Please help me decide about a trip to the Outback!
 

Hi everyone-
Well, in exactly 4 weeks and 1 day I leave NYC for Sydney. I've been to Australia twice before, once on a tour from Cairns to Syd and last summer to Melbourne and Syd to visit friends. This time I am staying for 6 weeks and doing a house swap on Bondi Beach. Suffice to say, I cannot wait!

Since I have seen much of Oz that I've wanted to see, this time around I plan to relax and enjoy just living there for an extended period of time. However, I've never been to the Outback and feel perhaps a trip is warranted. I was thinking about a 4-5 day guided trip as I will most likely go alone. I cannot decide if I should do Ayers Rock/Alice Springs or go to Darwin/Kakadu/Katherine. I've done a lot of reading but would still welcome suggestions for tour companies and if either trip is really worth my while.

Is Ayers Rock a tourist trap and terribly expensive? What else is there to do there? What is there to do in Darwin/Kakadu? I like being outside and am pretty adventurous, but I don't want to camp outside or anything. I do not need a high-end trip.

Please help! Also, am also thinking about a week to the Cooks and/or Bali. Good idea? Which is better? Again, I may traveling alone so I'm considering the boring factor (Cooks) and safety (Bali). Thanks!!!!

Hi Abbey,

Darwin and Kakadu are good to see at this time of year as it is not the wet season. Plenty of things to see and do in the top end.

Yes Ayres Rock has become a tourist trap and in my view a very expensive one. I cannot justify the $25 per person entry fee to the park and believe this is just a plain ripoff.

I also cannot justify paying the exorbitant accommodation costs, they really are outrageous prices.

I cannot give you any advice on the Cook Islands or Bali maybe others can do that.

You will find the accommodation costs to be a lot more reasonable in Alice Springs and you can do a 2 day tour of Ayres Rock and Kings Canyon from Alice.

Cheers

Paul_S

I thought the $25 to enter Ayers Rock NP was worth every penny. Sure Ayers rock is a very popular destination, but that doesn't make it a tourist trap. There is no visible development close to the rock, all of it nicely contained in a neat area behind a sand dune some kilometers away. Your $25 also allows you to visit the Olgas, which in my opinion are even more impressive than Uluru. As I recall, there was also a sizeable fee to enter Kakadu. Well maintained national parks cost $. Same here in the states....entry fee to Yellowstone is $18 US.

Abby, I can't say spending a lot of $ (including airfare, accommodation) just to visit Ayers Rock would be worth it compared to your other options, but if you have the time to see more of what central Australia has to offer (e.g. Kings Canyon, the Olgas and the MacDonnell ranges) it all makes for a great holiday.

Hi, Abby43!

Like Paul, I, too, am becoming less enamored of Uluru as it becomes increasingly commercialised and, what may even be worse, politicised -- visitors with no inrerest in, or background knowledge of, the history of indigenous-European relations in Australia are being used as pawns in some game about ownership and desecration of sacred sites. If the entrance fee to Kakadu is escalating to keep pace with Uluru, maybe you ought to look at somewhere a little less-travelled and a little more interesting. Sneak a peek at this website: http://www.mountisa.qld.gov.au/commu...ill_gorge.html and see if you wouldn't get more out of a visit to this area, anyway. After all, you're not a new chum to Australia, you have seen our "tourist icons" already, so maybe it's time for a bit of the "hidden" Australia.

Hey guys-thanks so much for your input. Do you have any tour companies to recommend that I can look into to help me plan a trip if I do decide to go? Also, should I maybe fly to Alice Springs and then do a day tour to Ayers Rock? I don't know the distance between the two. I'm much more knowledgeable about the East Coast than the Outback!

Thanks again. I really appreciate your assistance.

Hi Abby,

I may not offer much assistance in helping you decide. We've recently returned from down under and really enjoyed both your outback choices.

We stayed at Lakeview Park in Jabiru, an aboriginal owned and operated place. We had a spiffy tent cabin w/ detached private bath for $85AU.

We took an excellent day trip w/ Lord's to Arnhemland and got to see fabulous rock art there ( generally off limits).

At Cooinda we did a dawn Yellow Waters cruise and an Animal Tracks afternoon and evening animal spotting and bush tucker trip ( I ate grubs).

