South Australia - The dry country

South Australia - the driest state in the driest country... even the wet bits are dry..!

Coober Pedy has to be the strangest town we have visited on our trip. The majority of the residents live underground.
The day we arrived in town there was a gale force wind blowing. All shops were shut and some windows boarded up. A wicked dust was blowing through town. After trying several shops we entered the only open premises, the local petrol station, to enquire on the severity of the impending storm. The woman behind the counter looked surprised and asked 'what storm?' ,'This is a nice day in Coober Pedy.'
To add to our confusion, we had forgotten to reset our watches for daylight saving, and the shops had closed because it was 5.45 not 4.45!


The country around Coober Pedy could be called desolate, but that would would be a bit too unfair. Desolate with holes in the ground, and the occasional pile of sand is a better description.

Coober Pedy football club. One of only two patches of grass in the town, the other is the school ground. A local told me that they come to the ground, just to take their shoes off, and run around to feel the grass under their feet.
The locals are a diverse and interesting lot. They claim to have 46 different nationalities in this small town, and there are certainly many ethic clubs. We visited a fascinating Serbian church that has been built underground, the statues carved
out of the surrounding rock.

Mitchel, the campervan and Callum - in the middle of the desert. This picture doesn't do the country justice.. it is actually, dryer, flatter and emptier than it looks in this photo. We drove for hours through country like this. This area is a restricted zone - part of the Woomera Rocket Range - and close to where the atomic tests were held in the 1950's.
At least the atom bombs would have brought a bit of colour to the place!




Lake Hart and a passing freight train. A dry salt lake, the satellite rocket launch site was situated on the edge of this lake.

This road train is obviously the drivers pride and joy, it was better presented than your average showroom BMW. These beasts are over 50 metres long, the traffic authority tells you to take care when overtaking road trains.. we did not have that to trouble ourselves with that.

Woomera cricket ground, it does not matter how little water there is in these outback towns, the cricket grounds are always lush.

Woomera is the town that host one of the largest rocket ranges in the world. The adjacent restricted area is the size of a European country.

The Europa project was an attempt to get a European satellite program operating from Woomera.

Kate and Mitchel are also being rockets.

Callum and his colour matched rocket.

This is a ballistic missile designed to carry conventional or nuclear warheads. It would have been carried by a large bomber - rather than two boys.

Mitch and the missile.

Sunset at Port Broughton, at 8:35pm two days before the longest day of the year. If you look carefully, Callum and Mitch are running around on the mudflats under a crescent moon.


Windblown Kate at Port Broughton Pier.

Sunset over the mudflats and the rain is coming.

York Peninsula. This is the bread basket of South Australia, it was also settled very early 1800's.

Wheat and sheep.

Peter and Judith Hibbert - 0ld friends from years ago in the UK. Peter and Richard spent a lot of time together in the early 90's including a few great ski trips. Peter and Judith and their two beautiful children, Charlie and Goolwa live in Adelaide. We enjoyed a great dinner with the Hibberts a few days before Christmas.

Sand Monitor at Lake Hart.

Emu running wild at Mount Remarkable.

Red Centre - Uluru 10/12/07 - 13/12/07

The Red Centre - Uluru

Uluru, or Ayres Rock as it used to be called, is on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert. The rock itself stands 348 Metres above the surrounding plain, the same height as the Eiffel Tower. Uluru is 400km by road from Alice Springs, and a long....long way from any other major town.

Callum near Mt Conner, this flat topped mountain is on the road leading to Uluru.



Our first views of the rock 30kms away. The country around the rock is a mixture of red sand hills and rocky plains - all of it very dry.
Note the freakish markings in the sand, the wind in these part can create all sorts of shapes!?

Kata Tjuta or the Olgas. These mountains are 50 kms west of Uluru, and surprisingly are made from a different type of rock. Uluru is sandstone and Kata Tjuta is made from conglomerate rock.

Uluru is riddled with many caves. The local aboriginal people are the Anangu. The cave around Uluru are of great importance to the Anangu people, they used the caves for teaching, living and holding ceremonies. This cave was used by the Anangu men for teaching.
Kate and Richard tried to hold their daily lesson here.. but the students were climbing the walls.

