SYDNEY - HALLS CREEK TRIP 2007
Tuesday 22 May to Monday 28 May
Broken Hill to Kings Canyon
Blog 2
The road was quiet as we left Broken Hill heading west and the countryside very green. We stopped at Peterborough in SA whose claim to fame originally was that many of the trains came through there and it had stations with all 3 gauges from the different states. We then had an easy drive to Port Augusta and stayed on the west side of the Spencer Gulf. Port Augusta is the power house of SA as it produces most of the states electricity for the state.
From Port Augusta we headed north on Stuart Highway, the Explorers Way, A87 (which ever name you want), to Woomera and stopped for lunch at the Hart Lake rest stop. We walked down to Lake Hart which had water in it but had a lot of salt crusted at the edge. The rail track was being repaired and we stopped to talk to the railway men. They had a fantastic piece of machinery which slightly lifted sections of the track and straightened it.
The next day was perfect with blue cloudless skies, red dirt and low shrubs as we stopped at Coober Pedy for petrol. We didn’t spend any time in Coober Pedy as we had been there before.
We stopped at Marla which is no more than a roadhouse and Caravan Park and the start of the Oodnadatta Track and then crossed into the Northern Territory stopping at Kugera which is the first and last pub in NT and enjoyed a beautiful outback sunset.
We continued to drive north on the Stuart Highway stopping at Erlunda, which is the turn off to Uluru, for petrol.
We turned west off the Stuart Highway onto the Lassiter Highway taking us to Uluru. The countryside was very green with lots of trees and shrubs along the way; much more vegetation than when we were here in 1997.
We stayed at Yulara Resort Caravan Park as camping at Uluru was no longer allowed. We spent some time at the Cultural Centre which was great and then went down to enjoy the sun setting at Uluru.
The walk around Uluru was spectacular even though it was quite hot, the flies were dreadful but we both had our hats and fly nets on. Without them we wouldn’t have been able to open our mouths.
Each section of the walk provided different and spectacular views of Uluru. Uluru itself is a large arkose sandstone sedimentary rock, a coarsely grained rock mainly containing the mineral feldspar. The weathering and erosion it quite different in the different sections I guess because the weather conditions heat, wind, sand blown sections, vegetation growing on the rock are different. The natural rock that is not exposed to the air is quite grey but once the area is exposed to air and water it is oxidised to the red iron oxide colour.
Our next stop was Olgas, the aboriginal name is Kata Tjuta. It is a conglomerant sedimentary rock; a mixture of gravel, pebbles, boulders cemented together with sand and mud. It contains minerals and other rock types including basalt and granite. Of course this is western society’s explanation of the structure not the Anangu peoples belief of the structures.
On our drive back to Yulara both Kata Tjuta and Uluru were actually purple with a dull red earth, green shrubs and blue/yellow/pink sky behind it. It was a beautiful sight.
We had an easy drive to Kings Canyon and just relaxed by the pool and chatted with other travellers.
The next day we drove down to Kings Canyon and Mike sensibly decided to rest his foot after Uluru walk so I did the 6km canyon top walk on my own. It was quite a strenuous walk starting with a 100m rise very quickly. The walk and views were spectacular with the sandstone formation of the domes forming from compressed sand dunes and then erosion. The bottom of the canyon has waterholes and beautiful old cycads in what is known as the Garden of Eden.
Tuesday 22 May to Monday 28 May
Broken Hill to Kings Canyon
Blog 2
The road was quiet as we left Broken Hill heading west and the countryside very green. We stopped at Peterborough in SA whose claim to fame originally was that many of the trains came through there and it had stations with all 3 gauges from the different states. We then had an easy drive to Port Augusta and stayed on the west side of the Spencer Gulf. Port Augusta is the power house of SA as it produces most of the states electricity for the state.
From Port Augusta we headed north on Stuart Highway, the Explorers Way, A87 (which ever name you want), to Woomera and stopped for lunch at the Hart Lake rest stop. We walked down to Lake Hart which had water in it but had a lot of salt crusted at the edge. The rail track was being repaired and we stopped to talk to the railway men. They had a fantastic piece of machinery which slightly lifted sections of the track and straightened it.
The next day was perfect with blue cloudless skies, red dirt and low shrubs as we stopped at Coober Pedy for petrol. We didn’t spend any time in Coober Pedy as we had been there before.
We stopped at Marla which is no more than a roadhouse and Caravan Park and the start of the Oodnadatta Track and then crossed into the Northern Territory stopping at Kugera which is the first and last pub in NT and enjoyed a beautiful outback sunset.
We continued to drive north on the Stuart Highway stopping at Erlunda, which is the turn off to Uluru, for petrol.
We turned west off the Stuart Highway onto the Lassiter Highway taking us to Uluru. The countryside was very green with lots of trees and shrubs along the way; much more vegetation than when we were here in 1997.
We stayed at Yulara Resort Caravan Park as camping at Uluru was no longer allowed. We spent some time at the Cultural Centre which was great and then went down to enjoy the sun setting at Uluru.
The walk around Uluru was spectacular even though it was quite hot, the flies were dreadful but we both had our hats and fly nets on. Without them we wouldn’t have been able to open our mouths.
Each section of the walk provided different and spectacular views of Uluru. Uluru itself is a large arkose sandstone sedimentary rock, a coarsely grained rock mainly containing the mineral feldspar. The weathering and erosion it quite different in the different sections I guess because the weather conditions heat, wind, sand blown sections, vegetation growing on the rock are different. The natural rock that is not exposed to the air is quite grey but once the area is exposed to air and water it is oxidised to the red iron oxide colour.
Our next stop was Olgas, the aboriginal name is Kata Tjuta. It is a conglomerant sedimentary rock; a mixture of gravel, pebbles, boulders cemented together with sand and mud. It contains minerals and other rock types including basalt and granite. Of course this is western society’s explanation of the structure not the Anangu peoples belief of the structures.
On our drive back to Yulara both Kata Tjuta and Uluru were actually purple with a dull red earth, green shrubs and blue/yellow/pink sky behind it. It was a beautiful sight.
We had an easy drive to Kings Canyon and just relaxed by the pool and chatted with other travellers.
The next day we drove down to Kings Canyon and Mike sensibly decided to rest his foot after Uluru walk so I did the 6km canyon top walk on my own. It was quite a strenuous walk starting with a 100m rise very quickly. The walk and views were spectacular with the sandstone formation of the domes forming from compressed sand dunes and then erosion. The bottom of the canyon has waterholes and beautiful old cycads in what is known as the Garden of Eden.
