Uluru

Coober Pedy was great.  We did a 5 hour tour with the owner of the caravan Park who had lived in the town for 37 years.  He went there to mine and never left.  We went out to the Breakaways which was beautiful, he showed us through the mine fields, an underground home and church and the museum.  We would not have learned so much if we did it ourselves.  We stayed for two nights and then continued on the Stuart Highway, stopping along the way and chatting to other travellers.  That's the great thing - everyone chats and you pick up lots of different information about the roads, travelling, where to go and what to see.  Some people have been on the road for years and love it.  Sunday night we stopped at a free campsite about 39 km from the border and we were on our own for a while and then Beryl and Bill arrived and we spent ages talking to them at one of the picnic tables.  They had been fossicking for garnets and had lots of stories.  We left our campsite after a bacon and egg breakfast and travelled and stopped at the SA/NT border, made a cuppa and chatted for ages to a couple from Qld.  They had been on the road for three years and still going strong!  The Diesel prices are outrageous, we paid $2.10 per litre at Erldunda but it's going to get worse.  We are told we will be paying as much as $2.40 in some places.  We turned off the Stuart Highway onto the Lasseter Highway which is the way to Uluru and the Olgas and stayed the night at a free camp just 30ks from the Rock but we went for a walk up a sand dune and from the top we could see both the rock and the Olgas.
Today we went to Uluru and rode our bikes around the base.  It's 9.4 kms and saw the cave paintings, water holes and experienced the silence.  (Except when Peter was doing hand brakies on his bike - such a boy!)  We booked into the Ayres Rock camping ground and left the van there while we went to the Olgas.  We did a walk through The Valley of the Winds which was wonderful, and watched the sunset over the rock.  A magical day.  Tomorrow we are thinking we will go to Kings Canyon.