We pick up this week at the moment we arrived at Uluru - finally!
Day seven - Uluru!
If there is one thing I would recommend, it would be to wake up early every day you are on a trip like this - like in time to see the sunrise early! Aside from the fact that the desert provides you with glorious views as the sun rises and sets, it also means that you have literally the whole day to adventure.
This particular morning, we got a whole lot of clouds, but never mind! Started off the morning walking the 10.6km loop around the base of the rock, which covers the Mala, Kuniya and Lungkata walks. These other 3 walks are shorter, if you are short on time and/or energy. The base walk took us around 2 hours - we probably rushed the last little bit as the rain got heavier. It is a fairly easy flat walk, and the textures and shapes of the rock are so incredible.
We sheltered from the weather in the cultural centre, and wandered the shops, admiring the local artworks (some were painting right there in the shop!). If you are into Indigenous dotworks, and have a spare few hundred to drop on art, then you will enjoy this. If you are on more of a budget, like we were, there are plenty of smaller affordable pieces here too.
We then opted to cruise around the national park in the ute, because the rain was pretty persistent. We sat and watched the rock for a while, taking photos of the colour changes. Obviously the sun makes the rock go all kinds of gorgeous colours, but it does that in the rain too :)
We ended up having dinner in one of the hotel restaurants to escape the rain. Whilst we were well prepared for food, am I the only one who really hates cooking outside whilst it is wet?
Day eight - Rainy days and the Olgas
Even with the promise of rain, again, we still woke before sunrise, and headed into the national park to the sunrise viewing platform. We did get some pink clouds with no rain for a while, which is better than we expected!
Took the opportunity to head over to the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) for the morning. This is a 50km drive from Uluru, but is definitely worth the trip. Our viewpoint from the platform was stunning, and the sun even popped out for a photo or two, finally :). We did the Walpa Gorge walk, which was nice, although i think the Olgas are really nice to view from a distance because the shape is so unique.
We were going to do the Lookout walk as well... but then the heavens opened. Like full on storm kind of rain. On the 50km drive back to the entrance to the park, it dawned on us that this kind of rain would be the perfect weather to get waterfalls on Uluru.
Now. We could be a little disheartened that it rained the entire time we had been at Uluru (I mean, rain in the desert - really?!), or we could make the best of what we have.
1. Checking 'visit Uluru' off the bucket list
2. Enjoy the knowledge that we are part of the 1% of people that have visited the Rock who have seen the elusive waterfalls!
So we watched this gorgeous phenomenon, and took many a photo for a long while, as the rain continued to pour. SO COOL!
The rest of the day was spent at camp sheltering from the weather. We were supposed to stay here another night, but after playing board games and discussing our Uluru experience for most of the afternoon, we decided it was time to leave.
**Opinion alert**
DISCLAIMER: the below section is my feelings about Uluru, and not of anyone else's. You don't have to agree with me at all (we are all different), so feel free to post your experiences in the comments!
Now let's talk about the Uluru experience for a second. Before I start, I would highly recommend visiting Uluru, and it's surrounds. Because it's still really cool. And way bigger than you think it is. I just think it's lost... something. Charm, maybe? I'm not sure. I think it would have been amazing to visit in the 70's!
When you prepare for a long trip such as this one, you consider the possibilities of not being near to a fuel station, or drinking enough water, or having to drive for long distances on a dirt road. To be honest, that is exactly what we hoped for! The concept of dirt road highways, and country pubs and local community is exactly what we enjoy and what we expected.
And it just wasn't that. At all.
There is a tar road, not just most of the way - ALL of the way, right to the side of the rock. The resort has been taken over by one hotel group, and as such, it feels like a little city. You could actually fly right to the resort, take a shuttle to the hotel, stay and eat in the hotel, shuttle to the rock, shuttle back and fly out, and you would have absolutely no idea how far away from anything you actually are!
The part that freaked me out the most was sitting in the restaurant, watching lots of tourists eating oysters, prawns and other seafood. Where on earth did that come from - how fresh can it really be?
It just felt so commercial - it doesn't feel outback anymore. There aren't even many animals in the national park anymore! So sad.
There are lots of outback experiences that are offered at Uluru; we were booked into the outback dinner, but it got washed out by the weather. Now that I have been there, I am a little grateful that we did get washed out (although I did want to see the
Field of Lights - which has been extended until 2020, so I might still get to see it!), because I feel that I would have been disappointed by it.
The other thing that annoyed me a little was that, in the event of bad weather, it isn't uncommon for visitors to just up and leave and not even see the Rock or anything else the area has to offer. That is just... insane. You have travelled so far (although you might not realise you are a 4 day drive from Sydney) and spent so much money, and yet you are OK with just leaving because it's wet. Just because you won't get to see the stars, the rock won't get all of it's sunny colour, you can't climb the rock (although legally you can't do that any more anyway). If you take nothing else from this blog, it should be ENJOY IT - take whatever you can get. The rainy colours of Uluru, the waterfalls, the adventure of being in the Northern Territory. It's amazing - don't throw it away because of the rain.
It is interesting to me that on our Uluru trip, actually visiting Uluru was our least favourite part! But it was amazing to see it finally. Clearly we were just destined to see it in the rain!!
We left that night, driving the highway slowly in the storm. We ended up staying at a campground on the corner of the highway (Elundra - well priced with great showers and laundry, and one of those country pubs I was talking about), and started planning the rest of the trip!
Day nine - detour to Alice Springs and storm chasing
On this morning, I woke at 4am, totally soaked because water flooded into the back of the ute! SO much water. If you ever want rain in the desert, take us with you haha!
