Heading Further North

Well, Randall's tooth was mended ok so we headed out of Alice Springs for the next part of our adventure. We really enjoyed our time in and around AS, and were glad we took the time to check it all out.
We passed the Tropic of Capricorn, so we knew we were close to warm weather at last.

We had an overnight stop at The McDouall Stuart Memorial rest area. We had a nice night chatting to some people stopped there, by a nice campfire and having a lesson in the stars - finding the Southern Cross. When it was dark, some people towing a car pulled up - very noisy, filling up their tank with the last of their petrol. We were a bit worried they might approach us for help, but finally they took off and we could relax.
The next day we headed off, through Barrow Creek, where Peter Falconio went missing (glad it was daylight when we were there!!!). We stopped to look at the telegraph station where we learnt the significance of the overland telegraph stations - they linked us to the rest of the world.

We had a brief stop at a place called Wycliffe, apparent home of Alien sightings. Boy did they promote themselves as that!

We stopped off and had lunch at the Devil's marbles, a very interesting rocky outcrop. Randall was a bit distracted by a young girl standing on top of one of these rocks - hoping for a repeat striptease act like on the top of Ayres Rock!!!

We arrived at Tennant Creek, a long sprawling depressing town. No nice shops, everything looked rather grotty.Everywhere in the NT there are big signs about alcohol restrictions. As we drove around the back blocks of Tennant Creek, there were even signs on individual houses saying the alcohol was banned on the premises!! We headed a little way out of town to a place called the Pebbles, a smaller version of the Devil's Marbles. It was a nice place to stay, and there were quite a few people staying there as well, so we set up camp for the night. Everywhere we go people come and ask us where we got our firepot. They are always very impressed with it. That night I cooked a delicious steak meal on the bbq with onions tomatoes and potatoes - it went down a treat!! (Please not improvised clothesline - the fence!)

We got up and moved on through Renner Springs and Elliot. We stopped just outside of Elliot for our lunch along with a heap of other caravanners.

Elliot was a dive of a place - wouldn't even risk using the loo at the service station - Randall got ours out of the back of the car and put it in the caravan for me :) Kept moving and decided to make our overnight stop at Daly Waters. It is an amazing place - caravans fill up the place during the day, have the Beef and Barra meal at the pub, then head off the next morning. We had a great night, enjoyed the meal and the entertainment. they certainly know how to draw the caravanners in.

We had a swim in the pool this morning which was lovely. Almost overnight we have reached the warm weather.

Wouldn't you know it - the first time I put my sandals on, they break on me!!There is a tree here called Stuart's tree, and he is presumed to have carved the letter S on it when he stopped here. Randall and I walked along to have a look at it. I'll be blowed if I can see the letter! It is just a dead tree with a plaque next to it.

We are going to stay another night here just so we can relax a bit, then next stop is Mataranka, about 180k's from here.

East McDonnel Ranges

We left the West McDonnell Ranges after three beautiful days there and headed off through Alice Springs for a quick food shop to the East McDonnell Ranges. Randall had heard about a place called Trephina Gorge, so we head straight there. It was only about 70ks from Alice Springs. We were surprised to have to drive along a single lane of bitumen, with wide gravel sides. When a car approached we both had to move over to the gravel.I later found out it is for the road trains, so they have all their wheels on the bitumen - we have to move aside for them! We also had to watch out for cattle as there are no fences here! When we arrived the camp area was quite full and we were lucky to get a spot! It was a lovely bush camping area, which both of us enjoy. We set up and Randall put up the satellite dish.

Lucky he did, because we started to watch Sky News, and saw the whole saga of the ousting of KRudd and the installation of Julia Gillard as PM! This was just the reason we got the satellite dish, so Randall was very impressed to get all the news first hand. We went along and told other people that we had a new PM and they were quite surprised.
The next day, after all the news conferences etc. we did a short 4WD treck into a place near ours called John Hayes Rockhole, which was very pretty.

We also did a trip out to a place called Arltunga – a gold mining town in the middle of nowhere!! It was actually the first town in central Australia – before Alice Springs was created. We drove along the Binns Track, a gravel road. Randall thinks he’s a bit of a rally driver now he’s mastered 4WD, and we actually got airborne going over some unexpected bumps on the road!!! The town is very isolated, and it didn’t even have it’s own water supply! It amazes me that people were willing to come to these places – life would have been very harsh.

After a look at the ruins, we headed off to yet another gorge – N’Dhala Gorge. This was a 4WD only track, and we went through water, and along sandy river beds.

The gorge itself was a bit disappointing, but we did see some 10,000 year old aboriginal petroglyphs, which was quite special.

