Vicki Powys wrote:
> So I must have almost bumped into you, I was camped (with permission) right
> near the Olgas in 1979 (such things are not possible these days), I had no
> vehicle and was carrying canvas and paints and a backpack, walking out each
> day to capture the landscape. I walked all through the Olgas and saw maybe
> one person in three weeks. Now the road is tar all the way from the Stuart
> Highway to Ayers Rock, and not only that, a whole new road has gone in from
> Ayers Rock to the Olgas and that too is tarred, taking away all the magic of
> that old and winding orange road leading to the distant pink and purple
> humpy mountains of the Olgas. You can't walk through the Olgas any more I
> don't think, just maybe stand on a square marked X to take a pretty snapshot
> before retiring to your international hotel with swimming pool back at the
> new vast 'village' site out from Ayers Rock. In 1979 I was whistling
> polyphonic harmonies with three Pied Butcherbirds, as I painted, and at
> night I slept in the folds of red sandhills and woke to the chimes of
> Crested Bellbirds. (Ahh, those were the days!)
I was there in November. Did not get to walk the Olgas as much as I'd
have wished. My two sons were only game for fairly short walks away from
their toys in the camper. They did want to go to the top of Ayers Rock,
but I decided that they would have ended up having me carry both. I do
remember seeing folks who appeared to be camping out at the Olgas.
At the time there was a restriction sign on the road for heading farther
west than the Olgas, I drove all the way around them a couple times, and
walked several of the shorter trips. There were no restrictions on being
in them that I saw. They have so much more character than Ayers Rock. At
Ayers Rock only a small area around the initiation site was restricted.
One old fellow I talked to at the time told me it had been so long since
that was used that no one remembered the ceremony anymore.
I camped in the dusty "camp" at Ayer's Rock, I don't remember the hotel
as being all that big or fancy, and most bus groups were camping. Guess
it's been enlarged.
It was fun talking to the rangers at the sunset spot. The tourists were
mostly bussed out, and shot their photos (with probably the wrong
settings) when the bus driver told them to. Then they would all load up
and go away and it was quiet for the last of sunset and dusk. I wandered
around Ayers Rock at night as well, did not hike in the Olgas at night,
though I was out there one night when there was a thunderstorm. Lots
goes on at night out in that country, real and imagined.
They had just started putting in pavement when I was out. Went for a
little ways off the central highway, then it was nice enough dirt until
we passed the grading crew about half way out. On the way out from the
rock we met a family trying to figure out what to do about their tent
trailer. It was sitting on the ground with various parts of axle and
springs scattered for quite a ways. I had tools, but we could not find
enough of the parts. Finally left the trailer there and they went on
into the rock to see if there might be parts at the station there.
Then it started raining and I and a older guy more or less drove along
in convoy. Towed one broken down car we could not fix to the next
station down the road in the mud. By the time I reached pavement the
radiator was not cooling very well because of the mud. Cleaned that out,
then the next day, in Coober Peedy the clutch and alternator were
stopped by mud. Ended up getting the rest of the way south on a car
carrier who had delivered a load of used cars up there. After the Toyota
dealership got the clutch cleaned out went to a car wash and checked to
see if there was still a camper under the mud.
It was a grand trip. That was only part, I started and ended the trip in
Brisbane. Did not get out into West Australia, but covered a bunch of
the rest, mostly going where people weren't. Wore out two sets of tires
on the camper.
Walt
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