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After recharging in Alice Springs we set out to do some real exploring in the Outback. We first rented the movie “Wolf Creek” to spice up the experience ( a horror film about a backpackers being kidnapped in the outback based on a true story) . Most of the roads in the outback are not paved and hardly have gravel; we learnt very quickly that our van has nowhere near 4wd capabilities. We got stuck on a dirt road and after a few hours of digging and pushing we waited it out until someone drove by. Anywhere else this wouldn’t take long – but being in the middle of nowhere it ended up taking 12 hours for a convoy to pass and help us out.
There’s a lot to see and do in the Red Centre but it’s just like the rest of Australia, everything is so far apart. The roads started to be about 500kms from each town (town being a gas station and motel in one building). We drove off the main highway for an entire day just to visit Kings Canyon. We spent the day there and got our fair share of walking all the way
around the canyon and below it. It wasn’t that touristy so you could get right up to edge of cliffs.
Most of Australia is very dangerous to drive at night because many people are killed from hitting kangaroos. (You see more dead ones than live ones). We came up the idea called “night safaris”. We would drive at night, only going 60km/h. Being the only ones on the road we could drive straight down the centre with the high beams on and be able to stop in time for all the kangaroos. It took a lot longer to get where we needed to go , but we had no rush and all the wildlife was out at night. We got a chance to see lots of roos, snakes, dingoes, and lizards on these safaris. It was a pretty cool experience but a little eerie at the same time. There would be no road signs, lights, or turn offs for hours. Sometimes it would take 4 or 5 hours before we saw another car. We pulled over sometimes and just took in the fact that in every direction there is actually nothing but desert bush for at least 300ks
– something I probably won’t every experience anywhere else.
Our next location was the famous Ayers Rock. Once we arrived here our trip had already clocked 4500kms. Ayers Rock is a massive rock right in the middle of the Australian desert. From pictures it just looks like a rock, but it was truly incredible. You cant really tell how big it is unless you actually see it, the shear presence of it is what makes is amazing. (more than 2/3rds of the rock is underground as well) We were hesitant about driving all the way out just get a picture of a rock but it was definitely worth it looking back now. Unfortunately the winds were way too strong for us to climb it, but you can win em all. We stayed just long enough to walk around the entire rock (15 km) and watch sunrise and sunset on it. ( it changes colour as the sunsets)
The next stop on the map was the lesser known rock called “The Olgas”. Its right near Ayers rock but not that many people visit it. It used to be one big rock that was double the size of Ayers,
but over the years it has eroded down to many smaller domes now. We walked through all the domes there and had to wrap our faces up completely because of how bad the flies get in the outback, they are relentless.
On our journey out of the Outback we passed through a major mining area in the middle of the desert. This area has the nickname “ end of the world” because of the strange view of the landscape. In every direction you look you see these white gravel mounds which all have a 20 foot holes right next to them. All these holes are from opal mining, they use the hit and miss method out here and you can tell they miss more than they hit. This Opal area sparked a desert town in one of the hottest areas in Australia (highest temperature recorded was 52 degrees Celsius). The whole town is focused on mining; its brown everywhere you look and most building are built underground to escape the heat.
Although the pictures show what we saw in the Outback, it’s the experience as a whole that made the trip – the heat, the remoteness,
the wildlife, the strange people, the relaxed driving, the way you have to adapt your living, the danger, and all the bizarre stories.
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