Saturday 29
Bush fire smoke filled the air. Our view was masked. Distance limited down to about a kilometre. A heavy wind coming from the east had whipped up the dust from the ground, which made the sun appear small through the haze. The dust and smoke allowed the human eye to look directly at the sun hidden behind it. The ridge clearly visible to our north the night before, was now faint in the distance. It would be a tough drive with this head wind the whole way. We struggled with the wind to pull the RTT back into place and decided to start the day in our pyjamas. The smell of the bushfire gave a slight burnt taste to breakfast this morning, which worried us a little as we sat in the car tired again from a windswept night. How big was the fire ahead?
We battled the wind on the front of our Steed, however it dramatically slowed our cruising speed – a top of 70 kph. There was a track in the road from what looked like a bike. It weaved all over the place from left to right – either a bicycle or motorbike, they had been fighting the wind too. As we caught up to the object making the snake like track on the road, we noticed it was a guy on a bicycle with a trailer connected to the back of it. We pulled up next to him to see if he was ok. “Dus wind ez crazee, eh cannet keep in e strate line yuh” he said in a strong German accent. “Ey cet far frum Dockar Rivar?” he asked. I looked on our Hema GPS and it showed about ten kilometres until the river. We chatted for a while as he told us that he was creating a documentary for Germany. Not having the greatest English, we asked if he needed anything and continued. “What a wild cat babe. I mean, fair enough cycling across Aus on the bitumen, but my god you have to be off your rocker to cycle a dirt road across the centre!” I said.
We finally reached the NT border. We had just spent the last five weeks or so in WA and when we had left the NT previously, it was a sad moment – yet we were back and looking forward to what the lower half of the NT had to offer.
“What the hell is that?” Cath asked.
“I have no idea. Is it a tree? Or is it a cow laying down?” I replied. Up ahead there was a medium size mound in the centre of the road. Too big to be a dog or a goat. We had passed a few branches that had snapped from trees and had blown into the road, but this was a little larger. As we got closer, a head on top of a long neck appeared. “It’s a camel! Grab the camera,” I cried. I slowed down and we watched the camel rise to its feet. It slowly made its way to the edge of the road. “No rush mate” I thought as it meandered off slowly. Un-surprised at the sight of us, it stood just off the road staring with its large eyes in a manner that was far from worried and slightly annoyed that we had come along. “Ohh look babe, there’s more”. Over to our left were a few more camels grazing on the shrubs unconcerned with our presence. We were right in the middle of a herd – its not often you get to see them this close. The camels in Western Australia that I had seen before were always rather eager to run from humans. There had been a big push for culling camels in WA as they were wrecking the landscape and nearly bringing the Mulga tree to extinction due to there large bodies pushing the trees over whilst they rubbed up against them for a scratch. We took a few photos and left them to it.
We had a lot of ground to cover and it was slow going with this head wind.
Passing Docker River, there was a small section of bitumen with a group of brumby’s just off to the side. “Wow we’ve got it all here” Cath said. NT had certainly showed us its wilder side and we had seen so much wildlife within the first ten minutes of it. We had finally seen our first wild Brumby! Apart from hearing them and the wild Donkeys at night keeping us awake in the north, we had not physically seen any on this trip so far. We were ecstatic to finally see a group and so close to the road.
Shortly up the road, a brown tourist sign pointed off the side of the road and displayed ‘Lasseter’s Cave’. Curious to explore another cave, we pulled off down the track to see what it had to offer. A short walk further and we found it. Expecting to find a cave with dimmed light that we could crawl inside, we were rather disappointed. It was no larger than myself, not really a cave but more of an opening in a rock. Only big enough for two people to sit in, it was a bit of a let down. “Is that it?” I said. We read the sign that had been displayed and it told the story of a man called Lasseter, who took shelter in the cave for 25 days during 1931, when trying to find a rich gold deposit that he claimed to have discovered in the area on an earlier expedition. His camels had deserted him and he was stranded in the bush without food. Whilst taking shelter in the cave, Lasseter recorded his journey, including the days spent in the cave. He was found by the local Pitjantjatjara family, who provided him food and water before Lasseter decided to leave the cave and attempt to walk the 140 km to Kata-Tjuta. He was weak from dehydration, malnutrition and exhaustion and died three days later after walking about 55 km.
