Uluru Trip Christmas 2010

[raywise]

What a trip! And you were pretty spot on with your calculations for the fuel usage etc Tony, which helps with knowing what you are up for when travelling.

Whats with the "broken down" cars in SA, potential Ivan Milats in the making? Spooky stuff.

 

[Dave]

Good pics Tony. Got many more ?

I dont know how many times i have been flagged down for a lift.

Beep that, to many psychos in this day and age.

Dave.

 

[Old.Tony]

Our fuel calcs were actually thrown to the winds.

Original plan was to turn left towards Alice Springs, pass the Devils Marbles, hook a right onto the Barkly Highway then pass through Mt Isa, Winton, Longreach, Barcaldine, Auguthella, Cunnamulla, Bourke, Nyngan, Dubbo and into Wellington.

We were checking the flood situation while sitting around in the resort and discovered the highway at Longreach blocked by deep floodwater. Because that not only meant an indeterminate time before the water subsided, as well as an unknown amount of road damage, we decided to go home sort of the way we came.

We hit Port Augusta on the return trip and headed for Jindabyne, where our daughter was playing in the band she's in for New Years Eve. We picked her up and brought her home - something she appreciated, because she went down in a Hyundai Excel and had to find room for her tenor and alto sax plus other gear - she carried her sax case on her lap the whole way down.

I'm going to revise average fuel usages for future trips. If the terrain is not hilly, it looks like I can manage (towing) about 15.5 to 16LPHK. We used 20LPHK going up and over the Alpine Way.

We used fuel from different suppliers - usually Shell, BP, Caltex but once we picked up fuel from Kings Creek Station and the car didn't miss a beat, although at 178.6cpl, my heart sorta did, but got better when we arrived at Kings Canyon Resort and saw 188.8cpl!

We have hundreds of pics. We even took entire footage of the Uluru sunrise and sunset, plus some of the road trip and the walk around the rock. I've got a couple more pics on my photobucket page now, and we will probably select a few more to go up there. I've reduced them all in size to 640px widths, although the original images are 5Mpx (the Coober Pedy one is a 10Mpx). We intend to select a good one and have it printed poster-size, with a subtitle, and get it framed.

I wasn't very spiritual before visiting the rock. I had just thought it was a lump of stone sitting in the hot desert. Having been there my view has changed - there's something inspiring about being up close and touching it.

 

[ljacko78]

nice Tony !!! Wasn't not expecting a pic of a submarine at all

Yeah - not surprised Longreach was flooded out. Seems to every year. The Rock is way bigger than I thought it would be. Huge. Had there been any rain out there???

I did the Alpine in Oct on my bike. Awesome road. Was a little colder then. 38 is hot no matter where you are. Thanks for sharing

 

[Dave]

Tony I was down near your place last week, wednesday, thursday, friday.

I got to go to Hamilton exchange and New Lambton Exchange.

God I hate those 2 exchanges.

Dave.

 

[Old.Tony]

We're still going through the hundreds of pics we took out in the centre, and some movie footage, showing how green the place is. Part of the Lasseter Highway is so green you'd think you were driving around Mudgee or Dungog. It didn't rain while we were there, but they must have had some decent rainfall in recent times.

The Alpine Way actually has signs up saying "unsuitable for caravans and articulated vehicles". I can see semis having trouble with the 15km/h hairpins and I know we used both sides of the road - with a road length of 13.6m (about 44 feet - longer than a bus) we had to take care that nobody was coming the other way, but we did start at 4:30am that morning and saw no other vehicles until we reached Thredbo.

Hamilton is the big one, must be a nightmare in that place. Maybe you should have a holiday instead, Dave!

 

[joshman]

wow, what a trip! thanks so much for sharing not only your planning stages and planned sight-seeing musts, but the pics and general information about your trip.

a mate and and i are planning a very similar trip in the middle of 2011 (straight through the coldest part of the year), so it's definitely giving some food for thought on that front.

thanks again and glad you enjoyed your trip, looked like an amazing journey.

 

[Old.Tony]

A word about that time of year - the resorts are REALLY busy. You really should book ahead.

If you're driving up the Stuart Highway, I strongly recommend that you either find something invigorating to talk about for 12 hours straight, or you swap drivers every two hours. It has to be one of the most mind-numbing stretches of road I've ever come across.

