Alice Springs to Perth: Floating Tents and 1000km Detours

JUNE 27th 2001 from Brads email
(I certainly wrote some crass Aussie language back then!)

Thank you to everyone that has been leaving words or encouragement and happiness on the phone and email. Love your work!

First and foremost, if you are Australian and haven't seen any of the beautiful country that we have, then get off your butt and do it!! It is the most amazing country. Definitely the land of contrasts. You don't have to leave our shores to feel like you are in another country let me tell you!

When I last wrote I was in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Now we're in Perth, the capital of Western Australia. From Alice springs we checked out every gap, gorge, pit, river and valley in the West McDonnells. A range that spans several hundred km's from Alice and is truly amazing. It used to be higher that the Himalayas 120,000,000 million years ago give or take a few years... From there I checked out Ayers Rock and The Olgas, south of the ranges. Two bloody huge rock formations that take your breath away. The difference being when I saw them, we had experienced three days of torrential rain... (funny it didn't mention the possibility of rain for the outback in the tourist brochure!). We set our tents up in the rain one night (mission impossible) and woke the next morning to find a small rain made river had placed itself in the way of our tent! Needless to say everything was bloody wet and it definitely dampened our spirits (no pun intended). Negative. Positive being that we were the two percent of tourists that ever get to see the rock with waterfalls!! Picture the postcard of Ayers and the Olgas... add water shooting down the sides and cloud formation seeping through the gorges and viola! Was blown away. Unfortunately, the road we were going to take West to Perth (The Gunbarrell Hwy: Sounds cowboyish eh?) was totally flooded out and was Mud Hwy if anything else. Forced to take drastic measures and not intending to cut out trip short, we took the longest damn detour you could take! Back down the way we came through South Australia and West across the Nullarbor Plain to Perth! 3000km extra. We did 1000km in one day!

I have never been much of an environmentalist or been that appreciative of mountains and landscapes (except the beach) but I'm sold now. I have seen some amazing pieces of work by the bigman upstairs that have blown me away. I camp EVERY night under the stars of the outback. There are millions of them. The Milky Way is the most prominent I've ever seen. Haven't paid for any accommodation for the whole trip. We camp every night and leave our special chef cooked meals to the mercy of our perfect temperature regulated campfire (ie. throw more logs on for more heat!). We're sold on damper as well being the next best thing to slice bread (bushfire tucker made from flour and water with sultanas etc) Sunsets. Full moons. You name it, I'm hooked.

You always wonder about Australia's animals that are plastered everywhere as our icons, from the Olympics to our currency. Now I know why! In the outback they are everywhere! The latest we have come across are wild brumbies, wichetty grubs (yet to barbecue and taste), dingoes and field mice biting at the bottom of my tent at one spot. Kangaroos, emus, rabbits, eagles and cows are everywhere.

Some summaries:

BEST WAY TO CHILL OUT: Campfire every night, barbecue, beers and playing guitar.

BEST WAY TO START THE DAY: Getting out of bed at sunrise just in my undies and headlight in the middle of the outback to take my morning slash (a #1). No one is around. It's dead quiet and the scenery is spectacular (not me, the landscape).

BEST SIGHTS: Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Bunda Cliffs at the Great Australian Bight.

OOHS AND AHHS: Every magic sunset where the clouds magnetise to the position of the sun and create amazing shadows of blue, purple pink and red.

HILARIOUS MOMENT: Early morning nude #1's in the rain (damn cold) to see torch lights inside several tents at Curtain Springs Roadhouse going crazy as their tent floated away during the rain.

EERIE MOMENT: Waking up at 3 in the morning in the West McDonnells in NT to the sound of seven wild brumbies (horses) racing past my tent. Thought I was going to be stampeded or something!

AFFORDABLE: 21 days and I've spent around $450 on food and petrol. Accommodation has been right in the middle of BFE (Bum F%$#k Egypt) or at road side stops on the straightest longest roads we've ever driven across.

TRAVEL PARTNERS: Rebecca and Jeff. We get on like a house on fire. Rebecca is my gorgeous girlfriend and Jeff is our tour guide, car owner, car mechanic by trade, ex truck driving wealth of knowledge that got this together in the first place. He belongs to the Leyland Brothers world tv show (old Aussie outback Magyver type show) or something... Craig I've got plans for a TV show. Can you help?

BAD BAD BUT WHO CARES WE'RE LIVIN: 2 blown tyres, 1 deformed, 1 flat, a stuffed distributor (fixed by Jeff=Magyver) with Aerogard! (insect spray) and the worst rain I'd seen in ages, in the middle of the Outback of all places! At the non rainy time of the year!

GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND MAKE PLANS TO SEE THIS COUNTRY. YOU WON'T BE DISSAPOINTED.

Brad