The Group
Let us introduce our tour group to you first! From left to right, starting on top of the bus:
- Alison or Ally, student and rugby player from England, taking a year off in Australia
- Isako, nurse from Japan, on holidays
- Gerhard and Sabine from Germany
- Andy from England, taking a year off
- Geraldine from Ireland, living and working in Sydney
- Kate, student from England, taking a year off (travelling together with Alison)
- Dorian from England, living and working in Sydney (Geraldine's boyfriend)
- Stephan, marine from Germany, taking a year off
In front of the bus:
- Andrew from Australia, Travelabout guide on holidays
- Tom, retired IT project manager from the US now living in Perth
Taking the picture: Glen, our guide, which we will meet later on!
The Bus
We were travelling in an OKA, a very robust Australian army vehicle. It is
equipped with all sorts of technology needed in these remote areas: 4WD, roll over protection,
two tanks, a specially constructed trailer containing all cooking equipment and refrigerators
for our food supplies, as well as a special water tank, GPS, satellite phone, a basic
airconditioning system - and space for 13 passengers. The trailer is a special construction
made by our guide! Our bags as well as the camping equipment
were transported on the roof of the OKA. Every day we swapped places so that everybody had the
chance to sit in front or at the best windows.
Travelabout - the Tour Company
Travelabout is based in Perth and offers a wide range of tours, ranging from day-tours
along the coast to 24-day outback and camping tours... If you are interested, just let us know
and we will give you more information. We booked online and were very happy with the tour and
the organisation.
The Route
Our adventure began with an early start from Perth. Travelling through the Jarrah
forests of the Darling Ranges, we followed the goldfields water pipeline
through rolling farmlands and sleepy country towns. The pipeline is a real engineering
marvel constructed over 100 years ago, in order to secure the water supply of the gold
rush towns in the dry outback. Soon we passed out of the golden wheatlands and into
the historic gold mining areas of Southern Cross, Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. At
Kalgoorlie we took the time to have a look at the town and also visit the famous
Super Pit, a huge modern gold mine, before we headed north on the road to
Laverton. A great experience was to explore the old deserted gold mining town of
Gwalia. Once thousands of people lived around here in the hectic gold rush era at
the turn of the last century - now just a few artifacts remain to mark the passing of a
golden era.
Here it was time to leave the bitumen behind and head into the desert, towards the Red
Centre. The Great Central Road took us through beautiful breakaway country, past
lakes and rivers that only contain water after substantial rainfall, aboriginal waterholes,
caves, gorges and art sites. Every night, we set up bush camps, and slept rolled up
in our swags, miles from civilization under the brilliant night skies of the desert.
Travelling east through the Great Victoria Desert (always following the Great
Central Road), we constantly kept an eye out for the unique Australian wildlife,
especially kangaroos, wallabies and emus, as well as for the wild camels, originally
imported from Afghanistan for carrying goods through the hot and dry regions - some of
which have got away and roamed this desert area since the early days.
This region is very scarcely populated, and the only traces of civilisation are the
roadhouses and Aboriginal communities (at distances of hundreds of kilometres
from each other!). Among others, we stopped at Tjukayirla roadhouse for supplies
and a shower, recognised as one of the most remote roadhouses in Australia, usually
located next to an Aboriginal community. We also stopped at the roadhouse of the isolated
Aboriginal community of Warburton. Generally, it is not allowed to enter the
communities themselves; only the roadhouses. In Aboriginal land, alcohol is forbidden,
and it is not permitted to take photographs of the Aboriginal people.
Soon the Rawlinson Ranges appeared purple and blue in the distance. This is
country travelled by Ernest Giles in 1874. We visited the very remote Giles
weatherstation before travelling on the Gunbarrel Highway for a while.
Crossing the Western Australia / Northern Territory border, we theoretically would
have had to turn back our watches by 1 ½ hours (which we actually didn't, as time doesn't
really matter out here!). We passed the Aboriginal settlement of Docker River and
rejoined the Great Central Road again. We passed through the magnificent Peterman
Ranges and visited Lasseters Cave, before the majestic Olgas appeared pink
and purple on the horizon.
After a breathtaking walk into the Olga Gorge (or Kata Tjuta as the Aboriginals
call them) we could spot Ayers Rock (or Uluru) in the distance. The difference
between us - who came thousands of kilometres through the desert - and the clean and
fancy dressed tourists which were brought here by coaches directly from the Yulara
resort nearby, including their drivers in shorts, tie and white socks, amused us
very much. After another photo spot with a breathtaking view of Uluru, we visited the
cultural centre for a close look at the Anangu (local Aboriginal tribe) way of life.
Unfortunately, fierce bush fires lead to the evacuation of the cultural centre and
almost to the evacuation of Uluru National Park - almost, fortunately. So sitting on
our OKA vehicle, we had the pleasure to watch the setting sun change the colours of the
worlds most famous rock (over the heads of the masses of other tourists and their coaches)...
An early rise was required the next day, not only to watch the sunrise on Uluru and the
distant Kata Tjuta, but because the cool of the morning is the best time to for those
that wished to climb Uluru, but also for the great majority of us which preferred to do
the Uluru base walk.
Travelling to our last campsite, we passed the less known Mount Conner, which
lies in a direct straight line with Kata Tjuta and Uluru. Three majestic landmarks in
a straight line but geologically totally different, in the middle of nowhere - just an
accident, or might there be some truth in the Aboriginal legends?
Our last outback camp was set up at Kings Creek Station, where there was time for
optional activities such as camel ride, 4WD quad bike ride or even a helicopter ride over
the George Gill Range - or just a relaxing afternoon in the pool...
Again, we departed 'the Station' early in the morning, so that we could explore the
fascinating King's Canyon with its "Lost City" and "Garden of Eden" in the cool
of the morning. Then it was time for the last leg of our journey to Alice Springs.
Our tour ended with a dinner in the outback style pub and restaurant "Bojangles", where
we spent our last evening together with the group, chatting about our great outback
adventure. Unfortunately there was not much time to explore Alice Springs with its old
telegraph station, the Royal Flying Doctor Service central or the School of the Air
central... We had to leave them for next time, as Noosa was already waiting for us!