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As if the cows weren’t enough we woke to a flock of galahs squawking their hearts out. We hit the road again and grabbed a coffee at Kulgera. Nice pub, rubbish coffee. It’ very important that these little towns have a differentiating feature, like the Pink Roadhouse in Oodnadatta. In the case of Kulgera it is the first and last pub in the NT and it has a Hills clothes hoist filled with old running shoes. People come from miles around to ponder and photograph (see photograph below) it from the viewing platform. Driving in the NT was a change. The first road sign said the maximum speed limit in the NT is 110ksph unless designated otherwise, the next one is a speed limit sign for 130kph. By the side of the road the Government has planted wrecked cars either as some kind of art installation or as a road safety message. But my favourite signs are the ones as you approach Uluru reminding you to drive on the left, really if you’ve made it this far!! Another thing I noticed is that everyone you pass waves at you. Now when we were driving on the dirt you didn’t see many
cars and if you did they would give you a thumbs up so you didn’t stop to help. I actually found it a bit tedious waving at car after car on roads that are as busy as George Street (well not at the moment I guess) so finally you adopt a system of just raising your and then ultimately you just ignore them. A lot of them are caravanners anyway who are not really fellow motorists but a breed of old person that enjoys driving at 80kph and has reclining deck chairs. Also when they put those jacks up do they have a spirit level? Anyway we were driving along the Lasseter Highway when the big rock came in to view. I have to admit that I feel guilty that it has taken us so long to see and also it is amazing. As a special treat for Becs I had booked us into Sails so we checked in and headed out to the rock. We did the base walk which was great (10.5ks) and took a couple of hours. On the way back to the hotel we passed the Sunset Viewing Carpark which looks fantastic. People sitting on their
roof racks, tripods perched on bullbars, Asian tourists the lot. I knew we had to go. We had booked dinner at Arnguli which is the resort’s “Fine Dining” restaurant. I was of course excited as I was sure it would allow me to incorporate a sarcastic restaurant review. In fact it was really good. Hannah our waitress from Coffs Harbour was lovely (although she had no idea about the food). The Chateaubriand was done perfectly, the pork belly excellent and Becs had kangaroo carpaccio.
Things we learnt:
-the NT is a great place to drive with realistic speed limits and great road signs
-overseas tourists drive on the wrong side of the road without incident until they get to the turn off to Uluru (possible given the amount of traffic)
-I can actually recommend Arnguli as a restaurant (and yes it was better than the Shell in Coober Pedy)
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