Australia! - the 'classic' outback, up through the middle (2/5)
This post is part 2 of the "au-2013" series:
- Australia! - South (1/5)
- Australia! - the 'classic' outback, up through the middle (2/5)
- Australia! - the 'top end' (Darwin area) (3/5)
- Australia! - heading East (4/5)
- Australia! - far north Queensland (5/5)
I spent nearly three weeks at the beginning of July in Australia. David & I flew into Melbourne (via Auckland on Air New Zealand), and rented a "Voyager" campervan from Britz, for a one way rental, with the intent of ending up in Cairnes. We planned to drive up through the middle of the country, to Darwin, then head roughly east to Cairnes. Overall, the trip was amazing, and exceeded our expectations. I'm going to break up the trip report into several posts, since combining three weeks of info into a single post would be a huge monstrosity. For the curious, the rough route that we drove is mapped here on Google Maps.
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Friday:
For the first time, we slept until the alarm went off at 5:30. We ate breakfast and got packed up, and drove about 40 minutes to the Uluru sunrise viewing area. It felt so cold this morning. Watching the sunrise on Uluru was gorgeous. After that we drove to the opposite side, and did the 6mile base hike. It was really cool, and an easy hike, since the entire hike was flat. Its interesting how the rock isn't smooth, its got tiny caves, and l9ts of erosion. By the time we finished that hike, it was lunch time. After we had lunch we drove about an hour further west into the park to a different rock formation. There we did a 1.5 mile hike up this gorge, which eventually became a slot canyon. David loved this hike. Also in the foothills, we saw wild(?) camels grazing. We did 2 hikes at Uluru. The base hike (around the rock, roughly 6 miles), and then a 2nd hike at Kata Tjuta. it was definitely more like a Utah type of park, with tons of red soil & rock. its not very desert-like here, at least there's much more plant life than when we were further south around Coober Pedy.
One amusing tree is the "desert oak", which looks like a weeping willow & pine tree had a love child:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allocasuarina_decaisneana
Now for all the wacky stuff that happened today. While we were driving into the park this morning (before sunrise), we're like 2KM from the park entrance, and i see this guy walking down the middle of the road. its pitch black outside, and this aboriginal guy starts waving his hands franticly. i'm thinking there's something horrible going on, so i stop, and roll down the window. he starts babbling incoherently. I'm not sure this guy was even speaking English. the only words i could even parse were "car" and "ride". I think in the end he was just hitchhiking, in the dark. obviously, i never let him get in, i just rolled up the window, and drove away. Tonight, we're actually not in the same campground as last night. When it looked like we were going to be done with all our hikes for the day by early afternoon, i started to question the point of staying in the crappy crowded dirt parking lot campground, with no power, a long walk for bathrooms & water, and an even longer walk just to use very restricted wifi. i remembered passing a gas
station/restaurant/campground about an hour's drive east of the park the previous day. at the time, david was asking why we couldn't camp there, and i noted it was an hour's drive from the park. but now, that distance was a good thing, because it meant we'd have 1 less hour of driving the next day. i figured worst case, it would either be full, or not any better than what we had already. in that case, i could drive even further to the campground that i was planning to use the next night, which was about 3 hours drive from Uluru. after getting gas & using the bathroom at the gas station just outside the Uluru entrance (where i paid an unholy 197 cents/L), i discussed it with david. i made sure to reinforce with him that we could still end up with a campground that wasn't any better than the one we were in the previous night, and he was ok with that. he didn't like that campground either, so he was fully on board. we made the 1 hour
drive, got gas first, then inquired about the campground. they had 2 powered sites left, so we were set. they even have wifi, although its once again time restricted to 1 hour. however, after i had started to
get settled in, i noticed that neither of the power sockets in the campervan were working. i also noticed that the clock on the microwave wasn't blinking the eternal 12:00. yet the lights & fridge inside the van still worked. so it seemed like the power sockets were not working any more. this was going to be a huge problem, as i was relying upon them to get all our devices charged each night. while i still had the USB cigarette lighter charger, that only works while the engine is on, and i can't charge the laptop with that. i started worrying about how i was going to manage to charge stuff for the next 2 weeks. i eventually convinced myself that we could manage like this for another 2 days, when i'd be driving north through Alice Springs, where there's a Britz shop. but then it hit me, it would be sunday, and i didn't think they were open. i tried to put that out of my mind, and focused on making dinner. i made david's favorite, cheesy pasta, with some quite good sharp shredded cheddar. after dinner, i noticed that the campground had a payphone, and Britz had a toll free road assistance phone number. i gave them a call, figuring that the worst case is that they couldn't help me without bringing the van into a shop. however, i got a fairly smart guy who suggested a number of troubleshooting steps. it turned out the real problem wasn't the van at all. the power socket that the van was plugged into in the campground had no power. i complained in the site office, and the guy fixed it within a few minutes.
