West Coast Road Trip: Week 1 Darwin – Uluru – Katherine

This has recently been updated and added to my new website. You can find it here:

https://howetoroamtheworld.co.uk/australia-road-trip-darwin-to-uluru/

Week 1: Darwin – Uluru – Katherine = 3744km

These are the stories of 3 English girls, Sophia (myself) and Ellie, who take on their longest drive yet, while Rose sits in between as she is chauffeured around the West Coast of Australia. 

 

Tourists: Ellie, Rose and me

My original plan for these blog posts was how to do the West Coast on a budget. However, after our first week and first $2000 down, this was not going to be cheap. So instead I thought I’d capture the most interesting stories that can come out of travelling in a camper van with two other girls for a month and pass on my knowledge to any of you wanting to undergo a similar trip. I will also explain how petrol, campsites and countless chocolate bars and diet cokes will drain your bank account dramatically. Nonetheless it will be a trip I will never forget and would already recommend it to anyone. 


For our camper van rental we went with Travellers Autobarn in Darwin. It came to $3320 between the 3 of us ($1106 each), which covered us for the premium insurance and the camper van for 30 days. I would recommend going for the full insurance package because even if you just chip the windscreen you’re already paying $400, which is more than the extra insurance itself!

Day 1: Saturday 11th July

Darwin 🚐 ➡️ Ubirr

I had volunteered the day before to be the designated driver for our first day, but fine well knowing I had to be sensible the night before, I instead got too carried away with the cheap gin and tonics and suffered the consequences the next day with a hangover I had never quite felt before…so I passed on my role to Ellie, our other responsible driver who didn’t overdo it and who took note on how to operate our new home for the month.

Our main man Rupert at Travellers Autobarn laid out all the information about our new van.

Here’s what we learnt:

• There is a gas canister which you can fill up at caravan sites. To turn it on, you turn the knob to the left and there’s a yellow lever that you turn so it’s vertical. To turn of, turn to the right and bring the lever on its side.
• There is a hose which you attach to a tap, usually found at caravan sites, so that you can use the sink.
• There is also a power cable which you can use at powered sites, allowing you to use the microwave and charge phones.
• The fridge should be turned down at night so it doesn’t make too much noise.
• To make up the beds is quite self explanatory but don’t be lazy and definitely put them back before you start driving, especially the top bunk as everything moves around.
• They advise you not to drive at night as animals may be on the road and could write off the car or seriously hurt you. You are also not insured for night time driving.

After driving to MacDonalds, but not the drive-thru as the car is too tall, we made our way out of Darwin and onto Stuart Highway to enter the Kakadu National Park.

We entered the monotonous woodland area with countless trees and bushes for kilometers at a time. The late afternoon silhouettes on the road are extremely trippy as the trees are very close together and their shadows make it seem like your traveling at a lot higher speeds and make you go slightly cross-eyed.

 

Kakadu National Park

 

It takes a while to get used to the feel of the van. Any gust of wind in this tall and non-streamline vehicle can get your steering all over the place and make tipping over easier. I would get down to 40km/h to take on a corner, this is just for the first day though.
Just in time for our first sunset of the trip, we got to Ubirr, an Aboriginal rock art site. It is a 1km circular track that takes you round several rock art sites.

The Aboriginals used the rock art to tell stories that had been passed down from their ancestors, and many were drawings of animals and the first encounters with Europeans. The act of painting was generally more important than the artwork itself, many older paintings, which are dated from almost 4,000 years ago, were covered over by younger ones. They used red ochre to stain the rocks and a lot of the original paintings are still intact.

The best place for the sunset is up the 250m climb to the top of a rocky lookout that overlooks the Nadab floodplain.

Just before dark we managed to find Meryl campsite, where we haggled down to $10 for the vehicle. It was unpowered and the toilet block was a long way a way in the pitch black. This was the start of our becoming ferrel and the outdoors became our new toilet as we were too afraid of the dark to venture away from the van. We made up our beds and tucked into our first meal of the trip, chicken salad wraps. Very hot night, all these sheets and sleeping bags were unnecessary.

Total km = 287km

Full tank included.

Day 2: Sunday 12th July

Ubirr 🚐➡️ Dunmarra

We were all awake before our 6am alarm went off as the cockatoos crawed and the sun had already risen.

