Uluru, NT

<Kian>
The book I am reading at the moment (Magnificent 12 by Michael Grant) talks about Uluru.  It's an awesome book but not real because it says there are tunnels though the rock - there are some caves, but no tunnels.

It's very hot here.  It was still 31 deg at 10pm last night!

We went spear and boomerang throwing.  Even Mum had a turn.  Zeke was pretty good with a boomerang.

 

We went to the rock at sunset.  Mum and Dad liked it, but I thought it was a bit boring for that long!

Near the rock, there are signs with information on the native plants of the area.

I even saw a real Sturt Desert Pea!  (Usually we only stop on the roadside for a desert pee!)



I will send some pictures of the plants to 4C for our plant exhibition.












The next day we rode our bikes around the perimeter of Uluru.  It is a 10.6km ride.  I had fun especially on the bumpy and rocky parts.

 



Rock Art on the ceiling of a cave in Uluru

 

We visited the Uluru camel farm.

Zeke had a ride on Big Jimbo. 

We learnt a lot about camels and how they have adapted to their hot sandy environment - see their feet - big soft pads to let them walk on the sand easily.

 

<Rémi>The trip to the camel farm confirmed most of the information about camels that I learnt from the book The Camel Who Crossed Australia by Jackie French.  In the book, she wrote about camels including control by the nose peg.  there was lots of this information on display at the camel farm.
The book also talked about camels spitting but this is a myth!  Camels don't spit, they actually can vomit on you (yuk) if they don't like you, but this doesn't happen very often.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

<Zeke>

At Uluru we went to an astronomy night.  We looked through two telescopes which had automatic planet finders and a motor to point them in the right direction.

The first thing we saw was Jupiter which has gas clouds around it.  Then we saw Saturn with its icey rings.  It looked like it was an animated picture.
We also saw the moon up really close.  I could see lots of craters.  One of them had white lines around it.

It was a great night.

The Drive to the Red Centre

<Rémi>
A very long drive from Coober Pedy to Uluru.
We have only been on holidays for 1 week and have travelled nearly 4000km.

The landscape has changed a lot.  In outback SA, it was barren and rocky with barely a tree but near Uluru there are many green trees and grasses.  The sand is bright orange/red in colour - I see why this is called the "Red Centre".

Landscape in outback SA

Landscape near Uluru

We shared the drive to the Uluru turn-off with 4 army trucks.  The driver kindly let Zeke and Asha sit in their truck for a photo.

During the drive, we were showered with rocks by a passing truck.  The result, 3 chips and a crack in the windscreen.  Over the day, the crack grew to about 50cm long.  A new windscreen will not be easy to come by in the outback, so we will need to wait and watch if the crack grows more.

Our Night In A Cave

<Zeke>
Coober Pedy is a town where they mine for opals.  Opal is a  colourful gemstone used for jewellery.


Coober Pedy is in the middle of outback South Australia and is hot most days of the year.


















There are lots of mine tunnels underneath the town of Coober Pedy.  The people of Coober Pedy have been innovative and have re-used the old mine tunnels as their houses - That's right, they live in tunnels under the ground!

These underground houses are called "dugouts" and look like caves.  Even the bathrooms are underground! 
The underground rooms are protected from the outside temperature by the layer of earth on top of them, so they stay at the same temperature day and night.




Underground Motel

At Coober Pedy we parked our caravan for the night and stayed in an underground motel instead.
 

The walls and ceiling were rock and the rooms were odd shapes - they were the old mine tunnels that had been connected to make rooms.

It was dark and quiet in the cave rooms.  We didn't even hear any passing trucks like we normally do in caravan parks.


Kian in his part of the cave



Entry to rooms








The bedroom

Bathroom

In Coober Pedy we went down into a real opal mine and also went fossicking for opals.  The kids think we have found our fortune after fossicking.  Mum and Dad think we now have bags of useless rocks to carry around the country with us!

As we stayed in a motel, we went out for pizza and Mum & Dad had another cooking free night.  We have had a BBQ most other nights and usually we share our food with a few million flies.  Why are the flies so hungry when they eat everyone's dinner every night?

Woomera, SA

<Asha>
Mrs McInnis, Today we drove all the way to your old town - Woomera.

There were lots of rockets, but not much else.

 

 

 I played rockets in rocket town!

<Kian>
I thought there was more nullabor (no trees) than on the Nullabor!

Rockets were good, but we drove all that way just for that!!
Can you guess where we are heading to?