Copyright © Tanya Piejus, 2002

'Which tour did you do?' is the standard question asked around the backpackers' hostels in Alice Springs when it comes to the Ayers Rock/Olgas/King's Canyon trail. My answer now is 'None of them' because my friend and I decided to say no to the usual tourists' option and do it our own way.

Hiring a four-wheel drive car for five days with free camping equipment thrown in worked out cheaper than doing an equivalent tour, even with the cost of petrol, food and campsite fees on top. Better than that, doing the self-drive thing meant that we could plan our own schedule. We rented a Toyota RAV4 and, deciding she was a grand dame of the desert, named her Edna. We threw our gear in the back and hit the highway for Yulara, joking about calling ourselves 'Thelma and Sheila'.

We got our first taste of the off-road experience when we engaged the four-wheel drive, which we called 'warp drive' from then on, and rumbled along the dirt road to the Henbury Meteorite Craters, spitting stones from beneath our tyres.

Checking into the Yulara campground an hour before the sun went down gave us ample time to put up our tent before joining the rest of the sunset-watchers in the viewing area of the National Park. Having a car meant that we avoided the masses in the separate coach park and we oohed and aahed as Uluru went through its subtle redressing from workaday brown to fiery scarlet.

We'd allowed ourselves plenty of time to appreciate the big red rock and weren't forced into getting up at the crack of dawn for the sunrise like those on the tour buses. Out of respect for what Uluru means to Aboriginal people, we'd already agreed not to climb it. Instead we took a leisurely stroll around the base. The base walk probably gives a better appreciation of the cracked, lined and pitted face of this ancient rock than does the climb. You also get to see some of the special sacred sites that make Uluru so important to its traditional owners.

We made the effort to get up for the sunrise before leaving Uluru on day 3. More dramatic than the slow colouring of sunset, the sunrise threw a sudden flaming light on the rock that turned it a violent orange and made the assembled watchers give an audible gasp.

Kata-Tjuta, or the Olgas, are a hazy purple blob when seen from Uluru but when you get up close they are just as impressive as their more famous neighbour. We left Edna in the Valley of the Winds car park and did the rocky but impressive walk between some of the 'many heads' of Kata-Tjuta.

Not having driven anything more challenging than a quad bike for eight years, I was keen to take a turn at the wheel of our 4WD. I'd already made a couple of circuits of the Yulara campsite so now I cruised the open highway to King's Canyon feeling like a pro. We'd bought a tape of '19 Best Aussie Songs' and ate up the miles of bitumen to the accompaniment of 'Waltzing Matilda', 'Pub With No Beer' and 'Home Among the Gum Trees', complete with actions.

King's Canyon is a major highlight of the Red Centre. We chose to do the whole rim walk and passed several tour groups being herded around in both directions. We timed our entry to the Garden of Eden perfectly, just as the last group left it, and sat by the waterhole amongst the ancient cycads, surrounded by complete silence.

The main reason we'd gone for the four-wheel drive was to have some fun. The Mereenie Loop is a 177 km dirt road from King's Canyon to the turn-off for Glen Helen and we looked forward to taking it on. We heeded the stern advice of the rental guy and watched out for floodways that had recently carved up the road, hidden rocks and teeth-jarring corrugations. We tried to remember where he'd said to put the jack in case of a burst tyre and tapped the fuel gauge just to make sure. All that was visible in the rearview mirror was a cloud of dust that followed us like a shadow as we bounced our way to the turning for Palm Valley.

We'd been dismayed by the tour buses steaming passed us on the dirt road, but we knew we'd be getting into serious 4WD-only territory with the track to the Finke Gorge National Park. We forded the river several times, negotiated deep sandpits and tight, rocky bends on a narrow path that threatened to disappear every now and again.

Palm Valley is a beautiful spot of lush greenery, chattering parrots and clear water and is a superb place to pitch camp away from the crowds. The next morning I took the wheel again and drove Edna up to Tyler's Pass where we had a great view of the huge, blasted meteorite crater of Gosse Bluff.

Before reaching Glen Helen where the dirt road ends, we stopped off at Redbank Gorge for a walk into the narrow, twisting slit in the great red sandstone of the Western MacDonnell Ranges. On the way back to Alice Springs on the blissfully quiet bitumen, we called in at towering Ormiston Gorge, the Ochre Pits where Aboriginals have mined their sacred pigments for thousands of years, and Ellery Creek Big Hole, a shady spot by a waterhole with its own little beach.

We had intended to go to Standley Chasm that afternoon but we were running dangerously low on fuel. Having successfully negotiated rutted dirt roads and sandy river beds, we couldn't face the humiliation of running out of gas 50 km from Alice. We had the car until 10 am the next day so we roused ourselves early to go back to the chasm, freshly fuelled up. At that hour we benefitted from being there before the tour buses started arriving and had the rare privilege of getting this natural wonder all to ourselves.

We said a very reluctant farewell to Edna and congratulated ourselves on choosing not to take the easy way out and go on a tour.

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