Signage on these walking tracks leave a lot to be desired! You have to look for little blue arrows, and sometimes they are hard to find! We manage ok, as the gorges are at a river, so you just walk up the river bed! The birdlife here is abundant – so many bird calls as we walk along tracks. There are these very pretty little green birds that sit together on the road and leave it to the last minute to fly off – very disconcerting when you hit one!
We left N’Dhala Gorge and went to check out Ross River Resort. These places call themselves resorts, but they are not in the least bit resort like!! (More like a bunch of shacks, or even tents for people to stay in).This resort does not operate now, as we found out from the very grumpy man that was there. He hated tourists, wouldn’t pull you out if you got bogged at N’Dhala Gorge, and his petrol prices was astronomical - $2.30l !!! It was BP too, an oil company very much on the nose these days!
We had 3 lovely nights at Trephina Gorge. We packed up and headed back to Alice Springs to resupply before heading north. On the way we stopped at a heritage listed Ghost Gum – truly magnificent, and Jessie and Emily Gaps and Corroborree Rock.

We caught up with a friend of mine, Anna and her husband Max, while we were in Alice Springs. They are living here for a while as Max has got work here. On our last night here, Randall broke a tooth, eating a roast dinner at the tavern near our caravan park. So the $10 roast became a $250 roast!! I am now waiting for him outside the dentist, so hopefully he will come out fully repaired and ready to move on!

West McDonnell Ranges

We left Alice Springs on Sunday 20^th and headed off to the West MC D ranges. We had been in contact with our friends John and Vera and they were on their way to Simpson’s gap when we communicated using our CB radio. We passed them as we were going in, but caught up with them at Standley Chasm and had a chat..

We decided to continue on to the very end of the ranges to a place called Redbank Gorge. Just out of Glen Helen, a message came over the radio – “Anyone near Glen Helen Resort?” We responded that we were about 5k’s away, and they asked us to go in and report an accident that had happened further on. 2 Italian tourists had tipped over their car, and were injured (not badly). We duly went in and reported the accident – the person we spoke to on the radio had actually arrived by then, so at least the poor people would have got help. It was all a bit exciting being able to help in a crisis!!

We arrived at Redbank Gorge and have got a beautiful camp spot, right at the top of a ridge. We get the morning sun, and have enjoyed our breakfasts in the sun each day.

On Monday we headed out to Hermannsburg, an early mission station. We had to go along over 40ks of gravel road, but it was very interesting when we got there. This was the place that Albert Namijira grew up and we saw some of his paintings in the mission. We also saw the house where he grew up – well we think it’s his house – there was a sign pointing down a road, but then the actual house wasn’t clearly signposted, so we guess we were looking at the right house!

We decided to head off for Palm Valley from there. It was our first real 4WDriving. As we were driving along there was a car stuck in sand in the middle of the road. It was a lady travelling on her own, and Randall offered his assistance. He pulled out our MaxTrax and got the lady out of trouble. She drove off without even a wave of her hand for thanks. I will be eternally grateful that Randall bought those Max Trax, as I can see how easily you can get out of a bogged situation.

Our trip into Palm Valley took longer than expected so we didn’t get right to the end. We were running out of time to get back to our campsite, so we stopped at Cycad Gorge, which was beautiful, then had to turn around and head home. We drove through sand and water and over rocks, so we really had the true 4WD experience. We were glad to be able to use the car for its purpose – we had a great day!

Our next day trip out was to go into the gorges we passed as we came to Redbank Gorge. We drove into Orminston Gorge, Serpentine Gorge, we saw the Ochre Pits the aborigines used to get ochre – that was amazing! The colours were like the rainbow.

We also drove into Ellery Creek Big Hole – a young fellow went in for a swim while we were there. Each gorge has warnings about the extreme cold of the water, and there are life rings ready to be used as well!! It was a nice day, but not hot enough for a swim.

Our last stop was at Glen Helen, not far from our camp. All the gorges are so pretty, and have a quietness about them which is really peaceful.

Our Night Out in the Alice

We decided to treat ourselves to a night out last night, so we headed off for a nice tea (even took a taxi), then thought we'd check out the Casino while we were here. it's rather a nice casino - quite spacious and well laid out inside. Randall headed for the ATM so he could charge his pockets, then he headed to the poker table, and got himself settled. I decided to play blackjack so found a table and sat down. There were a couple of nice young fellas at the table and this rather naive young school teacher was standing behind them watching them play and asking some really silly questions. It was all good fun, and, though I didn't make any money, I certainly got value for my initial layout. Randall finished about the same time as me, except he came out on top which was good.
Since we came in a taxi, we had to get back in a taxi, but there were quite a lot of people waiting outside like us. Not to be outdone, Randall suggested we walk towards the highway, as we might have better luck waving one down. This was not successful, so Randall got out his phone and, using the Google Maps application, told me he knew the way home and to follow him - the walk would do me good. Thoughts of my good friend Karen rang in my head : "never walk around Alice Springs at night Deb". Anyway after what seemed like quite a long way, Randall realised we were heading the wrong way!!! So we had to backtrack about 2 kms before we got back to our original starting point, where I clarified that he was finally using the maps application properly!!! We then realised that we actually were only a very short way from the caravan park, so we kept walking and finally got home about 1 am. I might say that I saw absolutly no-one the whole time we were walking which would have been about 3/4 hour at least!!!
I had my pedometer on, and I had walked 21,000 steps all up. Very impressive I must say :)

King's Canyon

OMG!! What an amazing place. We really did not know what to expect when we headed off to King's Canyon. We stopped on the way to collect a bit of extra firewood for the firepot.

