The first week... and a bit.

Father's day 2nd September.  Alarm set for 6am for an early take off.  Quick detour via Macca's of course and we were off and running.

7 hours and 500km's later we got to Hattah, one of our favourite camp sites.  The kids met up with their cousins, Chloe, Zac and Luke, which they weren’t expecting.  Was a great surprise for them! 

We enjoyed the night camp fires with marshmallows, glow sticks and sparklers.  Adults enjoyed some alcohol consumption, of course!  Kids made an awesome log and rope swing, which was a highlight for them at this camp ground.  Well done Chloe for the idea behind that!

So from Hattah we left via Mildura and travelled into some very strong head winds.  After taking the ferry over the Murray at Morgan (which the kids were very excited about) we ended up only making it to Burra that night and stayed at a caravan park.  Fortunately it was opposite a school which had a massive slide and playground for the kids to explore.  Anyway we had a fairly restless night feeling like the tent was going to be blown over with the gale force winds. 

Next one night stop was at Glendambo which is on the main highway on the way up to the centre.  Had a nice pub meal as it was still too windy to do our own cooking. The pub itself is an old woolshed and had a lot of country character... enough for a commemorative stubby holder... the first for the trip.

From Glendambo it was a short trip up the road where we enjoyed a 2 night stay over at Coober Pedy. 

Whilst we were visiting the underground Church, (no we’re not religious, it was free viewing!) one of the locals hi-jacked us for one of her private tours of Cooper Pedy.  It was quite funny as she came screaming into the car park when she noticed she had some visitors there.  It actually wasn’t too bad, as her makeshift tour included a look through her private home which was very interesting.  They call them dug outs.  At the end she asked us to sign a visitors book at her home, then she explained to us she’d like to start up a ‘proper tour’ operation for travellers at Cooper Pedy. Bit of a relief as Lee was expecting her to pull out the bible and start converting us.

We also explored one of the underground mines, where hard hats were compulsory! (Safety from falling rocks or ceilings we assumed!).  The kids were allowed to take home a few opal samples which they were excited about.  Lee also took them to an opal shop to show Alex how expensive opals were.  The shop lady must have felt sorry for them and gave them all more free opal samples.  When we get home we may start up our own opal shop!

Back at the campground the kids were excited to know that they had a pool... until they felt how cold it was.  But the two fish, Alex and Ash still ventured in.
After a 7 hour drive from Cooper Pedy, with the obligatory picture of the border crossing...

we made it to Ayers Rock Resort.  The kids handled the long drive fantastically! It was amazing to see the ‘rock’ for the first time (kids first time).

First morning we woke eager to climb the rock. (Well, eager to climb the rock before Lee mentioned to the kids that lots of people have ‘died’ climbing the rock).  Unfortunately it was closed due to strong winds.  Instead we drove out to the Olgas and did the Valley of the Winds walk.

Later on we drove back down to see the sunsetting on 'the rock'.
Second morning we were in luck for the climb.  It was open so up we went.

Geez, talk about some hairy moments, Kaz can’t remember it being THAT STEEP!!!  Stressful?? “Kids hang onto the chains, don’t look behind, concentrate on what you’re doing, slow down”!  What a relief when we got to the top. Then the decent!  Kids were great, no problem at all.  We think Ben may be part mountain goat.  What an awesome feeling to have climbed ‘the rock’!!

Tomorrow we head up to Alice Springs to have a look around and stock up for the trip across the Tanami and into the Bungles...