The Outback Road Trip, Victoria, South Australia and Northern Territory, Australia

3^rd April – 13^th April 2018

Day 1: Melbourne to Grampians (and a little bit further)

After finally making it to the car hire place, thanks to John, we checked ourselves in. We watched some videos, explaining how to drive a 4WD (not that we were even allowed to use that setting, as we were only relocating it, not hiring it), and we had to wait a little bit longer, until we could get the keys. Once it was finally ready, we had a tour of the car, which looked amazing, before watching another quick video about how to assemble our roof top tent. Once all of the formalities were complete, we were finally on our way!

As the car was so much bigger than either of us were used to (we couldn’t even get in it without some help), we were overly cautious to begin with, even though it was already 1.30 and we were three and a half hours before schedule.

We waved goodbye to Melbourne, and set off towards the Grampians. This was always part of the plan, and as everyone kept saying how beautiful it was, we didn’t want to miss out. However, instead of rushing to see the Grampians and get to our planned campsite, we decided to find a closer campsite, so that we didn’t have to do as much driving, after losing so much time – I guess that’s the beauty of staying at free roadside campsites.

At around 4 o’clock we reached the Grampians National Park. We drove through the park, and had just pin pointed a couple of places that we wanted to stop at along the way. As we were driving past a campsite in the park, there were loads of kangaroos just happily hanging out amongst the tents. It was our first sightings of kangaroos on this trip, but as we expected to see many more, we didn’t stop to take any pics.

Our first stop, was at Reeds Lookout. We only made it a quick stop, as we didn’t have much time left before sunset, plus I was in desperate need of the toilet, and there wasn’t one around. We enjoyed the views over the park, which went for miles – it was so beautiful.

We carried on driving a little further, to McKenzie Falls, another place that is highly recommended. To get to the falls, we had to take a steep walk downwards, which was okay and we managed to do quite quickly. Once we had taken our photos and enjoyed the views, we then had to make the journey back up, to get to the car, to continue on our journey.

As we had changed campsites, it wasn’t too far to drive, once we had finished in the Grampians, but it was going dark, quickly. As the best (although not great when driving) time to see kangaroos is between dusk and dawn, we could see lots of them hopping about in the fields as we drove through. We also had the most amazing view of the sunset, as the sky lit up in reds and purples.

We turned onto our final road of the day and had a very close near miss with a kangaroo, as one hopped out into the road as we were driving by. The driving rules, are to keep straight and brake, as swerving could result in bigger accidents. However, your instinct is to swerve, and it’s lucky that Joe did just slightly, otherwise he would have taken the kangaroos head off. They are just so oblivious to the whole traffic situation and it just bounced on behind us, like nothing had happened.

Bothered by this, Joe was very tense, as he continued driving. Luckily, we weren’t far from the campsite, so we were able to stop not long after.

As the sun had already set, we knew we were in for a challenge, as it was our first night putting the tent up and we had no idea what we were doing. We had a go at it, but struggled so much. Because it was so dark, it meant that only one of us could work on the tent, as the other had to hold the light, so Joe suggested we gave up for the night and slept in the car instead. I really didn’t take much persuading with that idea, although I knew it wouldn’t be very comfortable.

While Joe packed away the bits that we had got out for the tent, I started to get the cooking things out. I managed to successfully attach a gas cannister to one of the stoves, but as the light was attracting so many bugs, Joe then suggested we gave up cooking and just ate crisps instead. Again, I didn’t really take much persuading, although it wasn’t the most nutritious meal. We packed everything up and got into the car, tucking into our delicious meal of ready salted crisps and cereal bars. What a start to the adventure!

It started to get quite chilly in the car so we made our own little den, putting up sheets around the windows to keep the heat in as much as possible. We both climbed into our own sleeping bags and reclined our chairs as much as possible, to get comfy. As it was still quite early, we watched Suits, on Netflix – we hadn’t watched it the whole time we were in Melbourne, so we were having a refresher.

After an episode, we decided to put the laptop away and try and get some sleep, although neither of us were sure how successful that would be.

 

Day 2: Grampians – Port Augusta (and a little bit further), via Adelaide

Quite surprisingly, I had quite a decent sleep in the car, although Joe couldn’t say the same. We woke up just after 6 and got ourselves ready. When I say ready, I mean we went to the toilet and brushed our teeth – we didn’t get changed to sleep and we didn’t get changed to set off again (we had no where to do this and we weren’t in the right frame of mind, so it’s a good job we could only smell each other).

Joe started the driving off, at about 6.30, but not long after we had set off, I could tell that he shouldn’t have been driving as he was too tired. I was insured to drive, and it’s a good job I put myself on the list, as I nearly didn’t. I made Joe pull over and we swapped. I didn’t particularly want to drive, as the car was huge, and I hadn’t driven since I left home, nine months ago, but it wasn’t safe for Joe to carry on.

Once I got going, and onto the main road, I was fine. In fact, I quite enjoyed it! I drove the whole way to Adelaide, which wasn’t too far, but as we didn’t have a plan for when we got there, I didn’t like driving in the city centre. I don’t like driving in city centre’s anyway, but especially not with the big truck we had, in a city I didn’t know.

On the way, we crossed over the South Australia border, so I woke Joe from his nap, so that we could hop out and get a quick piccie!

We drove around Adelaide but there didn’t seem to be much to do, except shop, so we drove back out of the centre, and found a car park to pull into. As I had done most of the driving, and Joe had managed to get a couple of naps in, we swapped back over so that I could have a driving rest. We did a quick research of where we could get some supplies from a supermarket, and some fuel, as we were running low, before we set off again.

So that we didn’t get caught out, in the outback, we also bought ourselves a jerry can, so that we could have some spare fuel in the back, just in case. It cost a lot of money, but it will be worth it, to not have the stress.

Once all of the supplies were bought, we drove to our next campsite. We had another change of plan with this campsite, as we got to Adelaide much sooner than I thought we would (despite having longer to drive), so we decided to drive further on, to make the next drive day shorter – sometimes plans just aren’t meant to be followed!

