Author: Tanya Phillips

We decided to splurge for two nights at Sails in the Desert, a resort based near Uluru. Worth it alone for the buffet breakfast. (Yummy Outback Omelette). We went to Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). There are signs set up asking you to keep quiet to preserve the sanctity of the area. We hiked down the trail that leads to the mouth of the gorge. At the end of the hike, there is a quiet sitting area, and being alone in that spot, I have never appreciated the silence of beauty more than in that moment.

After Kata Tjua we went to Uluru. We walked around, maybe half the distance of the base before the kids were over it. I found the walk fascinating, it was interesting to see how the facade of the rock changes every few meters. It is as as majestic up close as it is from a distance.

For me, the highlight of Uluru was meeting elder Cassidy Uluru. He is a senior traditional owner of Uluru, and is the last surviving traditional owner. He described the rock as “his father.” When we told him we were from Melbourne, he shivered and said “I feel sick already”!

Most inspired by Faye’s Underground House, and her mine, Jett started opal prospecting. Everywhere we went, Jett would start sifting through bits of red dirt. And he found some opal!! We took it to be checked out, and it was definitely opal!! Potch Opal, essentially worthless, but still, very pretty, and still, precious opal- to Jett. Spurred on by this find, he kept going, and kept finding more. He said he had “Opal Vision” as when he looked at dirt and sand he could tell whether there was Opal in it or not. Opal Vision.

We had a look at an underground church. The underground structures in Coober Pedy stay at a nice, constant temperature of 23 degrees.

Coober Pedy was fun, we probably should have stayed two nights there, I found one night a bit rushed. I missed out on going to the Underground Book shop and cafe- my kind of shop!!

Leaving behind the magic of Mambray Creek, we hit the road again, heading for the Outback. Our evening stop for the night was in Glendambo, population: 30. We stayed at the Glendambo Outback Resort, basically a red dirt paddock with a pub and a petrol station on it (all you need when your on the road I guess)!

We got up early and managed to get away just before 9am, which is our earliest start so far- starting to get the hang of being on the road earlier. We made it to Coober Pedy by lunchtime and spent the afternoon cruising around town.

We took a super-cute tour to Faye’s Underground House, which is just that, an underground house built by three women.

We then took a tour of an Opal Mine where Faye used to work. Kids loved it, thought they were finding opals down all the tunnels. I’ve actually never paid that much attention to Opals, but looking at them today, and learning about how they are formed, I now find them completely enchanting.

After that, we drove to the Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park, previously ancient sea, now traditional ancient land.

Full Moon on Coober Pedy tonight.

As we were driving through Snowtown* on the way to Port Pirie, the landscape changed, taking on a slightly rustier-tinged hue. The sky turned blue, and the weather finally felt warmer, sitting at a comfortable 19°, with not a breath of a breeze.

We decided to stop overnight at Mambray Creek Campground, roughly 40 k’s north of Port Pirie, and ended up staying there for 3 nights. The camprounds were full of large gum trees, kangaroos, emus, kokaburras and had several hiking tracks we were keen to do.

On our second day at Mambray Creek we decided to hike Daveys Gully, described as an easy 2.2 k trail, suitable for inexperienced hikers (us). It wasn’t until an hour into the walk, hiking up a cliff, with no gorge in sight, that we figured we’d taken a wrong turn and ended up on a different track. Turns out we did. We ended up on the Mt Cavern Circuit Trek, an 11 kilometer hike suitable only for experienced hikers, definitely not us. And, oh yeah, the trail was shut indefinitely due to safety concerns. Yikes!!

After our failed attempt at a hike, we were all pretty excited to see some friends from Jett’s school pull up into the campground. We switched from hiking to 4-wheel driving over some pretty magnificent ranges.

*Snowtown is the setting for the barrel murders, and I was completely freaked out driving through it…

So we haven’t had much luck with weather. We’ve continually had near-gale force winds or heavy rains, or both at the same time. Even some hail. This means we’ve been stuck in the caravan more than we hoped to have been, or driving to the next destination in these conditions, which isn’t too pleasant. Fortunately, they’ve been a few breaks in the weather, and we’ve taken full advantage. We stopped at Parnka Point en route to Victor Harbor where the boys had fun skimming rocks into the pretty pink water.

We’ve settled in to a pattern of driving roughly 350 k’s a day, which when you’re towing a caravan in high winds takes about 5 hours. We break it up by staying the night at our destination, then spending the next day checking out local attractions, before hitting the road again for another 350-odd k s.

The boys really enjoyed the Whale Centre in Victor Harbor, especially the sand pit where they dug for dinosaur and whale fossils.

Leo’s absolute highlight so far has been his visit to Granite Island, where he found a lone rainbow glove. He has not let the glove go. It slept with him last night, and he hasn’t stopped playing with it. Currently, it’s his favourite thing in the world.

I’ve set up a little school-station for Jett to break up the long drives. He writes in his journal, and does a couple of the work-sheets that his teacher gave us. I love it, Jett, probably not so much!!

And my on-road reading.

Day 6. 824 k’s from home. On the way to Port Pirie.