From King's Canyon to Uluru

 The new cowboys. They use helicopters to drive them out of the bush and then 4 wheelers to drive them.

 You can see the hard packed wide gravel road.

This the fine red sand section of the road that is slippery and deep in a few spots.

 The end of King's Canyon.

 A ghost gum tree in the canyon.

Mount Commer

Tuesday, April 5^th.

Happy Birthday Carol!

I was up with the sun, grabbed a quick cereal breakfast and headed out. I saw a sign today about the Road Trains, they are 53.5 metres long! I had to retrace my drive from yesterday, so I drove south from Alice Springs to the 'short cut' road that heads west from the highway to King's Canyon. I think it takes about hundred kilometres or more, but the down side is the first 100 km in dirt. Despite what I wrote yesterday about dirt roads, I decided to give it a go.

The first part was good going. A very wide road with packed dirt or gravel. I enjoyed being off the highway traveling at a slower speed and really feeling that I was in the outback. I stopped a few times to take photos of scenery and plants. Then I caught up to a cattle drive! They were moving about 50 cows from one pasture to another with dune buggy machines. I said hi to the man and woman and said I like the new style cowboy, to which he replied 'much more comfortable than a saddle!'

The second half of the road was much worse, really rough washboard (they call it corrugation) and loose red sand that you either slid on or sunk in a bit. By the end I was completely happy to be done with that road. But there was still another 100 kms of sealed road before Watarrka National Park and King's Canyon. On the way I stopped at another gasoline oasis and lunch. I had a camel burger. It was really good and came with bacon, eggs and tomato on it as well. Messy but delicious.

I arrived at the canyon at noon and it was really hot. Blue skies, bright sun and 38 degrees! There is a 3 to 4 hour hike around the rim of the canyon but it was closed because of the extreme temperatures because it's a steep climb and there is little shade up there. There was however, a short one hour walk into the canyon to the end. It was beautiful with the red rocks, blue skies, green plants and the ghost gum trees with the white trunks. I met two guys from Melbourne in there and they told me it was still a 3-4 hour drive to Uluru and in order to stay there you had to book somewhere. I want to stay to see the sunset and the sunrise the next morning.

So, I made tracks and drove south on the Luritja Road (Midnight Oil has a song called this). On the drive I saw in the distance a huge mesa called Mount Commer. It is enormous and a very different formation from Uluru, but you cannot get near it as it is on private land.

I arrived at Ulruru by five. It was incredible that I first caught a glimpse of it about 30 kms out and a few times after that, but only just the top, like the top of a bald head. I swear they picked a route through the bush and around the hills so you couldn't see it until you got to the park. By contrast you can see Mount Commer about 40 kilometres earlier. You can see it from the road a number of times and there is one look out to see it, but it gets ignored compared to Uluru.

I thought I might camp but when the road took me into a resort that has a variety of rooms as well as camping, I decided to ask about rooms. I was given two options: a luxury private room with two beds for $315 or a bunkbed in a room with twenty guys for $38. I thought about it and said what the hell, and booked the bunk. I went to check out where the room was (this is a large place with lots of different rooms and buildings). I found what I thought was my room, but the key didn't work. Two guys in the room came out help me and sure enough my bed was right there but wrong key. So back to get that sorted out.

Continued next post.