while all of this stuff was going on, i noticed these 3 aboringal kids running around the campground screaming about something. then i noticed they were being chased by an emu. wtf. apparently some wild
emu from the outback wandered into "town", and those stupid kids started throwing rocks at it, which of course pissed it off, so it started chasing them. david found the entire thing both hilarious & scary. i noted that emus can kick very hard, and it could break a bone. so all the time he's giggling, and screaming in terror as the emu is chasing the kids in circles. eventually the emu must of forgotten why it was running, because it just stopped, and sat down next to a bush. the kids finally lost interest, and ran off who knows where. at that point, david wanted to get a closer look at the emu. so he went outside with his journal, sat down next to a tree, and proceeded to sketch the emu sitting not 20ft away. he later showed me the picture, and it was pretty good, in a weird david sort of way. so that's been the rest of our day. the sun has just about set and the stars are coming out. one thing that has been consistently
amazing on this trip (once we got out of Melbourne), was the stars at night. every place we camped, we could see the most amazing stars. i guess when you're hundreds of miles from any real cities, it helps.
We've had really amazing weather once we entered the outback. its been clear skies (not a single cloud), and highs around 70. it does get damn cold at night, but that's apparently normal for winter time out here. prolly better than in the summer when its like death valley weather around here.
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Saturday:
Overall, we had a pretty good day. We woke up just before the alarm at 6:30, and we were on the road before 7. Again it was super cold in the morning, but once the sun came up, it warmed up nicely. We had a 2 hour drive to Kings Canyon NP. Along the drive, we saw a dingo run across the road, then later 5 wild horses, and we saw a few lazy cows standing around the edge of the road. First thing we did when getting to the park was get gas, and I also inquired about the process for refilling the propane tank that the van uses for the stove (more on this later). Then we drove another 12k to the trail head for the Kings Canyon
'walk', which was a 6km loop trail around the rim of the canyon. This canyon is supposedly the 'Grand
Canyon' of AU. The trail is notorious for starting off with a crazy stone staircase, that weaves its way to the top of the canyon, about 2000ft above the parking lot. While it was steep, it wasn't that bad, and david & I got to the top with only one brief stop to catch our breath. After that the trail was mostly level, with a few brief climbs up & down (plus the long descent at the end). The trail was amazing. The canyon was amazing too (although it looked nothing like the Grand Canyon). The canyon is basically a triangle shape, with one end opening up to the vast outback plain. The other two sides are literally sheer
rock, dropping the 2000ft to the ground. The trail mostly follows very close to the rim on both sides, with amazing views. When it wasn't following the rim, it weaved around all sorts of nifty geometric rock formations, with all of the rock comprised of red & orange sandstone. At one point the trail went over a foot wide crevasse, that was so deep that we couldn't see the bottom. It freaked david out a bit, but of course he had to drop a rock in there. It took about 10 seconds before we hit anything, which is obviously a long time to fall. At about the midway point, the trail also dropped into a small slot canyon, which had a lot of water at the bottom, with tons of palm trees, and other plant life. While the sign claimed that it took 3-4 hours to do the entire trail, we were done a bit after 11, so it took us just over 2. One thing that was really surprising was the relatively large number of seniors hiking the trail. In fact, the majority of people that we saw (and passed) were 50+. Although we didn't really see all that many overall. Once back at the parking lot, we had lunch, and then headed off to get the propane tank refilled.