As we hadn’t eaten anything (besides some mini eggs) at this point in the day, we thought we best pull over at the first rest stop we saw. After driving for half an hour and not finding a rest stop, we just stopped off at the side of the road and grabbed some breakfast, at 2.30 in the afternoon.

On the drive, we drove through Port Augusta, but didn’t make any stops, as we didn’t want to make the same mistake twice and arrive in the dark to set up camp. I took some pretty pictures as we passed through though.

We arrived at the campsite with about an hour to go before sunset. We got started straight away on setting the tent up and we were much more successful in the light. It looked so cool up in the tent, which made it worth the effort. It took us around twenty minutes to fully complete it all, so now we know what we’re doing, it should be much easier in the future.

Once the tent was up, it was time to start cooking. We got everything out and set the stoves up. I had decided to cook chicken and veggies, but one of the hobs wasn’t working as well as the other one, so it took so much longer than it should have done, as I couldn’t even get water to boil in one of the pans. The broken hob meant that I ended up cooking in the dark, but it was so worth it, as we had a proper meal, instead of crisps and cereal bars.

The camp chairs that we have been given were strapped down to the roof and it was too much hassle to get them off, so we just ate in the front of the car instead – it meant we weren’t bothered by insects too.

After we had finished eating, Joe washed up and we packed away all of the equipment. It was a pain to do it all in the dark and I had a really bad headache, so didn’t do much to help at all. Once it was all away though, we climbed up into our new bed, which was the comfiest camping bed I have ever slept in! We were in bed for 8, but I wasn’t feeling great, we were tired after a long drive and had to be up early for another long drive again, the next day, so we didn’t care!

 

Day 3: Port Augusta – Coober Pedy

After a lovely night’s sleep, we were awake at 6, ready to get ourselves to Coober Pedy. We didn’t have as far to go, but we had heard that there were things to explore in Coober Pedy, so wanted to make sure we could do this. Once we were up, we got ourselves dressed, for the first time in days, before starting to pack up the tent.

Packing the tent was fairly simple, as we just followed the steps, in reverse. The hardest bit is making the zip go all the way round, as neither of us are particularly tall, so it’s a struggle to reach. We got there in the end though. Once everything was packed up, we brushed our teeth, before setting off on our drive.

As I was feeling really refreshed, I wanted to start the day off driving. Just after we left Adelaide, we joined a road called Stuart Highway, which is a road that runs from Adelaide straight up to Darwin. Since we were on the Stuart Highway, the satnav didn’t need to give me any instructions, as we were going almost 500km north, towards Coober Pedy. I drove for a few hours before my legs became too achy and I wanted to swap.

However, before this happened, I came across a rebellious kangaroo on the road. We had seen so many dead animals on our way up, mostly kangaroos because they aren’t aware of the traffic. This one was no different. He just stood in the middle of the road, staring at me. Luckily, I had seen it from a distance so managed to slow down; I even beeped the horn at him, but he wasn’t for moving. As I could see that there wasn’t anything coming towards me, I moved around him to carry on, and that’s when he decided to hop away. I wish we could have got a photo but there weren’t any cameras handy.

When we stopped to swap over, we managed to grab some breakfast. It was much earlier than yesterday’s which was good. We didn’t stop for long, as we didn’t want to waste any time.

Joe carried on driving up to Coober Pedy, and we managed to get there just after the petrol light had come on. A full tank can get us 800km, which is great, but it does costs us $140, which isn’t so great, but it’s a necessity. Our first stop in Coober Pedy was to fill up, before we drove to our B&B.

As Coober Pedy is an underground town, it was quite strange to drive over dirt tracks (which we’re technically not allowed to do under the terms and conditions of the car, but we had no choice) and see no buildings around. We went along the tracks, following the signs for ‘JAM B&B’ until we found it. We parked the car at the top of the hill and walked down but we couldn’t find anyone, except the dog. Because we were early, we decided to go back into the town to explore and come back later on.

As we were now in the desert, the weather was living up to that – it was so hot! There were also so many flies around, which I had heard about before. The mixture of the heat and the flies was very frustrating when outside, so we tried to stay in, as much as possible.

Our first stop in the town was to the information centre. The man that worked in there was very helpful and told us some free things to do while we were there.

Following the recommendations of the man in the centre, we went to the museum. It was interesting to read about the aboriginal people who first lived in Coober Pedy and how they were really suffering during the depression, until a woman was out herding sheep, and kicked over a stone to find opal. The town is now famous for its opal mining, and for the fact that everything is underground, due to the mining. We had a look at some of the opal; it is beautiful but very expensive. We also watched a little clip about a man who found over $250,000 worth of opal in his house: he did a little tour on the video showing each room and how much opal was in each – it was so fascinating.

From the museum, we went to the Orthodox church, which was just outside the centre. It was beautifully decorated inside, and amazing to think that it is all carved out of the ground.

After we had looked in the church, we went to look for the public noodling place (which is where we could dig for opal, although we weren’t allowed spades). We drove round the streets where it was supposed to be, but we couldn’t find it. Instead, we went to ‘The Big Winch’, which was a lookout of the whole town. We got out and had a quick wander, but it was too hot to stay out of the car, so we took some photos and went back.

On our way back into the town centre, we thought we would stop off at an underground bar. However, this sounded much cooler than it was. When we got there, it was too done up, and it wasn’t even underground! We went in and had a look but it wasn’t what I expected, so we didn’t stay. We were quite disappointed.

After a hot, tiring day, we went to a café on the way back to the B&B. We grabbed a quick ice cream (it had been a while) before looking at the opal they had on display.

We made it back to the B&B and still no one was around. We wandered around a bit but the flies were getting too much and it was stressing me out. Luckily, as I was about to give up, the man came down and checked us in. We brought the car down and took our stuff into our underground room, before settling down. As it was still early, it felt like a waste of an afternoon, but we had seen everything that was free, and we didn’t want to just keep driving around in the heat.

