Beginning the Long Drive Back

Sunrise over Uluru.

Kata Tjuta

Two hill kangaroos,

Black eared miner.

Road train, 53.5 metres.

Nothing for miles and miles.

Thursday, April 7^th.

I woke up early again this morning with other guys in the room getting ready for the sunrise viewings. So I was up and out by 6:00. I decided to drive down to the Kata Tjuta domes at the western end of the park to do the gorge hike I didn't do yesterday because of the flies. This time I was armed with a fly net for my head.

I arrived at the scenic overlook just as the sky was getting light, so I pulled in to watch the dunes be revealed. But as an added bonus to the right of the platform and 45 kilometres away I had an excellent view of the sun rising behind Uluru. It was really beautiful. I talked to a couple from Vancouver who are on a tour here while we watched the sky.

After the sky became light everyone left and drove back to Uluru, but I turned the other direction and drove down to the formation and the Walpa Gorge hike. It turned out to be only an hour long and not as nice as yesterday's hike, but with the fly netting I was able to frustrate the flies, instead of the other way around, and I stumble across two kanyala or hill kangaroos, a female and her independent joey, who were at a waterhole. They hopped away but I was still able to get some shots. Finally two kangaroos in the wild in the outback!

This is the farthest away from Melbourne that I will be on this trip, now I have to start the long drive back. On the way out of the park I stopped at the Uluru sunrise lookout to have one last look at the spectacular monolith. It is really amazing. Then I went back to the resort to gas up and buy some supplies for breakfast and the drive. Then I headed out.

Today became more overcast as I drove and since I had traveled on all these roads before and there was nothing I needed to stop and photograph, I just drove and listened to music. I have not seen a stop sign anywhere for four days and with a speed limit of 130 in the Northern Territories and 110 in South Australia, I was able to make good time. Again very little traffic, a few road trains trucks and not much else. No animals, wild or domestic and surprisingly no road kill either.

I arrived in Coober Pedy by 5:30 and drove to Ken and Anne's b and b, but found that they had no vacancy, so I went to the local backpackers hotel and booked a small room here. It too was underground, so I got to see a different one, although admittedly not as nice. I went to the IGA and picked up some groceries and settled into my room to type and catch up with the world after two days with no wi-fi.

A total of 882 km of driving today.