Travel Diary: Adelaide and The Red Centre

We're having so much fun on our road trip.  Another long one, enjoy. 30 January As usual our early start didn’t happen! After Shaun did some exercise in the baking heat, I refused as it was so hot, we got on the road! It’s definitely the hottest day we have had so far at about 40 degrees as it’s getting hotter the closer to the centre we get. The lady at the petrol station told us that at 7am it was already 33 degrees in Adelaide and predicted to be 42 by midday. We got on the road at 1pm and headed for Adelaide, I actually drove today! Pretty scary considering I haven’t driven in 4 months, i’ve never driven on a motorway and never driven above Guernsey’s 35 mile an hour speed limits! I drove half way, about 250km, before I got foot ache and Shaun took back over the rest of the way. At 6.30pm we reached Langhorne Creek as this place is in between Adelaide and Kangaroo Island and is a free rest stop where we can camp for the night. And after our boiled pots, egg and beans for tea we headed to the PUB! We haven’t been to the pub since Asia! The pub is so cute, it’s called at the Bridge Hotel and it’s playing country music as we are sat outside where all the few locals know each other. The beasties down here though are in their thousands. Being in wine country is apparently not the best idea. 31 January After being advised that it would cost $170 each to get to Kangaroo Island we were put off the idea. It’s about the same size as Guernsey and about the same price to get there, never mind, once you’ve seen one kangaroo you’ve seen them all! Instead we are going to find some surf and apparently Middleton is the best place in South Australia for it. Unfortunately, when we got there there was no surf at all and it was far too hot to lay on the beach at about 40 degrees so we got back on the road instead. We drove to Goolwa then through Middleton to Port Elliott then to Victor Harbour to find a reasonably priced campsite as there are no freebies around here. We eventually got to Adere Caravan Park and paid 20 bucks after being given 4 bucks off! And as the summer holidays here are now over the caravan prices should be cheaper. Tonight in the campsite is pretty dead as are only a few caravans here. I think this caravan park has the best facilities yet with minimal spiders and spider webs in the toilets! We spent the afternoon sorting out the van ahead of our impending week long trip across the outback. We took everything out of the van and cleaned it top to bottom including the mozzie net between the bed and the kitchen and gave it a good few washes as it was brown. In the evening we just chilled out in the campsite and Shaun made friends with a lonely guy who had some amazing stories of making his fortune, poor lonely guy! 1 February We set off up the coast to Adelaide today only about 80km. As soon as we hit Adelaide City Centre, waiting at traffic lights as usual, we got a flat tire!! Of all the places we got a flat tire stood in traffic in a city centre! To be honest we were in the best place for it to happen but come on, plus all the tires are only about 2 months old! We pulled into KFC and Shaun swiftly changed the tire as I stood there like a girl a bit clueless! We managed to find a tire place called Bob & Janes and they checked the tire and said the valve had gone, luckily it’s fixable for 10 bucks. As Shaun checked the rest of the valves 2 more were the same! The guys reckoned that when all the new tires were put on they only put on one valve out of the set! They also checked the tire pressure in all tires and tightened up all the wheel bolts and put all the tires back on for us and only charged us 10 bucks for the lot! Shaun was in shock, never had he had such a bargain. The lads also gave us some great advice on the beaches to hit in Adelaide and warned us about the aboriginals on the way to Ayres Rock, telling us not to pick them up if they wave you down, as we have heard before, all they want is your petrol to sniff. An hours’ drive from the city and we turned onto Two Wells to pass through to Mallala to find the free campsite. We spotted Barabba Road which turned out to be a dirt track as far as the eye could see. After the nightmare we had driving dirt tracks on the Great Ocean Road we nearly cried - poor Letoya! We went about 10 minutes at 15km/h over the brow and could only see more dirt track. We pulled over a truck racing down the track and asked directions. He said it’s just down the road, follow me. He whizzed off in 2 seconds so a lot of help that was. About 20 minutes down the track we found a tarmac road so we turned down it which quickly led us to the town centre and Mallala Sports Ground where the camp spot is on the tarmac - we went through that for nothing! Anyway, the campsite is a strip of grass along the side of a football pitch (Australian Rules Football of course) which has a few basic toilets and a BBQ area. There are only 4 other campers here, all seem to be German guys with long hair! After some awesome homemade (well van made) burgers we walked down the street to the towns one and only pub. It looked like a right red neck place so we headed back instead and had a hot chocolate in bed and watched our last film on the lap top. 2 February This morning, after being mobbed by flies, we skipped breakfast and drove straight into Adelaide City. The city itself is really pretty – modern but still has charm in its cathedrals, they call it the ‘Religious State’ of Australia. It’s a middle size city by their standards as its nowhere near the size of Sydney or Melbourne. As soon as we had spotted the Tourist Information Centre we tried to park which ended up being about 4 blocks over. As if a God Send, there was a decent looking hairdressers just outside the car park so I popped in and managed to get an appointment straight away so whilst I settled in for some pampering Shaun went off to the information centre. When I felt human again with a good hair wash, no roots and straight hair we went shopping!!! 