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Saturday, September 29, 2018

Uluru and Devils Marbles

Check it OUT.. I see bitumen ahead!!!!  Hallelujah!!

It always goes, if I'm on rough roads, I look forward to bitumen.  If I'm riding bitumen, I look forward to dirt.


After riding all the rough corrugated roads and sand traps and rim busting roads, we come out at the Stuart Highway and pull in to a roadhouse at Kulgera to camp for the night.  Looks a bit rough, but we have been 3 days without a shower, so we'll stay.

The following morning is just a boring ride on the Stuart Highway up to where we turn off to head west to Uluru (AKA Ayres Rock). I think the most famous rock in Australia if not the World. We arrive around lunch time and I'm not set on the plan yet.  I thought we might set up camp so we can leave our gear and go walk around the Uluru site. But when I enquired at the only camping area around, they want $42 for an unpowered site!!  I don't think so.. 

Suzanne agreed to have a simple look.  It's too hot to go for a hike anyway, so we drove around the perimeter of the rock instead.

Well, it turned out perfectly to drive instead of walk because it was a lovely close-up-view drive all the way around and we didn't miss anything at all!


I have been here a couple years ago with my nephews, which we walked, so it wasn't all new to me. But it is all new to Suzanne, so I wanted to make sure she was happy with the experience.  It's also a culturally sensitive area for the Aboriginal people here, so we respect their request not to climb the rock.

They intend to officially close down the Rock to anyone climbing it from November 2019.  Actually, around 35 people have died climbing Uluru.  Mostly from heart attacks.  That means it's steep... and hot!!  (OR, it was a result of the karma for being disrespectful to the Aboriginal Spiritual site) ;-/

Suzanne and I watched some very scared Asian people scooting along on their bums trying to get down, which gave us a chuckle.







And I think the best photo came from my new Samsung phone below.

This is Uluru.. one Big Red Rock
 
So there you go, a quick trip around Uluru.  We went to the designated Sunrise and Sunset viewing points, and took more photos.  I won't bore you with the many shots, I just picked a couple of my favorites.

Instead of camping at Uluru we head back down the road where I saw camping at Curtin Springs.  The sun is getting low, and hopefully they don't cost as much.

At the reception I asked how much for a non-powered campsite.  The young German backpacker who worked there said it is FREE.. What???  From $42 to free sounds good to me!  But wait, is there a catch?  He said no, they do this to avoid tourists from bush camping instead (because nobody wants to pay $42 for a campsite so they would all go bush!).  It's a good deal, because we do end up buying food, fuel and water there.  They certainly made their profit in the long run.

And look at my morning view!




From here we intend to move on to Alice Springs.   Suzanne has some motorcycle repairs scheduled, and it's a nice break to civilization.  (AKA, a hotel with real bed and shower).

I haven't done it before, but there is a dirt road to take from Uluru to Alice.  From Kings Canyon you can obtain a permit, and pay $5.50 to travel this dirt road.  Ok then! We like dirt!

This road had really bad corrugations as well.. what a shock!  It was a really dark red sandy corrugated road that took a lot of concentration.  And for the first time in my life, I had to dodge a Camel!  He was laying beside the road and when he jumped up as best as a Camel can do, he started across the road and then turned back.  Phew!





Once we get past the super rough stuff, the road becomes quite beautiful.  The Mereenie Track takes us to the West McDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs.  And we see bitumen again!




As per the norm, the photos don't indicate just how gorgeous the landscape is around us.  What a treat and a much better choice to the tourist highway into Alice.  Not a soul on the road and beauty to boot!

How's it going, Suzanne!?


We enjoyed a couple of days in Alice Springs.  A small kitchenette to make our own food, laundry, internet, a good power bike wash, etc etc.  The luxuries in life!

There are plenty of gorges to see along the MacDonnell ranges.  If I was here to stay for a few days, I would love to hike in all of them.  But we just picked one, the Simpson Gap.




Alice Springs is done, the laundry is done and we can start heading up the road again.  The next goal destination in Kakadu up near Darwin.  There is no fun way to get there other than the hot paved road, and it's about 1500 kms to boot! 

So we set for approximately 500 k's per day and see how we go.

Marathon run.. begin!

We come across the Devils Marbles (Karlu Karlu) and pull in for a look.








That was fun.. I've heard about Devils Marbles for many years so it's good to finally see the place.  A very impressive work of Natures Magic!

Continuing North, we stop at a roadside camp called Bunka Bunka.  And then more hot highway the next day up to Katherine.  The temperature is well in to the 30's and we are both adjusting to the heat.  I'm coming up from cold Adelaide and Suzanne is over from cold Sweden (albeit a summer Swedish cold).  Hot water is all we have to drink from the camelbacks and a bite of melting lunch foods from the panniers.  We search for ways of inventing a plan to stay cool.  Wetting the neck buff for a start was a good idea.   And that just turned in to pouring water all over the shirt AND buff any time we could find extra water.  It's helps for about 10 minutes anyway. ;-)


The Peacock collects the fuel money in these parts.  We are WAY outback.. 



