East Coast Road Tour 2012

Wednesday 26th May
Coober Pedy - Erldunda via Mala and Kulgara(roadhouse stops)
As Reg has been on this trip five times he thought he’d make this trip memorable by estimating how far we could go on one tank of fuel. After having lunch at Mala he was asked “ Should we fill up?” His reply was, “ Nah, she’ll be right.” As Alan was driving along he saw the low fuel light come on. We had 50 k still to go. After reading the guide for the van we found out that the light went on 100 k before the tank runs out. “Phew”, our separate scenarios of being stranded on the side of the road evaporated with that news.
(Reg says it was expertly judged.)

Erldunda was basically a service station with a campsite and motel accommodation available behind it. The site was quite lovely with trees and some lawn, quite a surprise. A stray cat greeted us as we set up our chairs and table for happy hour. A kangaroo was wandering around the campsite and emus could be seen just over a fenced off area.


Thursday 27th May
Erldunda - Yulara Resort (Uluru)
Arrived early afternoon to the Yulara Resort which is really a small town which includes the campsite and is approx. 20 kms from Uluru and The Olgas. It proceeded to rain later in the afternoon. We took our happy hour provisions to the car park near Uluru to watch the sun go down but had to have them in the van due to the continuing rain. We got out to take photos of the rock even though it was raining. A large cloud was like a cap on top of the rock which made for spectacular and quite rare photos of Uluru.

Friday 28th May
Yulara Resort - Campsite
What a difference a day makes! Woke up to blue skies and warm conditions. Vicki and I went to the shopping centre via the free shuttle service while the boys put together Thai “summer rolls” for lunch. Afterwards we went back to the rock to soak up the culture and one again await the sunset.
When I retired at the start of this year, one of my goals was to see Uluru. Well, I can tell you that watching the sunset tonight, went well over my expectations in achieving that goal. It was just awesome. The photos on the blog will show you some of many phases of the sun going down on the rock.