Into Yulara

Tuesday 3 June

An uneventful day - said goodbye to Coober Pedy and left for a long days drive towards Yulara. We had a fuel and food stop at Marla the last fuel for several hundred kms, and they certainly made the most of the fact, with the fuel at $2.20 a litre, the record so far.

We stopped at the SA/NT border for a photo opportunity and nearly got carried away by the flies, the worst we had encountered so far, so that made 2 records for the day and it was still morning.

As the afternoon was drawing to a close and we certainly didn't intend to be on the road at dusk, I checked my new 'app' - Wiki Camps - and discovered a free camp site a few kms ahead, so we pulled in for the night. It was a great little spot off the highway and protected by shrubbery. So the hunter/gatherers among us set out for some firewood and we had a great roaring fire which warmed us for several hours while we star gazed without any ambient light. It was pretty fantastic.

Good food, good wine, great friends to share with, in the middle of the Australian bush and a star show to rival anything, what more could you want.

Wednesday 4 June ( and now I am up to date)

After a freezing night in our free camp we took off for Yulara. On the way down the Lasseter Highway the landscape changed yet again from the flat countryside with nothing growing over a metre high that we had been experiencing for the last few days to a more hillier country complete with lots more vegetation. We even travelled through a thick forrest of She Oak trees for several kms and from then on the landscape was dotted with these trees for as far as you could see. Not the type of vegetation we expected to see at all.

Further down the highway we thought we had our first sighting of Uluru but as we got closer we realised we had been tricked and it was only Mount Connor.  But when we did spot Uluru, what a magical site it was, it was striking in a lovely deep shade of pink at this time of day, and right around the next bend there were the magnificent mounds of Kata Tjuta, strangely in the same dazzling sunlight, with not a  cloud in the sky, Kata Tjuta was a dull blue grey color.

We arrived at the campground and without having made a booking we were lucky to get in, there are so many nomads travelling right now. So after settling in and a quick lunch we were off to explore the area.

First to the lookout in the centre of Yulara then walked across to the Sails in the Dessert complex, a really lovely resort hotel. Next on to the very cute little shopping centre where we checked out the souvenir  shops and then while enjoying an ice-cream in the lovely sunshine we heard some indigenous music and on checking it out we were delighted to see there was an indigenous dance company beginning an outdoor performance, so of course we found a spot to enjoy the show. What an unexpected treat.

Back across the complex, walking on the deep red sandy soil of the outback we set up our BBQ and set in for the night with a nice glass of bubbly.