Driving a Kia Sorento in Australia : our story
Driving a Kia Sorento in Australia is a privilege that few have had. We had it, and we have a story to share...
Australia is a very civilized country, where you can enjoy
most if not
all main tourist attractions within the comfort of an air-conditioned
tour bus or 4WD. But it is not as fun and adventurous as renting and
driving your own vehicle around. And what is the best place to do that
in Australia? In the south of the Northern territory : Alice Springs
and its surroundings, notably Ayers rock, Kings canyon and the
McDonnell Ranges.
This is why, shortly after setting foot in Alice, our little group of
five young tourists set out to find a car for the next days. We quickly
found out that the only kind of car fit for our needs was a 4WD, and
that 4 days was the bare minimum we would need to see what we wanted
to see. The looks and the possibility of renting them with full camping
equipment made the Land Cruiser of Toyota the best deal in town,
unfortunately this was still the high season here and all Land Cruisers
were rented out already. The only 4WD we found (a 4WD was a must to
follow the Mereenie loop road) was a Kia Sorento at Thrifty car rental.
We must admit to not being really enthusiastic at the idea of renting
this SUV like vehicle to go for a 4 days journey on sealed and unsealed
roads in the middle of this continent country. But it had to be this
way, and once inside our new vehicle, we quite enjoyed ourselves and
had a liking for it. Next we had to get some camping equipment, which
was more easily said than done, and in the end we set out for a 4 hours
drive to Ayers Rock from Alice at sunset. The insurance policy not
covering our hitting livestock or wild animal at night, we drove
carefully along the main road (Stuart highway) and shortly after
turning into the smaller road leading to Ayers rock we stopped for the
night.
First and second days : casual driving
Next day (let's call that day the first day) we went on to Ayers rock / Uluru, which is a very nice place indeed, went around the Olgas / Kata Tjuta, another fine place, spent the night not far from Yulara (the small "city" close to Ayers rock). Second day we got up early to catch the sunrise at Ayers rock, climbed the rock, a definitively impressive thing to do, then drove off to Kings Canyon, all of that on sealed road (about 3 hours to go to Kings Canyon). The afternoon was spent walking around the canyon (very nice), and the night in a camping site in its vicinity.
Third day : the test
The third day was the first test for our Kia Sorento : the dirt road began, as we drove north along the Mereenie loop to get to the McDonnell Ranges. The earth was still wet and flooded in some places from the heavy thunderstorms of a few days ago (a rare occurrence down there). But it was a wide, straight and nice road, albeit unsealed, and we drove at 60km/h, having been advised by several people including the car rental staff not to exceed that speed on dirt road. We saw some impressive landscapes along the way, and comfortably seated in our Kia Sorento saw ourselves as lucky bastards.
By mid afternoon we reached the 16 km long 4WD only small path to Palm Valley, and trusting our car, fearlessly turned right into it. This is were the adventure really began. This path is no easy one, proof is that our insurance did not cover us on that specific track (we didn't get to know that until the next day). Add to that the fact that the track follows the Finke river, combined with the heavy thunderstorms of a few days ago, and you have a path in poor state ahead of you (but let's not get carried away) and a healthily flowing river. The first ordeal was crossing the 30 cm deep river, which we did with some apprehension but successfully. The path kept going and it was fun to be shaken around, and then... we got to a sandy patch. Not too big, maybe 15 meters long, but slightly climbing and turning. Well, no fear, 4WD was on, let's go. But no. No way. We got stuck. We alighted from the car save the driver. Reversed to the rocky path. Tried again. Stuck again. The fact is that the Kia's undercarriage is quite low to the ground (compared to most other 4WD) and because the ruts in the sand were deep, the undercarriage was pushing against the sand. Well, not very cleverly we tried to pass through the sandy patch until we got stuck into it for real. No way to reverse to the rocky part, so we decided to keep going forward. Let's dig the car out. Hey, no shovels. Well, man, let's dig with our bare hands. And so we dug the sand out, put some stones, lessened the depth of the ruts. Gave a try, one behind the wheel, one filming, three lucky ones pushing as hard as they can under the harsh sun. We moved, one meter. Seven more to go. So we dug the car out again, some more stones, some more pushing... some more progress forward... That's when we began to be disappointed by our car. What kind of 4WD gets stuck in a small sandy patch, we wondered. We knew one good thing to do when stuck in the sand is to lower the tire pressure, but we were not keen to do that, because we still had a long way to go to Alice Spring and we had great doubts about the possibility to re-inflate the tires to normal pressure before reaching Alice. So we hand-shoveled the sand, pushed, hand-shoveled again, pushed some more, and finally the car got going for real and leaped out of the sand. Nice, we thought, but we'll have to go through this again on the way back, although this time it will be a descending slope.
