Our adventure across central Australia began on Friday the 16th of July 2011 when Kevin and Tony arrived in Alice Springs at 5pm after an uneventful flight from Perth, to be met by Peter who was on the homeward (Perth WA) leg of his 2 month road trip around the top end of Australia.
Our first priority after landing was to check out the accommodation that Peter had arranged and crack a cold one to celebrate the start of the adventure.
Alice Donga
Then it was off to Woolies for provisions – 3 guys in a supermarket provisioning for a 10 day road trip is an interesting experience. Fortunately we had the benefit of Trish’s sailing experience in the form of a detailed shopping list.
We departed Alice Springs at about 10am on a cold, misty Saturday morning bound for the MacDonnell Ranges, northwest of Alice.
Serpentine Gorge
In the MacDonnell Ranges we had rest stops (smoke breaks for Kevin) at the Serpentine and Ormiston Gorges, both very spekky. After the Ormiston Gorge we headed to Hermannsburg, a small aboriginal community at the northern end of the track through the Fink Gorge National Park.
Ormiston Gorge
The Fink Gorge track was our first real off-road experience. The 60 km track followed the Fink River. Our guide book said to allow about 8 hours for this section – about right. We spent our first night out under the stars in a nice sandy area of the Fink River.
Tony relaxing at Fink River campsite
This was Kevin’s first experience of sleeping (trying to sleep to be more correct) in a swag. It wasn’t a wholly unpleasant night with the sounds of nature (disregarding the very unnatural snoring coming from a nearby camp cot) around the campsite.
After a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns and “Watties” baked beans, and 2 cups of Kopi Susu (Malaysia style coffee, being expresso coffee and condensed milk) we loaded up the HiLux and hit the track at about 10.30am.
Fink River
During the morning we caught up with some other off-roaders, one of whom was towing a trailor and became bogged in a sandy section of the track. Peter made short work of towing him out.
Fink River again...
We exited the Fink Gorge National Park at about 3.30pm and decided to carry on to Uluru for the night. On the way to Uluru we saw our first wildlife, a herd of camels crossing the road. Arriving at Uluru just after sunset, we were able to get some photos of the big red rock, before heading to the Yulara Camping Ground for the night.
We set up camp in a paddock of red powdery dirt. Second night in the swag was marginally better than the first – probably aided by the copious amounts of beer consumed at the tavern.
Monday morning saw us at the base of Uluru (Ayres Rock) reading the visitors information guide which discourages people from climbing the rock. Not to be deterred we set off to join the multitude and climb the rock. We climbed about a 100 metres when Tony wisely announced that one of us should stay at the base in the case of an emergency and he would make the sacrifice to do so. Kevin and Peter agreed that, in light of the sacrifice Tony had so generously made, they had to complete the climb.
After about an hour of hauling ourselves up using a chain on the steepest parts of the climb we reached the summit. I must state here that the oldest member (by a day) and only smoker of the 3 reached the summit first. The view from the top was quite spectacular if you disregard the 50 or so other people sharing the experience.
Going back down was a lot quicker, but probably more hazardous as about 54 others could attest if they had survived their fall. It was comforting to know that Tony was at the bottom ready to call the ambulance if we fell.
With Uluru crossed off the wish list we moved on towards the Gunbarrel. We stopped for the night, again in a dry river bed about 15k’s west of the Olgas. This turned out to be my favourite camp site amongst the gum trees. I was also getting the hang of sleeping in the swag despite the “chainsaw” someone was using all night.
Favourite Campsite
We awoke early the next morning to a proliferation of camel toe prints in the sand around the camp site.
After our traditional hearty breakfast of Kopi Susu, bacon, eggs and hash browns it was on the road again. We crossed the NT / WA border about lunch time just west of Docker River then travelled on to Warakurna, another small Aboriginal community with a road house (late lunch of quality road house tucker) and the Giles Meteorological Station where the remains of a rocket and old grader are on display.
Pete and Tony in front of grader
On the road again heading for an appointment at Warburton. Warburton is a slightly larger Aboriginal community with a Shire Office. We left Warburton after refuelling ($2.35l for diesel) and completing some business Peter had to do and headed down the Heather Highway (Heather must have been a pretty rough sheila to have this stretch of road named after her) towards the Gunbarrel. We spent the night on a small track just off the road.
