West Macs (Alice - somewhere along Larapinta Dr)

Day: 10 (Alice - Side of Road (West Macs))

Distance Travelled: 255kms

Weather: Fine, sunny, hot!

Today's Biggest Challenges: More dirt tracks (sand, bleh), and the intense heat in the gorges.

What I've learned from today: That the West Macs are one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Highlights of today: We rose this morning after sleeping a little better last night (probably from exhaustion) and packed up the rest of the gear. I headed off a little earlier to the Watershed cafe to meet up with Leticia, the Alice Springs Crew Leader. I arrived at the trendy little cafe to order some coffee and we found each other without any problems. It was fantastic to meet a local, especially someone familiar with scouting, and just to be able to ask heaps of questions! Stories were thick and fast and we had a good yarn while waiting for the others. Stories about freelance riding around the desert and monster python snakes up near Katherine, it was fantastic to explore the differences between the centre and the south coast. Eventually the others arrived and we enjoyed a yarn and the free WiFi till we had to leave and start our West Macs adventures!

Our camping neighbour at the Alice caravan park had given us a sheet the day before of all the best attractions in the ranges to explore. On advice, we decided to skip over Stanley Chasm and did a select few for the time we had available.

First stop was Simpson’s Gap. A short drive into the area, we arrived about 11am which was a great time to see the sun peering over the slit that was the creek gap. Much to Kristal’s delight, we spotted some shy, cute little rock wallabies among the boulders on the east side of the gap. The water was rather rank at one end and we had to steer clear for the algae in it (I think it was toxic if I remember correctly) however it was magnificent. I took advantage of the amazing acoustics and sang Pippin’s song from The Lord of the Rings into the echo… a memory I won’t easily forget! So beautiful. We took a number of photos and decided to head off before the tourist buses came for the midday viewing.

Next stop was the Ellery Creek Hole. Another gorgeous waterhole with a fantastic area for swimming in deeper water. Incredible rock strata layers bent mysteriously around each other along one of the western walls and we searched in vain for a fossil - but the rocks are just too old!

It’s funny, Kristal and I are getting rather a reputation in the outback now as ‘those girls on the motorbikes’. We have met people back in Oodnadatta and Alice who we keep meeting again now, especially in this area as everyone is jumping from attraction to attraction. This came rather in handy for what happened next.

We left Ellery Creek to head to Ormiston Gorge. Kristal and I were pretty keen and we eventually lost sight of the boys. We arrived at the turn-off and Kristal headed down while I waited for the boys. I waited for two minutes before deciding I’d bake myself into a migraine if I didn’t find some shade in the heat, so I headed down to the gorge as well (the boys knew we were headed there anyway). We arrived and waited some time before deciding to have a look in the gorge and see if, for some reason, they had perhaps gotten ahead of us and we may have found them there. Still no sign of them. An hour after we saw them last, we decide to ask the next entering vehicle if they had seen the others broken down. The car we waved down turned out to be people we had met before and yes, they had seen the others broken down on the side of the road about 15 minutes behind. So with a sinking feeling we decided it would be best to push ahead to Glen Helen to get fuel before heading back to find the others. Just as we saddled up, however, the boys drove in with everything seemingly intact and we ran to greet them! Turned out, they told us, (between filling up bottles at the rain water outlet), that the radiator hoses had been shaken completely out of their sockets on the dirt roads and all they had to do was shove them back in again and re-fill the water outlet. Phew! Could have been so much worse.

We pushed on to Glen Helen for a quick refuel and lunch in the shade. Didn’t quite match what we had seen so far but would be worth coming back here and checking out the sights further. Met more German tourists (why so many Germans…? no idea!) walking around before heading off. I took a few photos of the nearby mountains and we were on our way.

Scenery was just beautiful and the road started to get more interesting and twisty on our way to King’s Canyon. Our last stop was the lookout to the Gosse Bluff crater, a massive crater on the western outskirts of the West Macs. We had no time to enter but from the lookout on the hill was an incredible sight.

The sun was beginning to get quite low in the sky so we pushed on to the Larapinta Drive junction and from there took it slower on the dirt road towards King’s. After an hour of this it became impossible to see anything and our eyes hurt a lot from the sun glare and the dust, even with sunnies and helmets on, so I swapped out with Stu (although I must say, the knobbies were making a huge difference in grip on the dirt road!). We pushed on for another 20 minutes, letting the riders make the decisions on when to stop (if necessary), until Kristal had a massive fishtail and she called us off. We found an appropriate spot on the side of the road and set up camp for the night.

