Week 3 on the Road

Kings Canyon Sunset

Kings Canyon Gum

Olgas Sunset

Uluru Aboriginal Wall Painting

Uluru Sunset

Since our last update we have covered some miles, or kilometers as they say here.  We left Port Augusta on the morning of the 22nd, we filled up the car and headed straight north on the Stuart Highway. Our original plans were to do the Oodnadatta track but because of all the recent rains, the track had just opened and was a mess, and judging by the 4WDs we saw filling up in Coober Pedy, it was a real big mess, so we continued up the road and spent the night at the roadhouse in Marla.  Onwards to Uluru!  Now when I was here 25 years ago it was just a campsite near the bottom of the rock, now Yulara is a little township about 10 K from the Ulurau-Kata Tjuta National Park.  Yulara is the only place to stay in the area, but it has a range of accommodations from the five star hotel to the tent sites.  It has about 1000 full time employees and is the fourth largest town in the Northern Territory.  Anyway, the rock hasn’t changed, it’s still a huge sandstone monolith.  What we both found far more interesting because of the scale and diversity of birds, flowers and rock is Kata Tjuta or the Olgas.  It was interesting because although they are fairly close to each other (in NT terms) they are two very different places.  The Olgas are made up of sedimentary rock, and when I looked at them it reminded me of a red clay sculpture made with running the thumb down across each clay addition.   Absolutely fascinating, Charlie, you are missing out here.  As our treat, we went to Sounds of Silence, a dinner out in the outback under the stars.  Imagine being picked up by the coach and driven about 10 minutes from the resort and being dropped of with a view of the sun setting on Uluru in the foreground, and Kata Tjuta behind us, sipping cold champagne.  After the sun set, we walked to our tables that were set in white linen tablecloths, wine glasses, candles…the entree was a buffet of assorted Australian bush food, lamb, kangaroo, barramundi and other with a variety of salads.  After the plates were cleared and wine glasses topped up, all the lights were extinguished and we were given a really excellent talk and display on the astronomy of the southern hemisphere.  Then coffee and port was served alongside a huge array of desserts then the bus took us back to the resort.  It was an excellent evening.  After Uluru, we went to Kings Canyon and Watarrka National Park.  This whole area used to be a cattle station, but in 1989 it was turned into Watarrka National Park, with Kings Canyon resort being built to cater to the tourist in 1992.  It was my first time here and it was again, so very different from the other National Park.  The feature of this park is the Rim Walk, to be done early in the morning when the day is going to be as hot as it was.  We set out around 7:30 in the morning, wanting to complete the 3.5 hr walk before it got too hot.  The worst part was climbing to the tip of the rim.  Talk about a thigh burner, climbing over 1000 feet in a half mile, but once at the top it is pretty easy going, still plenty of stairs, but manmade ones with railings and not as steep.  Wonderful walk, fascinating geology, Charlie, man…  Tonight we are in Alice Springs, tomorrow, the Western MacDonnell Ranges then back up to Tennant Creek, Daly Waters, onto Katherine, Kakadu, then Darwin by the second week of October?  

Week 2 on the Road

Flinders Moon

Fire Mountain

Hawker Ruin

Flinders Colors

Flinders Morning

The Magic of the Flinders

One of the best things about Australia is finding the places that simply capture your heart, especially if they are overlooked in guide books. We were extremely fortunate to find such a place, the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. We had traveled from Broken Hill, NSW to Peterborough, SA (South Australia) to Hawker, SA where we landed in a great caravan park.

We had only planned on being there a couple of nights and to see the Flinders during one day and leave for Uluru/Ayers Rock early the following day. However, we were so absolutely amazed by the Flinders Ranges that we stayed and stayed and stayed. The ranges are geologically fascinating in that there are six or seven ranges all caused by uplifting and shifting of tectonic plates, but I prefer the aboriginal explanation of two fire snakes that slithered around until they met up at a place called Wilpena Pound, ate all the people and then died of remorse. From the air, the ranges do look remarkably like snake tracks.

After five days in the Flinders, we have taken a jaunt down to Port Augusta for the night before we head up to Uluru, via Coober Pedy. If all goes well, we'll be at the "Rock" by Friday night. It will mean two very long days of driving, but we'll see.

Week 1 on the Road

Red Cliff Vista

Washpool Creek

Boundry Falls

Sawn Rocks

Warrumbungles Camp Sunset

It will be hard to tell you everything we have seen and done since we left Byron last Friday, Sept 10^th. We have been traveling almost non-stop and have seen so many incredible places, but bear with us and we will tell you of the highlights.

