Road tripping around Central Australia

[Mattg]

Last year I had two sets of return Virgin Australia flights from my ANZ credit card to use up before they expired. This is normally a great benefit, but in recent times the requirement to book at least 60 days in advance made the flights very difficult to use. In the end I used one of the sets of flights to book a CBR-ADL-CBR trip, and I used the second benefit to nest a ADL-ASP-ADL trip into the middle.

Much to my surprise, the SA & NT borders were both open when I was due to travel last week so I was able to take all of the flights as planned - and it was a really nice trip! There was a bit of messing around with applying for border passes etc. but it all worked out in the end. (Luckily I hadn't been to Victoria recently.)

While in Alice Springs, I did a bit of a road trip around the MacDonnell Ranges. I also booked another side-trip from Adelaide to Port Lincoln, flying there with QantasLink and driving back to Adelaide via lots of towns along the way.

I'll post a few photos from the trip here.

 

[Mattg]

The first flight from Canberra to Adelaide was uneventful. Unfortunately the VA lounge is still closed in Canberra. I ran into @Hoatzin at CBR who was flying with Qantas and offered to try to guest me into the QF lounge, but they wouldn't let me in under the current rules because I was flying VA.

Virgin still hasn't got its act together when it comes to in-flight catering, so there were no food or drinks available on board for sale. Everyone was offered just a free water, apple juice or orange juice and a small snack - this was the same on all of the Virgin flights. On the CBR-ADL leg I got an orange & chocolate shortbread biscuit for the snack.

There wasn't much of a queue to get my border pass checked at ADL and I was able to exit the airport pretty quickly. Luckily I hadn't been to Sydney in the past fortnight because if I had, I would've needed to join the very long line for COVID-19 testing right outside the airport (and self-isolate until the result).

I spent the next few days with family in Adelaide. Also caught up with @Joshua and we went for a nice drive in the Adelaide Hills.

The next leg was from Adelaide to Alice Springs. The VA lounge in Adelaide was still closed...



...so I went for a walk and had a look at the Vickers Vimy, which was flown from England to Australia by Ross & Keith Smith in 1919 and is a short walk from the Adelaide airport terminal.



The service on the ADL-ASP flight was pretty much identical to the previous flight, except that we got a muffin instead of a biscuit.



The great thing about this flight, though, was the views! I was pretty much glued to the window as we flew over the Yorke Peninsula...



Spencer Gulf...



And then north towards the NT.

 

[Mattg]

Landing at Alice Springs, the first thing you notice is all of the planes parked next to the airport. Many of them were widebodies. In total, there are now around 150 planes belonging to airlines including CX, SQ, JQ, 5J and many others. I think around a third of the planes would have just been Cathay Pacific 777s. It's very sad to see...

 

[Mattg]

There aren't currently any tours running around Alice Springs, but I met a couple of Irish backpackers there and we hired a car for a couple of days. One of the day trips was out to the West MacDonnell Ranges.



There were lots of places to stop along the way for walks, photos or even to go swimming. Unfortunately the waterholes actually looked quite uninviting at this time of year (the water wasn't clear and some of the creeks looked like they had algae in them) so we didn't go swimming that day - even though it would've been nice as it was very hot (and there were a LOT of flies!). I was visiting in the off-season so I knew the conditions wouldn't be ideal. Still, it was a great day and there were lots of interesting things to see along the way.

I can imagine that this tourist trail would be quite busy in normal times. These are not normal times and we almost had the entire West MacDonnell ranges to ourselves! Things were very quiet and peaceful.

The first stop was Simpsons Gap:



Next up was Standley Chasm. There was a gift shop & cafe here, and you had to pay $12 to walk to the chasm. I was quite happy to pay that and it was nice to sit down for a cold drink at the cafe.

