Day 15: Uluru (Ayres Rock)

Last night was spent at Marla South rest area which is 35 km south of Marla and 46 km NW of Cadney Roadhouse on the Stuart Highway, for those of you that want to keep track it is site 646 in the South Australian section of Camps 6 the following photo's are the usual sunset. We met a french couple of backpackers here, they were quite impressed in our country and the size of our van.



They are so relaxing

Friday and the clouds are clearing, hopefully the further north we go the warmer it will be.  It won't be long and we reach the Northern Territory border.

We arrived at Uluru this afternoon about 4.30pm and what a shock that was, I thought the camp fee was about $20/night but was surprised when we were charged $42/night (more free rest areas for us).  During the drive into Uluru we stopped at Mt Connor Lookout.


Mount Connor



After we set up camp it was out to the rock for the sunset and wasn't that a cold experience, the rock is spectacular in both colour and size but the wind was blowing and it was bitterley cold but well worth the discomfort, I don't think my photo's do it justice.

                                      and surprisingly enough there are still some flowers around.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Olgas and Sunday we should be in Kings Canyon, I don't think there will be any internet cover there so my next blog will probably be Monda or Tuesday night so until then stay well and keep warm.

Day 14: Good bye to the cold



Sunrise at the Racecourse 8-6-11


Its Thursday morning and I'm writing this in the car so I'm not sure how long we will have signal for and it's a bit bumpy so we'll see how it goes. We left Broken Hill yesterday heading to Port Augusta.  We had expected to catch up with Ken & Lyn in Broken Hill but they were having a great time in Burra Gorge without phone coverage that we had to leave B.H., however we were lucky enough that we had both left about the same time and were able to meet up at a rest area 7km NE of the turn off for Peterborough,  it was great to see them again, (like it was only yesterday we'd seen them) They are enjoying the nomadic life as much as us.  We said goodbye after about an hour and agreed to catch up in Darwin or some where on the west coast, we parted as they are going to the gem fields in Qld then onto Darwin and we are going to Ayres Rock then Darwin.

This is us crossing the SA border

Manahill Museum

The journey to Port Augusta was uneventful however the country side was beautiful but no pictures as we took them last year on our trip home from the desert.  The photo's following are from Monalena Lagoon Rest area where we stayed last night.  The sunset and sunrise were impressive, I think it is a beautiful part of the day.  It has been very cold since we left Broken Hill but we have not had any rain which is fortunate, it is winter after all and we'll be in Darwin soon so we won't have to be cold much longer.

Sunset @ Monalena Lagoon rest area from the doorway of the van

Sunrise @ Monalena Lagoon

Still cloudy

The view from Island Lagoon lookout 153km NW of  Port Augusta was a photo opportunity not to be missed.

The internet dropped out and we only came back into range at Uluru (Ayres Rock) today Friday, so it took a little while to catch up with this blog. 

Day 11: Broken Hill-Menindee

                                                                        

It was a beautiful sunrise this morning at St Patricks Race club racecourse which is where we are staying in Broken Hill, $15.00/night with power. Today after Nev washed the solar panels it was time to have a look around Broken Hill and Menindee Lake.  The tourist information centre was the first stop of the day where we obtained a local map and details on Menindee lake.  We then took the 1.25 hour drive out to Menindee and on the way we saw emu's, sheep and cattle and lots of flat nothingness, you could see for miles in either direction, it was mostly low scrub with the occasional tree added in, it was amazing and beautiful at the same time.

Sunrise at St Patrick's Race Club.

 

St Patrick's Race Club

Nev washing the solar panels, what a sight.

           Emus on the way to Menindee 

        Menindee Lake                    

Copi Hollow - Pamaroo Lake where we had lunch is another must see when we come back this way.

After lunch at Copi Hollow we headed back to Broken Hill to have a look at Pro Hart's Gallery and we were not disappointed, his paintings are amazing, they vary in so many ways to what I thought they would be like.  From there we visited 3 more galleries, Silver City mint & Gallery which has the largest acrylic painting in Australia, it used  9 ton of paint, after there we had a look at the Jack Absolom gallery which was different to Pro Harts but still very impressive, and last of all we visited Howard William Steer art gallery which is more into cartoon humour, we have some cards that I will copy and paste once we reach Darwin.

Sunset at the racecourse

Thats all for today so stay well and keep safe.

Don't forget to let me know if you're enjoying the blog.

Day 11: The trip to Broken Hill

After a restful night sleep @ Sandy Creek we were on the road by 7.30am for a full day driving to Broken Hill some 675 km.  Our first stop was Cobar and what a pretty town it was.

The road we travelled was straight with very few bends for as you can see by the photo taken out the windscreen whilst driving.

This is the location of the rest area we stopped for lunch, nothing around except 3 or 4 vans, they also had the same idea as us.

Nev having lunch.

A camel running loose on the road to Silverton

Day 10: First day with the van

We left Port Macquarie on Friday with the sun shinning after several that weren't, a good time was still had by all, it was good spending time with Melissa and Mum before we started on the long trip around Oz.
Today (Sunday) we were up early to finish cleaning and packing the finishing touches to the van and after a great breakfast of bacon & eggs with Linda & Eugene we finally set off with them leading the way to make sure there were no obstacles for us on the dirt road.  All was well. Lunch was enjoyed at a rest area outside of Gilgandra from there we continued on to a rest area called Sandy Creek about 8km SE of Warren for the night, there is no-one else around.  I think it will be an early night tonight, so from both of us take care and stay well and keep in touch.

Day 5: Whale watching

Today we went whale watching, it was supposd to be yesterday but as with the rest of the state (almost) it was raining therefore little chance of seeing any whales, so today (Tuesday) we were able to go outside the breakwater and what a morning it was, ten minutes of searching and our first whale was sighted, they are amazing.

We also had the pleasure of seeing an albatros which we were informed are good luck so here's hoping our luck has changed.

and the best for last.