4 hours and 6 minutes later we went back to the car and paid the extortionate price of $17 to park in the multi-storey car park! We are camping in the same spot tonight before heading for Port Augusta tomorrow which is the last city before hitting the road to the centre. 3 February At 10.30 we hit the A1 heading to Port Augusta. The scenery is all pretty much the same all over South Australia just dry and baron. Although we did see some road trains and some lorries transporting some massive pipes which turned out to be one of 3 pipes of a wind turbine. These things were taking up two lanes of the high way and had multiple police escorts who were actually more interested in checking what we were cooking than what they were driving! After a quick visit to the information centre we went into the Wadlata Cultural Centre which basically gives you the history of how Australia was formed, the history of the outback and the wildlife. We did our last cheap shop and found a caravan park in Port Augusta. We are staying at Port Augusta Shoreline Caravan Park for $23.50 as we need drinking water and our clothes washed before we hit the outback for a week! We felt a bit homely here after cooking in the inside camp kitchen on proper hobs and watching a bit of Desperate Housewives of the telly! And also, to our dismay, watching the news about Typhoon Yasi which has just hit Townsville (where we were planning on heading after Alice Springs) and the fact that it is heading for Alice Springs which could potentially bring floods – great  4 February Another long sleepless night is the oven we got up early to some more baking heat. Reminder to self: never live in South Australia. At about mid-day we began our drive up into the centre. Today we drove 400km in baking heat (a/c all the way – not so good for our fuel consumption) of nothing but baron outback. There are some really beautiful places though such as the dried up lakes which just leaves miles of flowing salt bed which looks like floating clouds and there are also horrible bits such as all the road kill. We saw about 10 dead cows, 30 dead kangaroos, a couple of foxes, a rat and a lizard and strangely enough no live animals apart from eagles eating the road kill – gruesome! We settled for a rest stop on the side of the road to stay the night at about 4.30pm. We assumed it would get darker earlier out here and apparently it happens fast so we didn’t fancy driving the 170km to Cooper Pedy, the first town along the Stuart Highway. After cooking a simple dinner of beans on toast we were just about to hop into bed when another camper pulled up, which we are very grateful for since it’s very eerie out here on your own in the total silence! Staying in the camper are two guys from France who had already done the East Coast and were on their way back from Uluru so they gave us some great tips. 5 February Last night the 20mm of rain predicted as effect of Cyclone Yasi, came down quick and very hard waking us up. In the morning however, everything was dry and we got on our way to Cooper Pedy. Along the way we saw a hitch-hiker and following both advice and instinct we didn’t stop. This guy was walking literally hundreds of kilometres from any town wearing tattered clothing and no shoes with a drink in his hand, he wasn’t very eager for us to stop with just a thumb out whilst still walking along so we didn’t feel too bad leaving him knowing there would were more cars behind us should he really need help. However, we were told that over the weekend, when the weather was scorching, a trucker had broken down and tried walking the 10km to the nearest petrol station and was found dead from dehydration just 300 meters from the station. I guess you never can really know who needs help. All of the Tourist Info people and the brochures had all explained how beautiful quant little Cooper Pedy was so you can imagine our disappointment when we turned up and it looked like a dead old town deserted by hillbillies! There isn’t really much going on here apart from Opal mining so we quickly drove around looking at the ‘dugout’ houses, cafes and museums which are basically all old miners shafts constructed into homes to escape the scorching heat. By early evening, after driving about 600km during the day, we reached a rest stop right on the South Australia and Northern Territory border. As we are trying to travel cheaply we are staying at as many free camp sites as we can and 9 times out of 10 they don’t have any showers so don’t laugh at us but we showered in the rain and poured buckets of water over each others’ heads