We live in an incredible country and need to see more of it | Nathan Davies

Who needs flights to Bali or Naples when you’ve got a 22-year-old HiLux at your service, writes Nathan Davies.

These school holidays, while my social media feed groaned under the weight of pictures of friends swanning around Europe and Bali, we packed an Esky into the back of my 22-year-old HiLux and headed north.

It’s too hot in Europe anyway, I told myself, and there’s a lady in Bali who I promised to buy a singlet from in 2019 so I can’t go there for a while.

So we decided to create some kind of Outback Griswold experience and take the Toyota up the Stuart Highway.

Given the old girl had more than 395,000km on the speedo this was a somewhat risky move, but my mechanic gave her a once over and the all-clear and I thought it would be fitting to clock up the 400k in the Red Heart.

Long may you run, to quote Neil Young.

Petrol and dust, to misquote Midnight Oil.

First stop was Coober Pedy, the opal mining outpost that’s a bit rough around the edges but actually has a heart of gold. Or opal. Whatever.

Nathan Davies and daughter Jessie at Uluru

We checked into the underground Comfort Inn, a hotel literally carved out of the hillside, and walked up to the Big Winch for a beer, a schnitty and the best sunset in town.

Then it was a case of go north, old man as we rolled towards the red centre, braking only for iced coffee and expensive petrol in the roadside stops of Marla and Kulgera, a settlement made famous in the Redgum tune Lear Jets Over Kulgera (It’s a long hot road from Adelaide to Lincoln when the radiator’s hissing steam).

After that it was a hard left at Ghan and west to Uluru, but not before being tricked by Mt Conner – the infamous “Fooluru”, the massive monolith that convinces many first-timers they’re almost at their destination.

However nothing could have prepared me for the sight of Uluru proper. It’s such an iconic image that it conjures something deep inside and you’d have to be cold soul not to be moved by it.

That first glimpse was just a taste though, as it was the next morning when Uluru revealed its true majesty. We arrived there in the dark, hoping to get a jump on the walking crowd, and set off before sunrise to walk around the rock.

To see it looming out of the desert darkness was completely awe-inspiring, as was watching the first rays of the sun light up its northeastern face. It wasn’t hard to see why this place was – and is – deeply sacred to countless generations of Anangu people.

So too Kata Tjuta, which was also well worth getting up in the freezing pre-dawn darkness to see while everyone else was snoozing.

A walk through that silent, ancient landscape with only songbirds to break the quiet is something every Australian should experience.

Then it was Watarrka-Kings Canyon and it’s spectacular rim hike before taking the rugged Mereenie Loop track to Alice Springs.

It was there, among the feral camels, horses and donkeys that almost trick you into thinking you’re no long in Australia at all, that the old girl clocked up her 400,000km. We stopped in a dry creek bed to do a Toyota jump.

Alice Springs threw up a few great surprises, the best being the Jump Inn. This bar, hidden away in a down-at-heel backpackers on the outskirts of the CBD, is run by a bunch of young kids churning out some of the most delicious Taiwanese street food imaginable.

So yeah. I’m not saying it wouldn’t have been great to have been eating pizza in Naples or getting some oms in at Ubud, but at the end of the day I’m glad we made our desert pilgrimage.

We live in an incredible country and I really do need to see more of it. I’m just not sure the old HiLux has another 400,000km left in her.