In the Red Center we drove from Alice to Watarrka( Kings Canyon) via Stuart's Well to see Dinky the singing piano playing dingo. The walk at the canyon is excellent. We then spent 2.5 days at Yulara. The walk around Uluru is magical and the walk through Kata Tjuta ( the Olgas) is awesome ( Valley of the Winds).

We stayed at the least expensive accomodation w/ private bath at the Outback Pioneer Hotel.$160AU. There are rooms w/o bath for less adjacent to an immaculate ablution block. Most of the resort at Yulara is solar powered and the design is high quality.

If you've got 6 weeks, why not do both?

AndrewDavid

put my screen name into the search box to read my report on Ayers rock. In retrospect, i wish we had spent 3 days on a REAL outback experience, say on a sheep ranch or the like. I found Ayers rock to be an overpriced curiosity, neat and unusual, but not worth it. just one opinion. wouldn't do it again had I known.

G'day Abby,
there is much more to an experience of the outback than flying to an "Icon" or two, or to taking a Bus Trip with 40+ others.
It's also travelling through areas not frequented by Mass Tourism, experiencing travel on dirt roads or in desert areas where you may not see another vehicle for several hours, where you have an impromptus swim in a waterhole, where you sit around your camp fire while you dinner is cooking on it.

Then you lay down on your swag or in your sleeping bag listening to the sounds of the bush and watching thousands of stars above you and without fail see falling stars and satellites moving through space.

In the mornings you wake to the sounds of the birds and experience the wakening of a new day, well before the sun rises above the horizon.
Then after breakfast you are on the move again and it's now when you realize how large this country is and how insignificant we all are in the greater scheme of things.
You will now also become aware of our unique fauna and flora, wondering how they can survive in this harsh environment and not least reflect on the hardship that our early explorer and settlers endured.
When then, after a few days of this you approach one of those "Icons" you can put things into perspective and there will be few who don't pity the masses who arrived there on one of those huge tour coaches.

You have "experienced" the outback, not just seen it from the window of a coach.

Enjoy all Australia has to offer,
Mike.

Mike: I hear you. One of the most incredible experiences in my life was the time my wife and I did the 800-900 km Gibb River Rd and Bungle Bungle Ranges with a small 4WD tour group out of Kununurra in Western Australia. Awesome experiences exactly as you describe. I would love to do a trip like that again. For an overseas visitor traveling alone, a small 4WD tour like we did might be the best way to go. I thought Ayers Rock was definitely worth the $25 I paid to get into the park. But, I agree, no matter how amazing Ayers Rock is, the experience of flying there, having a quick look round (along with hundreds of other tourists) and then jetting off to Cairns, Sydney or wherever is in no way truely experiencing the outback.

RalphR

For future reference do you recall the tour operator for your run down GibbRiver Road and the Bungle Bungles/

That part of the country is high on our list for our next visit down under. Thanks .

I too felt the $25. was good value for Uluru Kata Tjuta. It helps manage and maintain a lovely and impressive park. We went as individual travellers and enjoyed the hike around Uluru and through Valley of the Winds. The cultural Center is well done ( all park buildings in Australia are architecturally impressive imho).

AndrewDavid

AD
You just had to sneak that bloody dingo in again, didn't you! ;)

AD: The tour was run by the Desert Inn, a youth hostel in Kununurra. That was in 1997...I think the business has changed hands since and I'm not sure if they still do tours. It was an el cheapo tour most definitely, not the sort of outfit I'd generally recommend We had intended on going with on a somewhat more upscale camping tour but this was the only one that fit our schedule, etc.

My wife and I, then just turning 40, were by far the oldest on the tour. The others wondered at first if we were with the right group. There were 7 others with us, young English, Swiss, German and a couple of Aussies (including my wife). Our guide was a real character, in his 20s, a new age hippy...did not wear shoes the whole time and wasn't shy about swimming in the nude at everywhere waterhole we stopped at. A bit of a daredevil...at a couple of the gorges he'd climb to the top of the cliff and then jump 60 feet or so in to the water. Impressive, but a bit foolhardy when you're responsible for a group of less bush-savvy clients out in the middle of nowhere!

To my wife's extreme concern the canvas rolls packed on top of the 4WD turned out to be "swags" (bedrolls)instead of tents. She, until then, had almost never camped before, let alone slept out under the stars. But my, what an awe inspiring sight is the outback night sky. She soon came to appreciate that. Plus, it was pretty cool at night so there were no legit concerns about snakes, etc.

Except for fairly regular chances to swim, there were no shower or toilet facilities for almost the whole trip.