We had a big drive to do today so we set off through the National Park and experienced our first kangaroo crossing and then a dingo run out from no where.

We bombed it down Stuart Highway all the way through to Katherine, where we took a lunch break. I was left to look after the van while Ellie and Rose found a toilet. We’d been warned about the locals trying their best to break into cars but hoped they wouldn’t do anything if we stayed inside, so that’s what I did. It was only until we drove off did we notice a group of women disperse after they had been hanging around waiting for us to leave the car alone.

Dusk was upon us and we were still a way from our campsite. The only thing to do was look out for potential road kill and avoid swerving into the side of the road. One amusing piece of road kill was a dead cow that had been recently hit and had blown up like a balloon!

We camped at Dunmarra caravan park which was $8 per person. It was a powered site and even had a lamb spit roast for $19 per person. We had pumpkin soup and bread for dinner instead.

Total km = 616km

$50 each petrol

Day 3: Monday 13th July 

Dunmarrra 🚐➡️ Alice Springs

We had a long day of driving. We made it to Three Way roadhouse for 11am, which was the perfect time to try their homemade pie. It truly deserved the title of ‘the best’ pies in the Northern Territory. Highly recommended stop.

We drove through Tennant Creek and to Devils’ Marbles, which were a group of large rounded rocks, which the Aboriginals believed were carved by a serpent, a bad spirit, hence why they belonged to the devil.

The next stop was extremely surreal. A service station obsessed with the idea that there had been UFO sightings in the area. The bar was covered in news-clippings about backpackers and travellers being chased by alien type figures and disappearing in the outback.

On the road you will see that people in the Northern Territory have somewhat of a sense of humour. For example, termite hills have been dressed in t-shirts and caps and some into snowmen. I think some of the Aboriginal communities have too much time on their hands but they do amuse you while speeding down the never ending straight highway.

We were on the outskirts of Alice Springs, the girls were asleep and I had been driving the afternoon stint. I estimated another 90km to go until we got to the main town. All of a sudden the petrol light flashed a red warning. Without panicking the girls, I slowed right down to 80km/h to drive economically, a tip I’d learned from a friend’s mum – which was to drive slower and in 4th gear with minimum breaking. I’d also remembered seeing an episode of Top Gear where Jeremy Clarkson drives from France to England on a full tank and drove at a much slower speed when he was running low. So this is what I did for 45 minutes on my own. Rose eventually woke up and then so did Ellie, who both questioned my going a lot slower. I continued to creep all the way into town, anticipating the worst but to our surprise we managed to crawl all the way to the doors of the first petrol station in Alice Springs.

We then found Heavitree campsite, just outside of town for $44 a powered site. It was an extremely cold night and I woke up shivering. At one point it reached minus degrees. All the sheets and sleeping bags were necessary.

Total = 868km

$60 each petrol

Day 4: Tuesday 14th July

Alice Springs 🚐➡️ Yulara

We drove around Alice Springs to see what it offered. Turns out there are no springs in the town as the name would suggest and it was extremely cold and gave us quite a dangerous vibe so we were happy to leave and make our way straight down to Yulara.

We arrived at Ayers Rock resort campground just in time for sunset. It was $69 for a powered site. You could put a deposit down for Monopoly, so that kept us entertained for a while. I even won by getting very lucky with the community chest cards.

Total = 445km

$33 petrol each

Day 5: Wednesday 15th July

After 4 days of continuous driving, we finally reached the entrance to the Uluru National Park. It took us 2,216km to get here, which is the equivalent to driving from London to Serbia.

Uluru, or Ayers Rock, is the biggest stand alone rock in the world. Uluru is the name given by the Aboriginals and the white Australians named it Ayers Rock.

At the Culture Centre there is a video representation on how the white Australians first came across the Aboriginal tribes of Uluru (Anangu) in the 1930s. They introduced to the tribes tinned food in exchange for dingo skulls, which the government paid them for at that time. These new foods brought in deadly diseases, such as diabetes.

In the video it makes the Aboriginals seem like animals, as they are scared of these mysterious tins and the humped camels that the ‘white fellows’ arrived on. The Aboriginals have only been classed as ‘people’ since 1967, before then they were legally known as ‘fauna and flora’.

