Yulara!

Where to begin?! From the moment we arrived here on the Friday afternoon its been non-stop fun. We happened to fluke arriving the weekend of the Camel Cup festival so there was heaps going on including the big race day on the Saturday. Friday early evening we headed off on a sunset camel ride which was fantastic. It was the perfect night for it and so much fun.

Needless to say by the end of the camel ride Wil wanted a pet camel! The cameliers were a great bunch of people and very funny as were the camels! My camel had a bit of a chew on Harrys shoe at one point!

When we got back to the ranch there was an open bar and a table full of bush food like damper and chutney etc, great start to the Red Centre! The night didnt end there though!

On the bus ride back to camp our bus driver reminded us that the Calcutta was on at the pub that night where a couple of the camels would be making an appearance. Of course the boys were desparate to go so despite being very tired after the drive etc, how can you say no! It was a very funny night, the camels did turn up, in the bar no less! We also bumped into the friends i mentioned we'd made at CP and before we knew it after a couple of beers, Matt and i had bid for and won a camel for the big race!!!!!!

Go Comanche! It was the cheapest camel of the night thus we thought we'd most likely bought a donkey but it was such a laugh we didnt really care, especially when we were given our team t.shirts -i even got some of my money back by selling one to a German tourist who was desparate for a souvenier lol!

On the road to Uluru!

It took two days to get from CP to Yulara. We overnighted at a funny little roashouse-caravan park at Kulgera. Basic but turned out a bit of fun. The roadhouse had a real outback feel and we spent happy hour in the bar with some other travellers swapping stories and playing pool which the boys loved.. we didnt even unhitch the caravan, up early and back on the road! The last photo is of our very first glimpse of Uluru! The grins on the boys faces were priceless!!

little bit more on Coober Pedy..

As i mentioned, CP is built around opal mining but unlike other minerals and gems, because it is silicone based which is essentially glass, there is nothing that can detect where it is prior to mining for it. Thus the landscape is covered in shafts -they have to take pot luck by drilling a hole and seeing if it comes to a fault line which the opal is found in. Even then the fault line may lead to nothing. Each exploratory hole costs around $200. Some miners have been known to look for years to no avail but great expense with no return.
Opal mining is also done by individuals, there are no big companies behind it, therefore no resources being pumped back into the community. I think that's why it resembles a shanty style town. Any money that is in the town is found underground in the dugouts so you cant even see it! There is a lot of discarded equipment lying around because one, they use it for spare parts -the miners make their own digging equipment (the CP miners invented the 'blower' -a giant vacuum that sucks up the dirt and rubble and blows it out at the top) and  two, theyre too lazy to get rid of it -all this adds to the shanty town look..

Coober Pedy

Wow, so much to catch up on!! We havent blogged for a few days as we were so busy at Coober Pedy, out of range for 2 days when travelling from Coober Pedy to Yulara and then havent stopped since arriving at Yulara.. anyway, here goes!
Coober Pedy was a crazy mixed bag, full of surprises -all good! When we arrived and drove down the main street which looks run down it felt a bit oppressive and we didnt think we'd stay long, but it was a small part of the whole picture of Coober Pedy. When you drive around you think you're in another country -3rd world almost to look at. It reminded me of a shanty town. Scratch the surface though and such interesting and beautiful country side and history, friendly people and great food. We had a ball learning about the amazing geological history of the opal and how it's mined. In the mining areas its shaft holes as far as the eye can see and warning signs leading into town warning you not to walk backwards in Coober Pedy!! We visited mines, kangaroo orphanage, underground houses called 'dugouts', undgerground churches and went on a great tour which took us to the dog fence the longest fence in the world at 5,300 kms long all of which is also 30cm under the ground, and the Breakaways which used to be attached to the Macdonnel Ranges. We also went 'noodling' where the boys found their own little bits of opal! We had such a great time here that in contrast to not staying long we booked an extra night!

We met a lovely family here with two little girls that the boys get along really well with and we've since had some adventures with, but more about that on the Uluru page! Hopefully the photos will give you a good idea of CP but theres so many it was hard to choose!
Flies were in abundance at times, as you can see Harry took great delight in patiently seeing how many he could collect on one hand at a time! The stick figure on the stubby holder is holding a camera by the way, not a gun! The last photo is of some of the outback landscape on the drive, so beautiful and always changing. The boys LOVE the outback! 7th photo is the Breakaways, those colors are all naturally occuring. The men in uniform are the local constabulary, they wear khaki in SA.. more photos of NT police in the next chapter!
I now have a new respect and love of the opal now i know its geological history -it started 150 million years ago when the centre of Australia was an inland sea! Coober Pedy is all about opal!!