11 May 2022
Finished packing last night relatively early and was asleep by 9:30 pm. This morning we were awake at 4 am, but didn’t get out of bed until 6 am to finalise the house. We left at 7 am and headed west towards Moora and onto Southern Cross before arriving at Kalgoorlie for a very quick shop and to take on a full load of fuel. Fuel was $2.05 / litre. Camped at Broad Arrow pub for the night, arriving just after sunset.
12 May 2022
Onto the Great Central Road today. Road conditions are good and we have a constant wind keeping the dust off the road. Traffic has been light with us only passing 1 caravan.
Stopped at Giles Breakaway for lunch – this is such a beautiful spot, we are glad we stayed here in 2017. Found a campsite early and enjoyed the sunset.
13 May 2022
Had a little rain last night, seems like we attract the stuff when we are here. We are happy as long as it’s not a repeat of the rain in 2016. See the flashback image below to 2016.
Made a break for the road early as it was overcast and looking threatening. We did get a lovely photo of the sunrise, but as they say, red sky morning…..
Thankfully the clouds cleared as the day progressed. BOM reports rain due here in 24 hours.
Did see some camels today. They seem unperturbed by people (or drones).
Lunch was at the Warburton Roadhouse.
Our next stop was the NT WA border before we called it a day. The section of the road next to the “Welcome to NT” sign is now sealed. We see local fuel here is $3.60 per litre, that’s one for our record books.
14 May 2022
With just a 200 odd km of dust to traverse today we slept in a little this morning.
Just after we left the Telstra coverage area we noticed a text message from Neil and Connie saying we need to talk. OMG, we are breaking up! It’s you not me! This is evil Neil here, just joking we are on the east coast! LOL, So we put the foot down again and headed to the first coverage area the Olgas.
The Great Central Road from Docker River to Yulara was rougher than the WA side of the border, but to our surprise, there were a couple of sealed sections.
The section into the Olas was like a superhighway. This section previously contained some of the worst corrugations.
Arriving at the Olgas we called Neil and were told the news that Neil has Covid and is going to need to isolate for 7 days. Lucky for them both, they are quadrupled vexed and his symptoms are only mild. We decided to slow down a drive and enjoy the Olgas and Ayers Rock.
Our next stop was the Ayers Rock Uluru Sunset viewing area where Steve met Anthony and Kate, a lovely couple from Gosford.
After a quick shop at IGA Yulara, we headed for camp to think about what we may do for the next 7 days.
15 May 2022
Woke up this morning not releasing Anthony and Kate had camped next too. It was lovely chatting with them at the start of an exciting journey. I am sure they will have a great time on their travels. Just so exciting! Well, news on the Neil and Connie front is Connie has Covid as well. Not unexpected I guess. Gave them a call today to make sure they are in good spirits seems the case. With the urgency out of our trip now, we decided to hang around Yulara. We love to see the camels and animals at the Camel Tour, they sometimes give some great photo opportunities.
I went to work putting some further changes to the webpage and Steve started building his first Photo Gallery. If you would like to see it it is named “Around Yulara” and contained photos of this trip and previous ones. We took on a splash of fuel before heading back to our campsite for the night. It also seems like we hear more and more about the impact of Covid on people’s lives. Today I met a lovely lady who had travelled to Yulara to look after her daughter who had contracted Covid. It was her first trip to the area and as her daughter was recovering well, she seemed excited about what to experience in the area.
The glorious orange sunset tonight was stunning.
16 – 24 May 2021
Another day catching up on walking and I took the time to visit the local art gallery. I felt inspired enough to do a little of my art!
I was taking in the sunset today and this lovely photo of Michaela and Gabbi (2 amazing 4WD duos) enjoying the sunset and Ayers Rock /Uluru just presented itself. Just perfect!
Spent a lovely time resting up at Yulara after crazy weeks preparing for the trip. There is something amazing about the landscape here. Simply enjoyable.
25 May 2021
Arrived at Alice Springs and headed to the service station to take on fuel. The next stop was the supermarket etc to take on supplies.
26 -28 May 2021
The time has come for Steve’s 4th Covid vaccination so we headed back into Alice to get him looked after. Then we headed out to do some practice sports photography for the upcoming Finke Desert Race 2022.