Wow, I must say, this is probably the best night so far! There is something just so exciting about making it up as you go, and tonight is exactly that. We made one of the better recipes for dinner (sausage hotpot) and Anthony found enough fallen wood to make a small fire to herd off anything unwanted. Surrounded by absolute pitch black, the most deafening silence I’ve ever heard and shooting stars by the dozen, we ate by the firelight and sipped tea while singing campfire songs and listening to ‘the adventures of Kristal’, Kristal’s no-end of stories that prove she has nine lives! We were even shocked to find out that this whole time she has been riding with one eye literally half-blind from a years-ago accident. Well, the things you find out!

Finally we settled down to sleep as the moon began rising over the horizon. Tomorrow, the final 100km push to King’s Canyon and then on to Uluru! Till then, MMG

A Day Off (Alice)

Day: 9 (Alice! Just Alice.)

Distance Travelled: 45kms

Weather: Fine, Sunny, Hot

Today's Biggest Challenges: Not long enough! :)

What I've learned from today:

Highlights of today: Today was a fantastic opportunity for a break and some time to ourselves. We slept little during the night as we were all on edge after hearing about the van that got broken into yesterday, so we all slept with one eye open.

I got up early as I wanted to make the most of the day. I also wanted to check out one of the churches in town and they happened to have a super early service at 7am (super early for a day off anyway haha), so I headed off for that. It was great to meet a few new people and see how they did things in a different area… it was a little different but again, great to see new faces and see new things. It was relatively short (20 minutes) so I was out for the sunrise and decided to head up Anzac Hill to watch it. The hill is a beautiful, peaceful place on the northern outskirts of town and in the cool breeze of the morning it was a great refresher. Sadly, I lost my balance on the hill while parking and the bike fell over on the low side. There was no one around and I was worried about getting it up again, however I remembered seeing a video on picking up bikes by grabbing it backwards (back to bike) and walking it up, and it worked surprisingly easily! New skill for the kit.

Headed back for a yummy brekky of eggs and toast. First breakfast in yonks that’s not porridge or cereal! Made for a nice change and was great to put a bit of pazaz into the food for once. Then I spent time catching up on writing while the others got themselves out of bed. Stu got up early too, to take the bike to the mechanic and get the tires changed as they’ve been getting some serious wear on the front… not sure if it would even make it home on the current set as they’re getting so thin. Will be good to have new ones! Might even be able to do something about the bent lever from the fall.

Come about 11am Stu was back with the bike and Kristal, Anthony and I decided to head off on the bikes to the gaps outside town on the eastern ranges. Exploring Jessie’s and Emily’s Gaps turned out to be a great decision! The rock strata here is just so immensely old it’s hard to fathom the amount of years between its formation and our arrival there - one thing I’ve learned on this trip is just how phenomenally old Australia is. In many of the rock strata layers it is impossible to find fossils simply because of the fact that the rock pre-dates all life entirely. It’s so difficult to fathom.

Anyway, after gaping at this for some time we walked through the dry, sandy riverbed and to check out some aboriginal paintings on the walls. I noticed a climbable path up the side of the gap and thought it would be a good opportunity for a better view. The others joined and a little scramble ended up being a full half-hour climb to the top of the range. It was well worth it though! The sights from the top rivalled any we have seen so far! You can see horizon to horizon, a few odd ranges far in the distance and, looking east, Alice is clearly visible along with Pine Gap, the US/Australia joint air space facility. And far, far to the east, the West Macdonnell Ranges begin! They just seem to have a voice of their own that just calls and begs to be explored. They are light-blue and tan in their appearance from the distance and they remind me somewhat of the mountain ranges from home… a beautiful sight. I can’t wait to see them!!

After some time we headed back down to explore the other gap (very similar in sights) and then headed back for some lunch. We met Stu’s friend Marie back at camp and she and her kids shared local stories and answered our questions about the area. The whole day I had been trying to get a hold on any of the rover crews in the area to meet up before we leave tomorrow and it’s proven rather difficult. We’ll just have to see how that goes.