Uluru is made from a single sandstone rock that goes up to 6km underground. The colour of the rock is grey , but the coating is a red colour due to a type of rust. The sandstone contains iron oxide which oxidises to create the red colour.

Mitch and Callum near one of the larger caves.

Uluru has two semi-permanent waterholes, Mutijulu waterhole would have been used by the local wildlife as well as the people. Aboriginal hunters would never attack a animal at a waterhole but typically would hunt an animal leaving after a drink. This prevented the animals from fearing the waterhole.

Uluru is in the desert.. but is rained ( it only rains a few days every year).

We watched the water work it's way down through the cascades.

Uluru turns purple in the rain.

One morning the Howes got up at 5am to see the sunset...

there was a lot of moaning......

but it was beautiful.....

Kata Tjuta

This small range consists of 36 domes, climbing to a hight of 550 metres above the surrounding plain and over 1000 metre above sea level.

It is beautiful in a different way to Uluru. We went a for walk through the domes, the valleys between are very green and peaceful.

Richard and Mitch in the valley of the winds.

The climb...
It was very steep and scary. There is a heavy chain that you can use on the steepest part of the climb.

Callum was ready to climb.. but his mother was not so keen.

Mitchel, Callum and Richard set off up the climb.

The local Anangu people ask people not to climb Uluru as it is a sacred site. The National Park is jointly managed by the National Parks Service and the Anangu people and the climb is still open as it attacts people to the rock and, for many other Australians, climbing the rock is part of their culture.

400,000 tourists visit the rock every year.











Over 30 people have died climbing Uluru.

There were many pools of water on top of Uluru. Callum and Mitch wanted to swim...

Mitchel and Callum were much braver than Richard, who was pretty nervous about climbing back down... but crying .. or calling for the helicopter seemed a bit unmanly.

Have you been here? It has taken us two and a half months and 13,000 km driving to get here... but it was worth the drive.

A caterpiller eating Callums shoe! These caterpillers are very common in this part of the desert.

Camels are a big problem in central Australia. These camels are the wild decendants of the orginal camel teams used to bring water and food out to into the desert. Some claim there are between 400,000 and 1,000,000 camels in the wild... this has a big impact on native animals and plants.

Red Centre - Alice and Kings Canyon 3/12/07 - 9/12/07

Kings Canyon

Alice Springs Desert Park

Mitch and the fighting boomerang. This weapon was used for fighting, breaking bones or inflicting injury as punishment.

At the Alice Springs Desert Park, we went to a very interesting aboriginal talk about tools, food gathering, and hunting.

Richard is holding a spear used for spearing legs. Mitchel has a Nullanulla – used as a club. Callum holds a shield – used for deflecting spears.

Alice Springs is the second largest city in the NT. It is surrounded by spectacular MacDonnell Ranges. The picture is taken from ANZAC hill overlooking the middle of town, and the gap in the distance is Heavitree gap – a pass through the ranges made by the Todd River.

Every year in Alice on the Todd River they hold the Henley on Todd boat race. The unusual thing about this race is that the Todd River is nearly always dry, so the boats used for the race have no hull and are carried by the competitors

Kings Canyon… and it rained.

Kings Canyon is near to Uluru and normally very dry.

The cliff walls rise 200 metres above the floor of the canyon. Though the surrounding country is dry and flat, the canyon floor was wet and full of life.


We did the walk around the top of the Canyon, it takes around 3.5 hours, but the views are spectacular.

Strange fruit..?

Can you see Kate in this picture…? There are 600 types of trees and plants in the canyon and 60 are very rare.

Sunset over the Gorge Gill Ranges.

Story time.. Scott of the Antarctic..

There are lots of birds in the desert.

The Barn Owl... one of Mitch's favourite birds.

Black Kite.. these are common in the Red Centre..

Black Red Tailed Cockatoo...

We found this Cicada at the door of our van… it is proudly sponsored by McDonald's.. the golden arches are everywhere!