Travelling the Stuart Highway Part 2

Hi!
Are things all right back home? Hope so!
I will have to keep it a little short this time because I have already spent 2,5 hours behind my pc. Incredible how many emails and messages you can receive in a week. Guess life goes on back home as well!

Alice Springs is not the most appealing place in the world. Lies in the middle of the desert, there is no Strip like las Vegas, and there are a lot of Aboriginal people swarming the street. We paid a visit to the West MacDonnell Ranges (west of Alice Springs). Quite nice, but much of the same so we were keen to go further south to Ayers Rock a.k.a. Uluru (its aboriginal name).
We heard a lot about it, but it really is a giant piece of rock surrounded by absolutely nothing. It is about 300m high, and you can climb all the way to the top over a pretty steep trail. For Anko and me, who consider ourselves quite fit, it was a hard climb, so we were impressed some other people made it to the top. A few times a year people die climbing the rock of heart attack, or by slipping when going down.
And we were very lucky with the time we arrived there, because it turned out they had closed the climb for two days because there was too much wind at the top.
When you arrive at the top the view is truly incredible. I can understand this rock was/is a holy place for aboriginal people.
We watched the sunset as well from a nice spot, which gives the rock a really nice red color. Next morning we also got up early to see the sunrise on the rock. Was also worth the early rise!
Another rock formation quite close is called Olga's. This rock formation has eroded more than Uluru so there are sort of Domes and gorges formed which make it able to walk through the rock formation. We made a pretty long walk of about 3 hrs, and then took the car and drove on towards Adelaide.
In between Darwin and Alice Springs there were quite a few things to see, but in between Alice and Adelaide, there is truly nothing worth getting out of your car for.
The landscape goes from plants and trees to just low desert grasses, so you have whole wide landscapes of nothing. To support the sadness of the landscape, we also had rain most of our way to Adelaide.
The only place worth stopping, was Coober Pedy. A miners town were they dig for Opal. Because of the desert climate, people have used the mines they digged for underground living. It helps them to stay cool during the day and not so cold at night. There was an underground hostel as well where we could stay. Quite a fun experience!
Today we arrived in Adelaide. Anko and I are both quite happy to be amongst people again. For three weeks we have had hardly any contact with other people. We didnt really fight luckily but both agree it is nice to talk to someone else than each other every now and then.
I'd like to finish off with a small
summary of my impression of the Outback after 2 weeks.
- In the Outback there really is quite a lot of nothing.
- You can be driven to insanity by the amount of flies during the day and the mosquitos during the night.
- There are not a lot of hot showers. Or places where you can get gas and drinking water. So you will have to plan your trip quite well.
- You will see quite a lot of dead kangaroos alongside the road who have been hit by cars.
- Because you dont see a lot of people during the day, everyone you do meet greets you. (Also when driving you always raise your hand when you meet another car. I still have to get used to the fact people dont do that anymore down here near Adelaide.)
- We were very lucky on our trip and with our car, because we didnt get any flat tires, car trouble or kangaroo collisions. And even with the weather we cant complain.

Concluding, it was really cool to see the outback and travel through a vast nothingness, but I am not going to do it again anytime soon.

We still have the car for 4 days, and will drive along the Great Ocean road, which is supposed to be spectacular as well to Melbourne. When we get there our Australia Adventure is almost over! But luckily we have a nice dessert to look forward to with New Zealand!

Cheers, Jelle