Later in the afternoon we had a chance to do some shopping for groceries before a nice stew for dinner to end our rest day. We discussed plans for the following day’s exploring of the Macdonnell ranges and cleaned up for another (hopefully not too) restless night. Before bed I got another message from the crew leader of the Alice Springs Rover Crew and we have arranged to meet at a cafe in the morning, yay! Keen to meet some interstate Rovers and get travelling again after a restful and exciting day. Till then, MMG

North (Marla - Alice)

Day: 8

Distance Travelled: 454kms

Weather: An awesome 25 degrees, sun and light winds

Today's Biggest Challenges: More dead straight roads for hundreds of kms. Sun through the visor made it feel like an oven but the cooler breeze helped in the end

What I’ve learned from today: Definitely worth having the kettle ready for coffee when you need it! Also, good hydration is impossible to overestimate in value.

Highlights of today: Another beautiful outback sunrise greeted us for our journey to the fourth state on this trip (and, incidentally, the eighth and final state/territory I am yet to visit!). Plan was simple: Drive North 450 something kms. So after getting our freshly cleaned clothes off the line from the day before (YAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!) and a quick pack we were off.

We planned this day a little bit, looking for rest stops every 100kms or so (started looking around the 80k mark). By the second stop, we were at the NT border! I initially thought I’d missed it as the SA border sign going the other way is more than a km back from the major sign so was a bit confusing. We snapped a few pictures and continued along the journey. The signs now said 130kmph which was AWESOME to experience! Good fun, very fast and we made good time.

We pulled over for fuel at the first roadhouse in the NT and was a fun $1.90p/L at the time. Walked inside to pay and saw a photograph of a fuel pump from nearby, some time ago, with an outrageously high price on it (more than $3.40) with the poor person having to buy more than 200 litres. Check out how much that turned out to be! Incredible.

Eldunda was the next stop and is a roadhouse on the corner of the Lassetter Highway, the turn-off to Uluru. The night before we had made a unanimous decision to switch up the Uluru/Alice days so that we can have a proper rest day in Alice, re-stock, use wifi, etc. before the busy touristy day at Uluru. We stopped for lunch, coffee and souvenirs while sitting in the heat getting roasted. Getting on to 28 degrees and boy can we feel it in the bike gear!

With only two hours to go, Stu swapped out with Kristal as she was getting a bit of a hydration headache, and so we pushed on. The 130kmph helped cool us down a little as we watched buzzards (which I argued looked like eagles but ahh well) having a kangaroo feast on the side of the road and dodged the cyclones created by the triple-trailer road trains.

Our last stop before Alice was the Stuart’s Well roadhouse. Next door was a camel farm so Stu thought it would be a great idea to get up close and personal with one and it got a REAL close whiff of his helmet! Clearly it didn’t taste any good cause he wouldn’t really pose for another photo haha. There were also a few emus about and I took rather an interest in studying their backward knees. Funny things they are. We had also had a look at the Cannonball Memorial nearby, marking the crash site that killed four people in the 1994 Cannonball Run motor race. A dry, windswept place not too far from the Finke River, it’s all that’s left to tell of that day.

The last stretch to Alice was quite easy, and we began to see the beauty of the Northern Territory. It is not quite as flat as many think it is and we had quite a lot of fun snaking between the hills and rivers on the way in. It is really a beautiful area and I for the hundredth time I wished we had more time to explore the area… till next time.

We arrived in Alice with a fair amount of sunlight left and headed for the campsite. With very reasonably priced sites we were on top of the moon (despite the lack of grass) until halfway through set up we were warned of the security problems of the area… a van had been broken into last night. I looked up google reviews for the place and they unfortunately confirmed our concerns… some people had even had their tents unzipped by thieves while they were in them! We all barely slept that night having one or more eyes open to any noises… we were on the lucky side though and survived the night without incident. However, it must be said that the feelings of insecurity did drop its attractiveness as a campsite quite substantially… I don’t think I’ll be going back there. (I would just like to say a note here on the indigenous peoples of the area… I am not from Alice or the central Australian areas and so it was rather a new experience to see so many aborigines roaming the streets, many seemingly aimlessly. I don’t know all the real situations here but they have not always been positive and there is often more that meets the eye in all senses of the phrase. I have a great respect for the indigenous peoples (and I have met some in particular that I hold a great awe and appreciation for) however, there are certainly two sides from what we experienced and in the towns and cities, sadly the experience was not the most positive. It can and has been a real problem in the past and very strict alcohol (in particular) restrictions are in place in many areas of the NT and SA.I hope more can be done in working with the indigenous, helping each other and building rapport in the future).

Day off in Alice to come. We are tired and so happy to have a break! More to come :) Till then, MMG