Alice Springs

From Kings canyon we did a very long (500Km) drive to Alice springs which is the "capital" of the desert area. In Alice springs we went to the school of air and learned how young people learn using "satelite teachers" when they live in remote areas in the outback desert - it was very interesting for all of us. They used to use CB radio communication between the teachers in alice to the pupils in the various stations then they moved on to internet and now they are on dedicated satellite channels with computers all goverment subsidised (the students themselves only pay around 300$ a year)

Some pics:

Termite mounds just north of alice springs - we saw many of these along the way north and east later on too for thousands of kilometers.


school of the air - behind is the studio they transmit from.

Alice springs from the Anzac hill - we were here on the australin Anzac day and learned a lot about Anzacs from other touring australias and new zealanders.

There was a special herritage festival on the days we were there in the old telegraph station that used to connect the north and the south of australia during the old telegraph days.

They set up the whole place as it was in the old days, they has a black smith demonstraling his blacksmithy and showing people how he puts on horse shoes and there was traditional food and they operated the morse telegraph station and the kids played around pushing each other in the old wheel carts that kids in those days played with.

there was good ol' country music and talking around the bon fire and the sky had great sunset colours that day:

more termite mounds

The caravan park in Alice was very nice and it had a great big jumping pillow facility which meytar played with alot.

The symbol of south australias national parks agency and famous pea flower:

Nitai sitting up by himself on the grass by the caravan

at the school of air

Kings Canyon

After Uluru we went to Kings Canyon national park - there was a nice camping ground there too with a cool pool for the hot desert


Nitai in a net. Since port augusta these nasty desert flies keep bugging everyone and its very hard to walk in trails and enjoy yourself without a net hat - they just come to you and try to stick to you eyes and mouth and go into your nose and they don't quite even after you "shew" them away.

walking inside the Kings canyon walking trails:

Marla - Uluru (Ayres Rock) - painted deset

Hey All we are back posting !
from coober pedy we continued on to Marla, which is just a "station" not more than a place for caravans and a gas station and from there we continued to Erldunda.
Erldunda is in the Northen Teritories so we left the state of South Australia !
We left our caravan in Marla station and went off to our first long off road 4x4 drive to the painted desert - it was a very nice drive and it was around 160Km off the main road into the desert. It was a lot of fun to drive off road and we discovered that we busted a welding point on the tail pipe - so I rigged something up to hold it and then I found a garage that had the correct part i needed and for 4$ worth I got it all fixed !

here is a site with a map so you can follow a little http://www.wilmap.com.au/mapsmain.html

After Marla we continued to Erldunda station which is the turning point for the famous Ayres rock or "Uluru" as the aboriginees call it.
Uluru is a great big monolith (1 single huge rock form) in the middle of australia most of australia's tourists go to this place and almost all of them fly to here becase its thousands of kilometers away from the main cities.
They have like a small desert resort built there with hotels and camping grounds a small shopping center and of course an airport.
We stayed there a few days and did a few walking trails, we also went to a close by (50Km) rock formations called "The Olga's" and did some walking trails there too. We visited the local culture center and learned a lot about the aboriginees and there customs too.

The "Main event" people do here is go see Uluru in sunset and sunrise when it has the most magnificant colours (see I am writing "colours" like an Australian with a "u").

Here are a few pictures:

This is the mysterious Mount Connor which we saw on the way to Uluru and thought initially it was uluru - it is very impressive and can be seen tens of kilometers away.

It resides in a private property and it not considered a tourist attrication (we tried to reach it on an off road way too when we left uluru - but after an hours driving on dirt roads we quite trying)


Ayres Rock (Uluru) at sun set - all the cars lined up and people just sitting and enjoying the view

During our 4 hour walking trip around Uluru we had an initial 1 hour free guided tour of the first section of the rock where they told us about how the rock is sacred to the local aboroginees and we saw very old paintings on the rock (they trace the aboriginees 60,000 years back in this continent) and we were told about their ceremonies here.

The aboriginees don't like people climbing the mountain because it is quite dangerous - the surface is very slippery and there are strong winds up there and 30 people already lost their lives climbing the rock.

When we asked why they let people climb we got the answer that although this land was returned to the native people the managing council also consists of the region's tourist board and the native community receive a percentage of the entry money to the park and they fear that if climbing will be banned then most tourists will not fly in ( several millions come each year !) - especially thre japaneese.

Money wins over tradition.

Here we are looking at old drawings on the rock.

on our way around the rock - stopping to feed the "kash kash"

just to give you a feeling about how big the rock really is :

walking the trail around the rock:

Our walking trip in "the olga's":

These are "the Olga's" (Atta junta in aboriginee)

This is Uluru seen from the olgas:

The desert around the Olga's:

A small station on the stuart highway (the one crossing the desert from south to north) with a great sign, of course we stopped and bought some thing to eat :)

A few eagles on the road eating a kangaroo's carcus

typical scene around here.

Uluru by day:

Olga's:

The painted desert dirt road showing which dirt paths are open and which are closed due to weather conditions (the paths run all across australia and many people cross the country travelling only on dirt roads)

a few wild horses we saw on the painted desert path

80Km away from the nearest road:

This is how the road in the painted desert looks like:

Glendambo - Coober pedy

Hi all We are in the middle of australian outback - not much internet here.... desert all around - bye (later details) In coober pedy we are having lots of fun touring underground homes and opal mining sites we even found a few low grade opal stones in a field here. 70% of all the residents here live underground and it is very dry and hot. we went to a star gazing tour last night and it was fun too (with lasers and telescopes) - so many stars out here.

pictures:

the "breakaways" colourful hills about 20Km out in the desert off road from cooper pedy.


as you can see the flys are attacking us all the - australian flys are real buggers they want to sit on your eyes all the time and there are tons of them all over the outback !

the endless dog fence - runs for about 5000Km slicing australia so that dingos don't go and eat all the sheep herds.

cooper pedy - yes this is how a typical street looks like.

signs on the road ways near cooper pedy - as you can see there are so many pot holes there that no one know where they are any more. also note the bullet holes in the sign - people get board driving zillions of kilometers out here :)

the stuart highway - the road running from south australia to the north.
the desert dirt in the outback is red (because of the iron) and so is the road.

now this is what I like !

at the breakaways with a few new zealand friends.

Nitai admiring himself in the mirror

cooper pedy entry sign - that is the symbol of the city - it's a makeshift car vacum cleaner that sweeps all the dirt out of the holes that ppl dig.

breakaways again ...

a typical living room in a typical house in cooper pedy - nice and cool underground

our caravan park at cooper pedy.