This morning we were up and at it nice and early, ready for the longest day of driving scheduled on our trip. We left Coober Pedy around 7:30am and had a nice easy run the whole day, arriving in Uluru at 2:30pm, much earlier than expected, probably thanks to the 130kmh speed limit on the Stuart Highway once crossing the NT border.

Along the drive today we saw emus, cows, lots of wedge-tailed eagles and about a million little birds, I think they are a type of starling but I am certainly no ornithologist so they could be anything!! I’m pretty sure one or two of them sadly kissed the Kia on the drive today but thankfully there was no evidence of it when we pulled up.

We stopped at Cadney Park, the SA/NT border and Kulgera for fuel and toilet stops today. We had lots of fun jumping across the border line laughing at one or more of us being in a different state to the others. We also experienced our most expensive petrol of the trip to date at $2.52/L!!!!!

Driving into Uluru we tricked the boys with Mount Conner, even though we had explained only a few hours earlier that there is a big rock that you see when driving on the Lasseter Highway to Uluru that everyone mistakes for Uluru itself.

On arrival at Uluru we checked into the Emu Walk Apartments which we will call home for the next few days. We have an amazing, large apartment that could sleep 8 people!!!! After pottering around for a little bit, Nan and Gramps (aka A’s parents) arrived as they had driven the Great Central Road over the past 4 days to meet us here. It was sooooo nice seeing a familiar face again and having a big catch up on everyone’s news. We went out for dinner to Gecko’s Cafe and had really nice meals before heading back to the GARL apartment for more drinkies and chats. With everyone a bit weary after long drives, we called it a night to have a good sleep ready for our Uluru adventures tomorrow.