Mike and I have now found the ultimate method of travel. So, you know how people will rent cars or camper vans one way from one city to another? Well, it turns out that the rental company then needs someone to drive that said car/camper van back to the original city of rental origin. Since they need it done quickly, they let travelers in the know "relocate" it for them for a small fee of $5 a day plus a $100 fuel allowance. Sounds too good to be true, no? I almost lost it when I saw our sweet ride to Alice Springs from Adelaide.
"The Wombie", so named for it's resemblance to the native wombat (low to the ground and stout) and it's similarity to "Combi" which is what Aussies call VW camper vans, is a fully equipped 5 star resort on wheels. Complete with a bed, fridge, stove, toilet, and shower, we didn't leave the Wombie for 3 days. I don't know if I can ever go back to a tent again now that I've had a taste of the Wombie life. Mike and I vowed to purchase one of these as soon as we have disposable income and take all our friends to tournaments in it. Get ready, Texas ultimate...we're riding in style from now on!
So off we drove into the outback with the goal of reaching Coober Pedy by nightfall. On the way, we stumbled across Port Germaine, a tiny town that used to be a huge center for grain shipping and it's present claim to fame...Australia's longest wooden jetty. Now, I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but it was totally amazing. The jetty juts out into the ocean 1600 meters, a mile from the shore. The most incredible part was that for most of those 1600 meters, the water was about a foot and a half deep...it was the longest continental shelf I've ever seen or heard of. You could walk for half a mile, and then take a set of stairs down to the ocean and just walk around. Because it was so shallow, the water was a beautiful sky blue and tepid...it was essentially the largest bath tub ever. We ran into a few families crabbing at the end of the jetty and very nearly took a blue swimmer crab back with us to cook up in the Wombie to get a taste of local culture, but I didn't want to break my NY resolution.
We made it to Coober Pedy late after a long day of driving. Coober Pedy is the self proclaimed "Opal Capital of the World". It's also one of the hottest places on earth, and because of that more than half the town lives underground in old mines they've converted to houses. We took a tour of a defunct opal mine, underground house, and museum. On top the city looks like a colony on Mars...it's totally crazy. The mines surround the town proper, so whatever direction you look, there are these hills of mined sandstone and thirty meter holes in the ground. It looks like miniature mountain ranges surround the city in all directions.
We got out of town after the tour in an effort to reach Alice Springs, the geographic central city of Australia, before dark. We booked a tour to Uluru (formerly Ayers Rock) and the Olgas the next day since it was the most cost efficient way to get there and back in one day. We awoke early and caught our tour bus right outside of the Wombie. Our enthusiastic tour guide, Malcom, was the epitome of the cliché Aussie male...straight out of Crocodile Dundee folks. He filled us in on loads of geology, geography, aboriginal history and traditions, and other interesting facts about central Australia. I was totally dorking out when he started talking about the ages and layers of rock that formed Uluru and such. We also made a quick stopover to see Dinky, the piano playing and singing Dingo (creeeeepy).
Our next stop was the Uluru-Kata Djuta Cultural Centre; we had lunch and saw some displays on local Aborignal (Anangu) culture and why Uluru and the surrounding land is so sacred to their community. We walked around a good part of the bottom (they ask you not to climb it since it is a sacred sight and it was closed anyways due to high temp. and winds) and saw a lot of cool sites, ranging from waterfalls/pools to rock art. The thing that I was most impressed with was just the sheer size of it, which was only amplified by the fact that all the land surrounding it was so incredibly flat.
We went to the Olgas next which were very similar to Uluru, but a group of 4 humps instead of one large one. The composition of the sandstone was also different, making for some pretty sweet patterns in the rock. You were allowed to hike in between some of the mounds so we did just that. Then it was off the Uluru again to have a sunset dinner complete with "bubbly" (sparkling wine). It was a dreary day and overcast, so we didn't get to see the crazy sunset colors, but it was still beautiful. We watched "the sunset" over the rock, but in time forgot about it all together because our whole tour was tipsy on bubbly and chatting away. It was Mike and I, and about 8 other much older people, sitting there having our own little outback party. It was splendid, and when we did remember to look over at Uluru, it was pretty moving. Those were the moments we came here for.
