And on towards Sydney (Second Week)

Monday 5th December

Left our bush camp on the Finke River at 07:00, briefly viewing Mount Connor and Lake Augustine on our way to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (Ayres Rock). We drove to Kata Tjuta site viewing the Kata Tjuta dunes before embarking on the 7 km Valley of the Winds walk through the rock formations – the views were spectacular. We then drove back towards Uluru and visited the Cultural Centre before viewing the sunset overlooking Uluru while enjoying our supper (along with a number of other visiting coach parties). After sunset we drove out of the National Park to camp overnight.

 Tuesday 6th December

We left our bush camp at 04:45 and re-entered the National Park to see the sunrise at Uluru (over breakfast) before walking around the rock. After leaving the National Park we again made our way towards the Stuart Highway where we left Northern Territory and entered South Australia. We made bush camp about 100 km north of Coober Pedy after a long day mainly travelling. During the drive south we had a front tyre blow out and when trying to fit the spare wheel Steve (our Australian driver) realised that the spare wheel did not fit correctly and therefore we had to proceed with only 3 out of 4 rear wheels (usually there were 4 wheels on the rear axle and 2 on the front) – this limited the speed we could proceed.


Wednesday 7th December
The next morning we we left for the opal mining town of Coober Pedy where we went around a mine museum complete with underground house. The scenery had now changed to a more typical outback appearance. Steve unsuccessfully tried to find a replacement tyre and wheel so we were again limited to 80 km/hr. After leaving Coober Pedy we saw some salt lakes in the desert then stopped briefly at Woomera village where they had a display of the space missiles which were tested at the nearby Woomera rocket range in the 1960’s.
Thursday 8th December
After breakfast we passed through Port Augusta and Peterborough where again we failed to replace the wheel and tyre, however in Broken Hill we were more successful. The rest of the day were taken up with driving and fuel stops.

Friday 9th December

After the bush camp we stopped at the copper mining town of Cobah before continuing to the town of Dubbo for lunch. I visited the local jail museum (which was closed as a jail in the 1960’s. In the late afternoon we made a bush camp at Ponto Falls (although no one could find the waterfall).


Saturday 10th December
We left the bush camp at 08:30 passing through Wellington and arriving at Bathhurst at 11:00. We then drove around the Mt Panorama motor racing circuit (the wrong way round) – the race takes place once a year, but the rest of the year the track is a normal public road. We then arrived at Lu’s uncles farm where we set up our final bush camp. The evening was a barbeque with various awards and presentations to the group members as we celebrated the end of the trip.


Sunday 11th December
We left the farm early at 06:30 calling in at the Echo Point viewpoint in the Blue Mountains en route to Sydney. However a flat tyre slightly delayed us as Steve had to change the wheel (again).







We arrived in Sydney at Macquarie Street near the Opera house at 11:30 in brilliant sunshine (later in the day it changed to rain showers) after travelling a total of 39,553 km over 169 days from London.
Trip Stats
39553km (Truck: 26303; Ferries: 760; Vietnam: 1343; Cambodia: 1209; Indonesia: 2331: Flight: 1762: Australia: 5845)
169 days
77 Bush Camps
16 Camp Grounds
2 Overnight Buses
2 Sleeps (or not sleeps) at Borders
2 Yurts
1 Ferry
69 Hotel/Hostels
Pat and Cathryn were there on cue to greet all of us. JOB DONE!!