Coober Pedy, SA to Uluru, NT

Sat., Feb 12th - 7:30 am and it's only 25C.   As we were leaving Coober Pedy, we saw thousands of little piles of earth from the local opal mines.  They only allow individual  mining here on small claims (no corporate).  You must get a permit and peg a claim either 50m x 50m or 50m x 100m.   Searching through the heaps of discarded mullock for pieces of opal missed by the miners is called "noodling".  Many locals make a living from this method and it is also popular with tourists.



As we cross into the Northern Territory the time changed back one hour.  The price of fuel has jumped as we head north.  Stopped for diesel in Kulgera, just over the border from South Australia and it is $1.75/litre (bandits) and the speed limit is 130 km/hour but we didn't push the motor home over 120.   Very little traffic.   Just met about one car an hour.   There was an unbelievable number of dead kangaroos and cattle close to the highway.  We caught our first glimpse of what we thought was Uluru but it turned out to be Mount Conner.



We arrived at the Ayers Rock Resort Campground in Yulara around 2:30 pm and it was 38C.  We are 237km off the main road.  In the park diesel was $1.776/litre!!! Ouch!  It was $78 for two nights with a powered site and the place is more rustic than we had expected.    There is a trail to a lookout right across from our site.  Beautiful views of Uluru and Kata Tjuta!  Uluru is very majestic - 3.6km long x 2.4km wide x 348m high.











 We went back up to the lookout after dinner to watch the sunset.

Tomorrow we explore Uluru (Ayers Rock) and the 36 domes of Kata Tjuta (the Olgas).  We have a very special early Valentines Day dinner planned .... stay tuned.