Does it REALLY take 7 days to drive the ~3000 km from Adelaide to Darwin?

Only if you want to see a few sights along the way on a REAL adventure! Driving yourself is the best option (try Car hire if your vehicle isn’t up to scratch) to experience a cross-section of Australia’s unique countryside from the dry south, through the Red Centre deserts to the lush tropical north!

AND come to terms with the vast distances that road-tripping in Australia demands!

So follow my rough guide from Adelaide to Darwin via Uluru – with LOADS of optional extras! BUT … be warned! It might just mean your epic trek takes a few extra days!!

Day 1: Adelaide to Woomera

Distance: 487 km

Driving Time: 5½ – 6 hours (allow extra time for rest, food and sightseeing stops)

Scenery: Varied. After leaving Adelaide, drive through the scenic Clare Valley wine region; then along the edge of the Flinders Ranges to Pt Augusta. At this point, you’re still on the Adelaide Geosyncline (yes, I’m showing off!)(Dad, are you reading this??) landform.

It’s all Outback from Pt Augusta, and the drive along the Stuart Shelf, an extension of the Adelaide Geosyncline, is unremarkable but for some unexpectedly spectacular land formations.

Points of Interest:

• Salt Lakes and Claypans, including Pernatty Lagoon and Lake Windabout
• Island Lagoon Lookout (above) and Nurrungar – now closed, this joint US/OZ facility was the site of several protests, most notably by current Senator Peter Garrett, one-time front man for Aussie rock band Midnight Oil
• Woomera Heritage Centre & Missile Park within the western world’s largest land-based missile and rocket range

Enter the Woomera Prohibited Area (well … it gave ME a thrill!) 7 km off the highway from Pimba. The outdoor missile park’s unusual collection of relics from rocket range days is all the more bizarre for its location.

The Heritage Centre’s excellent displays show the fascinating heritage of this little town on the edge of nowhere that has variously included the Rocket Range, NASA Deep Space Tracking Station and a controversial Asylum Seeker detention centre.

READ: More about Woomera

Options:

• Spend an extra day exploring Woomera and nearby Roxby Downs, built in 1988 to support Olympic Dam – Australia’s largest underground silver and copper mine
• Combine Days 1 & 2 (be warned – that’s a LONG day) and save Woomera for another visit

Day 2: Woomera to Coober Pedy

Distance: 365 km

Driving Time: 4 hours (allow extra time for rest, food and sightseeing stops)

Scenery: Central Tablelands, with mesas, low hills and salt lakes before reaching the Stuart Range near Coober Pedy, where the landscape is dominated by mullock heaps.

Points of Interest:

• Lake Hart – either a saltpan so white it’ll hurt your eyes; or an oasis in the outback full of water!
• Glendambo Roadhouse complex and service centre – only place for fuel and food this leg of the trip
• Coober Pedy Mullock Heaps; Underground buildings and accommodation; and opal!

While passing Glendambo, spare a thought for Pilchard & I as we inched towards Glendambo after car trouble struck heading south just over half way from Coober Pedy in 2004.

The most compelling argument I can think of for a) carrying water and b) having paid up Road Assistance membership, with a blown head-gasket, the car was, as the mechanic put it in technical terms, ‘stuffed’.

Although he used a different word.

Road Assist paid for a) a motel unit; b) bus fares to Adelaide; c) trucking the car to Adelaide for repair; and d) general expenses. I still shudder to think how much we’d have been out of pocket – so DON’T leave home without it!

Staying in Coober Pedy’s underground accommodation isn’t for the claustrophobic – but IS something to experience at least once!  It’s even got the world’s only underground campground (or so I’ve been told). And looking for Opal, either in the tourist ‘noodling’ area OR ‘finding’ it at the nearest opal showroom can be very rewarding!!

Options: Stay another night and tour the nearby Breakaways and Painted Desert; the underground churches; and a working opal mine. Then take a round of golf at the Coober Pedy Golf Course. It DOES offer reciprocal rights to world famous St Andrews in Scotland after all!!

