A bold and gallant quest through Southern arid lands

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A bold and gallant quest through Southern arid lands…

Following the glorious wonders of Litchfield, Nickoli Von Dowlikov (the third) and his trustworthy minion, Ally Von Pugsquirt, took the perilous (but durable) path to Alice Springs… a journey that would stretch the entire length of the Northern Territory. This could only mean one road, one road to rule them all… the illustrious, the magnificent, the great (and often lacklustre) Stuart Highway.

...And so the quest had begun, at a valiant speed of (a colossal) 80km per hr, the pair steadily departed. Over three days and nights the dastardly duo tackled 1600km of arid lands, strange lands, lands that would harden even the most laudable of individuals. They struggled through annoyances such as the inflated price of Unleaded fuel, a numb bum, and the continuous repetition of (an exceedingly small selection of) bad music cds!!…until one day….finally…..the duo had arrived at there destination, Alice Springs.

Alrighty then…so after three long days we arrived in Alice, we stayed in the nearest campsite for the night, stocked up on Food, booze and insect repellent (lots of it!)…our next stop, Ayers Rock, then Kings Canyon. Ozzy’s tell us that Ayers Rock is “right next to Alice Springs”, so naturally it was another 500km West from Alice, that’s another six hour drive in the cow….ggrrrr!

So off we went on another ‘bold and gallant quest through Southern arid lands’…

AYERS Rock

Aboriginal name: Uluru

We arrived at Yulara camping resort (literally in the middle of no-where) in late afternoon, we set up camp, then went to see Ayers Rock at sunset. It was a fantastic sight as it glowed bright red in the darkening landscape, every ten minutes or so the colour would change, and the shadows move. It was well worth this trip!

Nothing in Australia is as readily identifiable as Uluru, it’s the world biggest monolith (the second biggest is ‘El Capitan’, which we saw at Yosemite NP, California), and is probably on the front of most Australia books. It’s 3.6km long and 348m high. To best way to grasp its sheer size is to walk around it. We did the Mala walk which went around the base of Uluru, and we also (lazily) drove around it, from other angles, Uluru looks completely different.

There were lots of really cool caves and openings in the rock (formed by millions of years of wind erosion) which the Aboriginals used during rituals and ceremonies. Uluru is still of deep cultural significance to the Aboriginal owners, the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara peoples. (or ‘Pitters & Yankers’…as a Bristolian might say!).

So, that was the Uluru…now off to Kings Canyon...

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Photos

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unfortunately there wasn't a brail sign for the coach full of blind tourists!! ;o)

Mount O'Conner
...we saw this on the way to Uluru

A deserted 'Free stop'
...this is a free camping stop, there are k's of them dotted around Ozz. You feel a bit safer if there are other campers...but sometimes its just you and the bush!

Comments

[Katy Luu]

Jealous
Hiya Wow, looks as if you are having a fab time....very jealous!! Nothing more fabulous than reading your blog, seeing ya photos and being stuck here...yeah cheers!! Carry on having fun on your quest! Katy x