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The final road trip-Ayers Rock.
If you haven't read the journal with the arrival of the Todd tribe then go back and read that first, its much better reading in order and you'll understand things better.
Preparations began for what we knew was going to be our final road trip. The last of the money sat in our banks has been waiting for this journey as long as we have. While Nath got a spare wheel and fuel tank i helped the O'Brien's with their yearly street garage sale. Actually i'm a terrible liar, while me and Nathan were still asleep (recovering from the Todd Tribe 3 weeks) we awoke to be handed money from the things we had put forward to sell. Gone were the body boards (somehow we didn't think we'd need them in a desert) gone was the camping shower we'd never used, and gone was the tent-our final road trip we had decided was to be shared with the 3 of us only. Me, Nathan and Stanley.
Further preparations continued,the air filter was changed for a brand new one, food shopping/snacks for the journey were put into their appropriate places and the Stanley was transformed into a fully working/sleeping vehicle.
Sunday 1st April, 9am, all set and ready to go. Stanley doesn't start. I couldn't believe it, we had'nt even left Sydney and the goal of reaching the centre of Australia was fading away, near enough tears of frustration, anger and upset about to explode from my bulging eyes and i look at Nathan who is crying hysterically....April Fools...Stanley starts!
About an hour later i saw the funny side!
Our first stop (of many!) was Bathurst where we drove around Mount Panorama race track. We couldn't believe it was open to the public, but people actually live in the middle so it is used as a road when the car racing isn't on. Some fantastic views. As we went as quickly as we could around the corners, 45kph, it was hard to imagine how the race drivers go at over 200 kph?? Still a good start to the day. We traveled on through Dubbo only stopping for what was our worst takeaway pie yet and arrived late afternoon at a very small town called Nygan. Lisa's dad Rob was brought up here and still has family who were able to put us up for the night. Having no mobile reception i had no choice but to ask for directions in the only IGA food store. It turns out this was one of those small towns that know everyone by name. Needless to say a further 2 minutes later we were at Denise and Codge's. And after that it wasn't long till Codge had taken us to the local golf club, the type of golf club that knows everyone, so as we walked in all eyes were on us, still once they'd realised we were just a couple of Poms they hell bent on telling us a few yarns and having a laugh. A fair few beers later and back for soup and toasted sandwiches followed by Codge's home brew. Rob had pre-warned us about this, but having already had a fair few beers in the golf club we were game for whatever was put us in front of us. Lets just say we were asleep by 8 and the plan to be on the road by 6am was more like an hour later.A fantastic start to the trip though and off we went again.
From Nygan to Cobar (a small steam train town), to Willcannia which we drove straight through after a couple of warnings from Aussie's not to stay there. In fact they'd warned us that much that i actually was driving and made Nathan take over just as we arrived so i didn't have to drive. It appears Willcannia is overpopulated with Aboriginals whose daily habit is too drink on street corners and cause a little bit of trouble, sure enough as we drove through that's exactly what we saw. Its a shame really as not all Aboriginal towns are like this and quite often you can have a very safe an enjoyable time. Still we didn't dwell on it too much and arrived at Broken Hill early afternoon. By now we had seen a real scenery change and were clearly getting into some real outback towns, fuel prices were rising slightly but the locals were getting friendlier. A quick look around Broken Hill led us up to Silverton 10 minutes away. Silverton for those that don't know is the film location for Mad Max. And the Silverton Hotel still has the Mad Max car sat outside,how many photos Nathan took i don't know but we were baking in the sun a fair while. Silverton has literally a dozen buildings and a population of less than 60. When i managed to prize Nath away we had a look around the old Jail now a museum, really enjoyed ourselves so decided our first nights camp would be in Silverton. We weren't disappointed, Rob has told us about a place called Mundi Mundi Plains that has an awesome sunset. Once we arrived we could see why. All you can see for miles and miles is beautiful land in every direction, it looks like you could literally just drop of the end of the end of the world. The photos are amazing. the only annoying factor was the flies, which as we'd been warned are quite annoying. Locals who are used to them say they are friendly, but trust us when we say, they are annoying! Next purchase fly nets.
