Uluru–Kata Tjuta

 

We loved our visit to Uluru and Kata Tjuta, along with the other 350 000 visitors that come here each year. There is only one place to stay to visit the National Park, Ayers Rock Yulara. They have a range of accommodation ranging from camping to 5 Star hotels. There is also a supermarket, cafes, restaurants and shops all there just to service the tourists who visit Uluru.

We watched the sunset over Uluru and took some lovely photos.

The next day we did some of the walks around Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and Uluru. The geology of the rocks is amazing as they are to look at. Both of the rock formations were created by erosion from the nearby Petermann Ranges to the west of Kata Tjuta. This rock eroded away in two fans, one of rock (Kata Tjuta) and the other as sandstone (Uluru). These fans were then compacted and compressed by the inland seabed and turned them into rock. After the sea had disappeared, central Australia was subjected to massive forces and these rock fans were tilted and folded. The sandstone which is Uluru was tilted to 90 degrees so that it stands on end. What we see today is the tip and the rest of this huge, hard compacted sandstone slab continues 5-6 kilometres underground. Uluru and Kata Tjuta are made even more interesting to look at due to the erosion they show on their surfaces.

We were surprised by the amount of people who still choose to the climb Uluru. Despite the signs and the notices in the brochures asking people to please not climb, there is still hundreds of people climbing the rock. A guide told us that until 80% of people choose not to climb they won’t close the walk.

People climbing despite the signs requesting that they don’t.

The Great Central Road–Kalgoorlie to Yulara (Uluru)

Kalgoorlie- We spent two nights in Kalgoorlie and had a small service and oil change done on the car before heading off across the central road. The main street of town is quaint and beautiful. The buildings are particularly lovely and were built at a time when thought was put into the making things look nice. We visited the best retro/vintage/second hand store called “Sassy Sues”, definitely worth a visit! There are two big supermarkets in town so we stocked up on all our supplies as well.

Kalgoorlie Super pit was worth checking out. 

Lots of shingle back lizards on the road.This one was trying to frighten us away.

The Rabbit Proof Fence

 

Lake Ballard – After leaving Kalgoorlie we took a side trip from the town of Menzies. 50km to the west of Menzies is Lake Ballard. The Lake is a salt lake that was once part of a river system when central Australia was an inland sea. It now only has water when a cyclone moves through this part of the country – a rarity. An artist called Antony Gormley was commissioned to install an artwork on the lake comprising of 51 statues. It is titled “Inside Australia” and he refers to the statues of men, women and children as ‘insiders’.

Leonora- At Leonora we visited the ghost town of Gwalia. We loved walking around the old houses abandoned when the gold prospectors moved on to greener pastures. Herbert Hoover (former American President) even built a house here as he was the owner of a gold mine once here. The houses were all built by the individual residents of the time using materials they could find or acquire cheaply. Each building contains household items that once were commonplace in the past. It was great fun exploring the houses and buildings including the local hotel.

Laverton-380km from Kalgoorlie. We stayed at Laverton Caravan Park for the night. A nice, clean park with grass. It was great to open the camper up and set all the chairs up to dry after the heavy rain in Kalgoorlie. We needed to wait until 9am to purchase our permits from the Aboriginal Land Council. You need permits to be able to cross the Central Road.

Permits

Warburton- 550km from Laverton.  Warburton Roadhouse closes at 5pm, we arrived at 4:30 due to our late start from Laverton. The campground at the roadhouse is gated at night and fully fenced. Nice hot showers, and lovely clean amenities.

Warakurna- Warakurna Roadhouse operates on Central Time even though they are positioned in W.A. We paid $2.40/litre for diesel here. The staff were very friendly and helpful.

The central road from Kalgoorlie to Warakurna is an easy drive. The road is wide and well graded and we hardly passed another car. Once you cross the border into the Northern Territory the road quality almost instantly deteriorates. It was rough and corrugated. We were glad to reach the bitumen as you near Uluru-Kata Juta National Park.

A great website to help with planning of your journey along the Great Central Road is ‘Outback Way’. There are brochures available at tourist information centres also.

We saw lots of camels on our drive across the centre as well as lots of wildflowers.

Granite Sky Walk–Porongurup National Park

 

Porongurup National Park is about 40 km north of Albany in south west Western Australia. There are a number of walks to do in the park, but we only did the smallest as we were travelling through. We did the Castle Rock walk which is 4.4km return. The walk is straight up the hill for 2.2km until you reach the summit and the granite sky walk.

The view from the top is amazing as you look out over the fields of canola (vibrant yellow) and the Stirling Ranges in the distance.

You need to climb over some of the boulders using hand and foot holds.

You can check out the National Park website here (Porongurup National Park) and watch some videos of the Skywalk and its construction.

Albany

 

We only spent one night in Albany but I think that we managed to see a great deal in the afternoon we arrived. There is some amazing coastline, both rugged and beautiful. You can imagine some wild weather coming off that Southern Ocean at times. Luckily for us it was quite calm and we enjoyed walking along the coast and admiring the view.

The Valley of Giants – Tree Top Walk

We walked through the Red Tingle forest and did the Tree Top Walk – Near the town of Walpole. The Tree Top Walk is about 100kms west of Albany so we did it on the way.

Red Tingle Tree

 

Albany coastline

Natural Bridge

We had dinner at the Albany Hotel – the oldest hotel in Western Australia (1835)

Albany is also the home of the Brig Amity replica. This was the ship that brought the first European Settlers to Western Australia and they settled in Albany. Two years before this however, the Amity brought the first settlers to Queensland (Redcliffe was the place of the first settlement). Harry and Belle both found the replica interesting as they have learnt about the Amity and the Redcliffe settlement at school.

Margaret River Region (South West W.A.)

 

Oh Margaret River – thank you so much for your hospitality! We will be back. Driving south from Perth you enter an area of green rolling hills covered with vineyards and dotted with dairy cows and sheep. The area reminded us a great deal of Maleny also parts of New Zealand – we almost felt like we had come home. Definitely a very liveable part of the world. The entire region seems to be purely for the creation of delicious things!

 

Due to forecast rainy weather we booked ourselves into a self contained cabin at the park we had planned on camping at. It was so nice and such a treat to have a warm dry space for a few nights (so good in fact that we stayed for 4 nights). Kids were excited to even have a television and it was a nice surprise that once the initial novelty wore of (the first night) they actually preferred to play with each other. It showed us how wonderful this trip has been for our family. Not that they didn’t get along prior to leaving, but we have all cemented such strong friendships with each other and how much I will miss all being together when we return to school and work.

Our time in Margaret River Region was a time of pure indulgence – which was wonderful! We enjoyed visiting the wineries, breweries and chocolate factories. Not to forget the cheese, olives, jams and fudge. What a shame that we are limited for space and couldn’t fill our car up with all this lovely stuff.

Vasse Virgin (Olive Oil Soap Factory)

We stayed at Taunton Farm in the town of Cowaramup which is about 12km north of the Margaret River township. Taunton Farm is a working cattle property and they have animal feeding each afternoon. They also have a jumping pillow and a playground (but tricky in the rain, but there were some clear times when the kids could enjoy these).

Cape Leeuwin is the most south-west point of the mainland and it is where the Indian and the Southern Oceans meet. We took the lighthouse tour which was great, but was very expensive at $79 for our family to climb the lighthouse. It was super windy at the top.