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RIGHT.
I can't believe that just happened. I fully nearly cried. I went into so much detail on that last entry! I usually press copy just before I post them, just so that if it crashes I can just press paste. But this time I f***ing didn't. Stupid outback internet connection is trying to send me into a mad man. Or woman. Whatever. Now I am NEVER going to remember all the stuff I typed and so it's not going to be as good. So annoyed.
So I left you last when I was waiting for Sarah and Vera to pick me up. They turned out to be a treat. Neither of them were the brightest, and communicating with them sometimes was like talking to a couple of short planks. Vera, bless her, is lovely, she's 30 and just doesn't seem to get out much. She's from Germany and although she spoke good English she was still learning. Bit funny the word creations she made sometimes! She was really kind - lent me her tent and loads of extra sleeping bag liners and her inflatable mattress! She was just a bit of a loser. And boring. Very boring. We did a couple of walks together and she literally would spend ten minutes telling me a story about how she would drive to some place, but miss a turning and then would describe in great detail how to go right and left and she eventually found this place. Just a bit sheltered from normal, fun, social interaction I think! But then she did have to put up with Sarah.
Sarah, when she was in a good mood was bearable (however you spell that!). Shes 24, from a place called Nowra (about 3 or 4 hours south of Sydney on the coast), and works in McDonalds there. 'Nuff said really. I have never met anyone so ignorant and shallow minded as her, she moaned at everything and refused to help out with anything. She sat there eating sweets and chocolates all day every day, moaning about f***ing this and f***ing that, everyone was a p****and out to get her apparently, and if you did anything or said anything (even just laugh at her jokes or something) she would threaten to "smash ya". I can't believe I have to type all this again ARGH! Yeah, so Vera would cook everything, do all the ashing up, pack the car up, clean out the other things, pay for fuel, campsites, get directions and do 90% of the driving, whilst Sarah just sat there shovelling even more food in her gob moaning about everything. She told me after about 15 minutes of knowing her, that her dad died (which I had absolutely no idea what to say to), in the middle of a converstaion about something normal and totally unrelated, she just blurted it out. And then about another 30 mintues later she told me that she had manic depression and goes through manic, hyper, hysterical phases of laughing, to being hysterically crying and cranky. Again, I had no idea what to say. Between the two of them, they neither seemed to have any social skills! On the few occasions we did actually chat and have a laugh, she'd get annoyed for no reason and get in a strop and we'd all sit there in silence! Crazy.
Anyway. So they picked me up from Adelaide at about 2pm, even though they said it would be about 11 or 12, I was waiting like a lemon for a fair while. We set off and it was throwing it down with rain - didn't look good to be fair! We spent the night about 70km south of Port Augusta in a place called Port Germein. Vera helped me put up the little tent - it was cool, like a little home! Even though it was a bit cold. Left fairly early the next morning - about 9am. And obviously, Sarah moaned, "cos she usually don't get up til 1". To be fair, we had been in bed since like 7.30/8pm, so that's more than enough sleep - I've never known anybody need like 15 hours sleep a day, she never does anything!
Drove up to Port Augusta, arriving at about midday. It's the last town before heading in to the outback. We filled up at the supermarket, got fuel (the last normal priced petrol station - about $1.15 instead of $1.70 in the outback), filled up the spare fuel can in case we got stuck, bought some radio device thingy, filled up air in the tyres and went to the tourist information, to check the conditions of the roads, get maps and find out what else we needed to know! I met them at the information point after they went to the service station and we were on our merry way!
The transformation of the landscape after Port Augusta is pretty rapid. South Australia is very green compared to the rest of Australia that I have seen so far. It goes from green fields and loads of trees, to brown grass/trees which decrease very quickly, it becomes drier and drier until there's just a few scattered trees, shrubs and patchy grass on red soil. I loved it, I thought it was amazing and wanted to take loads of pictures or the massive spaces and openness, and nothing around, whereas Sarah moaned that it was s***, and Vera moaned that it was no where as good as the US. Everytime I asked to take some pictures and for us to stop for about 1 minute (literally) they'd get in a strop as if we were in a massive rush and that one minute was the difference between life and death. So I took a few, but stopped asking in the end. Sarah and Vera are very slowwww... it takes them like 57 hours in the supermarket, 19 hours to get ready in the morning, they are generally slow - it took them an hour and a half at the service sation whilst I was waiting outside the tourist info - God knows what they were doing, but I thought they'd done a runner and left me there! Anyway, yeah they're slow, but seemed in some sort of massive rush/mission to drive and drive and drive and not enjoy any of the amazing scenery we were driving through. Shame really! I wanna go back and do the whole lot properly with a 4WD as there are so many more sites you can see with one, over unseeled roads.