When we were sat around, we noticed something weird about the time. Apparently, it happened when we crossed into South Australia on the way to Adelaide, but we didn’t notice then, however, we had gained half an hour in time. It took me a while to get my head around it all, and half an hour seems a strange time difference to Melbourne, but that’s apparently what happened.

After chilling out in the cool underground, and catching up on some blogs, I decided to make a start on tea. Luckily, we had a kitchen to use in the B&B, so I didn’t have to mess around with the hobs. For tea, we had chilli con carne.

Once we had eaten and cleaned up, we both had a shower and got our things ready for leaving in the morning. I thought it would be a good idea to get out the clothes we wanted and put the other stuff back in the car, as we wanted to leave early, and didn’t want to faff in the morning. Once everything was away, we settled our bill with the owners, before making some pancakes to take with us for a rolling breakfast (as we had it included in the price, so thought why not).

After making the pancakes, we put them in a tub, in the fridge and tidied everything up, before heading off to bed to watch some Suits and get an early night, ready for a 5.30 start.

 

Day 4: Coober Pedy – Uluru

Waking up at 5.30, was a little wasted, as it was still pitch black outside and as per the terms of the car, we weren’t allowed to drive until sunrise. We got ourselves ready, but as most of our things were already packed up in the car, it didn’t take us long at all. We got our food out of the fridge (or so I thought) and got on our way once the sun was coming up.

After driving for about twenty minutes, I realised that our water bottles were still in the fridge at the B&B! Luckily I was thirsty so early on in the journey, because we could afford to turn around and go back for them. We set off a second time, one hour behind our original schedule but that didn’t really matter.

For the first part of the journey, Joe drove. I had downloaded a fuel app on my phone so that we could see where petrol stations were across the country, and how much it would cost us, at each stop. Using this app, we made a stop not long after setting off, as we wanted to make the most of the cheaper diesel. Joe carried on driving, before we made another stop at Marla for breakfast.

Breakfast was the pancakes that I made the night before. We nibbled on some of those in the car, before swapping over driving, and carrying on the journey. I drove the next section, while Joe had a nap.

After an hour or so, we crossed a new border, and made our way into the Northern Territory. We stopped with the sign and jumped out for some pictures. We didn’t stay out for too long though, as there were so many flies swarming around us – it was disgusting.

As I hadn’t done much driving yet, I carried on, until we turned off the Stuart Highway. As we turned to head towards Uluru, we swapped driving again and it was my turn to nap.

As Uluru was two hours off the Stuart Highway, down Lasseter Highway, I knew I had some time to nap, so wanted to take full advantage of this. After we were about half way down the road, Joe woke me and got all excited to tell me we could see Uluru. We both got excited and I took some photos and videos from the window… I then realised we were driving quite quickly passed it, and still had an hour to go until we were at the campsite. It wasn’t Uluru after all, but I now have some pictures of Mount Conner with a funny story behind them!

I soon fell back to sleep and two and a half hours after leaving Stuart Highway, we arrived at our campsite. As the free sites were all over an hours drive away and we wanted to do so much, we decided it was worth paying $39 for a closer spot on the resorts campsite. We checked in and found our designated spot, but we couldn’t do anything, as the tent was attached to our roof and we needed the car to go to see Uluru – the real one.

The National Park was about ten more minutes down the road, so we drove there and paid our entry. The one price ($25 per person) gets you entry into the park for three days, which is great as there is easily three days worth of things to do. Our first stop, was to the Cultural Centre – this was advised and gave us a chance to find out some background information.

We had a look around the Cultural Centre and watched a video with the aboriginals talking about the day that they got their land back – the Uluru National Park. The land is very important to the natives and they fought to get it back, achieving this on 26^th October 1985. It was a long battle which involved arguments from people saying that the land belonged to all Australians, so why should they be able to claim it back. The natives understood this and wanted to share the land with the rangers to protect the sacred site and look after it together.

After the video, we had a look around the rest of the centre and made our way to the information centre. There were so many flies buzzing around our heads when we were outside, it was becoming unbearable. In the information centre, we had a chat with the man who worked there about the best spots to see the sunset and the sunrise. He also gave us some advice on what walks to do around the park to get the best views of Uluru.

Once we had finished in the information centre, we made our way back to the car and drove to one view point to see Uluru properly. It was the most popular sunrise spot apparently, where all of the tour groups go, so we had decided we wouldn’t go there in the morning, but still wanted to see it. We did a little walk to the view point but the flies were just too much and would not leave us alone, so we couldn’t stay long. We took some photos before walking back to the car.

From this sunrise spot, we drove to another, where we planned to watch the sunset. We were told it was a popular site for sunset, but it wasn’t too busy, as the tour buses had a separate carpark. We got there early, and as we wouldn’t be arriving back at the campsite until after dark (obviously), we decided to cook dinner there. We had some room next to the car, so we got out our table and hobs and I rustled up a chicken curry with rice. It was definitely the most beautiful place I have ever cooked before!

We watched the sunset, which happened behind us, but it cast beautiful colours onto the rock, giving us amazing views.

Due to the flies, we sat in the car and ate dinner, which wasn’t great, but we still had the view of Uluru in front of us.

After sunset, we did a super quick clean up and tidied everything back into the car, before driving back to the campsite. As we had done the tent once before, so kind of knew what we were doing, it wasn’t as bad doing it in low light and managed it almost without any problems. The only trouble we had was that the ladder wouldn’t click into place, but that wasn’t anything we had done, and we got there eventually, so it was a very successful night camping, as far as we were concerned.

As there was so much that we wanted to do around the Red Centre, we wanted to stay around for another day if possible. When we got into the tent, we did some shuffling of the things we had planned and managed to squeeze time in to see Kings Canyon. It’s a shame in a way that Australia is so big, as there are so many beautiful things to see, but it is all so far apart and we just don’t have the time.

We had an early night, as we were up early again the next morning, to see the sunrise. It was technically breaking the rules, but we thought it would be worth it. Before we went up to bed, I took some photos of the beautiful starry sky – it was so clear!

