sorry, voor het engels..

we hebben weinig internet mogelijkheden en ik heb een verslagje in het engels getypt, vandaar dat ik dit nu even post op de blog, hopenlijk kunnen we snel eens wat foto´s en tekst schrijven..
tot snel, vanuit adelaide, ons.
We are on our way for a week now and saw lots and lots of outback.
I understand now why so many of you havent been to Ulluru and the Red Centre. It is a long long drive and lots of jelly beans away.
From your goodbye´s In toowoomba we drove to Tamworth. The kids did well and we camped in Tamworth for a night. We left the next morning and drove to Cobar where we camped at a misrable campground in Cobar, a small quitte depresing mining town. It was expensive and dry, you had to pay for barbie´s that didn´t work, and shower in some iron cage kind of block. Next to our tent was a huge light, as if it was still day, why do they put those things on a campground? Like there is nightly workroads taking place.
Next Plan was to camp at Broken Hill next. There was a huge sandstorm and being out of the car was like being blowdryed and sanded at once. We arrived in the afternoon so decided to hit the road again and ended up in the pitoresque town on Quorn, in the south of the Flinders Range, which was cute and nice and all that. It had an old railway station and old hotels and it could easily be a décor of a movie in the 30´s. We stayed there for another day for a nice break, we did a beautiful Gorge walk in the south of the ranges, which was supposed to be the home of the yellow footed Rock Wallaby, we where there around noon, so unfortunately did not spot one, and you would guess they are hard to miss with those feet...
We packed the car again to drive to the red cente and made it to Coober Pedy. Right in the desert but with supposently lots of precious stones in the ground. In 1913 will Hutchison a 14 yr old boy (dont ask me what he was doing in the desert) found an Opal on the ground, ever since people from all over the world looked for their strike of luck in the desert and lots of the rock around Cooper Pedy has been turned upside down. We found the town quitte depressing and dusty, lots of aboriginals hanging about and lots of bottle shops, opal shops and pokies. A bit sad. You could just smell the air of greed, luck and gamble in the air. It is a tough place to live and I guess people making the sacrifice of living in the dry desert feel they should be rewarded at some point with a lucky find of a chunk full of opal and be an instant millionaire. The miners found quickly that live underground was much more bearable and cooler than the heat off the desert, not to mention the flies! So 50 percent of people live underground. We visited an underground church and camped underground as well (no need to pich the tent). It was lovely.
Next stop, Ulluru! Yay! Watched the sunset with some wine and was gorgeous, next day we got up close and that was even more amazing. So see the structure and all the holes and bumbs. I can understand that is has great significants to the aboriginal people. It was also nice to learn more about their culture in the visitors center. We where quite surprised to see so many people climbing the rock. The Aboriginal people communicate very well that they dont like it and explain why, at the start of the clim there is even an information board explaining it in 8 (eight!) languages. Still bus loads of people go up. Backpackers, families with children, older couples. I guess they could easily close it off (they do if it is to hot or windy) but I guess they leave it up for people themselves to be respectful and considered off the culture of which they are guests. We where disappointed and shocked.

After walking around Ulluru and the Olga´s we dived in the little pool at the campground. Nice!
Next day packed again and went off to the Kings Canyon. Majestic, as a Kings Canyon should be...
very impressive and a beautiful walk in the gorge. You fell little and overwhelmed by beauty and greatness.
We changed plans to do some tracks because weather forecast was expecting some hot days. The children did very well till now and we did not want to stretch them and ourselves to the outer limits, so decided to drive back south. So here we are now, 300 km south of Coober Pedy, in a 60´s motel room with 3 sleeping children and a dripping tap as background sounds.
Seeing the outback definitly adds to our aussie experience. The distances so vast, the remoteness. The feeling it gives you. Nothing I could have imagined, only experience. I did not think it was boring, as there is great variation in what you see, colours, depth, changes in vegetation. For some reason my heartbeat would not go very slow, as the remotenss, heat and bareness did not put me at ease. Being in the capsule of our car, knowing to stay on the main road, having water and fuel, did make me secure a little bit. But the landscape looks unforgiving and in a way she is. It gives me great respect for explorers who had know idea where they where going and where the next water would be. Even more respect and admiration for the people living in this land for centuries. Sustainable, taking only what they needed, strongly connected to the landscape and knowing her stength treasures and limits and also their own. (bought book, the original autralians, by J. Flood to find out more).

