Idolising The Rock Stars
Trip Start
Nov 08, 2003
1
38
74
Trip End
Oct 22, 2004
Uluru,
Australia
Monday, July 26, 2004
It wasn't long before we were heading out of Alice Springs in our newly rented campervan, a luxurious Ford Transit from Kea Campers with shower, toilet, microwave, oven, fridge, big double bed, carpet throughout and most importantly, corkscrew.
As we headed south along the Stuart Highway it was clear there were no speed limit signs, just red diagonal lines dotted along the road and after a quick flick through some bumpf on Northern Territory road rules all became clear, there was no speed limit. This gave us the green light to hoof along the states' dead straight roads at around 130kmh, although signs for 'wandering stock' curbed our desire to go flat out.
The landscape proved very bushy with a good covering of trees which was at odds with our perceived idea of what the red centre of Australia should look like ie. desert with the odd cactus, but we did see a group of wild camels which gave the area a nice wilderness feel. These camels had been used to build the original Ghan railway line and were set free to roam once work was complete.
After 200km of endlessly similar scenery we reached the very core of the country, the Desert Oaks Roadhouse, and expecting to see a wizened old local sat in a corner nursing a cup of tea we were surprised to find coach loads of tourists queuing for pies. After filling up we checked the road atlas to see we had only gone a few centimetres in map book terms and another 250km awaited us along the Lasseter Highway. Being a lot curvier than the previous highway the speed limit was set at 100kmh and a police force armed with speed-guns lurked at the end of every home straight to enforce it.
We travelled west through true outback country being overtaken repeatedly by convoys of four wheel drives and before long we were homing into view of the world's favourite lump of red rock, Ayers Rock, or Uluru as it has been known by since 1985 when the park was handed back to the Aborigines.
Bob Marley reappears in the Red Centre
At least we thought it was Uluru.
It did seem a bit early according to the milometer and the top of the rock did seem a little flatter than we'd remembered. Nonetheless we began to get scarily over-excited to the point of hyperventilation and started snapping away uncontrollably, even filming a 30 second video clip with Soph giving a full anchorwoman intro. According to my calculations we still had 140km to go so it did seem a little close and soon we were passing it by without coming across a sign for the turn-off. A double-check of the atlas confirmed our fears . it was Mount Conner, another big rock that looked mightily impressive but was obviously the wrong shade of red to afford it cult status.
After we'd prematurely enthusiasticated we were suddenly met by the sight of an Aborigine standing in the middle of the road next to a (supposedly) broken down car flagging down passing vehicles for a lending hand and in the bush was his family huddled around a campfire. Nobody was stopping. We followed suit, I mean, we can't even change a flat tyre so what use would we have been? This knowledge (or lack of knowledge) kept us from feeling too guilty and watching other locals speeding by gave us our first insight into how Australians view the indigenous people.
It was dusk when we finally got within viewing range of the rock, but for now it was time to check into Yulara, a specially-made resort built especially for the legions of tourists who come to see the rock each day.
Bye bye Uluru
Yulara has every type of accommodation from a 5-star hotel (not for us) to camping grounds (for us) and has a little shopping area which houses a supermarket, tourist information, souvenir shops and a bank. Situated just seven miles from the rock itself the resort is government run and is actually classed as a town and everything you could possible wish for is accommodated within it's boundaries which means you don't get any tacky motels and shops ruining the landscape by lining the route to the rock.We hitched up our ride to the local power supply and settled down for the night with a good ole outback meal of beans on toast readying ourselves for tomorrow's big rock eye candy.
30/5
With the remains of the mornings scrambled eggs still clinging to our mouths we left the holiday compound that is Yulara for the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park to give it it's full name.
We bought a couple of passes at a booth on the road to Uluru before hanging a sharp right towards the Kata Tjuta part of the National Park, otherwise known as The Olgas.
From a distance the Olgas looked a whole lot more interesting than its more famous rock star up the road as it was nearly 200 metres higher, was made up of a collection of 36 massive linked domes and had gorges with walking tracks dissecting them. We parked up and hiked for 40 minutes through the Walpa Gorge, the most famous of its cleavages that leads to a dead-end cliff face and a rock pool.
It was now time for Australia's monolithical superstar (edging the Barrier Reef and the opera house by a kangaroo's whisker?)
2.25 miles long, 1.5 miles wide, 348 metres high.
Clouds in the Red Centre, whatever next?
A single piece of sandstone that extends 3 miles beneath the desert surface as well. A kind off land iceberg. A sandberg. Before rushing to worship the giant terracotta bread bin we stopped off at the cultural centre to enhance our visit with some research and weren't at all surprised to see a well-presented history of the area and a potted history of Aboriginal culture. This country is full of good information centres.
