Sunset And Fizz

Saturday 4 November

We woke up in our cave this morning, not quite pitch black, as I had left a small bathroom light on, which showed through the door grille. I couldn’t face fumbling for my torch in the middle of the night in the pitch black. We put our cases out, and were one of the first to arrive at breakfast. By 07.30 we were all getting on the coach for another long day’s drive and already the temperature was up past 30 degrees C. It certainly gets warm in Coober Pedy.

Our ultimate goal today was Uluru (Ayers Rock to us), which is straight up the highway for some 400 kms and turn left for another 100 or so kilometers. The scenery started our much the same as yesterday – very flat red earthed plains, with scrubby vegetation. But as the journey progressed, we could see changes in the landscape – the vegetation changed to grassy tussocks of long spiky variegated grass, with bushes that were suddenly a vivid spring green (where do they get the any water to get this colour?), and then there would be a small area of undulating countryside, with trees, sometimes with spreading branches and foliage, looking like young children draw, and sometimes tall thin spidery pines, with leaves like air plants – grey green, very thin spidery fronds, reaching down towards the ground, sometimes a foot or more long. Then everything would change back again to scrubby pastureland, where we could see a few sheep grazing.

On the road, we would pass over grids, (like we have at home when we enter national parks) and these denote the change of ownership of the land, from one huge sheep station to the next. We passed the Dingo fence, built to keep dingos from the north separate from the sheep to the south. This fence is the longest demarcation line in the world – it stretches across the Queensland New South Wales border, on across South Australia to Western Australia. It is twice as long as the Great Wall of China, and between 1.4 and 2.4 metres high. It is ‘policed’ by Inspectors to ensure it is not breached, and should any dingo manage to cross the line, due to it being trodden down (maybe by camels) or sand ramps build up at the fence stakes which they can jump, the dingoes are hunted down very earnestly, to ensure no dogs survive to worry the sheep in southern South Australia. This fence is just iron stakes with close wires between, so inconspicuous that all the coach missed the photo! Beef roam the stations to the north, and the dingoes do not attack the cattle in the same way as they do sheep. There is also a series of three rabbit fences further west, that were constructed to prevent the spread of rabbits, but these failed, and in the 1960’s miximatosis was introduced to deplete the millions of rabbits eating their way through all the natural habitat. This was a limited success, but rabbits are on the increase again today. We saw many wedge-tailed eagles, the second largest bird in the world to the bald-headed eagle in the US. Their wing span can reach 8 – 10 feet, as they soar on the thermals, but on several occasions we saw them being mobbed by smaller birds, such as crows, who are faster and can twist and turn as they harry their prey.

At our morning coffee stop, we encountered a long “road train” carrying three containers of fertilizers, one large metal container with a brand new fitted kitchen and all the accessories, and a fourth container, with electrical goods, all heading for the Katharine area, south of Darwin. We chatted to the driver – and his wife, who had come along to keep him company – and he told us he had just refueled and it cost him A$1,500 or 600 GBP to fill the tanks! This should take him from this point – half way on his outward journey and back to Adelaide, with luck. We saw just a couple of other “road trains” and a very few cars passing up or down this highway – sometimes it would be five minutes or more before you saw another vehicle – imagine that on the M25!

About 50 kms up the road, we stopped at the state border between South Australia and the Northern Territory – just a pull in at the side of the road, with a large brick wall saying “Welcome to Northern Territory” on one side and “Welcome to South Australia” on the other. We all took many piccys, and even had a group photo, to mark kms – our final destination on this tour. It was time to change our watches again – this time we put them back and gained an hour – so now we are just 9 ½ hours in front of home. We encountered the “road train” driver and his wife again (he had stopped to ensure the tarpaulins were still tightly bound around the fertilizer trailers) and then we met up a third time a the luncheon stop – another truck drivers café, where we waited almost half an hour for a huge bowl on spicy potato wedges and some garlic bread (which we had though would be a speedy order! – Wrong, but it was faster than the fish and chips and steak and veggies ordered by others).