There were 2 possible places to stay near KC, one about 20k's out, at King's Creek, and one at the KC resort, 6k's from the Canyon. Both were ridiculously expensive - $19 per person for a powered site! So we stayed at the resort as it was closer. We lit our firepot, only to have the nazis in their electric powered carts come and tell us to put it out :( We were allowed to cook our bbq though and then put it out!

There were a few dingoes around, so the amenities had gates you had to open and close.

We got up the next day and headed off to the canyon. I was determined to do the rim walk, as my knee had recovered from the day at the Olgas, but I walked carefully this time. The start of the walk was straight up!

It was a beautiful warm day - the first time I had ventured out with just a t-shirt on. We took our backpack waterbottles, and was very pleased to have done that as it was a quite demanding walk. The views were spectacular, and looking across you would think that the people were about to go over the edge!

The pathway was natural steps in a way, and we really enjoyed the whole thing very much!

We walked right down to a place called the Garden of Eden which was really beautiful.

We got back a couple of hours later, really looking forward to our coffee and lunch! Then we did the walk into the canyon on the ground - just a little walk and very pretty.

We never cease to be amazed at all the plants and trees here - so interesting! We weren't expecting to see any plants in the centre, but it is ever changing.

As we left KC we saw a couple of dingoes slinking along in the grass, and some wild horses crossed the road ahead of us.

We have now arrived at Alice Springs, where it was a bit hard finding a spot in a caravan park - all full up! Naturally the most expensive one was available, it is very nice. We are now about to head off and check out the town, with a shopping list in hand.

Still at Uluru

We have been here for the last 3 nights and will stay tonight before heading off to King's Canyon tomorrow.
Our first full day we went to ground as it was so cold. There was no blue sky at all and very cold wind, so we just stayed in our caravan - I read a book, and Randall mucked around on his computer. Randall also used his culinary skills to make some bread, which is absolutely delicious!

We eventually visited The Rock and walked all around the base - 10 km at least. It was closed for climbing on the day we went, so we couldn't tackle it. We took so many photos as there was so much to take in. It is really impressive up close, and there is are a multitude of different trees and plants around it.
There was one really beautiful peaceful place we found - a gorge with a waterhole. It was totally quiet and still - just magic!

We were quite tired from the walk, but came back in the evening to see the sunset. It really did look amazing and we stayed over an hour taking photos.

We got up early this morning and headed off to see the sunrise - not nearly as spectacular as the sunset, and freezing cold, and we needed our coats and hats to keep warm.

We then headed out to The Olgas. They looked quite beautiful in the distance and again, they are quite amazing close up. We decided to do the Valley of the Winds walk first, as it was the longest. It sure lived up to its name! The wind was freezing in places, but we warmed up by the time we had finished the walk, 2.5 hours later! The walk was quite demanding - very steep and rocky and I really felt it in my dodgy knee, but it was worth it for the experience. We had an early lunch at the car - who would have thought vitawheat biscuits with cheese, and a mandarin could taste so good and then went on the next, much shorter walk called the Walpa Gorge walk.

We got back to our campsite at around 3pm after leaving at 6.30am, so I'm sure we will sleep well tonight!

Uluru

We are now staying at the camp ground at Yulara, about 20 kms away from Ayres Rock. We left Coober Pedy very early in the morning and filled up with water before we headed off.

We had a long day driving and had regular stops along the way.The price of fuel here is amazing - one place was $1.90 per litre!! We we very excited when we reached the border of SA and NT, as this was the first time we could say we have been to all states and territories of Australia.

We had our first night free camping at a rest area called Kernot Range. There were other caravans and campers there too so we felt quite safe. We were pleased to be able to use our firepot for the first time this trip. We had carted wood from Tasmania, and it burnt really well!

We were only 200ks from Yulara, so we left our campsite late morning. and got to Yulara about 1pm. When we got service on our phones a message came through from Randall's mate we met at Coober Pedy - he had set up camp here too! We communicated on our radio, the first time we had done that, so it was all a bit of fun. We got our first glimpse of Ayres rock about 40 ks away and it certainly is magnificent!
Yulara is a little town in the middle of nowhere, and is very pricey. The campground is enormous, and caravans come and go all the time. I met 2 of my students here - they came running along saying "hello Mrs Smith"!! It was really quite funny to meet them here.
We can't get over the red sand here. We acutally stopped on the way here to take a photo - Randall wants to put some in a bag to take home!

We are planning to stay here a few more nights. As yet we have not been to the rock up close, but will do so later today.