Day 5 Coober Pedy to Uluru (Ayers Rock)

Have I mentioned that there’s not much out here? It’s really difficult to convey the distances and the vast expanses of nothingness out here in the outback. It’s all a bit abstract as you stare at a map in your lounge room and think ‘that’s a long drive that day’. Well, yes, it is. Here are a few facts to put it into perspective:
Since our short detour around Adelaide, we have travelled basically north for about 15 hours of driving. When we leave Alice Springs next week, we will travel another 16 hours north to Darwin. In those 31 hours of driving we will travel through exactly one town with a population greater than 25,000-Alice Springs. Port Augusta, SA has a population of about 15,000 and Katherine, in the Northern Territory, has a population of around 10,000. That’s it. Three towns of more than 10,000 people over a distance of 3,000 km. Otherwise, nothing but the occasional road house. Oh, and dead cows and Kangaroos, lots and lots of them.