in our bathers!! It was actually hilarious, freezing and exhilarating all at the same time. A car came in mid shower to take a picture of the border monument so we had to hide behind the water tank for a while it was brilliant. We are officially pikeys now we have gone this far! We made a brilliant chick pea curry (yes, I have converted Shaun to the way of the chick peas!) whilst trying to shelter from the rain under the information area and were then in bed by 8pm! 6 February My God, we have never experienced wind quite like it!! It rained and the gails blew all night and at times we thought the van was going to be taken so as you can guess it was quite a sleepless night! Plus it was freezing considering the sun hadn’t been out all day, but after being baked in the van oven for the past few nights it was quite a relief! The rain and gusts continued all day and from what info we could gather from roadhouses along the way the main road to Ayres Rock (Uluru) was still open so we continued on (well Shaun drove the whole 300km because I was too scared). There was some flooding along the way but all in all not too bad. Only could we come to the desert and it floods ay! We did see a lot more cattle today and even the very rare frogs which only come out after it rains. These frogs hibernate underground for up to 3 years until it rains when they come out and mate and then go back into their holes when the rain stops. This is a phenomenon most Ozzy’s don’t even get to see. And they say in Cooper Pedy, if you see the Todd River flow more than 3 times in 20 years you’re considered a local - we’re well on our way! We reached Ayres Rock Resort by 1.30pm (clocks have gone back an hour now we’ve crossed the border) only to find out there is only one campsite here which you have to pay for. 35 bucks it costs, what a rip off! Plus we have to pay $25 dollars each to get into the National Park to see Uluru and the Olgas. Somebody really has made a mint here, Ayres Rock Resort is the only accommodation, petrol station and supermarket around for hundreds of kilometres and they make sure they charge extortionate prices because they can. For example $1.80 bread is $3.80 here and fuel which is usually around $1.30 per litre is $1.80 here and it’s either Opal or Premium unleaded. We regretfully paid the campsite and did our washing for the rest of the afternoon since it is hammering down and you wouldn’t be able to see Uluru if you tried! The advantage of this campsite however, is showers!! After a nice shower (inside) we even cooked in the camp kitchen so we didn’t have to get wet! 7 February A very early start at 5.30am saw us drive the 4km to get into the national park to see Uluru at sun rise, unfortunately it was already pretty much up by time we got there at 6.20am! But we were informed that it wasn’t a very good sunrise anyway because of all the low cloud. Since money is getting precious and we have to pay a fortune to stay here I hid in the back whilst we went through the paying station so we only had to pay $25 to get into the national park! Uluru was quite spectacular covered in the mist of the clouds. Uluru is massive to say the least but in my opinion The Olgas were even better! The Olgas (meaning ‘many heads’ in Aborigini) is like Uluru but many smaller formations. As always, the pics can do the talking... I do take my hat off to the Aboriginals living in such an inhospitable environment but they really have earned a bad reputation for themselves and Ozzy’s now consider them bad news as they are either alcoholics or petrol sniffers. In Yalara the government has even gone as far as making a new fuel called Opal Fuel as a replacement for unleaded which does not give off the fumes of petrol just to try and combat the Aboriginals sniffing problems. We set on the 471km journey to Kings Canyon at mid day. On the way to Kings Canon we saw some real wild animals – camels, 8 of them!! Camels were brought here less than 100 years ago to be used as camel trains (as horses cannot take the desert temperatures) along with their Afgan leaders (who were actually Indian apparently) and this is what the Ghan Train, which runs between the north and south, is named after. Now most of the camels roam free apart from those which can be exploited to tour Uluru and Kings Canon! We drove 400km to Kings Canon in just about every weather condition possible; one minute there was roasting sunshine and the next we were at crawling speed wading through flooded roads. We stopped at the first campsite in Kings Canyon which was still expensive so we decided to go to the main campsite and pay the same price. Just as I was about to step inside the van there was a HUGE spider in my footwell!!!!! After some screaming and thrashing about Shaun ran to the rescue, or so I thought, he actually go the camera out instead. I was more concerned about getting it the hell out of our house then getting a snap! Again, I sneaked into Kings Canyon Resort by hiding in the back of the van so it only cost us $15. For the rest of the evening we watched the amazing sunset, it’s so red out here, and chilled in the camp kitchen. 