Wide open spaces

After leaving Coober Pedy, we crossed the border into the Northern Territory, and were all really looking forward to seeing the many iconic sights that the NT is famous for. We stopped for a night in a place called Kulgera, just to break up the long drive to our first big stop of Uluru. The next morning we headed off up the Stuart Highway to Erldunda, a “town” (more a service station with a campground and tavern) at the junction of the Stuart Highway and the road out to Uluru, thinking we had a plan for the day and where we would stay, but after a bit of chatting about the options, realised this wasn’t the case.  The lack of mobile reception made planning and booking impossible, so we turned around and headed back towards Erldunda where there was reception to sort things out.  Thankfully we were only about 10 minutes outside of town at that point so not a major backtrack. Somehow we were completely failing in the planning skills department that morning, which resulted in a total of three return trips for various things that needed reception before we were finally on our way, with a campsite booked at the Uluru resort.

The drive to Uluru was definitely the busiest we had see a road for a while which was not surprising given we were heading to one of the biggest tourist attractions in Australia.  The road was full of grey nomads with their massive caravans, backpackers with art/grafitti covered campervans (including Scooby’s Mystery Machine), and families with their camper trailers in tow. Over the past week or so there had been a running joke in the car that any time we saw a big rock looming on the horizon we would yell out “look kids , there’s Uluru”, and after the usual response of “is that really Uluru”, we would reply “no, just kidding”, so as we approached Mount Conner, we couldn’t resist one more time of teasing the kids. Mount Conner is an equally impressive sight with similar dimensions to Uluru, and being on the same road in, has fooled many a tourist looking expectantly to the horizon waiting for their first glimpse of Uluru. A little further on, we did get our first real glimpse, which involved clambering up a sand dune by the side of the road, built up from the deep red sand that this part of the country is famous for. The contrast of the dune against the clear blue skies, with the subtle yellow green tones of the spinifex grass was truly breathtaking.

As we arrived at the campground, we bumped into a lovely older couple that we had met at the Mutona Sculpture Park, and as we drove to our allocated site, discovered that they would be our neighbours for the next few days, which was a nice surprise. One night we were all able to look through their binoculars set up on a tripod, and learned all about Orion and a few other constellations, as well as seeing four (of the known 67) moons of Jupiter which were visible and in a perfect line that night.

The next day we woke up to another crisp morning with clear skies (the weather over the last few weeks had been consistently cold at night, averaging around 10°C, with generally cloud free days in the mid 20s). Today was not only our first day at Uluru, but also our 10th wedding anniversary. Although a romantic dinner at a five star restaurant, with the kids at home under the safe watch of a babysitter would have been nice, it was unfortunately not part of the plan for the day. We decided that spending a day exploring Uluru with the family was the next best thing.  Stu and Emily kicked off the day braving the cold to walk the few hundred metres to the lookout in the campground which offered spectacular views of Uluru and The Olgas as the sun started its daily pilgrimage from the eastern horizon.

After breakfast we loaded the bikes onto “Iggy” (aka our car) and headed for the rock. As Uluru loomed up ahead, the kids were super excited and couldn’t believe just how big it was. Although Kat and I had been out here about 10 years earlier, we were both just as excited. In spite of seeing pictures of Uluru splashed about all over media promoting NT and Australian tourism throughout our lives, nothing compares to actually seeing it in the flesh. As we drove past the staring point of the climb, we fielded the expected questions from the kids about why people were climbing the rock and why we weren’t. We had never really struggled with this one – although it is no doubt a wonderful and satisfying experience to scale such an integral feature of our country’s landscape, we were more than happy to respect the wishes of the Anangu, the various aboriginal tribes that make up the traditional owners of Uluru and its surrounds, and not climb the rock. After explaining this to the kids as we parked the car, we unloaded the bikes and embarked on our own trip of discovery as we set off on the circumnavigation of this giant monolith.

The 12km loop took us past countless different views of Uluru. Although the view from afar is spectacular, seeing the different colours, textures, and diverse mini ecosystems from up close gives you a whole different appreciation for its beauty. All around the rock there are meandering vertical black lines, like someone spilled a giant tin of black paint over the rock and it dribbled down the sides. We found out it is actually a black algae, which reveals the channels that the water follows on its way to the ground after storms. We imagined how different it would look during and after a huge desert storm, with rivers of water flowing off the rock creating massive waterfalls, but with clear skies above, we knew today would not be that day to see it. The kids did really well with the ride, making it all the way around with very few complaints, though this was helped by a number of stops along the way for drinks and snacks, together with a few lollies for fuel. After two hours and 40 minutes, we made it back to the car, and the kids were really proud of their riding efforts (as were we).

Being exhausted from the ride, we had a lazy afternoon. That night we thought we’d treat ourselves to a ‘special’ anniversary dinner at the Pioneer pub down the road. We fed the kids and packed the iPads to keep them occupied, but unfortunately Stu had managed to get himself into a bad mood due to some less than perfect behaviour from the kids (and a rapidly dwindling supply of patience). Constant close proximity of the whole family 24/7 sometimes means that relations get strained and moods turn sour. Although we persevered and had dinner out, we soon aborted and headed for bed, deciding grumpy moods were not very conducive to a nice dinner out.

The next day was a much more relaxed and enjoyable one. We had decided we could do with an extra night, having only book three originally. We planned to have a lazy chores day and then head out for a walk again on the last day but unfortunately the campground was all booked out so we had to leave the following day. The chores still had to be done, so we did them while the kids did some school work, and then made a nice picnic for dinner and headed to the sunset viewing area for drinks and an early dinner. We watched Uluru colour shift from a bright orange through to blazing red and then dark purple before finally becoming nothing more than a silhouette on the horizon. The kids didn’t seem quite as interested in this spectacle, their attention more focused on reading the books they had brought along. On the way back to camp we drove along the road to Kata Tjuta a little bit to see the outline of The Olgas in front of the setting sun.

The next day was Mothers Day, but given we had to pack up and leave, Kat had to forgo the gourmet breakfast in bed. She did however get to share the sunrise from the campground lookout with her two beautiful children which was a lovely start to the day. On the way out of Uluru, we drove via The Olgas lookout to see them up close in the light of day. We could also see Uluru in the distance from this vantage point which made for quite a sight. After a few photos of the teddy bears at the lookout, we hopped in the car and headed for Erldunda, basically a servo and campground on the junction of the Lasseter and Stuart Highways, where we would spend the night.