1995/11 Australia trip - Alice Springs and Yulara |
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Next morning, Friday, we took the bus to a very quiet Cairns airport, and had a very smooth trip on a British plane operated by Ansett Airlines to even quieter Alice Springs, flying over a thousand miles of very empty country, getting drier as we went further west. The country around Alice is definitely red, mainly sand and rock, but we were surprised at how much greenery there is in the way of grass, shrubs, and trees. It’s certainly not as desolate as Death Valley. There’s no native cactus here, but there are similar plants, like spinifex, which looks like grass, except that the blades end in needle points. Best avoided in sandals.
We took a taxi to the NQ agent, picked up EXX791, almost identical to the one we had dropped off in Cairns, and loaded up with food for a few days. Also, lots of water, as it’s a precious commodity out here. The camper has a large tank built in, with a hand pumper, but the tank sits right behind the engine and after a long run, the water is hot enough for a really hot bath. So we filled half the fridge with bottles of water.
On the way out of town we drove across the Todd River. No bridge, just a road across the river bed. The river is just a wide ribbon of sand, with no sign of water. I don’t think they can justify building bridges in this climate. The river has water for a few days a year, but for the rest of the year you don’t need a bridge at all.
Then we were off south across the desert down the Stuart Highway to Erldunda, and then west to Uluru, which is the native name for Ayers Rock. The road was surprisingly good, all the books about it being out of date I guess There are “road trains” to contend with, a tractor followed by three trailers, but they aren’t going all that fast.
Although the scenery looks much like parts of Africa, this is no Serengeti with its herds of animals. There are a few birds, but you don’t see much else, 
as many of the animals live underground or hide under shrubs during the day. One real surprise was a scattering of melons all along the roadside. It looked like someone had been emptying a truckload as it drove along. It turned out that although they look like juicy grapefruit, they contain little water, taste awful, and are poisonous to humans. All good reasons why nobody touches them!
Alice Springs is still a small town, but it is the only town within hundreds of miles. For all the driving around we did, we never encountered another town. Most of the dots on the map are just “road stations” where you can buy petrol and a snack, and those are about 70 miles apart. The traffic is so light that drivers wave to each other out here, but that’s no big effort as we’ve driven for over an hour and seen no other vehicles.
The hotels and campground for Ayers Rock are now at Yulara about 15 miles from the rock, having been moved from the Rock to avoid spoiling the image of the place. Although this is a good idea, the whole construction looks like a government project, put together by committees that have no idea on how to run a campground. Like the site numbers are halfway into the site, behind the bushes. There is a light for them, but you have to find the button in the dark. There is also the men’s toilet, designed by a committee of women. There are about a dozen utility tubs for the men to do their dishes and one tiny urinal hidden in a corner. This doesn’t seem to fit the image of the Australian male! Perhaps it’s the Germaine Greer memorial toilet. The campsite was twice the normal cost, and the place was filthy. It was a real contrast, as all the commercial campgrounds have been cheaper and generally better than the American equivalent.