Uluru to Coober Pedy (almost) (28.07.2012): Today was the first day we saw clouds in the sky in Australia. It made for some different photos of our favourite rock. It was also extremely cold until around 11am. I wore as many of my clothes as I could along with a scarf. Come noon it was T-shirt weather again. I can't cope with these extremes. Though I know I wouldn't cope visiting this place in the summer when it is 40 - 50 degrees - they climb being closed whenever it is over 36 degrees, mostly by 8am.

Having seen a bird's eye view of Ayers Rock and having walked on top of it, we couldn't leave without completing the 10.6 km base walk - now we have also walked all the way around as well. We are now all Ayers Rock'ed out.

We started the walk at around 9am and completed it by 11:30am before beginning our 751km drive to Coober Pedy - our longest drive yet. Unfortunately we failed. We must have stopped too long for lunch as come 18:00 it was too dark to carry on. Having had two roos run out on us and stumbled across a recently dead bull in the middle of the road we were scared stiff and decided it was safer to retire.

I love the kangaroos but why oh why are they so stupid? The novelty of seeing them has worn off now. Why do they just stand in the middle of the road when they have all this massive expanse of outback.

There are signs everywhere: watch out for the kangaroos, watch out for the camels, watch out for the cows.. They all seem to come out to play as it gets darker and it really isn't worth the risk in driving. It is a shame it gets dark so early but I guess we are travelling in winter.

We have also passed the biggest bird of prey we have seen up to yet today. They are magnificent. They too stand looking at us by the road as we are driving. So many dangers on this easy straight road!

We are camped up at a road side rest point. Free camping.. Makes up for our losses today (read on).

We have managed to achieve something today. We are in a new state having travelled from the Northern Territory (NT) across the border into South Australia (SA). Unfortunately we were unaware that you cannot bring fresh fruit or vegetables from one state to another. Having only recently treated ourselves to expensive fruit and veggies we were somewhat dismayed to have to throw them away in a quarantine bin. Rest assured we ate as much as we could first.. hence our running late I guess! Damn why didn't we stick to the beans?

In a few days we will be heading to another state: Victoria. We will not make the same mistake again.