Mt Augustus to Red Bluff

1st May to 15th May

I always thought Uluru was Australia's largest rock, but it's actually Mt Augustus which rises 715M out of the desert landscape, and 1,105M above sea level. Its now a national park, and we set up camp on the cattle station adjacent. In 2010 the station was flooded in for several weeks, can't imagine it now.

Mt Augustus

Land Rover Maintenance

There is no fresh drinking water available, so we needed to bring our own, although there was bore water for showering... quite salty 

There are several walks at Mt Augustus and we chose the 8km Peak walk and 12km Summit walk, setting off each morning before 7am to beat the heat. Another National Park in the Gascoyne region is Kennedy Range and we spent a few days there bush camping in one of the water-less gorges. 

Kennedy Range NP

The region is red dust, red rocks and spinifex. There are very few trees in the area, with the exception of a few white barked river gums growing in the gully line, water holes or dry creek beds. Despite the sparseness, it's quite an impressive landscape,  

white barked river gums

 

After 6 weeks on the road, we fare-welled the arid centre and hit the West Australian coast at Carnarvon. The 'West' is such a contrast to the east coast of Australia, which has a fertile coastal strip. In WA the desert runs straight to the coast... desert beside white sand and blue ocean.

The Gascoyne river rarely flows, but provides abundant underground water to the township of 8,500 and they have a thriving fruit and vegetable industry. We spent a few days in Carnarvon dusting the red dirt out of the car and trailer, enjoying fresh water showers, and stocking up on wonderfully fresh 'lunch box banana's', tomatoes, rocket and plenty of other fresh foods. 

champagne red bluff

surf break red bluff

Leaving town, we headed to Quobba Station about 120k up the coast where we found the surfing retreat of Red Bluff to spend a few days. It's a well known surfing spot and whilst we don't surf, we've been enjoying watching the wipe outs and rides on the 2M waves.

From here on we have a few weeks on the coast.

The gunbarrel highway - Giles to Carnegie

25 April 30 April

Our journey towards the start of the gunbarrel highway took us to Giles WA, 750km west southwest of Alice Springs where we camped overnight and went to Giles weather station the next morning. It was built to provide weather data for the UK atomic weapons tests at Maralinga and rocket testing at Woomera. Managed by a staff of 4 we saw the 8.45am weather balloon released, and had a look around the very remote site.

start of the gunbarrel

From Giles we headed through Warburton, only stopping to buy fuel, before hitting the heather highway and onto the gunbarrel. The first 126km on the heather highway took us 7 1/2hours..... so it was 'no highway'.... and the gunbarrel was in worse condition.

Both nights on the gunbarrel we camped near a bore, so we had water to wash with. The first night there were spinifex fires in the area, and we had a visit from some local aboriginals on the way out hunting Kangaroos. 

The second night was quieter... no scrub fires and no people..... In fact we didn't pass another car for 5 days. These two video's will give you a taste of how travelling on the gunbarrel felt. Slow and steady was the only way.

In total length the trip from Warburton to Wiluna was 845km, with only 1 fuel stop at Carnegie station 439km's away, the most remote cattle station in Australia where we paid $2.50ltr for diesel.

It took us 3 days to get to Carnegie and at times we were averaging 20km an hour over tracks which looked like they hadn't been graded since Len Beadell and the team put the road through in the 1950's.

Plenty of feral camels were to be seen along the way, they are in plaque proportion in the west, even with recent aerial culls where they shot 7,000 out of Giles in 3 weeks and 47,000 out of Carnegie over the last few months. We also saw a few dingo's so we were sure to lock up the camper trailer kitchen each night.

Coober Pedy to Uluru

18 April to 24 April

All the crazy people seem to move to Coober Pedy, well at least it seems you need to be a little 'eccentric' to live there. The area produces 70% of the world's opals, and the mining is hot hard work, with no guarantee of finding opal. Many of the original shafts are hand dug, with the miner often having to descend over 30 feet before reaching the opal layer. 

Days can get up to 45C, so the majority of the homes are underground. They are refreshingly cool and stay around the 22C mark throughout the year. Coober Pedy also has a number of underground churches, with the Serbian one being ornately carved and decorated. 

Underground Opal mine

Underground Church

Leaving Cooper Pedy without an opal, we took the Stuart highway via Marla to Yulara. As an update to our geography knowledge, I now know that Uluru is the traditional name for Ayers rock and Kata Tjuta are the Olga's. We had the best of both world's at Uluru, we saw a brilliant sunrise, and the next day the rain came causing water to cascade down the usually dry rock. Quite a contrast.

Uluru Sunrise

Kata Tjuta in the mist

We walked the 10km around Uluru, which the traditional owners prefer you to do rather than climb. Sensibly we started very early one morning before the heat set in. By 11am it was already 30C+. By contrast our walk into Walpa Gorge at Kata Tjuta was done in a mist of rain, and there was a water course running. The weather can certainly change quickly out here.

Walpa Gorge

We also did a tag along walk with the local Ranger, to learn a little about which plants are eatable... just in case... and the wildlife in the area, mainly small birds, emu, kangaroo and goanna. All a good food source for the locals in days gone by.

The roads from Yulara onward are a mix of gravel and dirt, so we're hoping that the rain stays away to make our travelling possible. With the fine red dust out in the centre of Australia, only a few ml's of rainfall cause roads to be closed. We've had to arrange for two permits to travel through aboriginal lands for the next leg of our trip, so as soon as they arrive we'll be off!