8 February We got up at dawn this morning so that we could do a walk of Kings Canyon in the cooler temperature. We set off on the 6km trail up and around the canyon at 7.30am. After a steep 100 meters of steps the view was pretty amazing only seeing outback for miles. Further round and we were on the edge of the canyon which is just breathtaking! From here the path goes down into the Garden of Eden which is a watering hole set in one of the valleys. The rest of the walk continues around the edge of the canyon and then back down the side of the canyon through a stream and back to the car park. At 10.30 the sun was starting to get really hot so luckily we had just finished. In our opinion Kings Canyon is way better than Uluru or the Olgas hands down. After a quick shower back at the campsite we hit the road for the 508km journey to Alice Springs. It was late by time we arrived so the information centre was just closed. After a quick nose around the town, which actually looked like an Aboriginal Community without a white person in site, we found a caravan park called Stuart Caravan Park. Again, I hoped into the back, whilst Shaun paid the $15. We quickly cooked up some food in the camp kitchen in the evening whilst having a chat to a Swedish guy we could hardly understand who was touring Oz on his own. 9 February We spent the day in Alice Springs today. Firstly, we went to the Info Centre and had a nice little chat with the guy explaining that Alice Springs actually has no spring! It was misnamed as in fact is was just a dry river bed with water just under the surface! He also explained about all the ‘homeless looking’ Aboriginals around (his words not mine) saying that they are alcoholics who have come from communities hundreds of kilometres away just to find a non ‘dry-town’. Most of the other towns in the outback are ‘dry-towns’ as in they do not sell alcohol as they do not want the Abos causing problems. When the Aboriginals come to Alice Springs the government provides each different community accommodation, food and money. This originated because the Aboriginals are nomadic and a family community would pass through Alice Springs and may need things from the Western world, and since it is their land in which the government rents off of them the government help them by providing the necessities. But as more and more aboriginals are becoming addicted to alcohol these people are becoming permanent in these temporary homes as it is an easy life for them and some of their communities will not welcome them back because of the trouble and shame they have caused. We took a quick walk of the town centre and down Todd Mall which is actually a street of shops, and not very nice ones at that. I did however, buy some baby Uggs for my soon arriving niece or nephew! We drove 17km out of Alice Springs to the MacDonnell Ranges to Simpsons Gap. Simpsons Gap is basically a passage in the mountains in which the Aboriginals have used for thousands of years to pass through the mountains. It’s a really cool place but unfortunately because of the recent rain there is water in that section of the gap so we could not pass through. After this we went to the original Telegraph Station, the birthplace of Alice Springs which is next to the Todd River which is just about flowing. After a quick shop we found a new campsite called Wintersun Caravan Park where we actually paid for 2 people today at $28. We pitched our tent we had just bought as it is getting way too hot in the van at night out here in the outback. Hopefully it will be cooler on the ground. We cooked up some more yummy kangaroo steak for tea and sat and star gazed the rest of the night. 10 February So the tent idea didn’t work we woke up dripping in sweat it’s even worse than inside the van! Never mind it only cost 15 bucks!! This morning we set off early heading for Tennant Creek, the next town before we take the turning to head of the main sealed road all the way to Townsville. I know what you’re thinking “why on Earth are you heading for Townsville which Typhoon Yasi has just destroyed?”, well the main sealed road goes straight to Townsville and we have decided to miss out Cairns as we can do the Great Barrier Reef from Townsville or further down the coast, this saves us time as it is running out fast! On the drive we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and stopped to take a couple of photos at the monument. We didn’t make it as far as Tennant Creek as it was getting dark so we pulled up at a very peculiar UFO themed caravan park in Wycliffe Wells. We paid for the campsite and to our shock it was half under water when we drove in!! There are even emus and donkeys in enclosures standing knee deep in water poor things! Pictures can do the talking of this strange little place! 11 February We drove all day today without seeing anyone and crossed the border into Queensland. 5 minutes into Queensland and I saw my first LIVE wild kangaroo! As darkness approached we pulled into a rest stop which had absolutely no facilities and was rather scary as it is in the middle of nowhere and nobody is around! 12 February After a pretty restless nights sleep in the scary rest stop we used our solar shower for the first time (basically a bag of water with a hose on the end) and set off on the road yet again. We ended up in a place called Hugenden for the night, which is another town in the middle of nowhere with a tiny population. Tomorrow will head for the east coast. A la perchoine, Jodie