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I had been pondering how i'd know that i was close to running low on propane. Since i couldn't figure it out, i decided that i'd just get it refilled and ask the person how much they added. Unfortunately, the idiot who attempted to refill the tank screwed it up badly. I handed her the tank, and she went around back. I waited a few minutes, and started to wonder what was taking so long (its gas, it can't take
that long to fill). Then she came running back inside with this frantic look, and asked me to come out to look at the tank. As soon as I stepped outside, I heard this hissing sound. She somehow broke the valve such that all the gas remaining was quickly escaping. Plus i smelled the gas. She handed me a screwdriver, and asked me to "fix it", as if this was somehow my fault that the valve was leaking toxic gas. I told her that I had never refilled it before, and i knew nothing about why it wasn't working. She got on the phone and called facilities. This burly guy with 500 tatoos showed up a few minutes later (with the gas still leaking). As soon as he saw what was wrong, he gave the lady a dirty look, and grabbed
his tool box. After tinkering with the valve for about 4 seconds, the leak stopped. I then overheard him chewing her out for being an idiot, and not hooking up the tank correctly, which caused the valve's overflow to trip, and the leak. He showed her how to correctly refill the tank, did mine, and then he left. She then gave me back the tank, and I paid. Of course, since she screwed it all up, I have no way of
knowing how much gas was needed. Thankfully the refill was a fixed price regardless of the amount of gas.
After that fiasco, David & I discussed what to do next, since it was only 12:30, and the campground that I was originally planning to use for tonight was only an hour's drive away. We agreed that it was stupid to drive an hour and camp for the day at 1:30pm, and it would be better to drive for about 3 hours, and camp there. This would reduce tomorrow's drive by a few hours too. About an hour into the drive, i still had just above 3/4 tank full, but i knew that i was going to pass the last gas station before getting to the campground for the night. I thought that i'd prolly have enough gas to make it, but rather than risking another disaster, I decided to fill up anyway. What a complete fiasco this was. What I've found is that nearly every gas station in the outback is operated by either a 'station' (basically one of the mammoth cattle ranches), or a 'roadhouse' (basically a combination gas station, restaurant, general store, motel & campground). The roadhouses are all fairly well organized & setup, so that its possible to access any part of it easily. The stations are usually a mixed bag. Some of them are pretty easy to navigate (like to get gas without having to drive a maze of roads), but others are a mess. This particular station that I stopped at was an utterly disorganized mess in every possible way. First, the road leading in was a long distance from the highway (like 1K). I started to wonder if it was even the right road at all, but then I eventually came upon a concrete median, with a sign pointing to the left side as "All vehicles enter here".
