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Published: December 4th 2007
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(Apologies for the Map and some photos duplicated - site was giving me some trouble!)
The Long and (not so) Winding Road
(G)
Apologies if this entry is a tad long but we have just driven 4500km in 5 days and camped by the roadside for the first time which is surely worthy of a note!
Cairns to Mount Isa
Left Cairns early on Tuesday morning for the long drive ahead during the most torrential of downpours which, looking on the bright side washed away the huge piles of bird droppings on the car (no little sparrows over here!)
The 'Highway'to Mount Isa is basically a wide single laned unsurfaced road where you get to play chicken with the Road Trains (imagine four or five Eddie Stobarts end to end, snaking toward you at 120km per hour) The rule of thumb here, we quickly learned, is that if you are the smaller contender in this possible head on collision you should very quickly move aside, wind up all windows and give the nice Road Train driver a friendly wave as he roars past you and leaves you covered in red dust and the ground still shaking. Overtaking
them is almost as much fun too!
Once this was ascertained, we both settled down with the i-Trip on shuffle and watched the landscape change from lush tropical to the arrid outback with far less expletives from both of us.
The trick in the Outback is to fill up with fuel at every Roadhouse you pass as they are spaced between 200 and 400km apart. The next worry came when it seemed we were having to use our emergency cans of fuel before every stop, leading to all sorts of wild theories of holes in the petrol tank etc.....turns out that there was a little light on the dashbard that said 'o/d drive off'. Not quite sure what o/d is but we found a switch that made it go away and the engine started to rev much lower, giving us an extra 150km per tank of fuel. We arent sure how far we had actually been driving with it on but we decided it was probably best to draw a veil over it instead of working out how long it had been on and how much money we had wasted! (I presume its some off road 4WD setting or something)
Arrived just outside of Mount Isa late that evening, popped up the tent (we have got it down to a fine art now - around 10mins top) and spent the first night by the roadside. I dont think I have ever experienced such extreme darkness, which does nothing to help my fear of all thing venomous, so it takes me a good few minutes to troll around with my lamp like some bizarre Florence Nightingale to locate a suitable spot for a toilet break.
Road Kill count - Paul, 1 Big Bird which met its end on the windscreen / Glyn, nothing so far apart from the multitude of large insects we are collecting on the front bumper.
Mount Isa to Alice Springs
Up at sunrise (believe me it gets very hot very early!) for the next push and arrived in Alice Springs that evening. Arrival here was met with much excitement because its the only real form of life you have seen for a couple of days (Its surrounded by dessert the size of Europe) Nice little town with supermarkets and restaurants and everything of the kind, so we grabed a bite to eat and decided to push
on as far as we could to Kings Canyon.
Road Kill count - Paul, 1 Big Bird / Glyn, a big lizard under the right hand wheels.
Alice Spring to Kings canyon
The way to see Kangaroos in the Outback is to do this drive at night. I lost count of the number we saw by the roadside, the only problem is that they are startled by the approaching car and decide to bounce out in front of you which can be quite hair raising. Add to this the Horses, Camels, Cows and Wallabys that do the same thing and you can imagine how stressful night time driving is. We managed to avoid every one you'll be glad to hear.
Arrived at kings Creek (a Roadhouse around 40km from Kings Canyon) on our last fumes of unleaded late that night and popped up the tent ready for their pumps to be open the next morning.
Kings Canyon Climb
Arrived at Kings Canyon at 8am in the 38 degree heat. (Kings Canyon is the one they climb in full drag in 'Priscilla Queen of the Dessert' - we wore trainers and shorts!)
Decided to do the more difficult 6km
Climb and walk around the rim of the Canyon which was stunning and well worth the very long and hot effort (see pics)
Left kings Canyon for a quick bit of brekkie back at Kings Creek and then continued on to Yulara which is the resort next to Uluru (Ayers Rock)
Yulara / Uluru
Arrived Yulara later that afternoon and checked into the campsite there. It was very necesary, once the tent was up, to go in search of a Pub with Air Con and have the coldest drink they had to offer as the heat was unbearable.
Up at 4:15am the next morning so tht we could catch Uluru at Sun Rise. Needless to say it was also extremely stunning and we have around 100 pictures to prove it! We weren't able to climb it as the climbing trail was closed (they close it if it gets above 39 degrees which causes people have heart attacks on the first climb)
Left Uluru for the long drive back to the Stuart Highway which would take us back north through Alice Springs and on up to a very distant Darwin on the top end, so we had another two
days driving in store.
Arrived Darwin early afternoon the next day both exhausted.
A lot of driving and petrol but really worth the effort!
Love to all
g&Pxxxx
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Amanda & Fi
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WOW!!!!!!!!
Hi guys, wow it just keeps getting better, very dissapointed not to see a ''cock in a frock on a rock'' ha ha but looked great in trainers and shorts all the same. Glad to see you will never go hungry with the road kill statistics!! What can one say other than I so wish I was a stow away in the back of the jeep!!!! Im sure im not the only one wishing that. Great yr both havin a blast keep up with the writting it helps as I sit here in the bleak pissing hard rain!!!! Just come back from GC everyone says hi Keith, george etc Big kisses heaps of love Us xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Oh Back out to GC on 22/12 until 6/01 so will find a computer to wish you a happy new year but you know me I will be raising a glass to u both. Love ya's XX