Day 9: Warakurna - Yulara

We are finally at Yulara, 6km from Uluru in the Northern Territory.

Once again our drive was pretty good. We had been warned that once we were passed Docker River the road surface would be terrible. It was bad but bearable. It tended to be worse through aboriginal land.

During our 1200km drive across the outback we saw very few kangaroos, avoided killing half a dozen lizards, saw around 10 moving vehicles, 100 wrecked cars and perhaps 50 camels. The camels nearly always were standing in the middle of the road, they would gallop off, then stop and have a look round to make sure you weren't chasing them.

As we approached The Olgas, Ol and I went quiet, overwhelmed. They are beautiful, majestic rock formations of granite, basalt and mud stone. Over the next few days we will come back and explore.

As we passed The Olgas we turned onto real road... I never thought I would be so please to see bitumen. We drove past Uluru on the way to Yulara where the only accomodation is for visiting the National Park that hosts the rocks. The camp site here is pretty good and there are plenty amenities, restaurants, shops and a hotel.

We were going to do the sunrise walk tomorrow and then climb Uluru but it is now 2AM, we will go at sunset instead and have a lazy day as we really do deserve it. Our treat when we arrived here was to share a pint of banana milk, it tasted like nectar, it was so good.

Em

Miles: 332
Time: 7 hours
Location: Click me!
Temp: 42c
Music:
Simon & Garfunkel - Definitive
Audio book - The Life of Pi, Yann Martel

Day 8: Tjukayirla - Warakurna

Today went so smoothly we were happy to carry on driving when we came upon Warburton 255km from Tjukayirla. We arrived around midday after leaving at 7AM. Our next stop was Warakurna, 231km, which took another four hours.

I say everything went smoothly because there was no major dramas for a change. We didn't break down, we still haven't found the mouse and assume it's mouse overboard by now, and we still relativity sane.

By the end of the day I was so fed up with seeing, feeling, smelling the sun. So fed up with getting jiggled about over terrible stretches of road where we could only do 35km/h (our max is around 65km/h), where the road was densely littered with jagged rocks or it was so corrugated that every bone in poor Henry's and our bodies clattered and shuddered like the end spin of a washing machine. So fed up with seeing, feeling, smelling, tasting every shade and texture of red dirt, we are all covered in it, including Henry's interior and as a result all our belongings. Incidentally, it is iron oxide coating the particles of soil that makes it red. Whenever we stopped to change drivers or check the van over if we looked at the road in front we both had a strange visual effect where the road seemed to be drawing away from us, which made me feel a little queasy. I guess looking at a stretch of road rushing towards you for so many hours can play tricks on your brain.

That all said I am happy we have gained a day by doing the nine hour dash and tomorrow we have Uluru (Ayers Rock) and real road to look forward too. It really wasn't all bad.

Actually there was one small drama, when I went to the ablutions for my shower there were two HUGE flying bugs bombing me and they didn't even die after I emptied 3/4 of a can of Raid bug killer on them, so I had to shower in the men's. Oly and I were the only people in the camp site so it was OK.

Tip: Always check dates on anything you buy at remote road houses, twice now oly has bought orange juice and they have been our of date by as much as three months!

Em

Miles: 486
Time: 9 hours
Temp: 41c
Music:
Bill Withers - Greatest Hits
Audio book - The Cat Who Went up the Creek, Lilian Jackson Braun