 

Day 5: Uluru – Kings Canyon

As we wanted to see the sunrise at Uluru, we decided to set our alarm for 6, but there were already so many cars leaving the campsite when I woke up at 5.45! I let Joe sleep in until 6 anyway, as that was what we had planned, but once he was awake, we had to be quick getting ready and packing up the tent.

Once everything was away, we drove back into the National Park. After taking advice from the man in the information centre, we decided to go to the same place for sunrise (the same place we had seen sunset) as you can get the silhouette of Uluru with the sun rising. We drove there, but it felt slightly rushed because it was getting lighter. As we had gone into the bus carpark, which was slightly higher up, we could do a little dune walk to get a better view. I ended up running up the dune to get there before the sun rose, and I made it just in time.

The rush was worth it, as the views were stunning. We could see the sun rise next to Uluru, still creating beautiful colours, and behind us, we could see Kata Tjuta (the other rock formation in the National Park). Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to drive to see Kata Tjuta (or the Olgas as they’re also known) up close, as it was a forty-five minute drive away, but the views from where we watched the sun rise, were good enough for now.

 

After the sun had risen, we got back in the car and drove to the Mala car park, where there was a guided walk staring at 8am. We sat in the car and ate our breakfast while we waited, before we got out to battle the flies.

The Anangu people (the local aboriginal people) believe that Mala people were the first to arrive at Uluru. Mala people can be in the form of people or wallabies and came over the land to find Uluru. Itjaritjariku are a type of marsupial which lived in the holes in the rock of Uluru, and saw the Mala people coming. The marsupial got very excited and started bobbing and weaving in and out of the rock, causing holes in it. The itjaritjariku started to make caves for the Mala to be ready for when they arrived.

Apparently itjaritjariku are a marsupial which are still around now (although our guide has never seen one) and are a creature that have no eyes as they lived underground and don’t need to see (I’m not sure how they saw the Mala people coming then).

The fruit trees around where the marsupial holes were, were a good indicator for the native people, of where water can be found. The fruit produced in marble sized and apparently is very delicious when eaten fresh. They use the trees for many things, including using the bark for creating tools and storage.

As we walked on, we came across many caves. There were men caves and women caves. The men caves were used for educating boys how to be men. In the Anangu culture, there aren’t any ages; a boy becomes a man based on how much facial hair he has – he can only have lessons once he has enough facial hair.

Further along the path, we could look back and see the Uluru rock climb. It is disrespectful to the Anangu culture to climb Uluru, although it is still allowed for now. Anangu people believe that the first two Mala men to climb Uluru looked like gods, which is why they don’t like people climbing their sacred place, as only few men have done so, on special occasions. The other reason they don’t like people climbing Uluru is that many people have died climbing it and the native people feel responsible, as it is their land.

In 2010, management at the National Park established criteria for closing the climb. They said that if the board was satisfied that adequate new visitor experiences were established or the proportion of visitors climbing fell below 20% or other experiences on offer were the main reason for visitors entering the park, then the climb would be permanently closed. As they had put ‘or’ between each criteria, it meant that only one had to be met.

Although two of the criteria had been met years before, in October 2017, a vote was taken and the decision was made to ban the climb. As the aboriginal people are patient people, they have said that the climb won’t be banned until 26^th October 2019, to coincide with the 34^th anniversary of getting their land back.

The most recent rescue on the rock was three years ago, when a man decided to part with his girlfriend and find a ‘different’ route down. He fell and got stuck and as he had no way of contacting anyone, his girlfriend didn’t raise any alarms until it had gone dark, as she didn’t know if he had just taken a longer route. As the rescue helicopters come from Alice Springs, and they don’t fly in the dark, he was stuck there all night, not knowing what was going on. Although the helicopters flew at first light, they didn’t find the man until late afternoon, as they couldn’t locate where he was. He had broken almost every bone in his body, but was lucky to survive, unlike the 35 people who have died on the climb.

Our tour guide gave us a little insight into his aboriginal culture, which he said has similarities and differences with the Anangu culture. He said most cultures are adapting some things to the western world, but they still have their traditions. He told us a story about the ritual for boys becoming men in his culture but asked that it went no further, as it is sensitive information. There are over 250 aboriginal languages across Australia, so it is very difficult to communicate across groups.

Our final stop on the walk, was at a semi permanent waterhole by Uluru. Uluru National Park has roughly 300mm rain per year, but this can vary a lot – there can sometimes be more and sometimes none. On Christmas morning in 2016, they received 110mm rainfall, causing waterfalls to rush over the top of Uluru. The black marks left on the side of the rock are from the algae from all of the water. The rainfall was that much, that the park had to be closed for two days.

The tour finished at 9.20, and from here, me and Joe decided to continue around the base of Uluru and complete the base walk. It was a long, beautiful walk where we saw every side of Uluru, which is amazingly different up close. There were many spots which were sacred sites, where we weren’t allowed to take photos, so we respected this. The one and only thing that spoilt the walk were the flies. They were out in their thousands and I had many tantrums trying to get them off me. There was no way to win against them: if you wafted them away, they came back with vengeance and if you ignored them, they landed on your face which was the worst! I don’t know how Joe stayed so calm with the flies or me, but he did so well!

Near the end of the base walk, we stopped at Mututjulu waterhole, which was beautiful. There were so many birds flying around and the noises were so calming.

After two and a half hours of fly hell, and beautiful views, we made it back to the car! I drove us to the Cultural Centre, where we stopped and made some butties for lunch. After lunch, we waved goodbye to Uluru, as I started the drive to Kings Canyon.

Along the way, we stopped for some very expensive, but necessary petrol, before we swapped driving and Joe continued. We arrived at Kings Canyon campsite just before 4, and as it was a last minute choice for us, we hadn’t booked anything, so just hoped there was room for us. Luckily there was, so I checked us in and we set up camp.

