Central Australia Road Trip (Pt.1): Broken Hill, Coober Pedy & Uluru
Central Australia is a trip we had talked about forever and the purchase of Fran made us all the more eager to get out there and explore it.
Normally we spend our Christmas and New Year in Melbourne with family and friends however with forced leave from work we decided to use the holiday period a little differently this time around. So we pulled together a rough plan, ignored all of the warnings about how hot it would be, and set off to see parts of Australia that neither of us had seen.
I will note here that our itinerary did have to change part way through, as did our accommodation options given the heat. But more on that later in part two of this post.
Sydney to Uluru
Originally we intended to create a single post for our Central Australia trip, however we realised when starting to put it together that we had so much information to impart, stories to tell and photos to share, that we were going to have to split the trip into two posts. So as this post is titled, this is the first part and covers our drive from Sydney to Uluru and our stay in the towns along the way, including Uluru itself.
Below is a map of the route we took.
Trangie
Our departure from Sydney was a mixture of happiness, relief and sadness. In the days and weeks leading up to our trip Sydney had been covered in a heavy smoke haze from the most horrific bushfires that NSW (and Australia) had ever encountered. Even as we drove out of Sydney and through the Blue Mountains we were reminded of what was still taking place (and about to get much worse) as the road was clouded in smoke and visibility poor.
Originally when planning our trip we had been a tad ambitious with our first stop to be in Broken Hill. But as the day came closer and we gave this more thought a 13+ hour drive seemed a bit unrealistic so we built in an additional day and stop and made our first stop in a town called Trangie (approx. 460km). This was even more sensible give the heat we were driving through was in excess of 40C degree temperatures (~104 F).
We arrived in Trangie early evening, opting to stay in Trangie Caravan Park. As noted in our introduction, we opted not to use Fran’s tent accommodation due to the extreme temperatures we were staying in (around 40C at midnight). At the caravan park we checked-in to a very comfortable and air-conditioned cabin for 100AUD before heading out to the local RSL for a cheap and cheerful dinner. Truthfully it felt a tad strange to walk through town with its quiet streets after coming from Sydney. But Trangie was a good place for an overnight stop and 5:30am the following day we were back on the road in an effort to beat some of the worst of the daytime heat.
We found driving through country NSW interesting. Besides the little country towns we made stops at along the way, e.g. Cobar, we also found the change in landscape and scenery fascinating. Starting our drive in Sydney on coastline, moving through forest and farmland and eventually coming onto red soil and desert landscape. The contrast was amazing and happened much quicker than we had expected.
Broken Hill
Our next stop was in Broken Hill (approx. 680km) where we stayed for a couple of nights, timing that was actually pretty spot on in terms of things to do and see there.
The town itself felt quite deserted, I think given the heat and time of year (Christmas), many people had taken the opposite approach to us and headed towards the coast (see picture 1 below, photos L-R where 1 is top left and 6 bottom right).
Highlights of Broken Hill for us included:
The Palace Hotel (famous from the film ‘Priscilla - Queen of the Desert’) where we stopped for a beer
The Broken Hill Miner’s Memorial which also offered up some great views of the town (photo 4 and photos 2, 3 and 5)
Pro Hart Gallery where we learned a lot about an artist we only really knew from a carpet ad. Highly recommend this gallery
The Broken Hill Sculptures & Living Desert Sanctuary is about 10km out of town and would be a great spot to watch sunrise or sunset. We actually went during the day and as a result had the place all to ourselves. There is a small 6AUD entry fee and this provides access to the sculptures as well as picnic areas and walking tracks (photo 6)
The Palace Hotel
The Broken Hill Sculptures & Living Desert Sanctuary
In Broken Hill we stayed about a 10 min drive outside of the main town at Broken Hill Outback Resort. The resort offers both camping and cabins and has an onsite bar/ bistro which offers a small breakfast menu in addition to lunch and dinner. The resort was fairly recently refurbished and both the accommodation and food was of very high quality. The kangaroos grazing on the camp ground late afternoon/evening was an added bonus of our stay - but you can see how the heat kept the campers away.
