VEC RATeX 2021 - The We Will Rock You Tour...

[morts]

This trip got held over from 2020 due to Covid and it looks like we might have hit a sweet spot in getting it done and dusted when we did..!

The itinerary was as follows:-

Saturday, 15 May – Adelaide to Wilmington
Sunday, 16 May - Wilmington to Kingoonya
Monday, 17 May - Kingoonya to Coober Pedy
Tuesday, 18 May - Coober Pedy to Marla
Wed, 19 May to Fri, 21 May - Marla to Ayers Rock/Uluru
Saturday, 22 May - Ayers Rock/Uluru to Kulgera
Sunday, 23 May - Kulgera to Dalhousie Springs
Monday, 24 May - Dalhousie Springs to Oodnadatta
Tuesday, 25 May - Oodnadatta to Coward Springs
Wednesday, 26 May - Coward Springs to Woomera
Thursday, 27 May - Woomera to Laura
Friday, 28 May - Laura to Home

The objective of this adventure was to get to the red centre and then home again through the back blocks of the outback with no major calamities whilst having a lot of fun and raising funds for this year’s nominated charity – Shake It Up where
100% of funds raised go directly to Australian Parkinsons Disease research. On top of that this figure is then matched 100% by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, therefore we managed to raise $12,000.00 for this valuable cause.

When we set off our convoy consisted of 8 air cooled Volkswagens and two support vehicles and another beetle joined us at Woomera. We also had a good mix of people ranging from an 8 year old up to some in their 70's.

It was a 4,040 kilometre trip from driveway to driveway for Cat in the Hat and she did not miss a beat with only a few oil top ups on the long bitumen road days and cleaning out of the oil bath filter a few times.

The roll call of cars for this year’s event were:-

Cat in the Hat - 1967 Canterbury Pitt microbus camper
Reggie - 1972 Lowlight High Top Kombi
Willshemakeit - 1972 Kombi
Shazal - 1976 Kombi
Lucky Phil - 1976 Kombi
Snoop Dog - 1966 Beetle
Niambri - 1973 Beetle
Wunona - 1971 Type 3 Squareback
Victor - 1989 T3 Camper

Rod Bolt - 2003 Toyota Troop Carrier
Tow-Jo - 2016 Toyota Landcruiser

Over the next few days I will put up a blurb about each day and some pics - stay tuned...

[braddick]

Look forward to the pics and the story’s bud

[spl65t]

Willshemakeit - classic.
Looking forward to pics

[Griffin]

what a trip, cant wait to see the pics

[morts]

Day 1 - Adelaide to Wilmington

We set off from Cavan just after 9.00am and did not even make it to our first stop before drama unfolded. Victor, the T3 being piloted by one of our older entrants, lost his front passenger wheel
Fortunately the wayward monster was kept under control and brought to a halt and even though the brake disc was ground away, thankfully it was not enough to stop the brakes from working. A team quickly went to work trying to find Victor’s wayward wheel nuts - three were found and another couple were sourced from one of the support vehicles.
This was the longest RATeX in time and distance we had ever undertaken and I couldn't help but think here we are, only one hour in - what else could possibly go wrong over the next 13 days..??

There were seemingly endless road works from Clare onwards and were kept to 40 - 60 kph, however they are badly needed.

The next stop was at Alligator Gorge which involved a steep drive up the hill with first gear a necessity in 1600cc kombis. Willshemakeit had his passengers bail out to make it easier to get back up the hills again! This car reminded me so much of Little Miss Sunshine - husband, wife, three kids and all their gear jammed into this bus and every time they stopped people and things just kept piling out!

After a late lunch and a walk to the lookouts we all headed back down to Stony Creek Bush Camp just outside of Wilmington for our first night. This is a well set up camping and caravan park and our group had an area set aside for us with a large campfire and seats.

I'm always quite glad when the first day is done and dusted as it always irons out a few wrinkles and today was no exception!

[jvm]

Great photos and an eventful first day! Looking forward to seeing how the rest of the trip unfolded

[spl65t]

T3 loose wheel
Reminded me of a mate -
When we went fishing a few years back, towing the boat down a main road in Sydney when the boat trailer wheel overtook the car.
Another mate who's sitting in the backseat first time ever going fishing says, "Does that normally happen ?" ..... I said, only when we go using Gav's equipment.