As we left Silverton the next morning we were greeted by desert camels, a sign of the types of animals we were about to be greeted with on this leg of the journey. Typical sightings include Emus-large scary looking emus, huge fat cows, often dead, sheep, bulls, kangaroos, again all of the previously mentioned could be dead haha. And besides this at times a complete vast of nothingness.
Tuesday 3rd April and today we finally make it into South Australia at a place called Cockburn. We both stood very proudly under the sign posing and ignoring the flies! Again the lonely planet proves to be the only bible ever needed as it informed us of the half hour time difference-now we were making excellent time.As we passed through Oodla Wirra we had our apples confiscated by the nasty fruit inspectors, still they didn't give us a fine so that was lucky. We were now seeing such things as dust twisters in the far away distance of the Flinders Ranges-rather bizarre. We arrived at our destination for the night Port Augusta. On the aussie map its the part where the Tasman sea comes in and meets Port Augusta and looks very pretty. In reality its a bit of a swamp and in generally not the best of places we've seen, rather on par with Mackay, if fact i think even probably Mackay had more to offer. Still we made the most of it, got some fly nets, had the exhaust fitted back on Stanley seen as it had dropped a little. No complaints though he's been running fine and it was only $20 to repair. We've been doing between 6-8 hours of driving in a day so haven't really pushed stanley too hard...the next stretch will prove if he is behaving!the heat is also soaring now, well over 30 degrees which makes driving quite hard as constant mirages on the road make it difficult to overtake. Its really strange to see but becomes the norm after a while.
Leaving Port Augusta we had an early morning photo opportunity-the first Alice Springs sign-we were on a high again.There wasn't anywhere in particular to stop along the way now, just a few very small road houses to fuel up. we were totally in the desert now a mixture of red dirt soaring around us with often small brown twigs poking up out of the earth. lots of animal carcasses on the road edge, and often quite eerie.We passed a faire few lakes today, but in generally the land was flat and wide. thank goodness the air-con works, and its a good job we both drive. Swapping the driving meant we arrived at Coober Pedy in good time and had an opportunity for a well needed swim in the camp site pool. Coober Pedy is quite unusual in that most of the houses, hotels etc are underground. basically it escapes the heat of the sun and keeps them warmer at night avoiding the harsh sub temperature degrees you get in the desert. It really was unusual to see and in generally we felt the opal mining town didn't have the friendliest of atmospheres. Arriving early meant we had to put up with the heat and the sun for a fair few hours yet so we opted for a nice air conditioned cabin-which was well worth the money.Moving on the sight of red desert nothingness had become the norm and the reality of how far we were traveling was becoming apparent.
We made the Northern Territory just before Kulgera where we stopped only for petrol. We had the usual photos and a very quick chat with a couple from victoria who wanted to give us their take on the Peter Falconia story, it appears we were'nt too far from where the murder took place, with that in mind we didn't stop to chat any longer, making our excuses to leave.A quick whoop for joy as we passed the sign for Ayers rock and 3 hours later we were in Alice Springs. As far up North as we intended on this trip. We are a little confused as to why people see this as a starting point for Ayers rock when it made us 3 hours in the wrong direction but decided to make the most of it. I saw the Todd River, The Todd mall and stayed at Toddy's backpackers. Not that i'd recommend the backpackers it left a lot to be desired but im sure you understand why we just had to stay there. having a beer in Bojangles bar and having seen Alice Springs we came to the conclusion that it was an ok place, perhaps just a little too touristy for us. Keen to explore further and with time on our hands we ventured out to West Macdonnell Ranges as far as Standley Chasm. We didn't get to go in as we arrived too late so put the foot on the gas and made it in time to explore Simpsons Gap-more rock formations and area that were quite beautiful. On the return to Alice Springs we thought we saw a dingo but after checking a picture i had saved from a magazine reasoned it was just a stray bulldog! We watched the sun set over Alice Springs and ended the day content again.