Coober Pedy
Following on from our stay in Broken Hill we made another early exit to embark on one of our longest days of driving (approx. 950km), this time to the town of Coober Pedy. This drive was a little precarious at the start as we drove cautiously to avoid early morning Kangaroos and then took us across the NSW/SA border and through some of the most extreme heat throughout our trip. Also a word or warning for crossing the state border into SA: remember to eat any fruit or vegetables you have before the crossing as we lost all of our apples and bananas.
We made a couple of stops along the way but the harshest by far was where we stopped for lunch, Lake Hart Rest Area. We ended up eating our lunch in the car, partly to avoid the extreme heat, partly to avoid the ridiculous amount of flies.
Seeing the ‘Welcome to Coober Pedy’ sign as we arrived in the town was definitely cause for excitement. Besides the fact that our long drive had finished for the day, we had made it to a town we had both been curious to visit for a long time.
Part of that curiosity had been around the underground houses that the town is famous for. So of course we had to stay in one of Coober Pedy’s underground hotels. We had booked The Underground Motel, located in a quiet spot on the edge of the town and were pleasantly surprised at just how cool the rooms stay. In spite of the extreme heat outside (44C/111F degrees in the shade) and no air-conditioning inside, the rooms were always a cool, pleasant temperature. The rooms were basic but the motel does offer a complimentary breakfast as well as facilities to cook your own meals, which we’d actually highly recommend as the food options in town were not great.
We only had a day in Coober Pedy and picked 3 things that we wanted to do. One was a visit to the Kanku Breakaways & Dog Fence, a 70km round trip that consists of colourful low hills which have broken away from the Stuart Range, hence their name ‘The Breakaways. There is a permit required for this (although not at the time we were there) so remember to purchase at the Visitors Information Centre in town before heading out.
The second item on our list was to the Umoona Opal Mine & Museum. They offer free tours, including a short video on the history of the town and discovery of opals and obviously have a well stocked opal store. I really enjoyed this stop and learned a lot about opals.
Our third stop was by far the cutest, visiting Josephine’s Gallery and Kangaroo Orphanage. The gallery has some cool local art for purchase and they do kangaroo feeding sessions at regular times throughout the day (check their Facebook page or contact for more information on this). The orphanage takes in rescued and injured wildlife in the Coober Pedy area (mostly baby kangaroos, but some other animals and older kangaroos as well). Even if you decide not to purchase any of the artwork you can also donate directly to the cause. The below joey had been found in the pouch of its dead mum on the side of the highway but was looking pretty healthy due to the care it was receiving.
Our visit to Coober Pedy was probably not at the best time of the year. It was super hot preventing us from walking around for long and as the town was quiet coming into Christmas, a number of businesses were closed. As a result we missed out on seeing a couple of things, e.g. Opal fields, and in terms of food options the best ones we tried were John Pizza bar and the Outback bar & Grill. We didn’t rate the ‘go to’ bar in the town at the Desert Cave Hotel, it was just weird, so we found it better to BYO.
We liked Coober Pedy but equally were keen to head further north after 2 nights in the town and super excited to make our way to Uluru.
Uluru
Christmas morning and another early start as we tried to take advantage of the slightly cooler air. Again we needed to be careful of kangaroos although there we saw fewer around Coober Pedy than we had in some other areas we had driven through.
Excellent roads and next to no traffic allowed us to do the 390km to the Northern Territory border by mid-morning, a triumphant moment. Australia really is a big country.
From there we continued towards Uluru and our accommodation at Ayers Rock resort.
Ayers Rock Resort is like a little oasis in the middle of the desert, except that it’s actually quite a large complex and is hot and dry much like the environment it is located in.
The resort is made up of 8 accommodation options, catering for different price points and experiences. We had originally booked 3 nights in The Lost Camel Hotel (as a Christmas Present to ourselves) and the last 2 nights in the Ayers Rock Campground. However with minimum temperatures still in the high 30s at night we cancelled the camping and increased our hotel stay to 5 nights. Yes we are weak, but after all, it was Christmas!