While we were setting up the tent, we decided to leave off the bottom tent, as we don’t use it. This made the whole process much quicker and we were done in no time! As we had lots of time to spare, we went for a quick dip in the campsite pool. It wasn’t the nicest pool we’ve seen, but it was needed to help to refresh us.

After a while, I got cold in the shade, so I decided to get out and have a shower. Once I was dressed, Joe went for his shower and we were ready just in time for sunset. There was a viewing platform from the campsite, so we walked up to that but it was very crowded! The sun set at 6.40 and the views of the canyon were beautiful.

Once the sun had set, we walked back down to the campsite, and I made dinner. Luckily the campsite had kitchens that we were allowed to use, so we cooked in there which made it so much easier. While I cooked the omelette, potatoes and beans, Joe cleaned up on the go to make it easier for afterwards.

As there are dingoes that come onto the campsite at night, and there were still flies around, we ate in the car, again! It’s not ideal but it isn’t too bad.

After all of our dinner dishes were clean and away, it was very dark. We had a walk back up to the sunset spot to have a look at the stars. The night sky is so clear in the outback as there aren’t many artificial lights, so the views are stunning. I took some photos before we went back to the tent. We had another early night in the tent as we were getting up for another sunrise, so we ate chocolate, and watched Suits before going to sleep.

 

Day 6: Kings Canyon – Alice Springs (and a little bit further)

After an extremely hot and sticky night, we were up at 5.30, to pack up and see the sunrise again. I can’t remember who told me that it gets cold in the outback in the night, but they mustn’t have been at this time of year, because it gets far from cold. Once we were dressed and the tent was away, we were on the road for 6am. It was another morning breaking the rules a little, but we thought it was worth the risk.

Our first stop of the day was to actually see Kings Canyon up close and have a look around, so we drove there, which was about twenty minutes away. We decided we were going to tackle the 6km rim walk, starting it before sunrise so that we could get the views from up there.

The first part of the walk was a steep incline, but once we were at the top of the canyon, it was a beautiful and fairly easy walk.

As we were a little quicker than expected, and a little too keen, we kind of missed the sunrise over the canyon, as we walked too far and couldn’t see it from where we were, but we didn’t feel like we had missed out. The colours of the rocks and the views that we had were amazing all the way around, and to make it even better, there weren’t as many flies, so it made it much more enjoyable.

Along the walk, we did a few detours to different lookout points. The first detour was to Cotterill lookout. It was about 300m off track but we could see down the whole canyon and it was so beautiful. We had a little rest there and took lots of photos, before making our way back to the rim path.

The second detour we made, was to the Garden of Eden. This was a beautiful water hole down in the canyon. It was a little annoying that we arrived there at the same time as a tour group as they took over and were noisy, so we didn’t stay there long.

We completed the rim walk in about two and a half hours. The lack of flies and the nice breeze and shady patches made it a really pleasant and enjoyable walk.

When we got back to the car, we had our breakfast, before continuing our journey north. I drove the first section, back towards Stuart Highway, as we had been off it a couple of days while we explored Uluru and Kings Canyon. While I drove, Joe napped until we got to the service station on Stuart Highway to swap over. We filled up with just enough fuel to get us to Alice Springs, as the diesel was much cheaper there.

Joe took over the driving at this point, and I tried to nap, but I wasn’t overly successful. We got caught up in some roadworks, where they were resurfacing the whole road, so we had to wait a while. It seemed silly to be doing that in the day, but I guess they get a lot of road trains and kangaroos at night. I just felt sorry for the workers as it was a very hot day and they were using lots of hot equipment.

We finally made it to Alice Springs, where we filled up with more diesel, before driving to Simpson’s Gap. Simpson’s Gap was just outside of Alice Springs, so it was a little detour. When we got there, there was a short walk to see the rock formations, which was beautiful. However, as the flies were out in true force, we didn’t stay long at all.

From Simpson’s Gap, we drove back to Alice Springs, as we needed a few bits from the supermarket. The centre of Alice Springs was very intimidating, as there were lots of homeless aboriginals on the streets, and we just didn’t feel overly safe. We did a quick shop before getting back on the road to the campsite.

As we had a bit of time to spare, and we had a long drive day the next day, we didn’t stay at the planned campsite (shock). We thought it would be best to drive a little further to the next campsite to shorten our distance to Daly Waters.

When we arrived at the campsite, we were both hungry, so our first job was to cook. This quickly changed when were attacked by flies when we got out of the car. We sat in the car for a while, while we waited for the sun to set a little, as the flies seem to go away then. Joe did a few fly checks throughout the wait, but none were successful, so we waited longer.

After waiting over an hour, I decided to bite the bullet and get out and cook. I was only reheating the chilli from a few nights ago, so I grabbed a pan, a hob and the chilli and ran for the picnic table. Due to the flies, we had to sacrifice the rice addition, but luckily had bread instead. I danced around to keep the flies away while the chilli cooked and Joe grabbed the plates and cutlery from the back and buttered the bread. It was just my luck that the gas ran out mid-cooking, but soon after I changed the cannister, we were good to go!

It goes without saying that we ate in the car, and I even served it up in there too. It was a very hot meal, which didn’t help the already hot night! Eventually, the flies left, so while Joe cleaned up from dinner, I put the tent up and got ready for bed. It’s a good job I mastered the art of putting the tent up, as it was all done in the dark.

As there wasn’t much else to do, we were in bed by 7.30 with chocolate and a juice treat, which was needed after the stressful fly encounters! We chatted for a while before falling asleep.

 

Day 7: Alice Springs – Daly Waters (and a little but further)

As we weren’t getting up to see any special sunrises, we had a little lie in, until 6am. We were up and packed away, ready to set off for half past, as we had quite a distance to travel.

Joe drove first, and we had a fair few stops throughout the day, as we made our way up the Stuart Highway. Our first mini stop was for more fuel. We didn’t need any urgently, but it was the cheapest price for quite a distance, so it was worth filling up.

