It’s been a fair while since I landed in Darwin, all excited about simply speaking English and paved roads. Amazed by the amount of fresh produce in the big fridge and supermarkets that even open on Sundays. This is now the standard of living, adding two jobs, walking the dogs, cooking at home, swimming and a personal trainer. Pretty much seems like life at home. Then again, it’s always sunny in Darwin and the Territorians are particularly friendly.
It’s time to break the Darwin routine, as I received quite the invite a few weeks ago. Trish and Bob asked me to join them on their six weeks holiday through central and west Australia! “Well let me think about that, uhm, hell-yeah!”
Over the past weeks we have planned the route, campsites and checked for necessary permits, well, moreover, they have. It’s a very new thing for me not to be in charge of the details of travels, which is great. We’ll travel in a shiny 4×4 Land Cruiser and sleep in the all Australian swags. I’m so excited about sleeping under the stars (bucketlist-check)! A little less about one-digit temperatures and creepy crawlers, but we’ll live, right? Who’s Rocky and why is it his roadtrip, you might wonder.. The naughty red healers can’t join, so we bring Rocky, our blue healer puppy.. 

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Day 1 | 0 ~ 645 [645Km]
Darwin – Mataranka springs -Daly waters pub – Dunmarra camping

For weeks we’ve been anticipating this day and now we are all shuffling about, grabbing those last bits together that need to come with. We’re headed south, then southwest to Perth, before travelling the whole West coast back up to Darwin. For you map lovers, I made a full interactive routemap of the first week.

Just after Katherine, we pass Elsas National Park, where we stop for a swim and some food. The Mataranka springs make the perfect stop for a plunge and lunch. The next stop is the Daly Waters Pub, a famous Aussie pub(watch the movie ‘Last Cab to Darwin’) , walls covered in signed currency notes from all over the world, footy shirts and bras hanging from wooden poles and a thong-tree decorate the legendary old wooden pub.

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Day 2 | 645 ~ 1507 Km [862Km]
Dunmarra – Devils Marbles – Alice Springs

I wake up while the camp is still lit by moonlight and stars are shining brightly above us. Five in the morning, a good time to do some exercises before a long day in the car.

The landscape doesn’t change much; northern territory bushland with red kites circling above while passing thousands of reddish termite bounds, some dressed with t-shirts, making them look like odd puppets and the roads are straighter than the pope. Every now and then there is a massive tabletop rock-formation or an aboriginal community, marked by the garbage surrounding it.

Out of the blue, we stumble upon an alien landscape, where spotting UFOs that supposedly fly over with astonishing regularity is the night time activity. This extraordinary landscape, called the devils marbles, is most unusual. Odd formations of giant round and oval boulders, stacked upon each other in clusters, as if a giant tried to build balancing rock towers. If so, the giant did very well, some formations impossibly well balanced for being round.

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Day 3
Alice Springs

We’re in the red centre, spending the day in Alice Springs, 1499 km from Darwin, just south of the tropic of capricorn.
Bob and Trish are off to the ‘road transport hall of fame’, having been road-train drivers themselves, it’s an absolute must-see. I spend the day in Alice Springs instead and find a little gem with beautiful hot steaming coffee and big plates of brekkie. The desert climate here reminds me of the Bolivian flats surrounding Salar de Uyuni, dry, crisp and sunny.
I aim for a very easygoing day with a walk up the hill and a visit to the museum for a dose of culture and history.

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Day 4 | 1507 ~ 1897 [390Km]
Alice Springs – Standleys Chasm – Ormiston Gorge – Kings Canyon

We pack up our tent and swags, hardly able to feel our fingertips as it’s only five degrees celsius, bitter cold for folks like us, used to thirty degrees. 

We make a hundred kilometre diversion on our way to kings canyon, allowing us to pass two sights on the way. Within an hours drive, we get to at Standleys chasm. We walk to the chasm, which is pretty, but mostly cold due to the breeze piercing through it. Happy to be back in the car, we continue our way southwest. We bob up and down driving through this barren unforgiving landscape. The riverbeds are dried up, gumtrees lined on the banks, their roots digging deep for water.

The other stop on the detour is Ormistons gorge. A short walk provides us with a stunning view of the red gorge, cutting into the bright white sandbanks forming a shore for the small lake. We climb up for a view from the top, gorgeous would be the right word for the view we get.

We continue driving on the bitumen till there is no more and hit dirt road. With our vehicle, we hardly notice a difference in comfort and soon enough, we arrive at Kings Canyon Resort where we set up our swags for the night. From the campground, we look straight at the world famous canyon which we’ll explore first thing in the morning. Writing this, lying in my swag, I feel intensely happy and amazed that I’m actually here. Another night under the milky way, dingos will be running through the campground soon, hoping to find some scraps from the barbie and all I can hear is a breeze through the vast desert silence.

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Day 5 | 1897 ~ 2441 [544Km]
Kings Canyon – Uluru – Kata Tjuta – Kaltukatjara

The rim walk is a fantastic 3-hour loop on the rim of the canyon. A steep climb at the beginning of the walk, which locals call “Heart Attack Hill”, due to its steepness), takes us straight to the top, with spectacular views of the gorge below and  the surrounding landscape. About half way during the walk, a small detour descends to Garden of Eden, a waterhole surrounded by lush plant life. The last half of the walk passes through sandstone domes, looking like half-beehives and gives us lots of ‘spekkie’ views of the massive canyon.