The Lost Camel Hotel is one of the resort’s mid-range budget options with a pool and located next to the Resort Town Square which was good for stocking up on snacks and some cheaper food options. The rooms were compact but comfortable and of course air-conditioned. We also had breakfast included in our first few nights, provided at the Ilkari Restaurant in the Sails Desert Hotel.
The resort itself felt a little mismanaged. The first thing we noted when arriving was the lack of shade in the car park. Poor Fran spent the next 5 days cooking outside on an asphalt parking lot. I know we were in the desert but some trees or shade cloth would have been useful.
The air-conditioning broke multiple times in their communal areas/restaurants and also on the hottest bus ever to transport us to the Sounds of Silence dinner: not a great impression to make on foreign tourists paying hundreds of dollars for the experience. We suggest you bring a nice bottle of wine (or two) as the bottle shop offers a very limited, bad wine range at expensive prices. Food outlets and restaurants are the same.
All of that aside we did enjoy our stay and the staff at the resort were all amazing, working hard to provide the best experience possible, when they themselves were sweating from the lack of an air-conditioned work environment.
Our days were built around avoiding the peak temperatures of the day as afternoons were just too hot to do anything productive. So we usually had something planned for the mornings and evenings and spent the middle of the day not too far from the pool :-)
One of the highlights was definitely the Sounds of Silence dinner. While it’s certainly not a cheap night out, it was a good night. The evening starts with drinks and canapes at a spot with a good view of the both Uluru and The Olgas. We stayed there until sunset and then walked down a short path to where dinner is served under the stars. The dinner is a buffet but the food was actually pretty good and catered for all dietary requirements. Wine and beer was also free flowing. After dinner is a ‘guided tour of the night sky’ (their words, not mine) which was a great experience except maybe a little rushed. Overall it’s an experience we would recommend if you can part with the money, even if it does feel like the organisers are phoning it in a little at times.
Obviously you can’t come all the way to Uluru without seeing the rock at both sunrise and sunset. We did sunset multiple times (easy if you have your own vehicle, but also possible to organise through he resort) and sunrise just the once.
Passes to Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park can be purchased through Parks Australia and cost us 25AUD each for up to 5 days.
Our sunrise was on a morning when there had been a rare case of rain. Fortunately the rain cleared as we headed out to the rock. Unfortunately we didn’t really get a true sunrise because of the cloud. Still it was beautiful and worth the early start.
Tip: The best spot to photograph the rock at the sunrise viewing area (Talinguru Nyakunytjaku) is actually not on the platform but from the ground closer to the rock. We found the platform to be crowded and had obstructions in the view.
We also did a couple of walks, again in the mornings before it got too hot.
One morning we did the walk around the rock (approx. 8km), a pleasant walk with a designated path. Walking around the rock also got us wondering how anybody ever dared to climb it as it was certainly a lot steeper than we had expected.
Another morning we headed out to the The Olgas (Kata Tjuta), around a 45 min drive from Ayers Rock Resort. There are two walks available to the public, Walpa Gorge and Valley of the Winds. We did the later but skipped Walpa Gorge as it was already crazy hot by the time we completed the first walk.
We had 4 full days at Uluru in total and for us that was about right. We were there partly for a bit of relaxation over Christmas so didn’t do a stack of activities. We did miss out on the Field of Lights display due to bad weather which was disappointing. In hindsight we shouldn’t have left that until the last night as we had no opportunity to reschedule when it did get cancelled. Other than that it might have been good to leave a day earlier to add Kings Canyon into our itinerary (see part two of our trip for further details on that).
We loved Uluru and while it feels a million miles from Sydney, I don’t think it will be our last trip there and I’m really glad we finally got to see it.
But the trip wasn’t over and we had Alice Springs as our next stop. Although not before some blooper photos like the one below.
