1998
Lionel the Landcruiser
and Tap-Tap go Walkabout

Day 3
Giles Met Station - Uluru

We were there - Rob and Hild's first look at Uluru.

Now we are at a very full camp site at Yulara - the Uluru resort. This is a major resort with a couple of very nice looking hotels as well as up-market and basic chalets and our campsite. I guess it is really a tourist trap, but we don't care 'cos we are tourists at the moment.

Uluru is pretty impressive though. Coming at it from the west we were forewarned by Kata Tjuta - which is the same kind of lump sticking up out of a flat plane, but Uluru is a bit more impressive 'cos it is completely on its own. We've only seen it from a distance so far - we're going to walk up, round and down it tomorrow - but we reckon it is definitely worth coming to see. Although we couldn't have avoided it actually - it is the only place the roads go to round here!

Last night was pretty cold again and this morning the tent was quite damp with condensation. Hild said it was 'cos we weren't up early enough (the sun was already up), but I don't think so. Rather than wait until the roadhouse opened, we put in a jerry-can and shot off about 8 only to stop to fix the luggage rack again at 8.15.

One loose battery - temporarily fixed with tie-down strap and "twisty wire".

I don't think I mentioned this yesterday, but we had our first equipment failure yesterday afternoon. The rack so lovingly built (and then re-modelled when we found it was too small) and screwed into my roof to hold clothes and light things, began to buckle in the middle. This wasn't so bad in itself, but in doing so it pulled the brackets out of their screws and one side fell down. We carried on until we camped and then unpacked things to have a go at fixing it. First all, Hild tried to strengthen the middle with a couple more of the bits of plastic she has used to cover the edges, and then Rob and Hild screwed the brackets up using the nice new socket set (even using the ratchet one that Rob said he wouldn't use).

None of this will mean anything to you of course, because you don't know what the thing looks like, but we thought we had done a good job until 8.15 this morning when it began to buckle again. It didn't fall down, but rather than wait we had another go and this time fixed one of the tyre leavers to it using wire twists (Hild has been desperate to find a use for her 'twisty wire' ever since she bought it). This - and the removal of the heavier items which weren't supposed to go up there anyway - seems to have done the trick, 'cos we went through some really rough stuff at pretty fair speed (Hild was driving) later on and it was fine.

Kata Tjuta (the Olgas).

Speaking of the state of the roads, since Warburton there have been some really bad bits with particularly bad corrugations. The thing is it really doesn't help to slow down - they feel even worse - so you just have to go through it and hope your teeth don't fall out. At one point Rob was convinced the door was open or the lock was falling off, but when we checked at Lassiter's cave everything was tight and working. We did find one thing missing there though - One of the long bolts used to screw down the auxiliary battery was completely missing! Not so much as a nut in sight. The thought of a battery bashing around the engine compartment didn't impress us too much, so we've done a temporary job with a tie down strap and more of Hild's twisty wire, and we'll get it seen to in Alice Springs. We've pretty much done with the rough road now - asphalt nearly all the way except for some sand at Boggy Hole.

The asphalt started at Kata Tjuta (the Olga's as they used to be called) and although it was nice to get some smooth road, it was a bit of a shame 'cos the gravel is REAL driving. You have to really keep am eye open for the best line (i.e. missing the most bumpy bits) while still making sure the car stays in a straight line and always remembering that there might actually be another car out there somewhere. And for a lot of the time, it is actually smoother at 80-90 kph - I know this sounds silly, but for the smaller corrugations speed is the best option 'cos with my posh red shock absorbers I just float over the top!

Well, we stopped for Rob and Hild to have a walk at the Kata Tjuta and it was a nice interesting walk between two of the larger mounds with a surprising amount of greenery in between. It must be some sort of micro-climate down there with some quite lush vegetation. What was also noticeable was the flies. We hadn't seen any since leaving Perth (too cold for them I reckon) but as soon as we got out of the car at Kata Tjuta we were surrounded and when we got to the camps site the first order was to spray hats with repellent and put them on.

Rob in the kitchen at Ayers Rock Campground.

Like I mentioned, the campsite was pretty full when we got here and there are more people arriving all the time. We were lucky to find a nice corner (probably because we were happy with a non-grassy piece of grass), but since we arrived all around us has been filled up! The powered sites are numbered, but the ordinary camp sites are just catch what you can so I guess you have to get here early. The resort is nice though with more shops than we expected and reasonable prices. The diesel here is the cheapest since Southern Cross (89 cents per litre) so we are really glad we just used the jerry cans today and didn't fill up in Docker River. And I found rolls of Fujichrome at cheaper prices than I have paid in Perth! The only way I got my film cheaper was to buy in bulk (20% off for 10 or more rolls). Having said that, the camp site was $44 for two nights so it sort of makes up for it.

So, as usual we are going to bed early and going to get up with the sun tomorrow and walk all over Uluru. I'll be having a lazy day watching them do it, but I've earned it after more than 2000 kilometres in three days - over a thousand of them 'off-road'. Well, off sealed roads anyway. I just hope all these oversized shopping trolleys round here know what I've been through - these nice new shiny 4WD's with all their bits haven't even got mud on them let alone a bit of good red Aussie dust. Hah, I'd like to see what they make of the road to Docker River - I'm sure their caravans won't make it anyway!

Enough gloating, I'm off to bed. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Lionel