A few years ago, we drove from Cape York to Perth....so we went through Uluru too. One of our best trips ever and we can't wait to go back!
Perth to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and return, 14 days
- Thread starter Bluewater Australia
- Start date
p1michaud
Expedition Leader
Very cool rig and trailer set up. Glad you've decided not to wait, life is too short. I wish you a full recovery and many adventures down the track. Never been to WA yet. Managed to see quite a bit here in QLD and NSW. Later this year we are doing Cape York then who knows, might just keep on going.
Bluewater Australia
Observer
Next morning was the short hop into Wiluna, catch up with the gang, and down to the servo for a fill up. This is a commonly-photographed sign; distances are in km, and we're heading for Carnegie and Giles. Spelling is evidently optional for Gunbarrel and Ayers. Really, how can you get them wrong? 
I say that but then the 'official' sign over the road also had Ayers mis-spelt, which you can't see here. This is the whole mob, ten in eight- to 16.y.o. bracket, and then ten of us fossils. The true Gunbarrel Highway doesn't actually start until Carnegie; until then it's still pretty good graded road.
I say that but then the 'official' sign over the road also had Ayers mis-spelt, which you can't see here. This is the whole mob, ten in eight- to 16.y.o. bracket, and then ten of us fossils. The true Gunbarrel Highway doesn't actually start until Carnegie; until then it's still pretty good graded road.
Bluewater Australia
Observer
The timeline agreed with mid-morning starts and mid-afternoon finishes, so we did a bush camp before Carnegie, of which I have no pics, and then rolled into Carnegie station at around 11am, which was ideal for them. It's a cattle station and the true end of the Gunbarrel - or in our case the beginning. The couple of people at the station all day have various responsibilities like feeding the workers and issuing weather reports, and 11am was just right for them to spend half an hour fueling up our six vehicles from those big tanks you can see on the right.
This was the convoy: our OKA, two LandCruisers, two Patrols, and an Isuzu dual cab tray back. Everybody filled to the brim here; it would be 850km in 4WD, some of it low range, before we would see another fuel pump. The Wiluna to Carnegie road has shale-like sharp stones, particularly towards the Carnegie end, that rip hell out of the tyres and make them look very second-hand in short time. By this point we had two irreparable punctures, one on a Toyota and the other on a Nissan, and a slow leak on one of the OKA tyres, which we plugged at Carnegie.
This was the convoy: our OKA, two LandCruisers, two Patrols, and an Isuzu dual cab tray back. Everybody filled to the brim here; it would be 850km in 4WD, some of it low range, before we would see another fuel pump. The Wiluna to Carnegie road has shale-like sharp stones, particularly towards the Carnegie end, that rip hell out of the tyres and make them look very second-hand in short time. By this point we had two irreparable punctures, one on a Toyota and the other on a Nissan, and a slow leak on one of the OKA tyres, which we plugged at Carnegie.
1leglance
2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
Question about getting fuel at cattle stations like this...
Do they have to sell fuel to you? Is it expected or do you just ask & hope?
Are the cost much higher since there is no other option?
I am loving this read so please keep it going, thanks
Do they have to sell fuel to you? Is it expected or do you just ask & hope?
Are the cost much higher since there is no other option?
I am loving this read so please keep it going, thanks
Bluewater Australia
Observer
Lance, they certainly don't have to, but in a very small way I expect it would help Carnegie pay the way. To be frank I don't know if there are many around that wouldn't sell fuel; prior to this all of my travels around Australia have been relatively coastal rather than deep inland, and fuel has never before been an issue; not that it really was here either, just the Toyotas and Nissans had to carry jerry cans to make the next leg. If Carnegie didn't have fuel, it would have been an issue! I had rung them a week or so before to make sure they would have adequate reserve for this day, and it was assured to be no problem.
I didn't ask then or on the day how much they charged per litre. I really don't want to know. I do have a photo from the bowser at the other end that will come up later in the story... you'll have a laugh I'm sure.
We had an award going, a daily thing for the dumbest thing done, called the Pink Shackle Award. It was a huge shackle, painted pink, and there were usually a few candidates. However we were about to make today a bit of a one-horse race.
Only a few kilometres out of Carnegie, one of the other vehicles got another flat. As we were all still pretty closely bunched, everybody pulled up in a line over a couple of minutes. We were last, Liza was driving, and we cruised slowly up to the front of the line and parked up. I got out and went back to where the tyre-plugging was going on, and said that as we might still have a slow leak ourselves, we would continue on and then if we had trouble, everybody else would catch up to us. Fair plan, everybody's happy, carry on; I went back in to the OKA, jumped aboard, Liza took off and we progressed.
I reckon we were at least ten, maybe 15 minutes down the road when we got a call on the radio; hey OKA, re the pink shackle award, have a look in the back and tell us if you're missing anything...
Liza and I both swiveled around to peer into the back of the OKA, where we should have had two kids sitting. Damn. One.
There was no coming back from this. Of course Liza and I blamed Elizabeth as best we could - how could you have not noticed that Jack had got out? but she just had that sly big sister grin going... what are you going to do... bad parents...
Of course Jack was back there playing with his mates, oblivious to the fact that he was about to be Home Alone, and nobody clicked until everybody was loading up to head off again and he was without a berth. They fitted him in and caught up with us down the road at Mount Nossiter, but for the rest of the week he was forever hurrying Elizabeth into the truck... Get into the OKA quick or they'll desert you!