The next stop was Ellery Creek:



Then Serpentine Gorge:



The Ochre Pits:



And Ormiston Gorge:



There was a kiosk/shop and barbecue at Ormiston Gorge, but a sign on the door said the kiosk had been closed since the start of the pandemic. The nearby Glen Helen Lodge was also closed.



From there we had planned to drive to Redbank Gorge, but had to turn around at some point because the road wasn't suitable for our 2WD car. You'd probably need a 4WD to get there.



Here are a few other pictures from along the way. As you can see, it's quite picturesque scenery!

 

[Mattg]

The next day we drove east from Alice Springs to the East MacDonnell Ranges. This was a shorter drive and there were fewer natural landmarks to see along the way. But at the end of this drive was the Ross River homestead & resort.

Here are a few photos from that drive...







We stopped for a very pleasant walk at Trephina Gorge along the way.




When we got to Ross River Resort, there were no other tourists around - just the host, Graeme, who invited us into the homestead and gave us a tour and some history about the place. He was really kind, passionate about the outback and seemed very happy to have some visitors! It was a nice spot and I must admit that the air conditioning and cold beers were really nice! They also had a swimming pool which the owner was happy for us to use.

 

[VPS]

Following along - the West MacDonnell ranges are somewhere we had to drive past mostly in a rush from Kings Canyon to Alice but would love to go back (when it's much cooler though)

 

[kookaburra75]

Thanks @Mattg for posting the trip report. I spent several years in The Alice and its surrounds as a surveyor, and have been working on MrsK to travel there and get out into the back country. We're starting off with five days in a motorhome in Tassie in late March, as a "trial".

Your photos are fantastic - did you use a polarising filter to get those colours?

 

[Mattg]

There are a few things to do around Alice Springs itself. I'm told the Desert Park is very good, but we didn't have time to stop there.



Other attractions include the School of the Air and Royal Flying Doctor Service Museum - both happened to be closed at the times we tried to visit but I think the School of the Air is normally open during school hours.

Being the only major city in the middle of the country, Alice Springs has at least one of pretty much everything you need. That said, it was pretty quiet around town and there didn't seem to be many tourists at all. (FWIW, my 737 flights to/from Adelaide only had around 50 passengers.)



My favourite eatery in town was Uncles Tavern which had a nice atmoshpere and good pub food & drinks.

One afternoon we stopped in at Liquorland. It was quite a process! Just to get into the store, a police officer would check your ID and ask where you're planning to take the alcohol, are you buying for anyone else, etc. They would then scan your ID at the checkout to make sure you weren't on the banned drinkers' register. (I do understand why the NT government feels this is necessary.)

 

[Mattg]

It was another fairly uneventful (and near-empty) Virgin flight back to Adelaide. As we departed there were some random rain showers around the place, but only in very specific areas - was a strange phenomenon to see from the air!





This time, the snack was just a little bag of chickpea crackers.



It was a nice evening in Adelaide as we approached the airport...



Again, I didn't have to wait too long to show my border permit to SAPOL on arrival. But with parts of Melbourne, Sydney and Perth all hotspots at this point, and my somewhat confusing travel history (I had been to 4 states/territories during the past week), it took a bit of time to explain to the officer where I had been. I was asked to show evidence of my travel history but luckily kept all my boarding passes and hadn't been to any hotspots, so was free to go.

 

[Mattg]

I just stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Adelaide CBD overnight, then returned to the airport early the next morning for a QantasLink Q300 flight to Port Lincoln.

After a week of flying with Virgin, it was great to be able to use the Qantas Club this time. Not only is the Qantas lounge at ADL open, but it had some pretty good breakfast options available - although the kale has returned!



The staff were all friendly and there was lots of space as not many people travelling that morning.

Boarding was completed promptly and we took off and headed west towards the Eyre Peninsula.



The snack on this 38-minute flight was a lemon & apple muffin with a choice of cold drinks, tea & coffee.



We were soon crossing over the Yorke Peninsula...



...and landing in Port Lincoln.