This would have been fine, had there not been a long line of assorted RVs already sitting there, completely blocking the road. I couldn't tell if they were all in line to get gas, or what was going on. After sitting there for a full minute, with no progress, i decided to drive down the right side of the road, and attempt to figure out wtf was going on. Surely enough, those RV's weren't waiting for gas, and the reason they were parked there would become apparent in a few minutes. I pulled up to the only gas tank, and attempted to pump my gas, but nothing came out. I figured this was yet another gas station that was taking measures to prevent gas theft. So I went into the "Fuel/Reception" building. And this is when things went
down hill fast. In there, I found a long line of people, who were apparently waiting to check in for camp spots for the night. They were the owners of the RVs that were blocking the entrance road. At the front of the line was this group of 10 people, who apparently had some sort of reservation screwup, where they needed 3 camp sites for 3 nights, but had 4 campsites for 1 night. The elderly lady behind the counter
seemed completely over her head, and had no clue wtf to do about the situation. All the while, more & more people kept getting in line wanting to check in, or buy gas, or pay for their gas, and the line wasn't moving at all. Finally she got the first group's mess sorted out, but then the next group had other issues, and this 1 lady just didn't seem to grasp that she had a long line of angry customers. After
standing there for 30 minutes, this one guy towards the back of the line apparently lost it, screamed really loudly "I'm not waiting here all day, here's \$75 for my \$72.50 fuel purchase", threw the cash in the general direction of the old lady, and walked out. At this point, I was next in line, and I that I had enough too, and interrupted the person at the front of the line, simply to ask that they turn on the
fuel so that I could pump my gas. Finally they did that, and I went back outside. That's when I found david in the van, crying hysterically. He thought that i had been kidnapped, since i was gone so long. I got him calmed down, pumped my gas, and then went back inside to pay. Of course, the line was no shorter now, and on top of that, I was at the end of the line. However, since I pumped \$20.46 of gas, I had enough
cash to cover it, and I walked up to the counter, threw the money down, told them this was for my gas, and walked out. The old lady gave me this dirty look, and had the nerve to say "you know dearie, I'm working as fast as I can". I looked back at her and said "that's not good enough", and i walked out. We drove off, and I apologed to David for scaring him, and explained what caused the fiasco. He was calmed down at this point, and he seemed to understand, but he asked that we not talk about it anymore. The remainder of the drive went smoothly, and we got to the campground (which is in a roadhouse) in Erldunda just after 3pm. Thankfully they had power sites available, and we got checked in. Apparently Erldunda is the town nearest to the geographic center of AU. Of course calling it a town is silly, since its literally just a roadhouse, albeit a large one. The campground is ok. Hot showers are free, wifi is restricted to 1 hour.
David & I got a nice shower. We had a 'fancy' Saturday night dinner. I made the beef steaks that I purchased 2 days ago (in a pan, and i threw a can of mushrooms on top once the steaks were nearly done), with a can of lentils mixed with freshly diced carrots. The steaks came out slightly overdone, but they weren't burnt, just a bit more chewy than I would have liked. David liked the vegetables.
Other tidbits that I've forgotten to mention earlier. Ever since we stayed at Coober Pedy 3 nights ago, David has perverted the name into Pooper Peedy, and sings it like a song. Its both annoying and hilarious. Apparently my accent is as difficult to understand as the Australians are to understand. I've now had several different incidents where I said something, and the other person misunderstood what i was saying. The best was when i was in a gas station trying to pay, and said "Eight" (referring to the pump
number), and the lady behind the counter somehow thought I said the word "bread".
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Sunday:
Last night was oddly, the coldest night of the trip thus far. Even though we both were using two sleeping bags, we were cold for much of the night. I have no clue what the temperature was, but it must have been less than 8C. We got up at 6AM for the alarm, and David was in a foul foul mood. He complained about how cold he was. He complained about how hard it was to pack up his bedding. At one point he was actually crying, and I had to calm him down, and convince him that as soon as he finished packing up his bedding, and his cereal, we'd be ready to go, and I could turn on the heat in the van. Somehow, we managed to get out in about 45 minutes, which is 10 minutes longer than it normally takes us. Once on the road, things went fairly smoothly for much of the day. For some reason, I was expecting Alice Springs to be this amazing, bustling metropolis, since its the largest town in the outback. However, it was really boring, and kinda sad & run down in places. Since I was close to Alice Springs, I actually got 2(!) radio stations for the first time in days, and figured I'd try to find some news. I somehow managed to hear about