Now time for a good sleep, thankfull for all we have seen, to be continued,

Henrike

p.s lost our blond nomads tire cover in a sand storm near coober pedy, so sad...

We are on our way for a week now and saw lots and lots of outback.
I understand now why so many of you havent been to Ulluru and the Red Centre. It is a long long drive and lots of jelly beans away.
From your goodbye´s In toowoomba we drove to Tamworth. The kids did well and we camped in Tamworth for a night. We left the next morning and drove to Cobar where we camped at a misrable campground in Cobar, a small quitte depresing mining town. It was expensive and dry, you had to pay for barbie´s that didn´t work, and shower in some iron cage kind of block. Next to our tent was a huge light, as if it was still day, why do they put those things on a campground? Like there is nightly workroads taking place.
Next Plan was to camp at Broken Hill next. There was a huge sandstorm and being out of the car was like being blowdryed and sanded at once. We arrived in the afternoon so decided to hit the road again and ended up in the pitoresque town on Quorn, in the south of the Flinders Range, which was cute and nice and all that. It had an old railway station and old hotels and it could easily be a décor of a movie in the 30´s. We stayed there for another day for a nice break, we did a beautiful Gorge walk in the south of the ranges, which was supposed to be the home of the yellow footed Rock Wallaby, we where there around noon, so unfortunately did not spot one, and you would guess they are hard to miss with those feet...
We packed the car again to drive to the red cente and made it to Coober Pedy. Right in the desert but with supposently lots of precious stones in the ground. In 1913 will Hutchison a 14 yr old boy (dont ask me what he was doing in the desert) found an Opal on the ground, ever since people from all over the world looked for their strike of luck in the desert and lots of the rock around Cooper Pedy has been turned upside down. We found the town quitte depressing and dusty, lots of aboriginals hanging about and lots of bottle shops, opal shops and pokies. A bit sad. You could just smell the air of greed, luck and gamble in the air. It is a tough place to live and I guess people making the sacrifice of living in the dry desert feel they should be rewarded at some point with a lucky find of a chunk full of opal and be an instant millionaire. The miners found quickly that live underground was much more bearable and cooler than the heat off the desert, not to mention the flies! So 50 percent of people live underground. We visited an underground church and camped underground as well (no need to pich the tent). It was lovely.
Next stop, Ulluru! Yay! Watched the sunset with some wine and was gorgeous, next day we got up close and that was even more amazing. So see the structure and all the holes and bumbs. I can understand that is has great significants to the aboriginal people. It was also nice to learn more about their culture in the visitors center. We where quite surprised to see so many people climbing the rock. The Aboriginal people communicate very well that they dont like it and explain why, at the start of the clim there is even an information board explaining it in 8 (eight!) languages. Still bus loads of people go up. Backpackers, families with children, older couples. I guess they could easily close it off (they do if it is to hot or windy) but I guess they leave it up for people themselves to be respectful and considered off the culture of which they are guests. We where disappointed and shocked.

After walking around Ulluru and the Olga´s we dived in the little pool at the campground. Nice!
Next day packed again and went off to the Kings Canyon. Majestic, as a Kings Canyon should be...
very impressive and a beautiful walk in the gorge. You fell little and overwhelmed by beauty and greatness.
We changed plans to do some tracks because weather forecast was expecting some hot days. The children did very well till now and we did not want to stretch them and ourselves to the outer limits, so decided to drive back south. So here we are now, 300 km south of Coober Pedy, in a 60´s motel room with 3 sleeping children and a dripping tap as background sounds.
Seeing the outback definitly adds to our aussie experience. The distances so vast, the remoteness. The feeling it gives you. Nothing I could have imagined, only experience. I did not think it was boring, as there is great variation in what you see, colours, depth, changes in vegetation. For some reason my heartbeat would not go very slow, as the remotenss, heat and bareness did not put me at ease. Being in the capsule of our car, knowing to stay on the main road, having water and fuel, did make me secure a little bit. But the landscape looks unforgiving and in a way she is. It gives me great respect for explorers who had know idea where they where going and where the next water would be. Even more respect and admiration for the people living in this land for centuries. Sustainable, taking only what they needed, strongly connected to the landscape and knowing her stength treasures and limits and also their own. (bought book, the original autralians, by J. Flood to find out more).

Now time for a good sleep, thankfull for all we have seen, to be continued,

Henrike

p.s lost our blond nomads tire cover in a sand storm near coober pedy, so sad...