We drove the 4x4 to Ayer's Rock that morning. It is about 450km away from Alice Springs. It seems that most of the car rental places in Alice Springs give about 200km per day along with the rental of the car, so if you aren't renting the car for five or more days, be prepared to pay the extra km charge if you go to Uluru, the Olgas and Kings Canyon.
It's a little trick the car rental companies have of getting five or six days worth of rent while only have the car rented out for three or four days.
We had ours for four days, but could have easily found lots to do for an entire week. One bit of advice is to not get the four wheel drive or other diesel vehicle. Australia's Northern Territory is the only place in the world where diesel costs more than regular unleaded. On our way home we paid $1.75/L to fill our tank. I wanted to ask why they weren't just charging and even $2.00, but then I realized that the gas jockies don't set the price and that there is probably a law against jacking up the price of fuel in the middle of nowhere.
In separate instances we saw a total four cars stopped by the side of the road with aborigines trying to hitch a ride to civilization. I felt really guilty not stopping to pick them up, being in the middle of the bush and all. I justified it by thinking about how I have been trained my whole life not to pick up hitch hikers.
Recently a movie called 'wolf creek' has been released on video her in Australia. It's about a group of british backpackers who get murdered in incrasingly violent fashion. The movie has been referred to as "horror porn" because the only feature of the movie is grizzly murders and not much else.
In anycase, we saw this burnt out car and stopped so that I could get my photo taken jumping over it and surfing it etc. I learned to love doing this in Argentina where there are a plethora of stolen, striped and burntout cars to pose with.
-Gary Milner
No comments:
Post a Comment