 

[Mattg]

For the trip back to Adelaide, I found a one-way car hire relocation deal on imoova.com. It was $5/day for up to 3 days, plus the $35 imoova fee. I had the car for 2 days, so the total cost was $45 plus fuel (which cost around $67) for the 800km trip from Port Lincoln to Adelaide, stopping at many of the towns along the way. I was happy with that. This is what I ended up getting:



The guy at the car rental desk at PLO told me that he had put the vehicle on imoova because the car needed to be taken to Adelaide to go on sale. It's cheaper for them to offer the car for $5 than to pay to have it transported. Sounds to me like a win-win situation!

First of all, I drove into Port Lincoln and had a look around town. Seemed like a pleasant place with various tourist attractions and national parks around. One of the main attractions is apparently the shark diving experience.





There was also a statue of Makybe Diva.



After spending a few hours there, I drove to the next town of Tumby Bay.





Along the way, there were a few of the famous painted silos.

 

[Mattg]

Arno Bay was the next town.



As I drove north towards Whyalla, the land became less green and slowly started to feel more like the outback.



I stopped in Whyalla for the night, staying at Sundowner Motel. Here are a few pics from Whyalla, which had a large steelworks.

 

[Mattg]

The next morning I continued driving north along the Lincoln Highway to Port Augusta, right at the end of the Spencer Gulf. I stopped in there at the Matthew Flinders Red Cliff Lookout.



Nearby was the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden, which had all sorts of native trees and plants which thrive in the outback. This was quite different to the kind of botanical gardens you'd see in a capital city.




Port Augusta, as the name suggests, used to have a large port as it was the closest harbour to central Australia. Now it's a natural "crossroads" point as the roads to Port Lincoln, Adelaide, Coober Pedy, Ceduna and even Birdsville all connect there. There were a lot of petrol stations, truckstops, etc.

From there I drove south along the other side of the Spencer Gulf to Port Pirie.



And then onwards to Adelaide via the Clare Valley, stopping in the town of Clare for lunch.



I would've liked more time to explore some of the (many) wineries around the Clare Valley, but by this point was running out of time to get to Adelaide Airport for my flight home. So I just stopped in briefly to buy a bottle of shiraz from Claymore Wines.



I made it back to Adelaide Airport with 7 minutes to spare and boarded my flight back to Canberra. That flight was very fast - we were travelling at 1,045km/h for much of the way - and we landed in Canberra early. Otherwise not much to report - once again, the snack was chickpea crackers.




Canberra Airport was packed - which could have been because it was a Friday evening or because Victoria was about to enter lockdown again!

All in all, it was a very nice week away and I'm pleased to have gotten some value from the ANZ free flights! Although, I don't think I'll be in a hurry to fly Virgin again until they open more of their lounges and fix up their on-board service which is currently pretty average (despite the best efforts of the staff, who have little to work with).

 

[Mattg]

Thanks @Mattg for posting the trip report. I spent several years in The Alice and its surrounds as a surveyor, and have been working on MrsK to travel there and get out into the back country. We're starting off with five days in a motorhome in Tassie in late March, as a "trial".

The Red Centre is certainly a great place to visit, although travelling during winter might be a little nicer

Your photos are fantastic - did you use a polarising filter to get those colours?

Thanks - nope, just my trusty old iPhone 6S camera! I suppose you don't really need fancy camera gear when the landscape speaks for itself

 

[jb747]

Ross River and Trephina are two of my favourites. People just don’t head east, so they are quiet compared to western tourist spots (in normal times, anyway).

The drive up through the centre from Port Augusta is also well worth the effort. The road is good, and there’s more along the way than you might expect.

 

[drron]

Where's your sense of adventure.You had the next best thing to a 4WD in the NT.....a rental car.

 

[Torsten]

You can get exactly the same relocation offers without the booking fee on coseats.com/book so don't go to Imoova! Happy travels