So, we headed up the highway and stayed a night in the town of Coober Pedy. It's in the desert, in the middle of nowhere. There's absolutely nothing growing round here. It's a mining town - Opal capital of the world apparently! And because of the extreme temperatures (50 degree heat in the day, 0 over winter), and the dust storms, 60% of the towns buildings are in caves underground. It's pretty surreal. It looks like something out of a film! So we spent the night there, and the next morning had a wander around the town, had a look in some of the Opal shops, went to a lookout and went noodling! There's a public safe area (no mine shafts to fall down!), where you can go and have a scavage around for opals. I didn't find any - I was so cold I sat huddled in one spot rummaging through the dust! Sarah and Vera found a fair few though.
We left Coober Pedy and made a slight touristy detour (after much explaining that there was actually something to see, rather than just pushing on up the highway, I managed to persuade them to actually see something!). About 20 km north of Coober Pedy we made a turn off down a corrugated unseeled road to make a loop around via the Moon Plain, Dog Fence and Breakaways. The Moon Plain was pretty cool - it looks like the moon. Funny that! Then the breakaways are like rock formations that have taken a few million years to form. They were ok too, but we didn't really see much of them cos Vera and Sarah didn't want to stop. The Dog Fence is nothing amazing to look at - it's juts a normal fence. But it's 5400km long (about 4900 miles I reckon), and is one of the biggest man made structures on earth. It was built years ago to stop the dingos getting to the south and killing the farmers sheep. I thought it was pretty cool.
Carried on up the highway and spent the night in a "town" called Elrdunda. I say town. The "towns" on the way up the Stuart Highway to Alice Prings, from Port Augusta, are actually just roadhouses. A petrol station, an overpriced convenience store, a campground and a motel. Erldunda was one of the bigger ones - it had a cafe too! Haha. It was just on the turn off to Uluru National Park, and is apparently the actual centre centre of Australia like.
Set off early the next morning to Uluruuuu! That's Ayers Rock - you have to call them all by their official Aboriginal names now, cos its Aboriginal land, and Uluru is a really important sacred site to them. In the same national park is Kata Tjuta - which are also called the Olgas. We went to have a look at the Olgas and did a short 45 minute walk through two of the biggest rock formations. Suprisingly, Sarah actually did this! Rather than sitting in the car or sleeping. We then had something to eat and drove to Uluru for sunset. It's pretty spectacular and the way the sun goes down on the rock makes it look like it changes colour - it gets really bright red. Of course, my battery died on my camera after one photo, so I don't bloody have any.
I spent that night in a hostel as I felt really s***! Got up the next morning for the sunrise over Ayers Rock - about 7.20am, it was bloody freeeeezing! Was a bit disappointing - the viewing area for sunrise is no where near as good as the one for the sunset. The rock doesn't look as good from that angle and tehre isn't enough space for all the people to stand, and the viewing area is too close to the rock so you can't fit the whole of Uluru in a picture! I think they know this though, cos they're building a new one. Was good, and you can still see the colours in the photos, but they're just not as good as the sunset ones! Another reason to go back!
So we then headed over to the Olgas to do the unmissable (according to the Lonely Planet!) Valley of the Winds walk through there. It was pretty good. And nice to actually do something rather than just sit in the car for 7 hours a day. It was about 8km and took us about 2 hours. Sarah slept in the car. Me and Vera chatted, but she also managed to bore me with a few stories about how she got lost, but then found it again by going left then right, then you had to go straight on and over the roundabout, take the other left than the right that they took... blah blah blah. And about the intricate details about the hostel she stayed in in Sydney. Apparently the kitchen was too narrow and she had to go through explaining where every single appliance was situated in order to illustrate this point, and explain in detail how if someone was cooking their toast, and someone else was washing up it was impossible to get to the fridge to put your food away. All very interesting, I know.
So, we then left the Olgas, for another four hour drive to Kings Canyon. I was a bit annoyed as we'd paid for a three day pass for the park, and we didn't do the walk around Uluru - which is why people come here! Vera and Sarah wanted to rush on for some unknown reason. ANOTHER reason for me to come back! Hehe. Uluru and Kings Canynon are considered neighbours, even though to drive to them is 450km out of the way (about 350 miles). Kings Canyon was good, I loved it. Watched the sunset over the one side of the canyon - where you can see the bright red colours again! Then headed to bed, again, at about 7.30.
Next day we headed to Kings Canyon for me and Vera to do the walk around the rim of the canyon. Sarah slept in the car. The walk was really good. A bit more challenging and took us about 2.5 hours to do about 6km. It was good! Took loads of photos. It wasn't massive, but it was still massive compared to anything I've seen - vera didin't think it was anywhere near as good as America!
Well then we left Kings Canyon and headed up the highway again to get to Alice Springs where we arrived last night. Had dinner together and sorted out money and I got to a hostel - YAY. Will update with some Alice Springs related stuff in a few days! I am bored of typing now (doubly bored as I have written this twice now). My fingers are aching and there is blatantly stuff I have missed out, but this'll have to do and I'll add more later!
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