Alice to the Rock

DAY 4: ALICE SPRINGS - YULARA
(near Ayers Rock/Uluru)(400 km / 250 mi)

Nearly missed the daily radio interview this morning… well actually I did miss it. Got caught up with late additions to yesterday’s blog entry and completely lost track of time. Luckily when I went missing in action ABC Radio called me.

We’re well into desert country now so the nights are quite cold and the days warm. There’s something very special about the desert…the days are diamond bright and the air smells like champagne tastes.

The “get the best fuel economy at all costs” fanaticism with some of the teams is getting quite farcical. We passed one driving at 70kph (on the open highway) with both side mirrors folded flat to the car body…quite dangerous, but just might decrease fuel consumption by 0.1%. And two other teams had relief drivers flown in to Alice Springs, because their current drivers are exhausted. Strange how driving at a snail’s pace, with windows up and aircon off in 100+F heat can have this effect. Marvellous what you can do with an unlimited budget…but can somebody please explain the logic to me?

It would seem that Team Ethanol is indeed the only volunteer community group in the event. All the rest are either school, car manufacturer or other corporate based employees.

Okay, okay, I’ll get off my soapbox. Today is just a leisurely 250 mile jog to Ayers Rock. We’ve officially switched over to regular commercial ULP, which makes a nice change from donning overalls and safety glasses, finding a secluded area, earthing both vehicles, displaying safety warning signs and manning the manual fuel pump.

We stopped at Erldunda, about 50 miles from Ayers Rock, for a quick lunch which consisted of using up our cold salad remnants, while fending off a determinedly hungry emu, who wouldn’t take no for an answer! The lunch turned out to be quite leisurely, because it was also an official refuel stop and of course we arrived nearly an hour ahead of everybody else, including the supervising officials.

It’s quite exhilarating driving along the Carpentaria Highway waiting for a first glimpse of the Rock. The anticipation builds until suddenly…there it is! Nope, false alarm, it’s just Mt Connor, a flat topped long mountain sometimes called the False Rock. Ayers Rock itself is a single giant basalt monolith. Strangely, when the Rock does finally come into view, you wonder how could ever have been mistaken, it has a totally unique look.

We booked into the Ayers Rock Campground, 150 bucks a night for a cabin the size of a large cupboard and a 300 yard walk to the personal facilities...sigh! Took the Saab out to Ayers Rock for some photos…25 bucks entry fee per person…double sigh! We drove around the Rock and found various different aspects for background shots. We hung around until sunset and recorded the famous pageant of colour variations generated by the dying sun…brown to glowing orange, to deep russet, to soft pink and back to brown. A truly amazing sight witnessed by hundreds of onlookers, some with tables, chairs, champagne etc. And some doing it simple like us…back the car in, flip up the lid, sit underneath the tailgate and just watch it all unfold.

Still waiting for the breakdown of results from the Dyno and gas testing, which is supposed to be emailed to us today. We’ll publish a summary as soon as we’ve done the analysis. So far we haven’t found a massive disparity in fuel economy between E85 and ULP fuel. The 450 mile run today to Coober Pedy should give us a clearer picture. The power is certainly down, the Saab is feeling decidedly sluggish, but it’s still a great car to drive and we can still get from A to B quicker than any other Greenfleet team…pity it’s not actually a race!!!