the Asiana crash just hours after it happened, and they even carried the audio of the live news conference from SFO. About an hour north of Alice Springs we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, noted because there was a huge sign. I took a picture of the sign, which is likely a really crappy picture because there was no
advanced notice. So even with hitting the brakes to slow down, I was nearly on top of it by the time i had the camera ready. I could tell that we were making amazing time today when it was barely lunch time and we were roughly an hour south of where I was originally planning to camp for the night (Devil's Marbles State Park). At that point, I knew that it was stupid to camp so early, and planned to keep going, but I wasn't sure how far. We got to the park, and explored for a bit. It was pretty cool seeing this house sized boulders which were all fairly marble shaped (some where potato shaped). It did look very similar to some
parts of Joshua Tree NP, where they had the huge boulders. After we finished exploring, I got out the map, and saw that we were about 2 hours from what looked like a large town, so we aimed for that. We pulled into
Tenemant Creek a bit before 2PM, I gassed up, and figured it was still stupid to stop so early, so I checked the map again. The town of Elliott was 226KM away, and the last road sign claimed it had a campground. I figured that would be roughly another 2 hours of driving, and a good time to stop for the day. As we continued driving northward, the temperature outside started to climb, and for the first time this trip, it was noticeably quite warm inside the van. I have no clue what the high was today, but it felt like it was near 80, and the air was noticeably more humid. So I think we've finally crossed into the warmer part of the country. We pulled into Elliott just after 4PM, and it looked horrible. Much of the town looked like tin shacks. Just before the town, we saw two signs advertising two different campgrounds, however when I went looking for them, I found one (and it looked literally like a junk yard), and couldn't find the other at all. As much as I hated to do it, we pulled into the junk yard place, and as it turned
out, it was closed. I asked where the nearest campground was, and they said 20KM north in a rest stop by the highway. Jebus, this sucked. We had no choice but to continue onward. I guess its good that we were not planning to have power or much of anything tonight originally, because it turned out that way regardless. As we approached the rest stop, it looked like a circus. It was literally completely full with assorted RVs and camper vans. We somehow managed to find a tiny bit of space at the far end, near the exit (back onto the highway), and parked. I have no clue why this rest stop is so full. We've passed dozens of them over the past week, and this is the first one that had more than 2 or 3 RVs in it. hell, that one where i was stranded without gas only had 2 RVs in it at the time that we were rescued. Thankfully, the majority of the people here are seniors, and they'll all likely go to bed before 10pm, and it will be quiet. Although this one station wagon towing a large storage box pulled in a bit after us, and somehow shoe-horned themselves into a space already occupied by two other RVs. Out came two surfer looking guys, and their skanky looking girlfriends. They proceeded to setup a tent, and so far they have been relatively quiet. I'm watching random vehicles drive by on the highway, and since its now nearly dark, they all have assorted lights on. Every time one of the crazy long road trains goes by, all i see are the lights, and it literally does look like a train, its so long. All I see is this incomprehensibly long string of lights that keeps going & going, long after you'd expect any normal vehicle to end.
A few random items that I've been forgetting to mention. Ever since we entered the Northern Territory (4 days ago), the speed limit has been 130kph (87MPH), which is both awesome and kinda crazy. It occurred to me that GoogleMaps driving time estimates in Australia are really crappy. They've consistently been either way too low or way too high. Before I entered the outback, they were way too low, which accounts for the super long driving days that I had. However, since entering the outback, the estimates have been too high. The thing is that I'm not even speeding for the most part. I keep to the speed limit as best I can (which isn't easy, since this van has no cruise control, and always wants to go faster or slower than what I
prefer). For some reason, people keep defaulting to the assumption that we're Canadians. Every time someone asks where I'm from, they say something like "are you from Canada?", or if they don't guess, and I tell them, they comment that they thought I was from Canada. I don't get it, is there something about me
that screams "CANADA!"? Very very few people in the outback drive normal passenger cars. I'd say 98% of the non-trucks that I see on the highway are SUVs are pickup trucks. And most of them have crazy gear on them, like water snorkels, multiple spare tires and 6+ gas cans strapped to the roof. Whenever I rarely do see a normal car, its almost always a station wagon, or one of those retarded cars that has a station wagon rear end (that only seem to exist in AU).
All trip pictures are posted HERE.
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This post is part 2 of the "au-2013" series: