Darwin to Alice Springs Road Trip: Bits and Pieces

Along our road trip from Australia's far North to its dusty Red Center we saw kangaroos, lizards, rocks, a bazillion birds, more rocks, ghost towns, wallabies, dingoes, some more rocks, rabbits, camels, tons of traveling Aussies (the RV set), Aboriginal rock art, even more rocks, and (surprisingly) a few feral cats.

We also hung out a lot with our orange mate, Bruce.  We rented B-dogg for $80 a day, drove him close to 3,000 kilometers, and slept in him in 14 nights straight (that's a fortnight, kids). 

We suffered bug bites like few we'd ever seen before, and saw the Milky Way so clearly Jeff made Annette slap him to make sure it was real.  The stars out there were unreal.  For real.  In short, we took in a lot of the Oz Outback in just two weeks. 

Here are a few details on the little bits and pieces that rounded out our trip:

The Devil's Marbles

The whole road trip provided an amazing array of rocks to explore, and while Uluru certainly lived up to its reputation, some of the Outback's lesser-known rocks turned out to be the stone-cold surprise highlights of the entire road trip.  Uluru and Kata Juta are two of the Outback's better known geological wonders, but they are not alone out there.  The Devils Marbles are another noteworthy geological oddity not far north of Alice Springs.

Satan's nards were really friggin' cool to look at and learn about.  It was fun to look out at the fascinating rock formations and imagine how they were shaped over millions of years.  And it was even more fun to run around looking for bigger, better photo ops...

Wild Camels

Yeah, so there are a bunch of wild camels roaming the Outback.  They used to use them for overland crossing and construction back in the day, and now they just live out there.  Central Australia is now the only place in the world with such a thriving wild camel population.  Weird?  Yes!  We saw five all just hangin' (without Mr. Cooper, sadly) by the side of the highway.  How marvelous!

Newcastle Waters  Ghost Town

 

Driving down the Stuart Highway between Darwin and Alice Springs, we would often go long stretches without seeing nary another vehicle.  When they say the Outback is remote, they mean it.  Hundreds of kilometers between petrol stops and "towns" which would most likely consist of nothing more than a gas station/pub.  Many towns along the highway began as little more than stops on the Overland Telegraph Line.  The story of Australia's first overland telegraph line is really a remarkable one:  They built and raised a 3,000 +KM single wire on 36,000 wooden poles from Darwin in the North to Adelaide in the South in under two years, under budget and ahead of time - this was in just 1872.

Ghost towns and abandoned cattle stations were another common feature of the drive.  Annette loves ghost towns and crap like that, so learning about the rugged buggers who lived way out in the middle of nowhere fascinated her to no end.  Newcastle Waters provided a glimpse into what life may have been like in the middle of nowhere.  Virtually uninhabited since its cattle station heyday, NW has several abandoned buildings you are free to roam, including the creepy Junction Hotel and an equally-as-creepy old store/house.  Standing in the middle of the dust and cobwebbed-covered former general store, with sun shining through the long-ago boarded up windows, you could really get a sense of the isolation one must have felt living in a place so far from, well, anywhere.

 

Kings Canyon

By far the best hike we took over the course of our road trip was in Kings Canyon. 

The canyon is an amazing blend of color and geologic amusements.  The hike took us up, over, in, and around the canyon, while providing surreal examples of geology as we'd never seen before. 

There isn't a whole lot more to say besides, "WOW!" 

Alice Springs and the MacDonnell Ranges

Alice Springs and the MacDonnell ranges are worth a brief mention.  The ranges provide hiking and splendid mountain views just a short drive out of town.  We had a peaceful night of camping, a nice drive, and a nice walk in the MacDonnells.  After Uluru and King's Canyon the West Macdonnells aren't anything to freak out about, but it is a very pretty area where different geological processes (and types of mountain forming) are evident.

 
Alice Springs itself is just a small Outback town turned tourist haven, but it had a few good museums and Aboriginal art in abundance. 

An area in Alice Springs called the Precinct held interesting artwork and historical information.  Alice Spring's beautiful but substance lacking museum was also worth the visit, if mainly for the scores of skillfully taxidermied animals and their careful displays. 

At the end of the road trip, as we dropped off Bruce and waited for the cab to the Alice Springs airport, where we'd be whisked away to Adelaide and the beginning of another road trip, we recalled fondly all that we saw as we roamed freely (and easily) through the Outback.  Thanks Bruce!