"Ayers Rock" Campground

G'day PMK,

What??? You don't think being overcharged to get bad service and facilities run by english backpackers, and being made to feel guilty for being Australian, isn't the "true" Ayers rock experience.
Truly you are out of touch with modern man!!!
Its not even Ayers' Rock anymore, he gave it back.............

On a serious note, even though I'll probably get a few replies of disgruntled humourless "aussies", life does move on and experiences are never the same.
Tis a shame, but we have lots of good things now too.

Great memories like yours are others are a recollection of a life well lived!

Cheers
Brian

The Suzuki Clubs of Australia had a gathering there in 1978. We camped in the open just to the north of the motels on New Years Eve and went for drinkies at the Ansett Lodge? Climbed the rock the next morning without taking a bottle of drinking water with us (can't remember if there were plastic bottles in those days). Got a tad parched but found some holes with clear water up there and had a good drink. Later we had a run-in with the Ranger, the late Derek Roff, about driving off road. It wasn't us but he insisted on making a fuss. A long drawn out saga followed. There were no indigenous camps around at that time. Thats all I can recall :-)

I was up there about 1978 with a convoy of half a dozen Army Land Rovers. We had just finished a recce on Alice Springs and surrounds (Palm Valley, Herrmansburg come to mind) for logistics and made a quick detour to the rock on the way back.

Pulled into the camp ground and setup our swags etc. Local copper pulled up and invited us all out on the town (LOL). We all climbed on the back of his ute and took off to one of the Motels for a drink. One drink and he said, "come on, we're leaving". I asked why and he said, "There's three prices: Tourist prices; Local prices; and "in the know prices, and I only pay the last one". We then went to the old motel at the base of the rock and "settled in". About 2000hrs (that's 8pm) the heavens opened up. We raced back to the camp ground but everything was absolutelt saturated. We stayed the night in the motel's billiard room. I can remember huddling in the corner with just one dry spot on the blanket pressed against my cheek. What a miserable night LOL.

In the morning, the fog completely surrounded the rock. About 1000hrs it lifted and we could see the water cascading down the rock. What a magnificant sight. There was a dingo chasing the frogs down the middle of the track; an american tourist had his camera out filming it. "My God, have ya ever seen enything like this", he said. NO!! It was one my my life's great experiences.

As a side note: The local copper had closed the roads due to the rain. I was convoy commander and pleaded with him to let us out. He opened the road for two hours for 4WD vehicles only. Gave me the directions to head to the SA Border and follow it back to the highway. What a great drive. Wet sand all the way - just like bitumen.

I recalled that story to a group of tourists I was guiding in Townsville about 1998 and one of them said, "I remember that water cascading off the rock, I was there". Small world isn't it?

Enjoy

Malcolm

It is hard to find pictures from days older than the internet. (internet invented circa 1990 by Timothy John Berners-Lee).

It is sad that so many places are being 'sanitized' for the peoples own good. It would be great to visit these places before you need to park the 3km back and pay the $$$ to trek to the lookout and view from a distance.

It is true that great places only need a few filthy campers to leave rubbish like campfire burn tins and toilet paper messages to ruin it for others. And I can understand places with heavy tourism will soon become disgusting. Especially with your 4x4 tour cars that have no shovel to bury their waste and they come from another country and don't care about this one.

I did find some old Ayers Rock pics posted on www.dellabarkley.id.au/memorylane/memorylane.html.

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. . . . dingoes wandering through the campground.

pmk3,

The Inland was the motel the truck went through, my memory is not the best and I was young the first time I was there but I believe there were three motels around the base and the campground.
The names I remember are the Inland, the Red Sands and the Uluru.

PMK,
Looks like 1978 was a good year. My first visit was there in 1978 and like Malcolm it rained! And we were there in December just before Xmas - must have been a week before Willem. Heres some photos that have been scanned off slides. And we did it in a KE10 Corolla wagon!

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Hi pmk3

I was there in 1980 when Azaria went missing , i took lots of slides , what was i thinking ? we were in a Holden panel van , a bag of clothes an esky and a tent , and a tool box , that was about it .
I also climbed the rock in bare feet , no water , no sun screen , no hat ,and no brains .
Our car did a nose dive into the sandy track at Kings Canyon where the car park is now , back then it was bush and 2 wheel tracks in the sand and you could camp there , the fan blades went through the radiator , so we sawed the fan blades of to make them ballanced , cut the damaged section radiator core out of the radiator rolled up the tubes in the core sealed them with silastic , 2 eggs 1 container of pepper and drove to the rock and back to Alice Springs , no problems ,
There were hardly any 4x4 vehicles arround back then when you really needed one , now there is more bitumin and everyone needs a 4x4, me included .
Great Topic
Colin

, the world has turned all white and fluffy , i'm so glad i saw that area when i did , i go back now and think what will it be like in another 30 years .
Colin

Hi,
Yep, a truck did go through the pub, but i heard they found dingo prints on the steering wheel.
cheers