[morts]

Day 2 – Wilmington to Kingoonya

The Stoney Creek campsite offered a few old wrecks to look at and, no, I'm not talking about our crew either…! On the reccy, only two years ago, the creek that runs through the campsite was flooded however on this trip there was not a drop of water in sight.

Everyone was ready to leave around 8:30am and our first stop was in Wilmington at the Toy Museum. This is run by an eccentric guy who collects Land Rovers - he must have had art least 30! A lot of us were re-living our childhoods with Scalextric tracks and Meccano being a reminder of how old some of us were… while the ladies - and some blokes - overwhelmed the one and only Op Shop!

Horricks Pass allowed for some spirited driving through the hilly and winding sections, however it was short lived. The road between Wilmington and Port Augusta was smooth and easy travelling and it was great to see that a lot of local businesses were still open and thriving.

Lunch and a re-fuel was at Spud’s Roadhouse, Pimba and it was then onto Glendambo and from there by dirt road to Kingoonya.

The further North we went the redder the landscape became and these continual changes kept this leg of the journey interesting.

Arriving at Kingoonya (pop. probably <20) we were welcomed by the two local free range... horses!! The local dog looked well fed by everyone, hence it was known as Fatso by the locals.

We settled for a few drinks and a meal with a few of the locals as the sunset sank into the horizon...

[Beatts]

Fantastic trip Morts, thanks for sharing.
I must put one of these trips on my bucket list.

[morts]

I must put one of these trips on my bucket list.

Yep, do so, they're a lot of fun.

[morts]

Meant to continue with this sooner but here goes..

Day 3 - Kingoonya to Coober Pedy

The sunrise began to start about 3.30am and the colour spread across the horizon and up the sky - they sure have long sunrises out here!

After taking advantage of a photo opportunity out front of the Kingoonya Hotel we departed northwards to an increasing tally of cattle grid crossings.
Thankfully it was a pretty uneventful trip to Coober Pedy but on arrival we came across a lovely yellow and white split window Kombi driven by a young couple with two young children. They had decided to pack everything in and travel around Australia and had been going for about three years from memory. What was a little different with this couple though was that they had two children while they were travelling - not sure what will happen if they have anymore while they are away!!
We would then go on to play leapfrog with them until we departed Yulara.

Our group then split up to various accommodations for an early finish to the day.

Coober Pedy is still very much a wild west town and upon going back into town to get supplies some of our troops witnessed a very physical dust up between locals and where the constabulary were required to settle a dispute - roll on the Rock!

[morts]

Day 4 - Coober Pedy to Marla

A couple of our crew started the day with a quick side trip to check out a couple of kombis we had been told about and since this trip one of them, a '56 11 window in need of rejuvenation, has been repatriated back to Adelaide.

Then it was time for the obligatory photo shoot under the 'Welcome to Coober Pedy' sign before heading off to The Breakaways where we were almost blown off the road.

At The Breakaways we learnt the story of the “salt and pepper” or “papa” or “two dogs”. A landform of two connected “hills” one of which is white, and one is brown. In traditional folklore it is two dogs sitting which is a men’s story. Apparently the white hill has eroded faster.

From here we headed back out to the highway to continue our northward trek towards Marla. We stopped at Cadney Homestead for fuel and afternoon tea and then saddled back up for the final stretch to Marla.

Then it was time to setup camp and do some running repairs. The throttle cable on the high top had been causing some grief, but the issue was not resolved.

It was then beer o’clock and it had been a long day in the saddle and after that we headed to the pub for dinner...

[morts]

Don't know if it's just me but I had a period of about 10 days where I couldn't log on - something about the site not being secure??

Anyway, on with the story...

Day 5 - Marla to Yulara

We rose early for a shower, brekkie and fuel, for those that needed it, then off at 8.05am for a 500 kilometre day!

Of course, there was the usual counting of grids and wrecks and the usual banter about tightening your nuts. Interestingly, we came across a motor home with a smart car across the back of it at 90 degrees as a runabout!
About 50 kilometres before the NT border and there was a lot of discussion about the diversity of the vegetation the further north we travelled, however we still hadn't seen any wildlife. The consensus was that the recent flooding had already produced so much greenery there was no need for animals to be too near the roads??

At 10.00am we crossed the border into Northern Territory and the first thing that greeted us was a 130kph speed limit sign. This of course gave our President permission to try Reggie out and he got to 121kph before backing off. Eat your heart out Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos…!