After a little bit more driving, we arrived at the Devil’s Marbles, which were rounded rocks scattered around the area. There were lots more than I expected, and it was so strange the way they were all just there stacked up. It looked like someone had placed them all there, but they were there due to erosion. We had a quick twenty minute walk around, looking at the amazing detail, before diving back in the car, due to fly attacks.

Before we set off again, we had our breakfast, and we swapped driving, so that Joe could have a break. We had another quick stop for more fuel, as it was another cheapish service station, before I drove up to our lunch stop. Joe napped again while I drove – it’s really hard not to after you’ve driven for a few hours straight, so I don’t blame him.

While I was driving, we saw our first bit of rain – something we hadn’t seen for a while. We hoped that it might have cleared some of the humidity out of the air, but we weren’t that lucky. We stopped in a town called Elliott for some lunch. I pulled up under a shelter while Joe grabbed the food from the back. We ate in the car again and had a little rest. The rain eased off, and we swapped driving, so that I could have a rest.

Our next stop of the day was Daly Waters. This was a quirky little town with an old, remote little pub where we stopped for a drink. It was a recommended pub to us, so it would have been rude not to! As Joe was still driving further north, he just had a soft drink, but I pushed the boat out and had a glass of wine! We enjoyed a nice rest and chill there, before we had to move on to our campsite before it got dark.

It wasn’t a surprise to us that we didn’t stay at the campsite we had planned to – we actually only stayed in one planned place so far and that’s because we had booked it in Coober Pedy! When we got to the campsite, just after 6, I got started on dinner. It was going dark, so there weren’t too many flies about, and I would rather cook in the light, then put the tent up in the light.

For dinner, it was leftover curry, so while the rice cooked, I put the tent up anyway – I wasn’t wasting any time! For the first time on the road trip, we had the tent up, and were eating dinner in the light! And to make it better, we ate outside for the first time! It was a record for us.

While Joe cleaned up, I took our things up to the tent, before we went up ourselves for 7.15. We lay and talked for a while before eventually drifting off – it was a very hot night though, at 28 degrees, as we were trying to nod off.

 

Day 8: Daly Waters – Nitmiluk National Park (and a little bit further), via Katherine

Even though we had planned a later start, because we only had a short drive, I was still awake early, after such an early night. We did our usual morning routine and got on the road, ready to head to my name sake town, Katherine.

We arrived after about an hour and a half, and I had to ask Joe to stop at the sign to have my photo with it. Once I had had my photos, we drove to the information centre. As it wasn’t opening until 8.30, we had about ten minutes to spare, so had breakfast while we waited.

As soon as the information centre was open, we went in, to get some ideas of what to do over the next few days. Katherine is only about three hours from Darwin and there are a few beautiful National Parks in between, so we wanted to see the best places, if we could. Although we really wanted to see Kakadu, as so many people had recommended it to us, the man in the centre recommended we gave it a miss this time. Kakadu National Park is so big and the entry fee is $25 per person, for seven days, so this kind of suggested to us that we would need more than a day, so took his advice.

Instead, he advised us to see Nitmiluk National Park, with Katherine Gorge, and Litchfield National Park, so we planned around these instead. After refilling the fuel, we drove to Katherine Gorge, and parked up. The man in the visitor’s centre had highlighted a walking track for us, that has natural pools for swimming, so we decided to go with this one, as it was a very hot day, so the pools sounded very appealing.

We set off on our walk, which was 8.4km in total. It was such a hot day too, with highs of 37 degrees, so we could feel it not long after starting, but we powered through. We stopped at a lookout point near the beginning, but after this we didn’t stop very much.

 

About half way to the rockpools, we got lost – shock! We lost track of the arrows and thought we were following a path. Luckily, we bumped into a family who were on the way back from doing what we were about to do. They told us that we had gone the wrong way and it was a dead end. We all turned around and found the turn off that we had missed.

Just before we got to the rockpools, we stopped at Pat’s lookout, which had beautiful views right down Katherine Gorge – it was amazing. We took some photos of our very sweaty and red faces, before continuing to the rock pools. After an hour and a half of walking we made it!

It didn’t take me long to get in, but I did see some frogs, so I wasn’t in for very long. I did spot the frogs before I got in though, so I was proud of myself for even getting in, in the first place – I couldn’t not get in after the hot walk. We took some photos and stood on some rocks, but something nibbled my foot, so that was the final straw for me, I had to get out.

Joe didn’t stay in for very long, so after he got out, we dried off and sun creamed up again, before heading back.

The walk back felt hotter and harder than the walk there. We saw a few people heading towards the pools, so I was glad we went when we did because there was hardly anyone there with us. Almost four hours after leaving the car, we made it back! It felt impressive to be back in less than four hours, after doing 8.4km, with a swim break.

When we arrived back at the car, we had a juice treat to replace some sugar, before we carried on our journey. Our next stop, was Edith Falls. Edith Falls was also in Nitmiluk National Park, but we had to drive out of the park and round, to get there. It was another walk (but shorter) with rock pools. We felt a little crazy for committing to another walk, but we wanted to cram in as much as possible and have another swim.

We began our walk, but after about fifteen minutes, the rain started to come down. We carried on a little further before deciding to head back. We didn’t mind getting ourselves wet (as we were going to swim anyway), but we had my cameras in the bags and it was raining pretty hard, so it wasn’t worth risking it, so we turned back.

When we got back to the car, we dried off and got on our way to our final campsite – the one we actually planned on staying at! Just before we arrived, the heavens opened even more and it poured and poured. We parked up and sat in the car for a while – there was no chance we were setting up the tent, or cooking in the torrential rain. We had parked next to a shelter though, so we hoped that we could get under there to cook, once the rain had gone.

After about half an hour, the rain eased quite a bit and as I thought it would be my only chance to cook, I grabbed my raincoat and ran under the shelter with a hob and some food. As I was rushing and didn’t want to get soaked, we were on rice and beans – the real Aussie camping life! Joe stayed in the nice dry car and watched me from the window, while I slaved away over the stove. Once it was cooked, I served it and threw the dishes in the back – there was no point in attempting to wash them in the rain.

