The Outback – January 15th
For those of you following with a map, Mari and I have just crossed the border of South Australia and are heading south. We are in the first town of any real size, called Coober Pedy. This town is an inhospitable wasteland, and I am being generous with my description. Basically, this town is an opal mining community and is the only town for miles. With this in mind, imagine a barren landscape, dotted with huge holes, large piles of sand and dirt (refuse from the mine), tumbleweed, and a few lonely cows, or dead kangaroos. For a more vivid picture, rent Mad Max as this is where it was filmed.
Actually, it is truly an interesting spectacle, and Mari and I have taken the time to explore some of the opal shops. One nice lady gave us a small bag of discarded rocks, but when we looked through them, we found a few cool opal pieces. She said that if we washed the rocks, we would find more opal fragments.
Since we have mad our last update, We have been solidly in the Northern Territory. This rough and tumble place was one of the most diverse and vivid landscapes one could imagine. We drove for miles, often with more than 200km between gas stations, and when we did find gas it was usually $1.05 a litre (it’s an odd feeling to have the total price higher than the total number of litres).
We also realized that the Northern Territory is home to the largest population of Aboriginal people. With this in mind, we visited many galleries and art display houses. The art is very deeply rooted in the Aboriginal culture, and every piece would tell of the earth’s creation, or Dreamtime, as the natives call it. Having budgeted for one collector piece of art, we decided on a didgeridoo. This traditional instrument is a limb from a Eucalyptus tree. Over time a group of termites hollows out the soft center, leaving a hollow tube. The Artisan takes this tube, and covers the mouth with a beeswax, creating a mouth-piece. The outside is painted with an ochre paint, and symbolizes some aspect of the Dreamtime. Our didgeridoo is covered with lizards and turtles, and one big snake.
Now the main feature. We arrived in Alice Springs, and spent a night in a hostel. This was a glorious treat for us because the temperature has been over 40°Celcius most days, and we have been sleeping in our car almost every night. Usually around dark we cook a small meal on our stove, and then lie down and begin to sweat. After an hour, I am asleep in a pool, which cools overnight, leaving me looking for a blanket at around 3 a.m. (The hostel had A.C.).
After leaving Alice Springs, we drove south, and then turned off towards Ayers Rock (Uluru). Before we headed to Ayers Rock we took a side trip to a place known as King’s Canyon. It is a deep gorge cut out of the sandstone layers that surround the area. The sheer cliffs that make up the walls of the canyon are layered with beautiful exhibitions of ancient crossbeds, as well as layers of ripple marks. Both of these show the formation processes of large braided river beds. At the head of Kings Canyon, was the Garden of Eden, a smaller gorge that ran off the side. The Garden of Eden held a small, deep, cool pool that was wonderful to swim in.
That night we stayed in campground in a place called Kathleen Springs. We then drove over to Ayers Rock (Uluru) the next day. The beautiful monolith, (which is slated to be the second largest in the world, although we couldn’t think off-hand what the largest would be…) was a deep red colour, and pocketed with eroding holes, a testament to its age. Interestingly enough, Uluru is composed of a arkose sandstone, and is tilted 90 degrees on its side so the actual layers of the deposited sand were turned on their side almost 100 million years ago, during a mountain building episode to the north.
We also went to see the Olgas, a group of large boulders, some taller than Uluru itself. We walked around a pathway that is referred to as the Valley of the Winds. This walk showed us some of the breathtaking views of the surrounding valleys. Although the Olgas are only 50km away from Uluru, it is comprised of a totally different type of rock. The Olgas are composed of a granite conglomerate. The beauty of these two sites was unimaginable. It is easy to see why the Aboriginal people have always held these sites as sacred places.