At 10.15am we rolled into Kulgera for fuel and brunch and we caught up again with the couple and their kids travelling in the very nice 1962 splitty. We then headed off towards Erldunda for fuel and lunch and lo and behold they had a fenced off area with emus, so we finally got to see some wildlife! This place was very busy so there was quiet a long wait for fuel. Unfortunately drive offs are not uncommon in the outback and at most places we refuelled you are required to fill up and pay before moving your car away from the bowser. Apparently, grey nomads are the biggest culprits!

Around 12.30pm we rallied the troops and headed for Curtin Springs passing Mount Conner on the way - many people think Mount Connor is The Rock! Curtain Springs is a real oasis and we enjoyed an ice cream and/or beer on the green lawns and we finally arrived at Yulara campground about 3.30pm which was also very busy. Finalising our bookings was a long and tedious process. We eventually got to our cabins/campsites and settled in just on beer o’clock - the end of a very long driving day with no real problems and everybody was safe – mission accomplished..!

[morts]

Day 6 – Yulara

There was a collective sigh of relief within our group once we had effectively reached the half-way point of our adventure with relatively few ‘issues.’ The only ongoing concern was with Shazal whose engine had been creaking, groaning and making some rather unfriendly noises along the way, however after an oil change this all abated - a good thing too as this car has form…!

We now had two full days of free time at Yulara and the RATeX crew scattered every which way with the main focus on the first day being either Uluru/Ayers Rock or Kata Tjuta/The Olgas. Cat in the Hat and Snoop Dog elected to tackle Kata Tjuta/The Olgas first as it was approximately a 110 kilometre return trip. Driving towards this intriguing rock formation the vista continually changed with each twist and turn in the road and our first stop was an observational platform for a close-up view of Kata Tjuta/The Olgas and a distant view of Uluru/Ayers Rock. There are two main walking trails at Kata Tjuta/The Olgas - Walpa Gorge walk which is a 2.6 kilometre return trip and Valley of The Winds which is a 7 kilometre loop. As your correspondent had given himself a serious ‘corky’ the night before leaving on this trip our group opted for the easier Walpa Gorge walk. The rock formation was spectacular and due to the recent flooding, the base of the rock was quite green and colourful with native grasses, wildflowers, monarch butterflies and birdlife in abundance. The remnants of rockpools and slowly diminishing streams of water were also still evident. The landscape of red sandstone was everchanging as the angle of the sun began its ascent in the sky revealing different facets of the rock face and deepening crevices.

Although Uluru/Ayers Rock gets most of the kudos, in a big brother/little brother kind of way, Kata Tjuta/The Olgas are a much more expansive rock formation. They are made up of 36 steep sandstone monoliths with the highest point, Mount Olga, rising 546 metres above ground which is about 200 metres higher than Uluru/Ayers Rock. Also, the perimeter of Kata Tjuta/The Olgas is approximately 22 kilometres whereas Uluru/Ayers Rock is approximately 10 kilometres.

It was then back into our trusty steeds to hit the road back to camp before having a quick feed and catching our bus to the Field of Light experience. Our bus deposited us at an elevated red sand hill as a beautiful sunset was slowly caressing The Rock, cascading over its each and every fold. While enjoying a few wines and waiting for darkness to slowly envelope us the Field of Light below us slowly began to emerge. Here artist Bruce Munro has created a layout of approximately 50,000 light spindles which look like a massive field of poppies of every colour gently swaying in the light breeze. As the last vestiges of daylight disappeared we began our walk through this man made wonderland.

As spectacular as the Field of Light was an unexpected turn of events gave us one of the more memorable moments of this trip. After completing our meander through this field we went to wait for our bus to take us back to camp when an obviously distressed Jacque emerged from the toilets. She had very unfortunately managed to lose her mobile phone down a long drop – what a calamity…!! What followed could have come from a Monty Python comedy skit – one of the attendants was trying to usher her onto a bus, she was adamant she wasn’t going anywhere until she had her phone, Craig was scouring the (thankfully elevated) toilet block and then from out of the crowd sprang Scott, or as we nicknamed him, MacGyver! Scott was an ‘ideas man’ and he came up with several ways the phone could be retrieved. So, while the attendant was distracted by Jacque, Cate and I, Craig and Scott infiltrated the underside of the long drop enclosure and then via a trap door Craig had to lean in and fish out the phone and return it to a very grateful Jacque! The phone was carefully packaged so it could receive a ‘deep clean’ before any further use…

Once we were on the bus and homeward bound, we were playing our theme song – We Will Rock You on Craig’s phone and one by one almost the whole bus began singing the song at an ever increasing volume. The bus had three drop off points with us being last and at the first stop one lady yelled out ‘..you’re all a bunch of bloody bogans…!!’
You can’t please everyone I guess but that certainly topped off a great day for us..!