And there are aliens out here!!  We are at a Roadhouse, not a town or village and there is much of nothing around here, so it's not a huge surprise that things get a bit strange in these parts. Ha!


On the road again!  One very long straight road.....



Lunch time at the historic Daly Waters Pub!  I love lunch breaks.........


Checking out a WWII airstrip near Daly Waters.  There is a lot of American history around here from the war.



Suzanne made a comment about me being in a No Entry zone of the old American WWII airport.. but the road I took in to that spot didn't have a sign! ;-)


We pass so much of the landscape that is burnt.  I wonder if it is a controlled burn or they are accidents.. Well I found out at least the answer to one of those fires...  Big truck crash.. Looks like it was carrying hay, and I'm hoping it wasn't for the Farm Army Rescue.



Other than Uluru and Devils Marbles, the road is a long HOT straight and mostly boring route.  I don't hate long and boring though.  I'm happy to be on the road, no matter where I am or what the conditions (for the most part!).  I just love being somewhere different.  Somewhere I have never been before.  Compared to other countries, it is a long time before you come to any sort of town. There is something to be said about that.  Sometimes I feel the world is so overpopulated and congested, and it's nice to have something to compare that to. I also love watching and very happy to see the landscape change, the termite mounds.  I love the smells of nature, where that be a burnt landscape, hot leaves and grasses and sometimes, really sweet flora smells! Every now and then there is a dead animal smell.. and even a little hill..

Next up will be Kakadu (one of the most beautiful places on Earth), Darwin and Litchfield...


Sunday, September 23, 2018

Dalhousie Springs and Mt. Dare 4WD ONLY! Between the 2 of us we have 4 wheels ;-)

We made a diversion off the main Oodnadatta Track to go and check out a special offroad location called Dalhousie Springs and Mount Dare Track which will eventually bring us out to the main road again.

 
Hmmm.. looks like an interesting road, I hope it's not too difficult.  We can do difficult but I'd rather not do big sand if we can avoid it.  I have never fallen in love with that stuff.
 

Well?  It turned out to have a fair bit of sand from the beginning.  I wasn't in a position to stop the bike to ask Suzanne if she wants to do this.  I just put on "focus face' and powered through.. And then, if it wasn't sand it was lovely corrugations. 


There was no way in heck I was going to take photos in the sand.. Nor would I stop to take one as I was nervous as all be and to stop and start again would have been worse.  But!  I snapped a couple in the corrugations.  I'm always happy to have a break from those things.



Interesting how corrugations don't look near as bad in a photo as they are in person.  Let me just say, they were BAD.

Oops!  That doesn't sound good. I hear loud plastic sounds in a big way.  Jump off the bike and find my nose hanging down on my front tire.  Well?  Can I keep it?? No... the plastic is very broken.  All I can do is remove the rest of it and strap it on to dispose of it properly once I reach civilization again.


We made it to the beginning of the Witjira National Park in South Australia.  Inside is Dalhousie Homestead Ruins and Springs.. and a lot of land.  The national park was proclaimed on 21 November 1985 to "protect Australia’s largest array of arterial springs: the nationally significant Dalhousie Mound Springs complex". Wikipedia

Look!  Both Tigers are now 'noseless"!!  I wonder if Triumph has fixed this problem in future Tigers.. I have now officially broken off 3 Tiger noses.

Arriving Dalhousie Homestead:


Can you imagine building your new life here.. back in the late 1800's?  On one hand there is nothing that seems like could grow food on, but on the other hand, at least they had water! They would have had a super tough life.  It's insanely hot in the summer here.


Overview from SouthAustralia.com website:

A true oasis in the desert, featuring more than 120 springs surrounded by lush greenery and abundant wildlife. The park sits on the western edge of the Simpson Desert in the far north of South Australia amid endless sand dunes and stark gibber plains.

Witjira National Park features more than 120 mound springs. The park includes the National Heritage-listed Dalhousie Springs, used by Aboriginal people for thousands of years as a source of food, shelter and medicine. You can swim in the main spring’s warm waters. The area is home to unique species of fish such as the Dalhousie hardyhead and other rare aquatic life found nowhere else in the world.



There are heaps of birds (Corellas or Cockatoos?) in those trees.  They are smart living above the water!  I didn't want to get in the water by myself.  It was dark green, and I saw some fish.  Not sure if I want strange things to bite my toes.  Suzanne is more brave and she went in first.  The water is warm like bathwater.  It was nice to float around for a while, not so bad after all.

Until!  I saw some bubbles.  If I see bubbles, I know there is something big swimming under me and I don't want it to bite my toes.  We floated around a bit more and then!  I saw really big bubbles!!!  I screamed, there is something big underneath of us, get out, get out!! We scrambled away and then decided it must be bubbles from the... Springs... duh!!!


