Day 5 - Coober Pedy to Uluru

We got up very early this morning and left Coober Pedy just as the sun was coming up and it was absolutely freezing, Mum said that Jayco could improve their vans by installing underfloor heating as the floor felt like ice. Dad said she needs to harden up or maybe just put some explorer socks on!!

 

An early start to the day

We have been told not to travel at Dawn or Dusk as there are no fences along the sides of the roads and sometimes cattle can be on the road. We saw lots of signs warning us about wandering cattle and saw many dead kangaroos and cows. Along the road their were lots of Grids, these gave us a fright the first twenty times that we hit them but eventually we got used to them. The Cattle Stations have no fences along the sides of the roads and the grids are used to stop the cattle from crossing into another station. We stopped at Cadney homestead for a cup of coffee but the Coffee machine was broken, we had a quick toilet stop and we hit the road. We played I-Spy but we discovered that there wasn't many different things to "Spy" as it is pretty much the same flat country side along the whole seven hour drive. There were salt bushes, dead trees, road signs, grids, burnt out cars and road trains. These road trains gave us a fright and made the car shake when they flew past, one nearly sucked the mirror of dads car, we fixed it with duct tape, Dad said it will never move now.

 

Road Train carrying a Truck for the Mines

The Truck on the back was as wide as the road.

 

 

This Trailer had Two Trucks Pulling it

 

 

The Police made us pull off the road to let this truck through.

Dad gave the Driver the Wave.

 

 

And over the top of us it goes

 

 Our next stop was Erlunda Road House where mum did a great job of lunch again and bought a cup of coffee for $7.50, Dad said that he wouldn't have paid that much but Mum said it was worth it. The Road House was full of Çarvaner's as it is in the middle of nowhere and at the cross road to Uluru, Alice Springs and Adelaide. We then travelled on the Lasseter Highway on to Yulara, we were so excited when we saw a huge rock in the distance, I got my camera out and took lots of photos as we were driving, Dad said it couldn't be the rock as we still had an hour drive, but Mum said that it had to be the rock, then we saw a sign for the Mount Conner Lookout and we knew we had made a mistake. Dad told me this proves that mum is not always right.

 

Mt Conner

As we got closer to Yulara we finally saw Uluru and we were all very excited and took lots of photos, we  arrived at Yulara resort and we were all very tired but excited to be staying for 4 nights.

 

Finally the Rock appeared