READ: More about Coober Pedy

Day 3: Coober Pedy to Uluru

Distance: 750 km

Driving Time: 8 – 8½ hours (allow extra time for rest, food and sightseeing stops)

Scenery: Varied. Once past the mullock heaps, red sandy soil and vegetation cover low hills, then the Indulkana range past Marla. Across the border, granite outcrops before entering the Amadeus basin, a former seabed.

Points of Interest:

• The Dog Fence – longest man-made structure in the world!
• Cadney Park and Marla Roadhouses
• South Australia/Northern Territory Border
• Sturt’s Desert Peas, depending on time of year
• Kulgera Roadhouse
• Erldunda Roadhouse – a giant, caged echidna near the car park was once a prop for Expo
• Mt Connor, sometimes mistaken for Uluru
• Uluru and Kata Tjuta

Start early for a long day because – trust me on this – you DON’T want to drive at night! There’ll be enough opportunities to hit stray wildlife during the day, when at least you can (mostly) see it coming!

Turn off to Uluru at the Erldunda Roadhouse. Mt Connor, at Curtin Springs station, is often mistaken for Uluru and is a tourist attraction in its own right. But there’s no mistaking the vast bulk of the world’s biggest monolith as it glows in the setting sun.

READ: More about Uluru and Central Australia

Options:

• Stay an extra night to explore Uluru and Kata Tjuta more thoroughly.
• Alternatively, take a detour to the remarkable Kings Canyon, and relive one of the more memorable scenes from cult Australian movie ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’!

Day 4: Uluru to Alice Springs

Distance: 465 km

Driving Time: 5 – 5½ hours (allow extra time for rest, food and sightseeing stops)

Scenery: Central Desert and ranges.

Points of Interest:

• Uluru and Kata Tjuta
• Henbury Meterorite Craters
• Rainbow Valley (detour)

Spend the morning exploring the amazing Uluru and Kata Tjuta formations before returning to Erldunda and heading north to the Stuarts Well Roadhouse for a bizarre, uniquely Australian experience!

Doesn’t EVERYONE want to see a singing, piano playing Dingo? STOP PRESS:  Tragically, Dinky has now retired.

But this means extra time to take the short detour to Rainbow Valley, right?!  Check road conditions at the Stuarts Well Roadhouse – the turnoff is 14 km north; then it’s another 23 km along a dirt road to Rainbow Valley.

READ: More about Stuarts Well; More about Rainbow Valley; More about Alice Springs

Options:

• Stay overnight at the Rainbow Valley campground!
• Factor in extra time to explore Alice Springs – it’ll take a LOT more than an overnight stay to see the sights!

Day 5: Alice Springs to Tennant Creek

Scenery: Spectacular ranges around Alice Springs, which flatten out into the grassy plains and rocky outcrops of the Barkly Tablelands.

Points of Interest:

• Alice Springs
• Aileron Roadhouse
• Wycliffe Well Roadhouse complex, once proclaimed Australia’s UFO capital
• Wauchope Hotel
• Karlu Karlu (Devils Marbles)

Wycliffe Well Roadhouse’s unusual murals, strange otherworldly figurines and Elvis campsite are worth a look. Just up the road past the Wauchope Hotel are the Devils Marbles. While they’re at their best at sunrise or sunset, they’re worth stopping for any time!

Then it’s another hour or so up the road to gold mining town Tennant Creek.

READ: More about Wycliffe Well; More about Devils Marbles; More about Tennant Creek

Options:

• Stay overnight at Wycliffe Well, Wauchope or the Devils Marbles campground for sunset/sunrise shots of the Devils Marbles. Tennant Creek is 106 km north.

Day 6: Tennant Creek to Katherine

Distance: 673 km

Driving Time: 7 – 7½ hours (allow extra time for rest, food and sightseeing stops)

Scenery: Barkly Tablelands grasslands and cattle station country continue to Newcastle Waters. Tropical vegetation hides many relics from World War II, before the lush tropics of Mataranka and its thermal pools.

Points of Interest:

• Kunjarra (The Pebbles), a smaller version of the Devils Marbles
• Cattle Stations, Roadhouses and small towns including Banka Banka, Renner Springs, Elliott, Dunmarra, Larrimah
• Daly Waters Pub – a popular traveller stopover with meals and entertainment
• World War 2 Memorabilia and outposts
• Mataranka and Bitter Springs Thermal Pools – once part of Elsey Station, where the events of Mrs Aeneas Gunn’s classic Australian memoir ‘We of the Never Never’ took place.

