AJ120’s 2013 Outback Odyssey

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

I didn’t really know what to title this thread, we refer to it as our trip to the Pilbara but truth is only a small part of the time was there. I checked the definition of the word Odyssey in the dictionary (do you remember those things) and it said “long adventurous journey”
At 6 weeks and 11,000ish kms it was a long trip by our standards, and while not the most adventurous trip we have tackled it had its share of adventure. So if you want to indulge me for a while I will waffle on about our little odyssey and even post up a few pics as everyone loves pics.

Our first point of interest was to meet fellow Pradopointer Letsgoplaces aka, John and family at Ayers Rock. We have been there before 7 years ago and our son wasn’t confident to climb then; but now at 14yo he wanted the chance to get to the top, so that’s where we started.

The original plan was to blast up the Stuart hwy (which we’ve driven plenty of times) leaving on the Thursday afternoon and getting 5-600k between us and home in order to meet John at lunchtime Saturday. Some unforeseen last minute specialist appointments for our disabled daughter (who does not travel with us) got scheduled for the Thursday meaning we were left with a day and a half to get to the Rock.

An early start on the Friday saw us rolling before the sun was up, swapping drivers regularly meant that 15 ½ hours after we started rolling out our driveway in Loxton North the wheels stopped turning and we pulled up well after dark smack bang on the border of SA and the NT, far further than we would have liked to traveled that day but still behind our initial schedule.

Another early start saw us rolling before the sun was up in order to give us plenty of time. Stopping for a stretch at the lookout for Mt Conner we got the camera out for the first pic. We actually camped at the base of the mount last time we visited 7 years ago.




We eventually made it to the rock just before lunchtime after setting up the camper at Yulara, we actually beat John who had only left there house in the APY lands that morning. When we booked in at Yulara we were told the climb was closed due to wind, even though we had not seen a breath of wind and it was dead calm at camp. When we arrived at the rock the Ranger had just opened the climb so as soon as John arrived (driving a P a P a Patr………. Nah I cant bring my self to type it) John, DJ (son) and I headed up while all the girls relaxed at the base wondering why anyone would be stupid enough to want to climb.








Proof we made it to the top, and given how fit we are none of us even raised a sweat or puffed even slightly, isn’t that right John

Cheers Andrew

[baggs71 Inactive member. Find all posts View Profile Close baggs71]

Good pics thus far...keep it coming

[The Alberto Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Alberto]

Can't wait to read more of this one! I have a few major trips on my 4x4 bucket list:

Cape York - DONE
Ayres Rock and the Simpson Desert Crossing
Canning Stock Route
Gibb River Road and Kimberleys
NT

Unfortunately I am getting to them all too slowly - work just keeps getting in the way!

Great Pics too AJ120, between this thread and Brains' Cape trip I am going to need more popcorn......

[iantz Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close iantz]

...between this thread and Brains' Cape trip I am going to need more popcorn......

Me too I've been waiting for this one!

[derek11 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close derek11]

the first time Helga and travelled to Ayres Rock, when Helga saw Mt Conner she said with lots of joy in her voice, I see the rock LOL, we ended up living in Yulara for 2 years, waking up and seeing the real rock every morning is something you never tire of, mind you the Olgas in early morning mist is the best.

Cheers Derek

[letsgoplaces Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close letsgoplaces]

Proof we made it to the top, and given how fit we are none of us even raised a sweat or puffed even slightly, isn’t that right John

Cheers Andrew

'twas a piece of cake wasn't it Pretty impressive getting to the top in 23 minutes

the first time Helga and travelled to Ayres Rock, when Helga saw Mt Conner she said with lots of joy in her voice, I see the rock LOL, we ended up living in Yulara for 2 years, waking up and seeing the real rock every morning is something you never tire of, mind you the Olgas in early morning mist is the best.

Cheers Derek

I would think probably 95% of people driving in for the first time think that Mt Conner is 'the rock'... I know I did back in '99

I completely agree that you never tire of the rock. Every time we drive in, we come out at The Olgas then drive towards Uluru and soak it up every time

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Glad to see people enjoying it already, break out the popcorn for another post!

After heading out for dinner at one of the restaurants at Yulara with John and family we awoke the next morning and packed up ready to head to the Olgas. As impressive as the rock is I found the first time we visited that the Olgas were even better, less people and less commercialized.




Trish DJ and I did the short walk while we waited for the others to arrive. Once both families were together we all set out on the much longer valley of the winds walk. After an easy walk to the first lookout Trish who was suffering from an infected toe, DJ who was feeling ill and John who had their youngest and was not up for a 6k hiked headed back to the cars. Megan, myself and their eldest daughter were all keen to continue so we headed off with the next section of the walk being a lot harder than the first stretch.