Wednesday we finally reached the GUNBARREL!!
Start of the Gunbarrel
How it was named remains a mystery – it couldn’t be travelled at speed of a bullet and certainly wasn’t as straight as a gunbarrel – perhaps one of the early travellers put a gunbarrel to his, or more probably her head midway along the highway. The majority of the highway is 2 wheel tracks through scrubby bush. In many places the original track had been washed out over the years and 1,2 or 3 alternative tracks had been cut by adjacent to the original. The corrugations have to be seen to be believed. In places we were careening along this track at 40kmh to get the harmonics right or creeping along at 5kmh negotiating washouts or preventing the Hilux from shaking to bits over the corrugations. 1.5 hour driving spells were about as much as an individual can handle.
The only wildlife we saw across the Gibson Desert were multitudes of budgies, the odd eagle and lots of camels.
Camel sharing the highway
We didn’t see a single roo from Alice Springs to Wiluna. Just after dark we heard at least 3 dingos quite close to our camp site.
Our first night on the Gunbarrel was spent at Mount Beadell. Mt Beadell is a small rocky knob at the top of which is a monument to Len Beadell, the surveyor of the Gunbarrel Highway.
At several places along the highway there are water bores where drinkable artesian water can be accessed by a hand pump. One of these was a good opportunity for the blokes to smell human again.
Water Pump
The second day on the Gunbarrel was a repeat of the first – more washouts, corrugations, dust, camels and budgies. There were also a lot of car wrecks to break the monotony. At a guess I would say we saw at least 30 wrecks along the 800kms of highway. There were also patches of wild flowers which were quite colourful. Tony said he would like to take Margaret and Jim there to see them (I’m sure that’s how the conversation went).
That night we camped on a disused airstrip about 150ks east of Carnegie Station.
A good stretch of highway
Just before our campsite we crossed the Wiluna Shire boundary and immediately were on a recently graded road with no washouts and very few corrugations – bliss. The remainder of the Gunbarrel, all the way to Wiluna, was like this.
We arrived a Carnegie Station at around midday hoping to get some roadhouse tucker (or an icecream) for lunch. No such luck, but we were able to give away 2 rolls of toilet paper to the manager whose toilet paper had been ripped off by “rubberneckers” (his friendly term for 4wd travellers). He regaled us with stories for over an hour, before saying “Well, you’ll want to be on your way now!” after we declined his offer to buy diesel from him. Away we go again, just 350ks to Wiluna and the end of the Gunbarrel.
About 120 ks later we found another disused airstrip adjacent to a well and cattle yards to camp on for the night, and bugger me days, we saw some kangaroos. Anyway, after passing inspection by a herd of cows we settled in for a peaceful night – I had finally conquered the swag on what was to be our last night camping.
We reached Wiluna at around midday the next day and after a brief toilet stop and icecream headed on to Meeka(bloody)tharra where we planned to stay the night. We arrived in Meekatharra at about 3pm and after a quick beer and quicker inspection of the available “flea pit” accommodation hit the road again for Cue, just over 100ks south. Cue turned out to be quite an historic little town with some great old buildings and a comfortable hotel/motel.
The next day we travelled south to Mount Magnet then west to Kalbarri, a great little seaside town just north of Geraldton.
Kevin and Tony at Kalbarri Gorge
We arrived in Kalbarri in time for Tony to see the final quarter of the Dockers / West Coast Eagles game. Being a Dockers supporter, and the Dockers losing by 1 point Tony had to be consoled with a few red wines – not good for the breathing at night Tony!!
The next day we headed home to Perth and the end of a fantastic 10 day roadtrip.
Both visitors proved themselves crew-worthy and we are looking forward to their return visit in March 2012.
We loved catching up with the kids, the grand-kids (Nanny T just loved singing and dancing with Bella), and Kevin’s Dad. An additional treat was to meet up with Sue and Brian Gray, friends from Cairns, while they were on holiday in NZ.
Labuan also was a very nice place to visit. The marina is subject to quite a swell and there is damage to the pontoons currently (and perhaps for ever) under repair but everyone is very friendly there and the facilities are good – certainly for the price!! We were going to do a visa run to Brunei by ferry but laziness got the better of us and instead we applied for an extension at the Immigration office – a more expensive option but very easily because the office is based in the main shopping centre so in between waiting for processes, one can shop!