Ayers Rock here we come! The first mistake people make on this trip is spotting Mount Connar and mistaking it for 'the Rock', we could see why! After being advised by a guy from Israel that we had met earlier on our travels we fueled up at Curtain springs for a shocking 1.75pl, we couldn't believe it when we got to the ayers rock resort and it was much cheaper, but still it was cheaper 1.55pl! having already reasoned that the accommodation at the resort was over priced we camped at the resort for a couple of nights. the fly's weren't that bad for some strange reason and the pool was very refreshing in the ot weather! The Ayers Rock resort n general apart from being a tad overpriced for the hotels (but what do you expect when you are in the middle of nowhere) was better than anticipated. The only let down we found was the crap selection of food, especially meat at the supermarket, and the horrible food we ate from the supposedly cheaper eat places...still we survived and i would go again.The only thing left to do for the final few hours was pay our 3 day $25 entry fee fr the Uluru-Kata-Tjuta NP an watch the sunset over Ayers Rock. Smiles all around, cameras ready. After the sunset at the Mundi Mundi plains we knew it would be hard to top, and if we are honest it didn't top it. But the moment was still amazing, being at the lookout with a fair few other travelers who were all in the middle of nowhere feeling they had achieved their goals. Perfect. It was a time for reflection that's for sure. with the sunset behind us it was time for one more day at the resort and the descent back to sydney and preparations for returning home. The inevitable had reached us and we cant put if off any longer.
Next morning the Uluru (real name for Ayers rock) climb had been banned due to high winds at the top. Instead we ventured to see The Olgas, boulder type rock formations almost as dramatic as ayers rock itself. So dramatic that we ended up doing a 4 hour walk around and through them returning with blistered ankles. Swapping the hiking boots for trainers we cleaned ourselves up and headed back to the rock which now had the climb open-typical. what we noticed after looking back at our photos is how the rock appears a different colour and shape in each one from the different angles you take the photo-its rather beautiful to see. Aware of all the dangers and requests from the Aboriginal owners to not climb the rock it really was inevitable that we'd attempt to, and that was all we did. I got a quarter of the way up and found my trainers to be sliding on the unusually slippery surface of the rock, besides this it was pretty steep and the thought of coming down after looking at some of the faces passing me terrified me. So stood still and not moving an inch i waited for Nathan to make it to the top. Now here's the thing, nath is used to heights and even nath only made it half way, i have a great photo and you can see the height. By the time he got back down to me where i still hadn't budged an inch the sweat coming from him was unbelievable, the temperature was soaring to 36 degrees! Having made the final bit back down safely together we were still pretty chuffed at actually having the photo to prove we've stood on Ayers Rock, Australia's icon. Whenever we see advertisements for Australia, the rock is usually there somewhere and we know we've seen it personally-what a great feeling.An early night as our tired feet needed resting, and an early rise the next day as we head over to Kings Canyon.
We made it in one piece with no thanks to one reckless driver who pulled out straight in front of me on a desert road totally oblivious to that fact i was traveling at the legal speed limit of 110 kph, i was pleased the brakes worked but did fear we were in for a bit of road rage. the car in front of me had seen what happened and refused to let the idiot pass so at on point we were up behind him, aware that Nathan was not in the best of moods i was happy to see him take an even bigger gamble and ride off into the mirage on the road ahead. nathan was pretty impressed i stayed calm and in control, it was a shame an hour later i had to spoil it by veering of the edge a little after taking a second too long to look at roaming wild camels and horses. oops-we swapped at this point.
Our ankles were still very sore by the time we'd got to Kings canyon but we did manage the 1 hour walk to the look out where the height of the canyon was amazing. We could see people peering down and as much as we wanted to be up there were quite happy waving from the lookout. Somehow we managed to keep to a good time so as we passed the Kings Creek Station we decided to stop and have a camel ride in the desert. What can i say, very relaxing haha.We made it back to the Stewart Highway and decided to stop the night at the cross section at a place called Erlunda. Desperate for a good feed we had some fantastic rissoles, chips and gravy. We weren't disappointed , helped by the fact the 3 stubbies washed it down very well indeed.
So on the 9th April we are making our way back along the Stewart Highway, timing is working out well, stanley hasn't missed a beat, Coober Pedy by mid afternoon so we push on. The first night back camping at a roadhouse in Glendambo. Fantastic food-just a shame about the flies. How anyone could live there i don't know? The sign said population 30, 2 million sheep and 22 million flies or so, and they weren't lying!
As we made it back to Broken Hill we camped again for what was to be our final camp, and what better way to end than with a bowl of noodles cooked on the stove-magic. Next day we got back to Dubbo, tired and in need of a bed we stayed at another Formula1 at an even cheaper rate of $49 a night. It was time to check the funds. Oh dear! As suspected this was to be our most expensive road trip ever. We traveled 6000km in a space of 12 days at a total cost of 700 pounds. Ouch! We knew petrol would be pricey, and at times the flies were too annoying to consider camping but would we do it again-hell yeah! This trip was somewhat of an eye opener, it was moving in its own right and a real achievement for me and Nathan. We knew we wouldn't leave without making the trip to Ayers Rock and we hope this journal entry has shown why we wanted to go so much.
So here we are back in Sydney for the final time. With 2 months left on the Visa we reason that it would mean 2 months of working to be able to explore Western Australia and Darwin, the only places we haven't seen out of this very large country. So with that in mind and funds at an all time low its time to sell Stanley and face reality-its time to return to the UK. Selling Stanley was easy, he's in good working order (finally!) and as a backpacker car very new, fully equipped with all the camping gear it was a steal for anyone. Not keen on the hassle of selling privately we went to Travelers Autobarn who exceeded our expectations...we walked away with smiles. Having a car meant traveling Australia could be done at our own pace, we'd get to see so much more and it would generally be a lot more fun than sat on a bus. The money we paid out to fix the car, although annoying at time was completely worthwhile as it saved us many times from having to pay hostel prices for double rooms, and avoid the risk of bed bugs which we came across all to often. Stanley was a great money saving option and leaving him all alone in the autobarn was a tad sad. Can you believe we are being all sentimental over a car. Still if any backpackers are reading this and you have just arrived in Sydney looking for a car, if he's still there, Travelers Autobarn, Kings Cross, he's worth buying. Stanly by name, rego no VHH 612.
With the car sold, and a bulging wallet nothing left but to fly home via that holiday destination Thailand. No chance-a high risk area at the moment putting us off for one thing, but with the first available flights back to the UK on our tickets not being until mid-end of May meant we'd soon spend up. Fiji is in its expensive season so we were a little stuck. Sometimes the obvious is staring you in the face, and after speaking with Pat in NZ who pointed out the obvious, we went ahead and booked it. Australia is the best holiday destination in the world, and we are here, in Australia. While the shops prepare for Winter fast approaching one of our favorite all time destinations, the Gold Coast remains hot. So off we go. Flights booked. A 4 star apartment for the final leg of our trip complete with sauna, spa, outdoor swimming pool ec and Surfers Paradise beaches at our feet. We aren't intending to make you jealous, but we are pretty sure we'll get some stick once we do arrive back, so in the mean time we plan to recap, sit back and relax before returning to annoy you all.Watch this space for the final journal entry sure to be packed with last minute tales and drunken happenings and we'll be sure to let you know when we have flights booked, you'll be needing the notice to stock your fridges and freezers up.
We hope you have enjoyed following the journal as much as we have enjoyed writing it. We've made and are still making some fantastic friends along the way that im sure will all agree how much fun traveling can actually be. We have lots of people to thank but as we have'nt left jet will save those for the final journal entry.
Love always, Lindsay and Nathan xx
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