So we get out and instead of being attacked by green underwater monsters, I am being attacked by flies and mosquitos.  I'm happy though because I can see them and even more happy I can put my head net on. It's all part of the adventure, right?


Our little campsite at Dalhousie Springs.  Local dingo included!


That was a special treat.  Well worth the knarly road to get here.  We set an 8:00 AM departure time and start heading north again to Mt. Dare, where we will start to turn back toward the west again.  

I was still in shock about the big sand we did yesterday so I was going slowly out of the camp and on to the road as a bit of a warm up.  I wasn't really ready to go fast in sand yet.

However!  The road has a different idea.  Just out of camp, I'm slowly moving along and I see not only sand, but super deep bulldust trap..  Crap!  Panic!  Throttle!!


Suzanne was just behind me and saw me fishtailing all over the place.

That must have psyched her out because when I got to the other side of this mess, I didn't see her headlights in my mirror.  I stopped and waited for a bit and then I knew, I had to turn around and go back for her.  This is what I found!

 There she is!!


It took some effort and lots of muscles, but we got her up again.. whew! A few more broken bits, but the bike is still drive-able.


That was the worst of the sand luckily and then it was just majorly big pointy rocks and doing our best to avoid popping a tire or cracking a rim.


Gee whiz, what an interesting road!  I didn't know what to expect, but it was actually quite fun!  (in comparison to the flat boring maintained gravel road on the Oodnadatta Track)


Now I have learned that we unknowingly took the short cut track with is the more difficult choice, but it was only 70 km.. and we're out.



While I stop to wait for Suzanne at the crossroad, she notices a man with dreadlocks and no shirt running out of the bush toward us waving his arms.  I thought, oh my gosh, we are a long way from anywhere, he must need help!  So I ride up to him as you could see he was struggling to run fast enough. 


I asked, "Are you okey, can I help you?"  He said, "I'm riding a BMW 800GS and I want to know the road conditions?  I said, "I'm sorry, road conditions?" (I had envisioned in my short trip to him that he must have a friend with a broken leg, or needs water by the way he was running out of the bush) He had been warned by locals NOT to ride the track we just finished and wanted to know how we did it.

I told him the track is not EASY, but we are 2 girls and just did it.  He looked over at Suzanne, "Two girls"?  Yes..  I told him that not knowing his skill levels, the only tough part was the bulldust trap Suzanne fell in, but other than that, take care on the rimbuster road.. However, easy enough.  I wished him well and moved on to Mt. Dare Hotel (through corrugations and sand again), where we needed to get fuel.

 



The attendant showed us all the broken cars, axles, campervans, trailers, etc that have tried to do that track we just completed but failed.  I had never seen how large thick pieces of metal on trucks and rims, just crack and break off like that!  He was so hilarious when we told him we came through there this morning.  Telling other staff working there, "These girls just did the toughest short cut road this morning, can you believe it?"


Heck.. $2.55 per litre!  Can't say I blame them, as I can only imagine what it takes to bring a fuel truck in here, and the extra cost for delivery!


We didn't have to ask him but HE asked us, "Do you have anything broken we need to fix?"   Oh yes, I do!~  My gps holder wouldn't tighten anymore and even though I taped it on, I lost the screw.  Tony's nose is long gone. Other than that it's cracked mud guards.  That's a duct tape job for sure.  The plastic is cracked all around the screws.

And the local dingo came for a visit while fueling.


Inside to pay and we are hungry.  It's only 10:30 AM, but we've had a heck of a day already.  Unfortunately it was still morning for them, so no cooked lunch I'm afraid.  We can have a pre-made treat though!


I'm not a fan of the "Pie".  It's an Australian thing, and I don't really like them, but I had one because it was warm and available.  It was all right.  Filled the hole in my stomach.


Trying electrical tape instead of duct tape.  I should have brought a bigger role of duct tape!


We left Mount Dare Hotel and headed west as our next goal to reach is Uluru.

Oh!  I guess we are crossing a state line out here!


Welcome to the Northern Territory!

 Ooooooo, some easy road.  I like the Northern Territory already! ;-)
 

Sheez!  Wild brumby from nowhere!!!  Glad he's fast!


 Uuuuuuuuu... corrugationsssss........


Sand and corrugationssssss.......


Nice big gate.. to keep the wildlife in or out! 


We made it in to Finke.  Finke is well known for a big desert Motorcycle race every year. https://finkedesertrace.com.au/



Luckily we didn't need fuel as they were not going to be open again until 2 PM.. However, we did get the weather forecast!



And from Finke we did another 193 KM of sand and corrugations.. (you've seen enough of those photos), but it was an easy run.  We came out at Kulgera on the Stuart Highway.
 
 

 Next stop.. Uluru!!