Outback trip 1980
In mid-1980 we decided to go on a 4 week trip to the red centre without any specific itinerary....we would barrel up to Alice Springs and then just go with the flow. David modified the floor of the rear with several chip-board food storage compartments...the surface would provide a firm base to put the mattress on. I made curtains which velcroed on the canopy windows. All made to match the Sahara Dust colours. We sewed a big canvas annexe modified to fit the side of the cruiser to give us extra shade in the heat. And boy was it hot. When we arrived in Coober Pedy it was 45 degrees..and that was a mild day!
Overnight camp in a riverbed
On average, we made 1000 kilometres per day....and it was gruelling because the grader hadn't been up the Sturt Highway for months. The corregations in the road made the whole cruiser shake and the noise was so bloody loud that we were screaming at each other to get attention. You could hardly hear the stereo playing at full bore.
Sunset near the Palmer River, NT
On the way up north, we visited Victory Downs cattle station and met some lovely friendly locals. We set up camp and, because of the cattle, there were flies galore. I mean, FLIES! I can remember cooking an egg and bacon breakfast....I couldn't keep up the fly swatting. They were like seagulls when the food was out. You soon got used to eating them whenever you took a mouthful of something. I said to Davo....the next time we make this trip, I want a screen tent! By the way, these flies LOVE insect repellent. It doesn't f%$#ing work!
We were almost at Alice when the whole cabin suddenly filled with red cayenne pepper mixed in a cloud of other spices. The corregations had caused EVERY jar and bottle to unscrew, with the result that the cooking oil was mixed into a fabulously disgusting mess with coffee and honey. It was putrid. You could hardly see in the cabin! And the standard grommets in the bodywork had come adrift because of the vibration....there was red bulldust coming inside. Unf%$#ingreal.
We loved Alice and met up with the brother of a nursing colleague of mine...he was doing secretive exploratory digging for uranium ore. We met up at a pub and later went to visit them at a mate's place. One of them told us (reluctantly) about his experience with the Min Min Light and how it had followed his ute for miles. The next day we went out to see the rig east of The Alice - that was an incredible set up to witness. Really hard work in the heat and dust.
In 1980 , this air-compressed drilling rig was the largest in the world.
The Alice - Looking toward Heavy Tree Gap
After days sleeping rough, we decided to check in at a local caravan park in The Alice....the man at the desk interrogated us about whether or not we were married, so we lied! (We didn't get hitched till the following year) He was unwilling to let us share a cabin - I couldn't believe it...and I was wondering if the bloke had some sort of religious agenda. David said that we were Mr and Mrs Johnson but he made a fatal error the next day when we paid with my bankcard. :-)
We tried to ride camels at Emily Gap, we saw all those Pro Hart paintings and I can remember walking around the lovely William Rickett's sculptures, similar to the ones near us on Mount Dandenong.
Standley Chasm was a favourite place of mine....we walked in, followed by the inevitable busload of American tourists, some with flynets hanging off their hats and multiple cameras dangling from their necks. It's not a long walk along the riverbed into it and once you reach the end, it's almost a spiritual place. You can sense it. We were only 100 yards from reaching the carpark when we encountered the Americans....who made a decision to turn back and not make the walk in! I have never forgotten the slow drawl of "Well, I guess we've seen as much as we're gonna see."
We were gobsmacked at how lazy they were.
Standley Chasm
On to Uluru (Ayers Rock as it was then)...the road was recently graded so it was more relaxed. Unfortunately, on a stinking hot day, David (was it deliberate??) pointed the soda syphon - full of orange juice and some wine - at me, forgetting that he had (was it an accident??) double-charged it. It plastered sticky drink all over me...I was covered in bulldust.
I said I WANT TO GO TO A MOTEL! to clean up, being suitably pissed off. So we stayed in the old besser brick motel there and the shower was luvverly. We had a drink in the local pub, which was the one levelled by an irate semi-driver not long after. The next day we explored the base of the rock and climbed it.
That night we checked into the local camping ground, where Azaria Chamberlain had been taken a few weeks before. The dingos had all been culled so there were none around...though lots of dogs at the local koori-run co-op. When you showered in the open block, there were lots of stick insects everywhere. Some were just huge. There had been a flood just a few weeks before.....a local showed us a photo of a bloke in a dinghy with a sea just everywhere (no land) and the rock looked like an island! Now, there were wildflowers in abundance.
South West view of the Olgas
Walpa Gorge face
We had booked a flight over the rock and the Olgas - Kata Tjuta - the next morning and it was FANTASTIC. The Olgas are such a complex rock formation and breathtaking from any angle. I loved parking out on the road to the Olgas where there is a viewing area for watching the rock change colour at sunset. Red. Orange. Blue. Purple. Nothing can compare to it. I know that climbing it is frowned upon now......I can understand that now. It's like a cathedral. The side that we call the brain - Ngoru - is just awesome. And because of the recent rain, Maggie Springs was flowing.
We left the rock and headed off towards Kings Canyon and Palm Valley....but we couldn't climb to the top of the canyon because, and we were young and fit, the rock climb had taken the stuffing out of us and we were starting to find it hard to walk long distances in the intense heat.
The road towards Kings Canyon
A riverbed near King's Canyon
The Finke River on route to Palm Valley
Jet trail over Simpson Gap
We were returning back to the Alice the next day and had wandered onto a side road....when we came across a large group of kooris with a bogged vehicle in a riverbed. David did a great job of winching them out and they were lovely people. I don't know how long they had been there...it could have been a while as we hadn't passed anyone since the morning.
We drove south to Coober Pedy, did the perfunctory trip to an inground house...love the ventilation shafts. Heard stories about bodies being dropped down old mines, followed by a stick of gelignite, and never found....wondered if that was an urban myth or not and whether someone was trying to pull us in, hook, line and sinker. We wanted to go east towards Oodnadatta, so we were pointed in the right direction from the service station. We took a wrong turn and ended up at a tip, almost 30 kms down the road and had to turn back....found the right track and off we went.
Leaving Coober Pedy and passing through the Eight-Mile Mines
It was an amazing journey.....there was no road and you were basically just following wheel ruts in the red dirt in the blazing heat. Sometimes there were no wheel ruts and you just headed in the same direction. This was around Leigh Creek and there's NO creek to speak off. Just bulldust.
All of a sudden, there was an explosion in the back of the cabin. The spare battery supplying the Engel had shorted and there was smoke and sparks everywhere. David put out a small fire....I was shitting myself, especially as there in the dirt next to the landie was a grave with a wooden cross! An omen, I thought. David did a brilliant job - he's very mechanically minded (does all the under-bonnet work) - and he jerry-rigged a repair.
When we eventually reached Oodnadatta, there was a huge sign telling us to tell the police station that we had arrived. And how we SHOULD have done the same thing when we left CP! But there wasn't a bloody sign to tell us that. Phew.
We dove-tailed into the Flinders Ranges and camped at Wilpena Pound, a beautiful place. Sort of spooky the way a giant meteorite has created such a huge arena. The ruins of the old homestead were interesting. It was like being back in civilisation as there were heaps of tourists camped there also.
We finished the trip in Melbourne and decided that we had passed the litmus test of surviving such a tough trip - we had said before we left that, if we made it, we might survive being married! And yes, 22 years down the track, we have.