It’s a really good hike if your into that sort of thing, the view in the photo below is one of my all time favourite places to sit and ponder the world.



As I said the walking track does get steeper and rougher as you get further in.



And a view from the last section of the walk.



I was pretty surprised at how well I pulled up after climbing the rock and I also felt great after this 6k hike, I must have been a little fitter than I had thought.

Cheers Andrew

[foxclan Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close foxclan]

Come on Andrew
Down tools and get back onto the trip report already.
Looks great so far and hanging for further posts.
Cheers
Troy

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Patience Troy, my computer is dying and keeps crashing all the time, taking me ages to get pictures loaded but i'll get there, hopefully have a new computer next week which will help.

One of the great things about Pradopoint is the people you meet; we met John and his family when they came along on a trip to Beachport I organised last year. When John mentioned he was moving back to the APY lands for a year or 2 I immediately started thinking about how we could incorporate a visit into one of our trips and this was our chance.

After our hike around the Olgas it was time to head South again down into the APY lands to where John lives and works in one of the Aboriginal communities. It was also time to let down the tyres as we hit the dirt for the first time on the trip, the first stretch of the approx 5000kms of dirt roads and outback goat tracks we traveled on this trip!

The 4 hour or so drive went through some lovely country following a track that is well off the tourist route and I think generally only used by locals, which is one of the great advantages of having local knowledge to help you out. It did get interesting after it got dark and the breeze stopped, following John and his dust at night with HID’s saw us completely blinded a few times even though we were traveling a long way behind them.

John had been good enough to organise a house for us to stay in for a couple of nights, which is pretty cruisy on a camping trip! It gave us a real sense of security too when we saw the Steel screen door with 2 large padlocks as well as the normal lock, the heavy wooden door behind that with a deadlock and the steel bars on the windows

John was also kind enough to take a day off work on the Monday to show us around the area, amongst other things he took us to a small gorge and water hole that very few “white fellas” have seen and also to the local ice cream van







Cheers Andrew

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Another really interesting spot that John took us was to place known as musical rocks, and the Aboriginals call “Bull Ant Dreaming”

There is just this one spot in the country side with numerous mounds of rocks that look very much like a giant Bull Ant has dug a nest. Some of the rocks seem to be just normal but many of them have a slight metallic sound when you strike them with another rock. Different rocks have different pitches or tones which doesn’t have any correlation to the size or the shape of them.

Anyway, someone with a bit of musical talent (certainly not me) can actually play a pretty decent tune by banging on these rocks which was pretty cool. Another of those things we probably would have never seen without local knowledge, even if we had of stumbled upon the site I doubt we ever would have thought to try and play a tune on them.









As we were to find out later in the trip Musical rocks aren’t actually as rare as you might think, anyone looking at those pictures who has been to the Burrup Peninsula would have seem similar looking piles of rocks (only lots more) and it turns out they are sometimes musical as well, but had John not showed us these we never would have worked it out there either. But I might talk a bit more about that later in the report.

Cheers Andrew

[Peterpilot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Peterpilot]

Another great trip report to read, thanks Andrew. I was also impressed by the Valley of The Winds, just a magic place. Time for some popcorn

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

Time for some popcorn

Cheers Andrew

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

After Megan had finished work we all went for the relatively short drive out to Surveyor Generals Corner. For those not aware there are actually 2 markers there around 50 metres apart as the Western Australian border isn't actually completely straight.







The story that the locals give is that more people have been to Antarctica than to Surveyor generals corner, not sure how true that is but its probably not far off the mark, its a long way from anywhere.

The nearby Aboriginal community of Wingellina has had a Telsta mobile tower erected and that started putting out a signal only a few days before we went out there. Trish and I had a race to see who could be the first person to post on the internet from SGC, Trish had her post up on facebook in seconds; staking her claim to fame as the first person to post on facebook from SGC and most likely the first person to post on the net fom there. Some time later I became the first person to post on PP from SGC

And of course DJ had to make sure he was in all three states at the same time




That means we have now been to 3 of the 5 "corners" I have gotten within about 50kms of the other 2 but not managed to make it all the way yet. I might try and do something about that next year!

Cheers Andrew

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

It's great country up there!

We parked our 1 year old baby on SGC and took a photo, he's 25 now! Spent about a week at Pipalyatjara the highlight of which was going out for bush tucker with a couple of the locals. Fistfuls of honey ants, Tinka (Lizard) and a couple of red Kangaroos resulted. Our guide, Sam, could track from the car in second gear and had an uncanny sense of direction. We spent another week touring the Pit lands in a borrowed hilux ute. One of the best holidays we have ever had, we still talk about it.

[JPH Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JPH]

Great report so far, can't wait to hear the rest of your odyssey.

Cheers JPH