A bit shaken in our faith that the Kia Sorento could take us anywhere, we drove on. We crossed again the river several times, as it winded through the valley, and all was fine until we reached... another sandy patch! But this one was descending and straight, even if longer than the previous one. Everybody out of the car except the driver, and go! The car managed about 10 meters out of the 20 of the sandy patch. Too bad, stuck again, no way to reverse those 10 meters, so let's shovel and push some more... Half an hour or so of sweat shedding later and we were freed from the sand again, and on our way to the Palm valley. Nothing else came in our way and we finally arived at Palm valley, a place definitely worth the trouble.
About half an hour before sunset, we were done with the valley, and had a few options open : stay here for the night (prohibited), go back on the track up to a small camping groung (before the sandy patches), or try to go back all the way to the Mereenie loop, which would mean going through the sand again. We decided not to stay, with no clear outcome as to wether we should stop at the camping ground or keep on. By the time we reached the camping site, night had fallen, and somehow the decision was taken to give a try at the first sandy patch. So we went on, met the sand, looked for the best way, prepared the path, and did our best to go through. Sure enough, we got stuck, and again did shovel, put stones and pushed the Sorento out of the sand into rockier groung and from here back to the path. Having gone through the first sandy patch, we had to keep on. By the time we met the second sandy patch, morale was high. Again the way was prepared (ruts feeled in to prevent the Sorento's undercarriage from pushing against the sand) and this time... the Kia managed the ordeal brillantly. The road was then open before us, a minor difficulty being finding the way while the path crossed the river (remember it was night), but we got out, and went on to the next town where we found a cozy camping ground for the night. Everything was fine, but the Kia Sorento had lost a lot of credibility as 4WD in our eyes.
Fourth day : death of our Kia Sorento
The fourth day was the last day for us in Central Australia. We were supposed to drive through the West McDonnell Ranges and visit some of its creeks, but reckless driving made things different. The day started well, warm sunshine, hot coffee, and a nice drive on unsealed road to go to Glen Helen gorge, the first interesting place. But 30 kilometers short of that gorge... the Kia Sorento was to meet its fate.
The road was straight. It was unsealed, with water pools every now and then, remains of the heavy thunderstorms of a few days ago. One of them water pool was deep and not centered. That was to be the one. As the left wheels of our Kia Sorento entered the water and mud, the drag on the left side of the Kia went through the roof. No way to counter it, the car yawed to the left, the right front wheel dug into the soft earth of the side of the road, and the car overturned.
By the time the car over turned, it had greatly slowed down, and from the inside of the vehicle things did not seem to be too violent. None of us was hurt, however the car was damaged beyond repair. We all got out through one of the window (the only available exit) and looked at our poor Kia. Sitting on its roof, with the swag crushed under it, the Sorento looked helpless. Not long afterwards, two brits passed by in a Toyota, and brought two of us to the Glen Helen gorge to make a phone call. The car company sent out a tow truck carrying another Sorento. Waiting for the tow truck to arrive from Alice Spring (about 2 hours), the two of us lucky ones that were in Glen Helen gave a passing car a message to deliver to the remaining three asking them to somehow get a ride to Glen Helen. Meanwhile, the lucky ones went for a helicopter ride over Glen Helen gorge, an extremely pleasant experience.
When the tow truck arrived, we were all in Glen Helen. Two of us went with the truck to fetch the destroyed Sorento. There, the truck driver lowered the new Kia to the ground, and pulled the destroyed one back on its wheel, then onto his truck. We drove back to Glen Helen in the new Sorento, and from there with all on board to Alice.
Result : the last day was more or less wasted, and a few bucks were shed... Indeed the liability on unsealed road was 5500 Australian dollars, to which you had 500 Australian dollars for the tow truck. Result : 6000 AUD, or about 4400 USD (about 3700 euros). But what the heck, holidaying is not free.