After Kings Canyon we push on to Uluru (Ayers Rock), passing Mount Conner which seems as big as the big rock. When we get the real rock in sight, we stop at the free campground, about 30 kilometres before Uluru. From here, there’s a stunning view upon the 3.6 kilometre long, 348 metres high red rock surrounded with barren bushland surrounding it. Closer inspection reveals a wondrous contoured surface concealing numerous sacred sites of particular significance to the Anangu. It is possible to climb the rock, but as it is sacred to the natives, I find it rather disrespectful to do so. Adding that you’re over a thousand of Kilometres away from civilisation, it seems like a pretty stupid thing to do.

We see the rock in a bright reddish-orange and when we decide to continue, although the majority of people will come in for the famous sunset, illuminating the rock in bright orange, then a series of deeper reds before it fades into brown.

It’s another 40 kilometres to its lesser known sister, Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). Here we make a very brief stop for a snapshot and drive on, and with a few turns we hit the Great Central Road. Formerly the gun barrel highway, this 1126 kilometres long dirt road will lead us straight into West Australia.
Some planning is required before hitting this track, recommended only for four wheel drives. It is on the most direct route from Perth to Uluru and there are few fuel supplies (each 300 Kilometres).

The scenery is remarkable. We pass hilltops that are red and green at the same time, with deep trenches running through the slopes, the trees are as barren as the landscape, their thin dry leaves rattle in the desert breeze as red whirly-whirly’s twirl the sand high up into the bright blue skies.

If you go to Australia without expectations and get to see Kings Canyon, Uluru and Kata Tjuta on a sunny day, you can only smile your face off. To top it all, just before sunset we find a wonderful camping spot at Kaltukatjara (Docker river), where we only two campers are parked. While we roll out the swags, the hills slowly turn colour as the sun lowers behind them. Another yummie camping dinner is cooked and the red sky slowly makes place for the brilliant milky way. Getting away from the camp, I roll out my mat and sip red wine while looking at all constellations above. Crickets and the wind are the only gentle sounds with the occasional roar of laughter breaking the silence. What a day. What a day indeed.

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Day 6 | 2441 ~ 3321 [880Km]
Kaltukatjara – Laverton

It’s around 01:00 in the morning when I hear hoofs trotting on the red sand. There’s no other sound but the hoofs just outside of my swag and my heart skips a beat. It starts running away, then comes closer again. I lay dead still in my tent for a while until its footsteps disappear into the black night. I tell myself not to be such a coward next time and just open a flap of the swag to see what it is. I lie awake for a while, listening to nothing – it’s dead quiet now.

Today’s stretch of the road leads us across the ‘border’ to West Australia, to more desert. We see a movement on the side of the road and Trish goes: “Is it a black fellow or a camel?” It’s the latter, a very big one, gracefully trotting alongside our car until she decides to cross the road into the bushland. Beauty! Maybe the same beauty that gave us a visit in the middle of the night. I try to spot more wildlife, but mostly stare at desert grass and bushes, plotted over the land in a variety of greyish-greens. 

When heading from the Northern Territory to Laverton there is an ‘amnesty bin for quarantine’. All passenger vehicles are to stop and dispose of all quarantine risk material that is stated on the sign, including all fresh fruit, vegetables, honey, seed, potatoes, onions and other such plants. This area has an inspector from time to time and there is risk of big fines if travellers are stopped and quarantine risk material is found. My apples and honey stay right where they were and so does the rest of the food in our 80L fridge.

We drive 889 kilometres, with a lunch break at the deserted roadhouse of Tjukayirla. Time went back for an hour and a half by crossing into West Australia, but the looks of the roadhouse make it seem like time stood still.

When we make it to the campground on the edge of the tiny town of Laverton, my body is as stiff as a rolled up swag. The layers of clothing come back back on as temperature dips down. Trish cooks us a beautiful spicy tomato stew, perfect for the cold weather. We leave the dishes for the morning, it’s time for drinks by the fire. We lighten up as much as the flames and any frustrations go up in smoke. Fire can be magic at times, add a few bottles of wine and fellow travellers with their stories and you might as well call it a party. We chat until we’re told to keep it down and head to bed. 

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Day 7 | 3321 ~ 3680 [359Km]
Laverton – Kalgoorlie

The wine that got me to sleep in easily also lets me sleep in till I hear Bob saying what a lovely day it is. And although I know it’s probably quite chilly and I’m already feeling a slight headache, I zip out of my swag finding Rocky took off with my shoes. 

Karen, our navi, sends us around Laverton in circles just long enough to see two skippies hopping across the road. Once we’re in the right direction I see an emu. Getting lost is never a waste. I keep staring out the window hoping to spot dingos, while we head towards the gold mining town Kalgoorlie.

Kalgoorlie has a turbulent ‘Wild West’ history as a gold mining town. In 1893 the first gold was found and within a decade the town of Kalgoorlie tripled its size. In the western Australian Museum I learn that life at the ‘golden mile’ wasn’t that sparkly at all, provisions were always short in supply, water very scarce and prostitution made up for gender imbalances. Then there was lots of theft leading to murder and riots. Nowadays ‘the super pit’, the open cut mine on top of the golden mile continues to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Driving through Kalgoorlie, you can imagine what it was like in its glory days, but these days are long gone. We drive to its neighbouring town for a last night under the stars before we head to the ‘big smoke’ Perth.

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Day 8 | 3680 ~ 4273 [593]
Kalgoorlie ~ Perth 

I added the numbers, to give you an idea of the distances traveled. In a bit over a week we travelled a distance the same as driving from Las Vegas to Guatemala City or from Madrid to Moscow!!! In the upcoming five weeks we’ll slowly go back to Darwin along the West Coast, stopping for anything we like on our way, hopefully Rocky behaves…