Dried the sheets in the laundry, and waited for the sun to come up whilst we worked out what we were going to do about the bed. We hadn't tested our waterproofing because... well... deserts and rain aren't usually a thing. So we decided the best thing to do would be to go and get some silicone and waterproofing spray to fix it, especially since the rain seemed to be hanging around.
The nearest Bunnings... Alice Springs. At this point, what is a 400km round trip detour?
So off we went, capturing the most insane sunrise on the way!!! :)
Once we arrived in Alice, we topped up fuel, and went for a little wander through the park surrounding the old telegraph station and up to the top of Trig Hill. Such a fabulous view, and we had some glorious sunshine finally! We even had some rock wallabies join us.
We could have spent much more time here, but it wasn't even in the plan, so just a glimpse was all we had time for. Headed back out of town (after grabbing some coffee), and picked a random rest stop on the highway to waterproof the car. Perfect weather here haha.
Our goal today was to make it back to Marla. The closer we got, the stormier it got. It is quite the experience to drive in and out of a storm band. Once we arrived, we had a pub dinner at the pub at the Marla roadhouse. And it is amazing. That true country pub feel. Great people, great food. Loved it!
Day ten - Oodnadatta Track
We woke up today with a rough goal to wind up somewhere closer to the Flinders Ranges. There is a large amount of space with nothing, and we didn't really know what to aim for.
Made it to Coober Pedy, where a trip to the visitors centre (the one we couldn't visit last time because it was a public holiday) gave us the perfect plan. The Oodnadatta Track.
When you search this on google maps, the time it will take to travel this track is largely inflated, because it has no idea what to do with a dirt road! In real life, its 620km in length, and you can jump on and off it, and travel as much of it as you like. From Coober Pedy, you head onto William Creek Road, and will arrive at William Creek as your first town after about an hour. The word town is used loosely here... this is what we expected the outback to be!
i might recommend mud terrains for wet outback roads haha
The next place you will come across is Coward Springs, on the left (assuming you came from William Creek). And it is one of the most awesome camp grounds we have seen. Well kept bathrooms, chip heaters for the shower, great views.
And an outback jacuzzi (yes we did take a dip) :).
Such a great detour - never be afraid to deviate from the plan. You never know what you might find.
Day eleven - Roadkill menus and the Flinders Ranges
Woke up in the morning to a flat tyre - what's a roadtrip with us without a few car related stories! We carry a tyre repair kit and an air compressor with us on these trips for this reason exactly - would definitely recommend it.
We followed the recommendations of the lovely man in the visitor centre on this track, and went off the track to venture across the Artisian Basin to Blanchecup and the Bubbler. Beauitful natural features of this world that I could spend forever watching. We even saw Lake Eyre from this track, which was really amazing (another salt lake).
From here, we got fuel in a very tiny town (the kind where the fuel, post office and general store are all one), and then we were at the top of the Flinders!
At this point, we remembered that a couple of guys from Melbourne, who we met in Coober Pedy had said to us that if we were ever passing through Parachilna, we should go to this pub and have their roadkill menu.
So that is exactly what we did!
It was AMAZING. If you are ever in a position to go here, do. Even if you are on a budget - splurge! The food is delicious, so is their beer. Good call random people we met in CP; I will forever recommend this place too :)
We continued our drive into the Flinders, using the dirt roads, which was just gorgeous. It looked like it had rained a bit but had eased for the moment.
We drove through, even stopping for some emus to cross, and settled into Wilpena Pound for the night.
Day twelve - 4 wheel driving in the rain
Woke up to more rain!
First, we went to the info centre here, to determine which 4wd tracks would be open or closed. Definitely something to be aware of, always, but especially when it is so wet.
We drove to the nearest town, Hawker, mostly to get food and fuel. But their general store didn't even have any food haha! Went up to the lookout point - it is quite a steep walk up, but it is well worth it. Super spectacular view (especially when there is a break in the weather).
When we returned to Wilpena Pound, the rain started up again. We drove the track down to Sacred Canyon. Once you reach the car park, you walk along the river bed, until you get to here -
Even in the rain, as long as you are careful, you can walk all the way to the top of here... DO IT! You could probably go for a really long walk up there, and it would be so serene. We only didn't because the rain was getting heavier again.
We rode out a heavy downpour in the pub with lunch and a beer. Once it subsided again, we decided to risk the Bunyeroo Gorge track. When we started the drive down, the road was open and fine to drive on... it is about a 7km road one way, and the further we went the worse the rain got. We stopped when we got to this section of road!
We headed back up, and by the time we got out of there, I can guarantee they would have closed the road. It was a little sketchy, but Mack had fun. We did have time to savour this view though :)
Whilst we sheltered from the heavy rain in the bar, we made the decision to start heading home in the morning. This weather had basically followed us from Uluru, all the way to the Flinders and it wasn't going anywhere fast!
Day thirteen & fourteen - the drive home
We woke early, and packed up our campsite ready for the journey home. Decided on the Hay Plains route home and set off. We drove through Renmark and Mildura (like the Practice Uluru trip), and stopped on the Hay Plains to watch the sunset.
It is very important to note that the second we started heading home, the sun came out. Thanks world!
We enjoyed the sunset, and then finally got to practice taking photos of stars :)
Our journey ended the next day with a very direct uneventful drive home.
And that is it!
I maybe should have split this into 3 parts... but oh well. I hope you enjoyed the super long read.
As a roadtrip plan, I hope this has given you some ideas for your own adventure.
More importantly, I hope it has shown that when it rains on your holiday incessantly, it is not the end of the world. Enjoy what you can do in the rain, and relish in the delights of phenomenons that only occur when it is wet!
Come back next Sunday at 5pm for my guide to fuel in the outback (how much does it really cost to drive around Australia).
Hx