Didn't see too many roos, but we were parked by 10:30pm most nights.

 

[Beergutz]

Tony,
FYI
I do a lot of towing with a scissor lift on a trailer and have travelled all over the state including runs up to Armidale via Thunderbolts way, Up from Batemans Bay via Braidwood to Canberra, Nowra up Macquarie Pass to Hume highway in all sorts of hot weather and i havent encountered any problems with over heating as yet ( touch wood). Ive got a bit of a lead foot too if thats of any help with your over heating issue ?

 

[scottybobcat]

Do you know the story behind the sub at Holbrook Tony.

 

[joshman]

A word about that time of year - the resorts are REALLY busy. You really should book ahead.

If you're driving up the Stuart Highway, I strongly recommend that you either find something invigorating to talk about for 12 hours straight, or you swap drivers every two hours. It has to be one of the most mind-numbing stretches of road I've ever come across.

Didn't see too many roos, but we were parked by 10:30pm most nights.

thanks for the warning...i think we're going to do some 4wd-ing between coober pedy and alice springs, take the stryzlecki track or something. and we're going to camp our way through, no money for resorts! (except maybe for alice springs)

 

[Old.Tony]

Do you know the story behind the sub at Holbrook Tony.

We were just passing through Holbrook when I noticed on the sign it said something like "Home Of The Submarine". I wondered how the town could be related to something that requires lots of deep water when it was so far inland, so Helen jumped on her iPhone and googled it.

Apparently Lt Holbrook came from Germanton (which was originally 10 Mile Creek and renamed after lots of Germans settled there) and served in on a British B11 submarine in World War 1. He was the first submariner to be awarded the Victoria Cross and in his honour, the town was renamed to Holbrook.

In further celebration, they acquired the decommissioned HMAS Otway, an Oberon-class submarine and had it stripped and transported to the town. Lt Holbrook's widow donated most of the $100,000 needed to establish the monument where it resides today.

We would have missed this entirely if we were following the GPS instructions from my in-dash navigation - we were following my wife's Tom Tom and it took us on a bunch of back roads - it might have been a little slower and more bumpy on some of the smaller roads, but without it we'd never have discovered this gem.

 

[Old.Tony]

thanks for the warning...i think we're going to do some 4wd-ing between coober pedy and alice springs, take the stryzlecki track or something. and we're going to camp our way through, no money for resorts! (except maybe for alice springs)

Diesel at Coober Pedy was 148.9cpl and Marla wanted 166.5cpl - we found that the stations further from the main highway were worse, with Kings Creek Station wanting 175.6cpl and Kings Canyon Resort asking 188.8cpl, Mt Ebenezer Station was the worst with 210.0cpl.

I'm certain some of the more remote outlets could be even higher. Hope you have fun - take pics!

 

[Dave]

Hamilton is the big one, must be a nightmare in that place. Maybe you should have a holiday instead, Dave!

Hamilton is relatively easy. Its the Node for Newy but its newer and a better layout. New Lambton is the one I hate.

I am hearing you on the Holiday, might take a drive to Victoria.

Dave.

 

[KraftyPg]

I am hearing you on the Holiday, might take a drive to Victoria.

Why punish us?

 

[Leprechaun]

Diesel at Coober Pedy was 148.9cpl and Marla wanted 166.5cpl - we found that the stations further from the main highway were worse, with Kings Creek Station wanting 175.6cpl and Kings Canyon Resort asking 188.8cpl, Mt Ebenezer Station was the worst with 210.0cpl.

I'm certain some of the more remote outlets could be even higher. Hope you have fun - take pics!

I paid $3.20 at Kunnawarritji in "09"

Ouch!

 

[KraftyPg]

Man I pulled out of a servo on the Nullabour in 09 when they had $2.15 on the pump, glad I wasn't traveling where you were.

 

[Dave]

Why punish us?

Na I was planning on passing your area. Lol.

Dave.

 

[KraftyPg]

It's ok I'll hear the D22 chugging down the highway with the crowd of angry drivers in convoy trying to get past the thick black smoke and 25km speed limit and i'll know to stay out of sight.

 

[Dave]

Its all good though, I wouldn't wanna drive a D40 that distance.

There would probably be another recall on the trip. Lol.

Dave.