The Australians took over more and more of their land and brought cattle in that destroyed much of the bush tucker and scared off many of the animals that the tribes hunted and so many starved to death.

They then introduced the White Man Law, which legalised the use of Aboriginals as slaves. Many were pushed away from Uluru and other camps by police and white Australians who were exploring the rock.

In 1951 there was an application to allow tourist flights into the Peterman’s Aboriginal Reserve, which was originally set up to protect the Aboriginals. In 1958 land around Uluru was taken out of the reserve without taking any consideration of the Aboriginal tribes living in the area.

In the 1960s the tribes earned money by selling dingo skulls to the government but they stopped paying them as they gave them rations instead. They then returned to making traditional artefacts and paintings to sell to tourists, which they still do today as a source of income. They then were hired as workers and cleaners in the National Park but when tourists started to complain about them, the council started to hide them away but “they always came back to protect Uluru“.

The Aboriginals say:

 

“The Spirit of the animal in the rock is not of the white people and we have a more spiritual connection to the land. The white people should listen to us and learn, and pay us more attention. We are the only people who truly understand this place. We’ve lived by their white man law but we still don’t gain any respect or attention.”

In 1978 Uluru was declared as a National Park within the Northern Territory so the Aboriginals could no longer claim it as their land. However, in 1983 the government decided that Uluru shouldn’t be part of the Northern Territory but of the Australian Government, to respect the significance of Uluru for all Australians as a national symbol.

Now the Aboriginals apparently have real control of how the park is run. Many are on the board of management and only ask that the tourists respect their sacred areas by not walking over them or take pictures of. The tribes live there safely and have given back to Uluru their Aboriginal spirits.

You can drive around the entire rock to get a feel of how big it is, but it is very disrespectful to climb to the top. Many Australians ask if you have done the climb and are surprised when your answer is no. Some are still not aware of the spiritual significance of Uluru and by disrespecting their spirits which live inside the rock, can in turn disturb the Aboriginals’ way of life.

A great way to see the rock is to get to the Sunset car park at around 4.30pm to secure a good spot. The sun sets behind you which casts a red glowing shadow. It’s very chilly but worth watching how it changes shades.

The caravan site has free gas BBQs which is perfect for a sausage sarnie.

Day 6: Thursday 16th July

Uluru 🚐➡️ Connor’s Well

Before setting off from Uluru, we took advantage of the showering facilities and then made our way back to Alice Springs. We also filled our small gas canister for $15 in a caravan park. It shouldn’t normally last only 6 days, but in such freezing conditions, we needed copious amounts of hot drinks and a little extra heating.

In all the excitement of reaching civilization and fast food, we had a binge stop in a car park and a snooze to get out of our fried chicken coma before making it to a free campsite, Connor’s Well, 92km out of town. Out of boredom we decided to see how many marshmallows Rose could fit in her mouth. It was 18.

It also got down to minus 5 in the night and frost was on the ground when we woke the next morning.

Total km = 565km

$45 each petrol

Day 7: Friday 17th July 

Connor’s Well 🚐➡️ Warlock

We were forced out of bed earlier today due to how cold it was and how desperate we were to get into the front seats with the heating on full blast. We zoomed back up to Katherine where it was a lot livelier than last time. The rodeo had been in town and a fun fair was kicking off. In all the excitement we treat ourselves to an Eggs Benedict and an unbelievable butterscotch cheesecake at the local Coffee Club.

Ellie got excited after a group of army men crossed the road and almost flipped the car over as she enthusiastically turned into the petrol station. It was the most testosterone we’d seen in a whole week.

To reach another free campsite, we had to drive into the night. After 5.30pm the roadkill starts to appear and nosy kangaroos hop to the side of the road. A dingo even took a chance at crossing. To avoid hurting any of the animals and making a huge dent in the van, I dropped down to 50km/h.

I wouldn’t really advise driving in the dark as we are completely not insured but the stars looked really pretty and it’s a great way to spot local wildlife. We reached the campsite at 8.30pm and had our latest night of the trip after steak, egg and salad.

Total km = 963km

$50 each on petrol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEEK ONE = 3,744km