We still had another 264 kms to travel to Ayers Rock, so we settled down to amuse ourselves for the afternoon – crosswords, reading, listening to music, anything to while the miles away while keeping an eye out for the first glimpse of the famous landmark. We thought we had seen it – a large square outcrop of red sandstone, looming up from the flat plains - around the top it appeared to be “frilled” with hundreds of small gulleys running down, towards the smooth bottom section, which looked like a skirt, billowing out. But this was Mount Connor, not our objective. We continued on along the road, now seeing small herds of cattle grazing close to the road, and a few camels, mostly pulling loaded carts, filled with all sorts of tinkers’ fare, obviously going from station to station to sell their goods.

We spied Ayers Rock with nearly an hour of our journey left – a magnificent block of sandstone, standing proud in the desolate countryside. The highest point was one of the small mounds on top of this great red edifice. There were large gullies clearly visible down the sides. It appeared oval in shape, rounded shoulders reaching down towards the ground, completely different to Mount Connor. You can still climb to the top, up a series of steep steps, but the Aborigines (who still own this area of land) and the Government prefer that visitors do not try to reach the top of the 384 metre plateau, to preserve it for posterity. As we got closer, the surrounding terrain became undulating, with more trees and grass, and an altogether more hospitable feel. Everyone was spellbound as we got closer and closer and the rock got bigger and bigger.

Before we reached the rock, we turned off into a modern resort, Sails in the Sunset, where we are staying for the next two nights. Our room contained two massive queen-sized beds, as well as all the usual fittings. We had an hour or so till we had to meet up again, and I desperately tried to post the outstanding blogs – but there appears to be an error with connecting to the server, so will have to wait to see if it corrects itself – or maybe ask Nick to help if possible. But we were able to text Ray and Terry to wish them a happy birthday.

We all regrouped at the coach at 18.00 to meet up with ten new people joining our tour, and then off, to drive closer to the rock, to watch the sunset, due today at 19.00. When we arrived at the coach park, there were already about twenty other coach loads parked up. In front of the coaches were tables laid with champagne flutes and nibbles, provided for each tour group, to celebrate this moment. Ruben and Paul duly set up our tables, with crispy snacks and dips, and fruit cake and broke open the fizzy wine (we are not allowed to call it ‘champagne’ as it was made from Australian grapes, not French). After several glasses of bubbly and small ice cream tubs to fill with crispy tasters, the sun began to sink and the rock changed from a bright terracotta red to a darker, richer hue. As the sun passed a few wispy evening clouds floating in the sky, the rock continued to change colour, becoming lighter and darker with each minute. Everyone was snapping away. Just before the final sinking of the sun, a group of helicopters flew over the top of the rock, followed by the fixed wing flights, catching the last rays of today’s sun. The moon – a bright full moon – was already glowing from the sky, and as the sun dropped below the horizon, the clouds became baby pink, and pale lilac, with a few bright red streaks. Off to the side, the wispy clouds swirled in darker shades of purple and gunmetal grey, while the edge of the skyline was bathed in pale gold. This is what everyone had come to see, and they weren’t disappointed, it truly was a spectacular scene, and one we won’t forget.

We dropped off at the Outback Pioneer, a leisure area, where we munched on burgers and beer whilst we watched Great Britain beat the Australians at Rugby League! The Aussies weren’t happy, but all the Brits cheered at the result. It was then time to catch the resort bus back to the hotel so that I could blog and Colin could watch Gladiator – lucky there was a good film on the television. We have decided not to get up at 03.30 tomorrow to watch the sunrise just before 05.00, out at the rock – there is a full day of activities here, with two or three treks, and we are going to ride in a helicopter over the rock just after lunch (another first for my year, as I haven’t been in a helicopter before – I decided to do this instead of purchasing opals!). Hopefully we will have an opportunity to sample the inviting swimming pool here at the hotel, but we don’t have too much spare time, as we are visiting the Olgas (a serious of rock outcrops) late in the afternoon, before a barbeque in the evening.

Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to connect to the blogsite, so I can post these entries.