....pity they don't eat up all the weeds!

 

We also visited the charming art gallery in Broken Hill and highly recommended is a visit to Pro Harts studio, but we didn't do that this time.
When I'd been before Pro was still alive and would be wandering around, or throwing some paint around.
It's the sort of town you can certainly dally for a while.

Dates: 28/9 to 1/10

We cross another border.

We continued on our way down the Stuart Highway.
It really is a mammoth road, no wonder there is a book about it!

We did stop briefly at Woomera.
It has a manufactured-town-stepford-wives feel to it.
It was built in the 1940's to service the rocket testing range nearby (it covers a huge area). People still live and work there as the testing range is still used for military and other tests.
There are a couple of museums and a park with old rockets in if you are interested in that sort of thing.

We didn't hang about as we were hot-footing it to the Arid Lands Botanic Garden for lunch and a mosey around.
And very nice it was too!
There was a sculpture in the gardens exhibition happening.

As we entered Port Augusta we left the Stuart Highway behind and saw the first sign to Sydney - still over 1500 kms away!

Camp that night was at Spear Creek camping area tucked under the foothills of the Flinders Ranges. A pretty spot with enormous 500 year old river red gums, grass and some old rockers enjoying themselves too loudly.

Then we wound around the country roads to the Barrier Highway.....and through pitstops like Olary and on and on across the border back into New South Wales and to Broken Hill.

But we still had many many miles to go!

Dates: 26/9 to 28/9

Salt lake essay

The ethereal beauty of the salt lakes captured us and we took a bazillion photos.

This is Lake Hart.
We camped next to it before the turn off to Woomera on the Stuart Highway.

It was mined for salt and apparently it was beautiful salt, but the last shipment sits forlornly next to the railway line, waiting in vain for the last 80 years to be picked up and delivered.

The remnants of the salt pans can be seen.

They look like old fence stumps being encrusted with the ever-present salt.

There is a rest area but we drove off onto the many bush tracks between the road and the railway line.
A great free camp.

Getting to home

It seemed that once we left Uluru that our big trip was over, but we still had 3030km to travel back to home.
At our stately average pace of 300kms/day that would take us at least 10 days!
And if we stopped somewhere for a night or two....

Anyway we set off and once again joined the Stuart Highway - first stop - the border!

Then Marla Roadhouse, which was a delightful green oasis with immaculate amenities. Bar, cafe, shop, gallery.....swimming pool.

Next stop  - Cooper Pedy. It needed a couple of nights!

Because Cooper Pedy is all  about opal mining the landscape is very bleak, but somehow beautiful.

Lunar landscape with rain

Many of the buildings are underground.
Many people live in underground houses, which stay cool in the scorching summers.
There are underground motels as well.
We went on a guided tour with Rudi, who is a retired opal miner. What a character!

underground Serbian Church

We also went for a drive - 
The breakaways are well worth the drive from town.
The colourful flat topped hills are remnants of the huge inland sea which covered the area 70 million years ago.

Then you can drive on to the dog fence.
Built to keep dingoes out of the sheep farming areas of south east Australia, it is 5,300 kms long!

The aptly named Moon Plain -

We saw this fine fellow in the breakaways.

Every shop in town sells opals it seems.
Did we buy anything?
Yes we did!

The BIG one

The BIG one - Uluru.
Yes, it's B.I.G and it is really really good. Totally worth seeing.
We drove for ever it seemed, it really is in the middle of nowhere.
Except that there is a whole national park out there - Uluru-Kata Tjuta National park and the other part, Kata Tjutu which used to be called the Olgas should not be overlooked.
It is quite exciting on the drive in when you get your first glimpse of what is really an aussie icon.

There are many things you can do there apart from climb.
1. Walk around. It is a 12 km loop.
2. cycle around. We had our own bikes but you can hire bikes from the visitors centre and many walking people we passed asked if they could swap!
3. See it at sunset and sunset. There are parking lots set aside for sunset and sunrise viewing. The thing to do is to get to the sunset place early at least an hour before, takes chairs and snacks (it is about happy hour after all!)
You get a good spot to observe all the wonderful colour changes that happen as the sun lowers in the sky. The rock changes from brown, to tan to vibrant orange. That's what it's all about.
4. You get a fairly good view of the rock from pretty much any sandhill but the sandhills are quite fragile so they try and keep all the activity to certain ones. There is a good one at the campground with a boardwalk from the main camping area. It is particularly nice at sunrise.
5. Go to the cultural centre and get a load of the cultural implications of the area.
6. Go on a camel ride.
7. Go on a free ranger guided walk.
8. Indulge in a bit of retail therapy or browsing. There are one or two (or more) artists in residence who you can watch at work and have a chat to.
There are also several nice gift shops and outlets for local indiginous artists.
9. Look at the stars. The night sky is spectacular. There is also an astronomer in residence who does evening tours of the sky. When we were there it was Petroff who used to work with GC.
10. Go to Kata Tjuta.
A lot of people say that Kata Tjuta was their favorite part and it is certainly a specatuclar clump of rocks.
The highest is actually quite a bit higher than Uluru and they are made of the most amazing conglomerate rock - made up of rocks the average size of footballs glues together with other rocky stuff.
There is a classic walk to the Valley of the Winds. And a circuit of about 7kms. Very nice. The first bit is very popular but we found not many people did the full circuit as was  good way to get away from the crowds.

Zebra finches flock to the water station on the track -

Harriet made a rare trip with us and demonstrates how big the conglomerate rocks are!

Mr planet is dwarfed by the rocks at Kata Tjuta - see him?

Here he is!

The issue of climbing is a hot one!
The traditional owners do not want you to climb.
The national parks people don't want you to climb.
So why is it still allowed?
Some say that tourist numbers will drop and certainly we met some people who were desperate to climb. Unfortunately for them it was closed most of the time we were there due to high winds.
It also gets closed if it is too hot or for "cultural" reasons.
There is a book in the cultural centre that you can sign if you chose not to climb.
For us it didn't seem necessary to climb to appreciate the beauty of the area and we respect the wishes of the owners of the place, just as you would not ride your car round someone's front yard if they asked you not to!
It is quite dangerous in that a number of people have died over the years. And undoubtably some very unfit people attempt the climb. And there have been very many rescues as well.

But we love Uluru.
It is beautiful. From its well-known profile. To the detail you only see when you are close - the ridges running over it, the caves buried in it;s flanks, the greenery that somehow manages to cling to it. The secret waterholes, the marks made by the waterfalls which too rarely cascade down it.
The rock art stories.
The colour of the rock.
The changing colours of the rock.

I could go on and on....and if you've been there, you'll k now what I'm going on about.
And if you haven't been....then put it on your bucket list.