As we went to bed Cate, Craig and Jacque were looking forward to their dawn camel ride to The Rock the next morning and all of us our later mountain bike ride around the perimeter of this iconic Australian monolith.

[morts]

Day 6 – Yulara

There was a collective sigh of relief within our group once we had effectively reached the half-way point of our adventure with relatively few ‘issues.’ The only ongoing concern was with Shazal whose engine had been creaking, groaning and making some rather unfriendly noises along the way, however after an oil change this all abated - a good thing too as this car has form…!

We now had two full days of free time at Yulara and the RATeX crew scattered every which way with the main focus on the first day being either Uluru/Ayers Rock or Kata Tjuta/The Olgas. Cat in the Hat and Snoop Dog elected to tackle Kata Tjuta/The Olgas first as it was approximately a 110 kilometre return trip. Driving towards this intriguing rock formation the vista continually changed with each twist and turn in the road and our first stop was an observational platform for a close-up view of Kata Tjuta/The Olgas and a distant view of Uluru/Ayers Rock. There are two main walking trails at Kata Tjuta/The Olgas - Walpa Gorge walk which is a 2.6 kilometre return trip and Valley of The Winds which is a 7 kilometre loop. As your correspondent had given himself a serious ‘corky’ the night before leaving on this trip our group opted for the easier Walpa Gorge walk. The rock formation was spectacular and due to the recent flooding, the base of the rock was quite green and colourful with native grasses, wildflowers, monarch butterflies and birdlife in abundance. The remnants of rockpools and slowly diminishing streams of water were also still evident. The landscape of red sandstone was everchanging as the angle of the sun began its ascent in the sky revealing different facets of the rock face and deepening crevices.

Although Uluru/Ayers Rock gets most of the kudos, in a big brother/little brother kind of way, Kata Tjuta/The Olgas are a much more expansive rock formation. They are made up of 36 steep sandstone monoliths with the highest point, Mount Olga, rising 546 metres above ground which is about 200 metres higher than Uluru/Ayers Rock. Also, the perimeter of Kata Tjuta/The Olgas is approximately 22 kilometres whereas Uluru/Ayers Rock is approximately 10 kilometres.

It was then back into our trusty steeds to hit the road back to camp before having a quick feed and catching our bus to the Field of Light experience. Our bus deposited us at an elevated red sand hill as a beautiful sunset was slowly caressing The Rock, cascading over its each and every fold. While enjoying a few wines and waiting for darkness to slowly envelope us the Field of Light below us slowly began to emerge. Here artist Bruce Munro has created a layout of approximately 50,000 light spindles which look like a massive field of poppies of every colour gently swaying in the light breeze. As the last vestiges of daylight disappeared we began our walk through this man made wonderland.

As spectacular as the Field of Light was an unexpected turn of events gave us one of the more memorable moments of this trip. After completing our meander through this field we went to wait for our bus to take us back to camp when an obviously distressed Jacque emerged from the toilets. She had very unfortunately managed to lose her mobile phone down a long drop – what a calamity…!! What followed could have come from a Monty Python comedy skit – one of the attendants was trying to usher her onto a bus, she was adamant she wasn’t going anywhere until she had her phone, Craig was scouring the (thankfully elevated) toilet block and then from out of the crowd sprang Scott, or as we nicknamed him, MacGyver! Scott was an ‘ideas man’ and he came up with several ways the phone could be retrieved. So, while the attendant was distracted by Jacque, Cate and I, Craig and Scott infiltrated the underside of the long drop enclosure and then via a trap door Craig had to lean in and fish out the phone and return it to a very grateful Jacque! The phone was carefully packaged so it could receive a ‘deep clean’ before any further use…

Once we were on the bus and homeward bound, we were playing our theme song – We Will Rock You on Craig’s phone and one by one almost the whole bus began singing the song at an ever increasing volume. The bus had three drop off points with us being last and at the first stop one lady yelled out as she stepped off the bus ‘..you’re all a bunch of bloody bogans…!!’
You can’t please everyone I guess but that certainly topped off a great day for us..!

As we went to bed Cate, Craig and Jacque were looking forward to their dawn camel ride to The Rock the next morning and all of us our later mountain bike ride around the perimeter of this iconic Australian monolith.