Britz is one of the big rental agencies in Australia. Here is a review of their BushCamper truck. This is the sort of thing I recommended for our mobile kitchen/rest-stop/advance-camp. Doesn't sound like a thrill to drive around in, but has a useable kitchen at least. Presumably our explorer 4x4 should be able to comfortably seat 3-5 people, because it sounds like only two, tops, will fit in the BushCamper.
Spent some time reading through the Lonely Planet 'Outback Australia' guide this evening. I was hoping it would point out lodging that I didn't find in my web-and-map check. Not really. This is the Outback--there is not much out there, and what there is is modest.
I also played around with the odometer, seeing how plausible it was to visit the sites and yet return to Alice Springs each night. My conclusion is that it is a big, tiring waste of time. Tacking two-hundred mile roundtrips on top of a busy day in the middle of winter (short daylight) sounds dumb and unpleasant.
Right now my guess as to the best that can be managed is for us to arrange a couple nights lodging each at Glen Helen, Kings Canyon, and Alice Springs. We'll operate a few days out of each of them as we migrate around in one big loop.
My idea for vehicles is to get two -- one a capable 4x4 and the other one of the 4x4 'bushcampers' that has some limited sleeping accomodation as well as a kitchen. Having the makings of a kitchen makes days out much more civil, and since they can prepare a plausibly hot dinner, extend our useful time-outdoors. I can imagine it serving as a rest base for some folks as others are out playing. Lastly, in a pinch, it can be an overnight place if a few of us want to be at some location for photography early in the morning, or something like that. (ie me -- there are a lot of excellent early-morning shots in the red desert)
The offerings at most rental places are similar. To get an idea of them, check out Top End 4WD Rental. Maybe we could get the 'OZ Explorer' or 'Troop Carrier' as the exploration vehicle and then the 'Bushcamper' as our mobile kitchen and napping station.
If we want to find a non-camping base-of-operations on the western lobe route, what are the candidates?
Alice Springs
Plenty of hotels here, but up to 3 hours' drive from the areas we want to visit.
Hermannsburg -- Forget It!
Geographically, it looks like a good, centralized location. However, it sounds like an ugly place -- not any sort of a pleasant refuge:
Thus the basic policy of the council towards visitors is 'By all means come in and have a look at the historic buildings but do not drive around the peripheral area of the settlement. It is an Aboriginal Community and should be respected as such. There are 350 people here and another 600 further away and they should not be photographed and the situation should not be abused.'
I'm not very interested in staying in a rural ghetto. Regardless, it didn't sound like there were any decent guest accomodations there.
Kings Creek Station
Located at about 8pm on the western lobe route, just south of Kings Canyon Park (Watarrka National Park), 186 miles from Alice Springs, Kings Creek Station is a working cattle/camel station.
They provide minimal accomodations:
The kitchen provides tea & coffee facilities, fridge and gas BBQ; perfect if you want to prepare your own meal! Alternatively order from our extensive menu, which caters for all budgets and tastes. BBQ packs are available at the shop along with bottled wine and beer.
Cabins are provided on a bed and breakfast basis. The Bushman's style breakfast consists of: bacon & eggs, toast and tea & coffee.
They certainly don't sound fantastic -- like some sort of Outback Dormitory -- but better than extended living from a mobil camper. At around $35USD/cabin, it is a lot cheaper than the the next accomodations available, a bit north, at the Kings Canyon Resort.
Kings Canyon Resort
This is located right beside the Watarrka National Park, roughly 9pm on the western lobe. Facilities available here sound more plush.
Facilities:
Restaurant; cafe; 2 bars; 2 outdoor swimming pools; outdoor day/night tennis court; volleyball court; bike rental (from nearby gas station); tour desk; limited room service; guest laundry
Kings Canyon home page suggests this is a corporate resort chain that also has hotels in Ayers Rock and Alice Springs. I couldn't find photos or even good descriptions of the accomodations, but on the Frommers website, I found a synpasis of prices. As rough benchmarks, since we are going at the 'high period,' the rooms will be at their most expensive. A synapsis of the price indications I've found so far:
Glen Helen Resort
Glen Helen Resort is closer to Alice Springs than the other sites we've considered, siuated squarely in the West Macdonnell range. Their site was pretty spare on details, but it looks like they have the typical combination of Motel Rooms and "Stockmans Quarters" (ie. Outback Dormitories).
Again, similar pricing. The hotel booking sites were out of date, but even in the low season the rooms are about $150AUS. So figure 100-150$USD when we'd be there?
Plan?
Not sure... these really are the only options available in this area, unless we want to operate solely out of Alice Springs and make runs out from there and back.
Fear we might miss out on some of the better sites and tracks if we did this. One option would be to make one of our vehicles a bush camper and then go out a few times overnight, out of the camper, but generally be operating from Alice Springs.
Perhaps we should make a ranking of what areas we most want to see, and if we can get a decent-enough collection of them within a driveable radius, we could stick to Alice Springs as base.
Last week I received an itinerary from Vic Widman along the lines of criteria I suggested to him in March.
Designed to fill up eleven full days, it has three main sections.
The longest section runs out west through the West Macdonnell mountains, King's Canyon, Palm Valley, and the Mereenie Loop. This takes six days according to his schedule.
The second sectionis a two-day run to the Chambers Pillar.
The final section is a two-day scheduled run through the Cattlewater Pass. Vic says that ideally this is a three-day run.
My immediate impression is that Vic gave us a very full plate. Following the topo maps of the route it looks like there are endless things to see and distractions to succumb to.
My immediate reaction is to cull the Chambers Pillar two day trip. My second reaction is build serious flexibility into our schedule where we might decide to abort even the Cattlewater leg.
Why? A combination of us dawdling far more than Vic Widman might, us staying around to explore an area more thoroughly (KAP rigs, photography, mountain bikes, etc), and lastly maybe needing a break from 'roughing it' sometime through the middle of the trip.
My instinct is that we should try to do more with a shorter trip than do less on a longer trip.
My approach now is that we should start drilling down on the route, finding sites and diversions we are particularly interested in seeing while there. My guess is there is plenty, and we'll shortly, empirically prove to ourselves that stick to just the western lobe of the three-lobe trip is the best thing to do.
What are your thoughts on the itinerary?