Busy Katherine, on the edge of Nitmiluk National Park (also known as Katherine Gorge), is a crossroads and stocking-up point for travellers heading west to Kununurra or east to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The thermal pools just out of town are a popular gathering point at the end of a long day on the road.

 

READ: More about Katherine

Options: Stay 100 km south of Katherine at Bitter Springs, and soak in its famous thermal pools. Who could resist seeing the world’s biggest man-made termite mound in Mataranka’s main street? It even TALKS!

Day 7: Katherine to Darwin

Distance: 316 km

Driving Time: 3½ – 4 hours (allow extra time for rest, food and sightseeing stops)

Scenery: Tropical

Points of Interest:

• Cutta Cutta Caves
• Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge)
• Historic Pine Creek
• Adelaide River’s Historic Railway and War Cemetery
• Batchelor – Gateway to Litchfield National Park

Take a morning tour to Katherine Gorge or nearby Cutta Cutta Caves before completing the drive to Darwin. Although there’s lots to tempt the inquisitive along the way!

READ: More about Darwin & the Top End

Options:

• Stay an extra day to explore the Katherine Region more thoroughly, including the Gorge, and the marvellous Edith Falls just north of Katherine, for swimming and bushwalking.
• Take the scenic route through Kakadu National Park to, with its distinctive landmarks, walks, tours and scenic attractions to Jabiru, then via Mary River and Humpty Doo to Darwin.
• Stay an extra day in Batchelor and explore the natural wonders of Litchfield National Park!

Darwin is an adventure in itself so you might want to consider an open-ended car rental arrangement.  But of course it all depends on how much time you’ve got.

It’d be easy to spend a further week exploring this Top End wonderland – check out my TOP 10 Things to Do in Darwin HERE!

But if Darwin’s the end of the line, all you’ve got to do is fly or drive somewhere else!

Like continuing your road trip – try my 7 Days from Darwin to Broome itinerary!

The post 7 Days … from Adelaide to Darwin! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.

I hadn’t suspected the otherworldly limestone Karst country we’d crossed en route from the Visitor Centre to the Cutta Cutta Caves entrance to be a portal to a parallel universe.

But had we inadvertently stumbled into a casting call for a bad B-grade movie?

For now, waiting for our guide at the stairs leading down to the locked entry gate were an older couple (not us!!!) hung about with a ballast of camera equipment; a bickering honeymoon couple resplendent in ‘resort’ gear; two tanned and muscular young men travelling together in some ambiguous capacity; a young family with two hyperactive sons; and us.

Coincidence? Maybe.

Or was this demographically diverse group tailor made for the kind of film where an unknown threat would pick us off one by one??

I could imagine the story-board now. ‘What terrors await this eclectic ensemble of offbeat characters as they’re led into the bowels of an unlit cave by a guide who holds the only key …’

Maybe I was just being paranoid. Or ‘going troppo’ as they say in northern Australia’s Top End!

But then we met our guide.

Materialising through the shimmering heat waves of the limestone formations between the Visitor Centre and the cave entrance, Nathan* – complete with an increasingly macabre dry wit – was a gift from B-grade schlock-horror central casting.

Brandishing an oversized key, he unlocked the gate and led us through. Then, with a clang, it slammed shut behind us and he padlocked the steel mesh frame securely, gesturing us down into the gloom below.

Padlocked? What could we possibly need protection from down there??

As we descended into the depths, ducking to avoid being knocked out on the sometimes low roof, Nathan entertained us by pointing out potential catastrophes along the narrow track that wound between the sometimes spectacular limestone formations, stalactites and stalagmites.

‘It’s only two metres to the surface at this point,’ he stated, pointing up to the rocky cave ceiling. ‘So the roof could cave in on top of us,’ he continued, pausing for effect. ‘But not today!’

How did he know?!

But the plot was starting to sound horribly familiar. I think I knew how this story ended – and it didn’t end well for me.