Once we had eaten dinner, Joe managed to venture out into the rain to take our bowls back, and grab some chocolate. As the rain didn’t seem to be getting any better, we decided not to set the tent up – it was something we could do in the dark if we needed to.

After about ten more minutes, I was so glad we decided not to set the tent up, as the thunder and lightning arrived. I’ve never been scared of thunderstorms before, but this one was different. It felt like there were multiple storms happening at once, as there were lightning bolts going off all around us. We felt like we were so trapped and didn’t even know if being in the car was the right thing to do, but we had no service to google it, and didn’t want to risk driving, so we had no choice but to sit it out.

The lightning bolts were going off frequently and were visibly close, followed by loud thunder. The tipping point for me though, was when the lightning hit either us or the shelter that we were parked next to. We couldn’t tell exactly what it hit but it was loud and definitely over us and shook the car so much – so much so, that Joe’s drink fell over. I had a few little cries, but it eventually seemed to move away a bit. I didn’t think it would ever leave though, as it was coming and going very close to us for over three hours.

After our close encounter, we didn’t even bother with the tent – it was too late and I was too scared to be on the roof, so we tried to get some sleep in the car, again. We reclined our seats and chatted for a while – I think this was Joe’s way of keeping my mind busy, but the lightning was still going off in the distance. During our chats, Joe told me that while we were in the rock pools earlier in the day he saw a frog on the rock next to me in the water. I’m glad he didn’t tell me at the time and after the storm, it didn’t feel like anything! I don’t think its cured my phobia though.

As we had driving to do the next day still, we needed to try and get some sleep, so we put our windows down slightly, to let some air in (it was so hot) and hoped that the storms would keep their distance for the rest of the night. I was ready for sunrise already though, so that we could get on the road again – I was counting the hours down!

 

Day 9: Nitmiluk National Park – Darwin, via Litchfield National Park

It was one of the worst night’s sleep ever. I woke up multiple times and just couldn’t get comfortable. At midnight when I woke up, the lightning was still going off in the distance, meaning the storms had been going on for six hours! Luckily, Joe got a bit more sleep than I did, as one of us had to drive to Darwin.

I was more than ready for the sun to rise, but when I woke up at 5, I remembered that we had left some things up in the tent, and as we were returning the car later in the day, we had to get it out. I was covered in bites, because we had to leave the windows open and I just felt disgusting. Just after 6, Joe woke up and we decided that it was best to sort the tent and wash the dishes from the night before, before we set off. While Joe washed up and sorted out the back, I opened the tent to get our things out, and then put it all away again. We had somehow managed to spread out all over the car, so I tried to contain our things to make it easier when we got to the hostel.

Once we were finally ready, we already felt like we had done a day’s work – we were exhausted. We were ready to get on the road and were determined to still enjoy our last drive day. As we had had another night sleeping in the car, it meant another day without getting changed, as there was no where to do so. We also hadn’t showered since the night we were at Kings Canyon, so I don’t want to think about how bad we smelt after days of hot and humid walks, and swims in rivers – we were passed caring at this point though.

On the way up to Darwin, we stopped at Litchfield National Park (the other place recommended by the man in the information centre in Katherine). It was just over an hour’s drive, and it was on the way, so it was very convenient. We parked up at Buley Rock Holes and had some breakfast in the car before starting our walk.

We left the car just after 9 and walked along the paths by the Buley rock holes. Although we could swim in these if we wanted, we decided to carry on our walk, to Florence Falls, where the water from the rock pools was heading. The views along the way were beautiful, however I did see a sign about rocket frogs, which jump out at you to startle you, if you disturb them, so this freaked me out a little.

After a 2.4km walk, we arrived at Florence Falls, which were stunning. We took some photos from the lookout point, before walking down to the plunge pool area.

Although we were allowed to swim in the plunge pool, it did take some persuading to get me in there because of the frogs. As neither of us had seen one yet, and the water was pretty clear and I couldn’t see any in there, I decided to give it a try. I felt very brave, and I also needed refreshing after the hot walk.

Neither of us stayed in the water for very long. We didn’t have much time before we had to set off to Darwin, and I didn’t want to see any frogs. After we got out, we took some photos with the falls, before we started our walk back up to the car park.

When we arrived back at the car, we cooled off and had a refreshing drink, before driving up to Darwin. We were two hours away, so wanted to give ourselves time to drop our bags off and get a few things sorted before we had to return the car at 3pm.

Just after 1, we arrived at our hostel in the centre of Darwin. We checked into the hostel and threw our bags into the room before cleaning out the car. Once the inside of the car was clean, we had to do a quick shop to replace the gas cannisters for the hobs that we used, before going to get the car washed on the outside.

As nowhere in Darwin seemed to offer automatic car washes, we had to do it ourselves. We arrived at a car hand wash place and scrambled together for some change – we really hadn’t thought it through properly. We put our first dollar in and rinsed the car over, which didn’t seem to do very much. We manage to find a second dollar between us, so put that in, which we used forty seconds of soap time, and the other thirty seconds for a power wash. We didn’t quite make it around the car, so then had to use the rest of our water jerry can to rinse bits of the soap off. It was definitely a car crash of a car wash but was worth a try to avoid the $250 charge for returning it dirty.

After the car was ‘clean’, we went to fill it up with fuel for the last time, before returning it to the office. When we got to the office, we had to wait a while, while they did the checks to make sure we got our $1000 bond back. They also took some petrol receipts, as our deal included $150 worth of fuel, which was really handy. As we had gone over our kilometre allowance slightly, we expected to be charged extra, but they never mentioned that to us, so that was lucky, as it saved us about $80.

Once the checks were complete, we were free to go. As everything was in order, we received our full bond back, with our $150 fuel allowance. In the nine days we had the car, we did 4927km and spent $1095 on our travel, fuel and accommodation (including the campsites and B&B in Coober Pedy), which we don’t think is too bad of a deal, as we had an amazing trip, apart for the thunderstorms! It was so much more convenient to have our own freedom to drive where we wanted and we were more than willing to pay for the extra kilometres if required, as we got to see almost everything we wanted to!