The road out to the Bungles, off the bitumen Great Northern Hwy, was rough in the exteme...we got bounced completely off our seats more than a few times. I'm amazed we even got over some of the steam beds we crossed. The Gibb River Road, except for the last 50 km or so outside Broome, was also rough and unsealed. Our guide spent a lot of time steering us to the wrong side of the road to avoid potholes and corrugation. Even around corners. Dicey but with one vehicle or roadtrain coming the opposite way every hour or so, what would be the chances???? Good thing we had two spare tires...we needed both of them.

The Bungle Bungle ranges are unquestionably the most impressive geological formation I've seen in Australia, or anywhere else for that matter. We did a couple of day hikes into massive canyons and up dried river beds. There is (or was) no development at all, except a for campgrounds and a landing strip for planes and helicopters. One day, a helicopter flew in from Kununurra offering sight-seeing flights to what few visitors were there. I took a flight....from the air you get a perspective of the Bungles that's impossible to get from the ground...a massive labyrinth of gorges and wierd beehive-shaped domes in all directions. I hope the Bungles never become as developed as Uluru...seems unlikely considering the severe climate. Unlike Uluru, the Kimberley experiences the Wet Season and so the park is closed for half the year. June/July/Aug is the time to go. Oct/Nov before the Wet can be brutally hot.

Along the Gibb River Rd, we made fairly regular stops at many of the beautiful gorges and waterfalls along the way. We had most of these places completely to ourselves...swimming in crystal clear and deep plunge pools below what would be raging waterfalls during the Wet. We drank the water in several spots. In between gorges, the country is starkly beautiful...rolling open country with rugged rock outcroppings, escarpments, termite mounds, and weird looking boab trees (unique to NW Australia).

At a couple of places, we saw freshwater crocs sunning themselves and at one crossing nearer Kununurra, there were signs warning of the much more dangerous salt water versions. We stayed out of the water on that occassion!

Despite the age difference we had a lot of fun with our group. We managed to radio ahead for a delivery of a couple of cases of Victoria Bitter from a truck coming the opposite way. That loosened things up in the hurry! We worked out a routine of playing King or Queen for a Day...guess a question right and you didn't have to help with cooking and camp chores for the whole day.

Anyway, I've more than answered your question I'm sure. Got carried away reliving what was a truly wonderful and unforgettable trip.

Dingo, I don't see a dingo here.

G'day Ralph and Andrew,
for what it's worth,
I do also run Tag Along Tours.
Next one is a 31 day East-West Expedition across the deserts during mid July.
That will be followed by a Kimberley Tour late in August.
You can contact me for more info via my e-mail address.
May see you in the bush,
Mike.

Hi Abby, Tough decision but if I had to choose I would definitely choose Uluru/Kata Tjuta. The $25 entrance fee actually covers you for seven days. Everything about our 'red centre' is worth the effort and expense to get there. I think you can do it as cheaply or as expensively as you like as there are just a multitude of options.
Whilst there it would be a terrible shame not to include King's Canyon also. This is actually my favourite 'outback' place.
Alan's recommendation of Lawn Hill is certainly a fantastic spot but IMHO cannot be compared to the magic of Uluru.
AndrewDavid fyi don't forget to include Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek on your trek down the Gibb River Road. We did this from Derby - both places are fantastic but Tunnel Creek turned out to be quite an adventure not to be missed.

Mike: We'll keep you in mind for another year! We go to Australia pretty regularly to visit my wife's family and friends and we normally take a side trip to a new part of the country. This year the side trip is NZ, for a change.
I'd be interested hearing what routes you take. I've always thought it would be fun to do the Tanami Track. A 4WD trip to the tip of Cape York is another one.

Claret: I second the recommendation on Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek. We stayed overnight there, the last one on our GRR trip. We had the place to ourselves.

Dear Ralph, Thanks for your heads up about your Gibb River Road/Bungle Bungle trip.

On our recent exploration of the island continent, we sailed for 3 days on the Solway Lass through the Whitsundays. We were the oldest by about 20 years. We had a great time talking w/ the 20 and early 30 somethings, but our bar tab was embarassingly low compared to theirs and I had no luck identifying corrent song titles during ferocious rounds of charades.
A/D

Dear Claret, Thanks for the suggestion of Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek

A/D

Thank you to everyone for your help. I still can't decide what to do but at least I"m more informed. Only 3.5 weeks to go until departure!