Soon we were parking up at the sacred jelly mould for a spot of base walking. Notice the word base, as each year thousands of tourists climb the rock via a mile long chain-rope walkway which is a bit of a contentious issue with the owners. The path is sacred and is climbed by the local tribesmen in important ceremonies and a sign at the base urges people to respect this and not to climb, but as we pulled up a stream of 'ants', as the locals call them, were dragging themselves up to the summit, but after seeing the six hidden plaques around the corner remembering people who'd had had heart attacks or fallen off we respected their wishes and stuck to the base.
A 40-minute trek took us along the Mala Walk to take in several caves and rock art and further around the base we took the Liru Walk with views of sacred cracks in the rock that depicted mythological events for the local Anangu tribe. Considering our resort was at capacity as it is all year round, our walks were nice and solitary, the perfect way to view the rock away from the coach tours.
Driving away from the rock there's a sunset viewing point that stretches for a good half-mile and a number of cars were already parked up in prime positions an hour early for the 6.04pm sunset so we joined them.
Could we be more in Australia?
What we hadn't banked on though was the unseasonably cloudy weather the red centre had been getting for the past couple of weeks so any chance of seeing its surface change to black via a thousand shades of red was a long shot unless a miracle cloud break developed in the sun's direction. No such luck. By 6pm people were giving up the ghost and speeding off to waiting barbies so we followed.Back at the ranch we headed to the traditionally titled Outback Pioneer Lodge for a grill of grand proportions. A huge chilled cabinet held every meat and fish known to man and a few unknown, as well as the usual bbq favourites. It wasn't cheap as rump steaks would set you back $26 (over a tenner) but it did include a salad bar, jacket potatoes and corn on the cob. The Outback Combo caught my eye as it included steak, crocodile, emu and kangaroo but the combination of my dubious morals and Soph's evil eye led us to choose the T-bone.
Once we'd collected our joints we headed to an adjoining bbq area where 12 flaming grills sat in rows ready to cremate your steak in a minute flat. Six seconds and a pair of singed eye-brows later our rare steaks were blow-torched and after stacking our salad bowls to Jenga proportions we sat at a wooden communal table washing down our tuck with a couple of VBs.
The last ounce of flesh was digested just as tonight's cabaret, a country and western singer, was tuning his banjo on stage which was our cue to line-dance our way out the back door. We then spent a romantic evening in the launderette watching the last episode of our fave show on the box, 'My Restaurant Rules', and Perth won, yaaaaay.
Dawn at Uluru
I know it doesn't mean a lot to you but it meant the world to us (sniff).31/5
Having missed the sunset yesterday there was still a chance of seeing the sunrise on the rock this morning so without further ado we were out the park gates by 6.45am heading for the viewing area for a 7.22am sunrise.
Once more things didn't look promising, thick cloud filled the sky. But you just never know? We arrived to the sight of a few hundred other people who were also sharing our overly optimistic belief that a shard of morning light would cut through the cloud cover like a knife through butter and illuminate Uluru like some kind of Godly second-coming. Cameras were primed on tripods, the Japs were out in force and people held up placards reading "Choose me" and "Give us back Elvis". It was like a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind as a good cross-section of the world's denominations focussed their combined powers on trying to break down the cemented cumulus above us.
We all left disappointed once more.
And we thought clouds hadn't been invented in the centre of Australia.
That said we still took some Amateur Photographer of the Year winning photographs from the sunrise direction. Uluru has a number of different faces with the irregular sunset view of channels, ridges and cracks being the least photogenic but the sunrise angle is by far the most perfectly rounded and symmetrical of all aspects.
We were back at the resort by 8 for showers and breakfast before checking out and heading east with the poignant sight of Uluru fast vanishing in our rear view mirror. Although we didn't have the sun to redden an already red rock a more dramatic shade it was still a once-in-a-lifetime sight to behold and well worth travelling every kilometre to get there.
On our way back to Alice Springs we took a little(?) diversion (200 miles) to Watarrka National Park for a quick walk through Kings Canyon's sandstone gorge with it's 100 metre high cliff faces until we realised we still had just under a million kilometres (or thereabouts) to drive in three and a half hours before sunset which is the green light for creatures of the night to treat the roads as rest stops. Our speed hit 160kmh along limit-free roads as we tried in vain to reach camp by dark and for the last 45 minutes we slowed to 159kmh as we kept our eyes peeled for roving roos.
We finally arrived in Alice Springs by 6.45pm with a new world record days mileage under our belts of just over 500 miles. After checking into the MacDonnell Ranges Caravan Park we drove a little further into town for a slap-up Chinese meal to celebrate our record.
The next day we were heading towards Darwin for the road trip to beat all others, a nice little excursion 1,500km north through unforgiving terrain and unyielding cattle . .
Pam Ayers & The Rock
xx