We started out at Brooms Head, south of Yamba and east of Maclean, part of the Yuraygir National Park. It had a beautiful beach and the Red Cliffs and kangaroos by the bus full. They weren’t tame, but they certainly were afraid of humans either. The next morning we started our class. We learned a few things that are very important. We are never ever going to be serious 4WD off road fans, in fact, we hated it. The stress level was jut too much for us oldies. We did learn what Em could do and that was scale rock piles and sides of mountains, go over ditches, make our way through huge mud puddles that was up to the under-carriage of the car and many other horrible things. After about 4 hours that seemed like 10, we were able to take an out and meet up with the group later. Actually, we wimped out and spent the night on our own instead of meeting them at Pebbly Beach, which meant beach driving and fording the Station Creek at low tide. Instead we said thank you, spent the night at Station Creek Park that was thankfully very quiet.

Off the next morning from Grafton on the Gwyndir Highway through the Gibraltar range towards Glen Innes. What be beautiful drive through the mountains, we stopped at Washpool Creek for a walk, then Raspberry Lookout and Boundary Creek Falls. From Glen Innes, we drove on to Inverell, Moree then south to Narrabri for the night, home of the Australian Cotton Center, and home to the largest pecan orchard in the southern hemisphere. While we were at Narrabri we drove up to Sawn Rocks, a really cool rock formation left over from the ancient volcano. We also drove up Mt Kaputar, the remaining plug of the volcano. The views were excellent, showing vast farmland in grains and cotton.

Then we were off to Coonabarabran, driving down the Newell Highway we ran into Neptune. This is part of the solar system drive, with a virtual drive that is 38 million times smaller than the one in space. This wasn’t part of the plan, but we got hooked, and since it was on the way, why not. All the planets are arranged on billboards in scale to the sun, which is the Sliding Springs Observatory. This is a huge solar observatory run by AUS and GB, and then there are small telescopes run by other organizations. Despite the chance of rain, we decided to stay at the campsite at the Warrumbungles National Park. Our tent faced right out into the pasture, facing the spectacular mountains. We had an excellent sunset, our position was perfect for sunrise, but we woke up to fog, drizzle and howling winds, so we broke camp in a flash, and headed out through Gummin Gummin to the Oxley Highway.

At Nevertire, we turned onto the Mitchell Highway to the Barrier Highway to Cobar, a copper mine with a bit of silver thrown in. Cobar Shire is about the size of Tasmania, with the population of 7,000. Not too many people. Now we are officially in the outback.

Today we continued along the Barrier Highway, through Wilcannia, beautiful old sandstone architecture and believe me, that was it. Got out of there as soon as possible. The outback is bursting with color. The wildflowers are just all over and incredibly vibrant. I’ve been collecting snippets for later ID and finally found a bookstore in Broken Hill. I bought the last wildflower ID book they had, this is the best flower show they have had in decades because of all the rain they have had in the outback this year. We just can’t believe how lucky we are to see these flowers at their peak.

Homeless

McLeans Ridge Vista

Tallow Blue Clouds

Well, we are finally off on our adventure. We checked out of our rental 'home' this morning (about a half hour ago) and the realtor said we left the place cleaner than we found it.

Em (the car) is stuffed to the gills and loaded up top as well. She's riding fine, though.

We're off to a camping spot by Brooms Head where we'll be for a few days taking a 4wd class and then, weather permitting off to Broken Hill and then the Flinders Ranges in South Australia.

It will be an adventure, that's for sure!

Steve and Allie

PS. It is raining so setting up in the wet will be new, but I expect we'll do more than once!

Counting Down!

Cape Byron Light Fisheye

Natural Bridge

Tallow Beach Storm

Lennox Head Kite Surfer

Tintenbar Vista

We just had a lovely week with friends from NH, showing them “our neck of the woods”, eating and drinking very well. We took them to our farmers market, local breweries and cheese makers, and our favorite places. Now it is down to business of getting ready for the big road trip.

Last week we decided to break down and get a car fridge. It is will make life soo much easier because there will be times that there won’t be road houses to pick up food, and this way we can keep our food safely and I can cook with a little bit more variety than just ramen noodles. We hadn’t planned on it but it just makes sense. The fridge runs off the car battery while charging it’s own battery as well, then at night, it’s battery will continue to keep things cold without draining the car battery. I should be able to keep a weeks worth of perishable food in it which will be good.

This week? Getting the car serviced, all it fluids changed, getting a jerry can holder for our spare fuel tank, sorting through all our stuff, storing what we don’t need on the trip at the Lamberts, packing what we think we need, then winnowing that down to the essentials, packing the pantry and cooking stuff, shopping for food, cleaning the house, and then Friday around noon, after our last lunch in Byron for 5 months, hitting the road.

Our first stop is down to Red Cliffs, south of Yamba, for a 4WD course. This will teach us how to ford water, drive on sand and navigate general outback conditions. After that we are well and truly off, heading west through the Washpool National Park towards Glen Innes, Inverell, Bingara, Narrabri, Coonabarabran, Cobar, Wilcannia and Broken Hill, where we will probable be or a day or two. It is full of art galleries, a famous sculpture park, food and maybe a real bed. Off we go into the wild blue yonder.