After leaving the car rental office, we walked towards the bus stop. We got some cash out on the way, before having a half an hour wait for the next bus. While we were waited, the weather changed from burning sunshine, to torrential rain, within minutes. It was still warm though, so we just sheltered under trees and waited. To make things slightly harder, my phone ran out of battery and Joe had left his in the hostel, so the time was just a guessing game.

When the bus finally arrived, it took us about twenty minutes to get to the centre of Darwin. From the bus stop, it was about a five minute walk to the hostel.

Back at the hostel, we could finally take the time to shower and do some laundry! It was definitely needed and well overdue! While the washer was on, we sorted our bags out, again. I don’t know how we managed to make so much mess already, but we had.

After our bags were sorted, I made dinner, while the washing was in the dryer. The kitchen wasn’t the nicest we’ve seen. It was very basic and didn’t even have plates or cutlery, which made it very difficult to cook. Apparently, there were previously lots of thefts of kitchen items, so you have to rent things if you want them. We managed to find enough pans to use, and used our own cutlery and Tupperware tubs, as plates.

Once we had eaten, Joe cleaned up, while I checked on the washing. Even though it had been in the dryer, it was still quite damp, so I hung it up in our room to finish it off. Once all that was done, we made some quick posters to try and sell some of our travel things from the road trip, such as the spare gas cannisters and the diesel jerry can. We went for a walk to stick these up on noticeboards in the hostels, before going back to our room, to chill out.

It was nice to have a chilled night, in a room on a proper bed, especially after a night in the car. It was a later bed time than the 7.30 time we had got used to, but that didn’t matter. We put Netflix on the TV in our room and watched some Suits, before getting some well needed sleep.

The next day, we had a lie in! I managed to sleep in until 7.30, which is an improvement! The sleep was much better too and it was nice to not have to get on the go straight away, as we had a full day in Darwin.

We started our day with a lazy morning, which was well needed. We stayed in the room for a while and sorted out emails and other bits and bobs for the next bit of our adventure. Although breakfast was included in the price, when we got up to get some, we weren’t impressed, so we just stuck with our own weetbix. We put an episode of Suits on, before we eventually got up and ready.

Just after 10am, we left the hostel, and wandered down to the waterfront. It was very pretty down there, but it was a very hot and humid day, so we didn’t stay there long. We wandered along the front, looking in some of the shops. There were some beaches with lifeguards on duty, but one of them had an entry fee and the other didn’t look very appealing, so we gave them a miss, as there were mini spa pools in our hostel.

From the waterfront, we walked back into the town centre. We had a look in the visitors centre, before wandering around. We nipped into a couple of shops, before heading to Coles to get some bread for lunch.

Once we had our bread, we walked back to the hostel to make lunch. We had tuna butties, with some grapes, which felt refreshing on such a hot day. It was nice to cool off a bit over lunch, before heading back out into the heat of the day.

After lunch, we walked along the esplanade, which was a few streets back from our hostel. It was very pretty to look out into the sea, but the temperatures made it unbearable. According to my phone, it was 32 degrees, with high humidity and it was the humidity that was draining all of our energy. We took some photos before giving up and going back to the hostel.

When we got back, we thought we would try the pools out, but as they were roof-top, the water felt so warm and not refreshing at all. Because of this, we decided to give the pools a miss and use the time to catch up on blogs and photo sorting, in the cool, air-conditioned room. It felt a little bit like we were wasting our afternoon, but we just needed the rest. Somehow, when we used my GoPro in the water at Katherine Gorge, the case leaked in water and GoPro got wet. I didn’t realise at the time, so didn’t do anything, and when I did realise it was too late. I tried to dry it out, but could only seem to get it to turn on when it was plugged in – at least I didn’t lose any photos or videos.

So that the afternoon wasn’t a complete waste, we nipped out for a quick ice cream, which is something that we hadn’t done in a while!

After a chilled afternoon, we went up to the kitchen to cook dinner. As we were flying the next day, we wanted to use the perishables up, so we were on fried eggs, with rice. It actually tasted much nicer than it sounded, which was a nice surprise.

Once we had finished eating and cleaning up, we went back to the room to finish packing and sorting out our laundry. It seemed a bit of a squeeze to get everything into our bags, but we managed it in the end, including some leftover bits of food we could use on our next road trip.

When everything was packed up, we chilled out and watched some Suits, before going to bed, ready for our flight the next day.

As most things were already packed, we didn’t need to get up until around 8am. When we got up, we got ready and put the last few things away before checking out. We left the hostel at about 8.45 and walked towards the bus stop.

Although it was only a short walk, it made us both realise how much we hadn’t missed carrying our bags around everywhere. When we got to the bus stop, we had to wait about fifteen minutes, before it arrived. The bus journey lasted about forty-five minutes, before it dropped us 1.5km away form the airport. This seemed silly to us, as on the way, we had driven into a crocodile visitors place, but no buses went into the airport.

Once we got off the bus and got ourselves organised, we began the mammoth walk with our bags. It was still very humid, so was very difficult but we made it in the end.

We checked in and got through security, with Joe being stopped, again – he always gets randomly selected. We made our way to the gate, and waited for our 12.05 flight to Cairns, which obviously didn’t leave on time – my flights never do.

Since leaving Melbourne, we have had so many adventures already! The hire car was one of the best things, as it gave us freedom and cut down on accommodation costs because of all the free campsites. Seeing Uluru was one of the main things I wanted to do on my trip this time, as this is my sixth visit to Australia, but I had never been in the outback before, so it was a must for me, and it didn’t disappoint – besides the thunderstorm, which I might get over one day. As we loved the road trip so much, we decided to hire another camper for when we get to Cairns, to make our way back down the east coast! We can’t wait for the adventures to continue!

To travel is to live, Katie x