I didn't ask then or on the day how much they charged per litre. I really don't want to know. I do have a photo from the bowser at the other end that will come up later in the story... you'll have a laugh I'm sure.
We had an award going, a daily thing for the dumbest thing done, called the Pink Shackle Award. It was a huge shackle, painted pink, and there were usually a few candidates. However we were about to make today a bit of a one-horse race.
Only a few kilometres out of Carnegie, one of the other vehicles got another flat. As we were all still pretty closely bunched, everybody pulled up in a line over a couple of minutes. We were last, Liza was driving, and we cruised slowly up to the front of the line and parked up. I got out and went back to where the tyre-plugging was going on, and said that as we might still have a slow leak ourselves, we would continue on and then if we had trouble, everybody else would catch up to us. Fair plan, everybody's happy, carry on; I went back in to the OKA, jumped aboard, Liza took off and we progressed.
I reckon we were at least ten, maybe 15 minutes down the road when we got a call on the radio; hey OKA, re the pink shackle award, have a look in the back and tell us if you're missing anything...
Liza and I both swiveled around to peer into the back of the OKA, where we should have had two kids sitting. Damn. One.
There was no coming back from this. Of course Liza and I blamed Elizabeth as best we could - how could you have not noticed that Jack had got out? but she just had that sly big sister grin going... what are you going to do... bad parents...
Of course Jack was back there playing with his mates, oblivious to the fact that he was about to be Home Alone, and nobody clicked until everybody was loading up to head off again and he was without a berth. They fitted him in and caught up with us down the road at Mount Nossiter, but for the rest of the week he was forever hurrying Elizabeth into the truck... Get into the OKA quick or they'll desert you!
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dirty Bakers
Conservative
Keep it coming.
1leglance
2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
Love it!
Thanks for the info on the stations & fuel, good to know you rang ahead to warn them of the group coming through.
Too funny on the leaving the kid...easy to do when you are in a group and having fun. I have often let my kids ride with someone else in the group & later have their kids in my rig with mine....results in many a radio check to see where you kid ended up
Thanks for the info on the stations & fuel, good to know you rang ahead to warn them of the group coming through.
Too funny on the leaving the kid...easy to do when you are in a group and having fun. I have often let my kids ride with someone else in the group & later have their kids in my rig with mine....results in many a radio check to see where you kid ended up
Bluewater Australia
Observer
I have a few other videos that should probably fit in around here, but I haven't got to sorting them yet and I know I won't have time to sort them in the next week, so I'll just continue on with photos for now. This is the campsite for our first night after Carnegie - it was 17km off the Gunbarrel up the Eagle Highway - highway! it would have impassable in anything short of a helicopter if it had rained! One of the crew making a feeble attempt to contest the pink shackle award by having his camper trailer side door fly off along the way... always plenty of willing witnesses...
Doors got locked in future. Anyway the destination was on the map as 'Mungilli Outstation (abandoned)' - so that sounded interesting. As it turned out it wasn't entirely abandoned. It used to be a black fella community of about 500 people back in the day, but they had cleared out and there wasn't much left; but there was a bit.
The kids found some hardware and a concrete pad and soon had a handball court going. That night Liza was awarded the pink shackle for abandoning her child.
Mungilli was still thriving in a small way - sandalwood collection. Our state provides about half the world's supply of sandalwood, and the best of it comes from the hundreds of thousands of square kilometres around here. This bloke is blasting the bark off with high pressure water.
A sandalwood tree in the wild (the shorter one); they're always found growing alongside another breed of tree; there's no doubt a word for that.
The boss man, Eric (in the blue shirt), was only too happy to be tour guide next morning, and he spent a couple of hours showing us sandalwood trees, seeds, medicine bushes, waterholes and other stuff we never would have found ourselves. Plenty of stories. He buzzed us off a ring of sandalwood that got attached to the pink shackle; about $20 worth of wood at primary producer cost! Late morning we headed back down the Eagle to the Gunbarrel and continued east.
Doors got locked in future. Anyway the destination was on the map as 'Mungilli Outstation (abandoned)' - so that sounded interesting. As it turned out it wasn't entirely abandoned. It used to be a black fella community of about 500 people back in the day, but they had cleared out and there wasn't much left; but there was a bit.
The kids found some hardware and a concrete pad and soon had a handball court going. That night Liza was awarded the pink shackle for abandoning her child.
Mungilli was still thriving in a small way - sandalwood collection. Our state provides about half the world's supply of sandalwood, and the best of it comes from the hundreds of thousands of square kilometres around here. This bloke is blasting the bark off with high pressure water.
A sandalwood tree in the wild (the shorter one); they're always found growing alongside another breed of tree; there's no doubt a word for that.
The boss man, Eric (in the blue shirt), was only too happy to be tour guide next morning, and he spent a couple of hours showing us sandalwood trees, seeds, medicine bushes, waterholes and other stuff we never would have found ourselves. Plenty of stories. He buzzed us off a ring of sandalwood that got attached to the pink shackle; about $20 worth of wood at primary producer cost! Late morning we headed back down the Eagle to the Gunbarrel and continued east.
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