Further east, we finally drove past a large bushfire that had been the creator for most of the smoke haze in the air. The wind was still whipping across the country, yet visibility was back and we could see a fair bit further. As we came to the top of a hill, we were hit with the view of Kata-Tjuta.
Towering up and out of the ground, this almighty rock stands over 200 meters high.
It sits in the same national park as Uluru and has an almighty presence. We were still a good 50 kilometres from it and yet it looked so close. The smooth, orange looking rock was beautiful, so different to anything else we had seen on our adventure so far – it had such an atmosphere. As we got closer, it did not look as if it was getting any bigger – giving us a clear indication to its scale. It was gigantic.
Hitting bitumen as we entered the park, we pulled over to air up. As I sit airing up each tyre, I take my time to look around each wheel. I noticed a constant dripping coming from the underside of the tray. Under closer inspection, I found a crack had formed on the bottom of our brand new stainless steel tank. Not having baffles in the tank, to stop the water swishing from one side to the other, could have taken its toll and added extra pressure to the tank. Either that or it was a poor weld; whatever it was, I was gutted. We really needed this tank, especially when crossing the remote Simpson Desert in a week or so time. We were running out of room in the ute and I didn’t want to add extra weight over the rear wheels by storing water in the canopy. Disappointed with the find, we decided to continue on, replacing the feeling of shock with the feeling of excitement. We were finally here in the Red Centre and we had so much to do and see.
We parked in the car park at the base of Kata-Tjuta with tourists everywhere. Coach loads of Asian travellers in there masses, like swarms of bees making their way up and onto the bottom of the towering rocks for a closer look. It was weird for us to come from seeing hardly anyone for days, then to turn a corner and be hit with crowds of flocking tourists.
It was still so hard to get a true perspective of the scale of Kata-Tjuta. There was nothing next to it nor within its huge rocks, that you could use to get a comparison in height. The rocks looked so smooth in texture, orange with streaks of black from where water had run down it. Small holes carved into its sides like honeycomb in a bee’s nest. There is nothing else like it to compare it too. We made our way up between the two rocks, really having to tilt our heads back as we peered up at the tops of them. The presence of them was almighty, what an incredible place. We made our way along the half hour walk till we came to the end with a viewing platform. There was a plaque showing what native plants grew around this land and what the native people used each one for. There was one plant that I thought would be fantastic for Cath, helping her with her hormone influxes that came and went like a boat bobbing up and down on the ocean. See the picture, for a little giggle.
There were signs everywhere asking people to restrain themselves from climbing up the side of the rocks.
Kata-Tjuta held great significance and importance to the traditional land owners, and the plaques asked for visitors to honour and respect their wishes. However even with all this, an Aussie father with a family of two young boys spectating, decided to ignore the signs and scale up one of the large rock walls and sit inside one of the caves. In shock and horror Cath felt angered. I could tell she was holding her tongue as we made our way past. “Is it time we found you some of that Mingkulpa plant babe haha?” I asked.
We were excited and ever so keen to go and see Uluru. When foreigners think of Australia, what comes to mind is the sails of the Opera House and the almighty huge orange Uluru in the red centre. Being such a huge icon, we were eager to get around to it. As we made our way, we pulled off to walk up a viewing platform on top of a sand dune that over looked Kata-Tjuta. “Ohh wow darl look! Look! There it is!” Behind us on the horizon it stood. Uluru. We were speechless. We sat and took it in saying nothing. Nothing needed to be said, it honestly speaks for itself. “We are finally here, how incredible this adventure has been” Cath said. Taking it in for a while we made our way back down and along the road.
We decided that we would wait until tomorrow to get a close up of Uluru. With the day racing by, we made the decision to go and book into the Field of lights exhibition at sunrise that over looked Uluru. We got the last two spots in the morning. How lucky were we. Elated with the tomorrow’s activities, we chose to get out of town and find a dune that we could camp. With the water tank leaking, we made a point to not let the water go to waste. We filled up as many water bottles as we could and both had a shower. With the small amount of water still in the tank, Cath even managed to use the remaining water and wash her hair. She was a new woman!
The Cooks.
TotallyCookd. 