The Cutta Cutta Caves Nature Park, a popular Katherine attraction and billed as the Northern Territory’s ONLY publicly accessible tropical limestone cave, is a mere 27 km out of town. However, it generally takes second billing to the far better known Nitmiluk National Park, aka Katherine Gorge.

During the Australian winter when it’s peak tourist season in the Northern Territory, Park rangers conduct regular tours through the caves. Arriving without a booking, we’d lucked out – or so we thought – by being assigned to Nathan’s tour.

He was certainly holding our interest with his ghoulish wisecracks. So much so I’d forgotten to watch for the rare ghost and horseshoe bats found in the caves. I hadn’t forgotten about the brown tree snakes, however, despite their ‘harmless’ status. But so far they hadn’t shown themselves. Result!

A little further along Nathan told us how early in the 1990’s the non-indigenous stockman who found the caves while searching for missing stock named them ‘Smith’s Caves’ – after … wait for it … himself! Who would have thought?

A death-trap for wandering creatures who fell through the roof to become trapped in the caverns below, the cave now held a different kind of prey captive.

‘Who knows what might fall through next?’ Nathan wondered aloud, exaggeratedly glancing above to the cracked roof followed by anxious glances from the group. If nothing else, his macabre machinations was proving a fairly effective cure for hyperactivity as the children fell silent at last.

We admired the glittering limestone before nearing the end of the accessible part of the caves. How trustingly we’d let Nathan lure guide us into the cave! Now he had total control of the light switch. AND the only torch!

‘I’m going to turn out the lights to let you experience total darkness,’ Nathan said as he flipped the switch, plunging us into an all-enveloping blackness so deep and intense my skin seemed to be absorbing it.

Time passed.

‘Did you know that people can go mad after half an hour in complete darkness to which your eyes will NEVER adjust?’ Nathan’s voice spoke helpfully into the void. I felt a restless stirring in the group.

‘Because you start thinking about falling into a deeper hole.’ He paused to let the idea take hold.

‘Or about the snakes, spiders and bats.’ Pause. Was that something touching my foot?? My eyes tried again – and again failed – to adapt to the all-consuming blackness.

‘Or that perhaps you’ll never get out.’ Longer pause. That B-grade film plot now on endless replay through my mind was starting to seem a bit more realistic. And not just to me! Around me, the complete darkness filled with total silence.

I smacked down the ‘what if’ thoughts I was starting to have. How embarrassing would it be to be the first to go completely mad in the darkness? After only a few minutes??

Although aware of them, the caves apparently had no cultural significance for the local Indigenous people, the Jarwoyn and played no part in their rituals. But maybe that’s because this ghoulish grotto had gotten old real quick. It can’t have been any fun underground in pitch blackness with no electricity.

I now knew exactly what that felt like. But I wasn’t going to be the first to call out for the lights. The lights that may never come …

More time passed.

Then, without warning Nathan switched the lights back on, leaving a startled group exchanging sheepish glances with each other. He directed us back along the path towards the entrance, bringing up the rear as I stopped to take photos.

‘Has anyone ever freaked out in the total darkness?’ I asked.

‘No, but the lights failed once and I couldn’t switch them back on,’ he laughed – perhaps a little TOO readily. ‘And another time a lady got the giggles.’

Yes, all too sadly, I could appreciate that fine line between laughter and hysterics …

‘I think she appreciated my sense of humour,’ said Nathan.

But as my (of course) unwarranted fears vanished in the cold, hard, natural light of day, I too was left with an abiding appreciation of Nathan’s dark arts. His unique and refreshing departure from the usual – and sometimes dreary – delivery of facts and information made a memorable experience that only extreme age and/or an attack of amnesia could make me forget!

And as we returned along the path to the Visitor Centre, I enjoyed a cruel laugh as the next victims tour group picked its way through the Karst to keep their date with the Ghoulish Guide of Cutta Cutta Caves!

* Nathan – not his real name

Want MORE?

• Cutta Cutta Caves Nature Park
• Katherine and surrounds, Northern Territory
• Limestone Karst

The post The Ghoulish Guide of Cutta Cutta Caves! appeared first on Australia by Red Nomad OZ.