July 5, 2012 - a day in Alice Springs

We live dangerously!  Bob found a white-tailed spider in the van last night &, to add to our precarious existence, we discovered that we had slept with the door open (only the fly wire was was closed)!  Still, when you've reached our great age, you can be excused for harbouring a poisonous spider & committing a serious breach of security!

We had a fabulous day!  Went to the School of the Air, which was fascinating (I could have stayed all day).  It is the world's largest classroom, more than 1.3 million square kilometres (502,000 square miles) & serves children from the very remotest parts of this vast continent.

  Visited the Royal Flying Doctor Headquarters, which was equally impressive - they do a fantastic job.  Moved on to the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame, where we discovered the wonderful contributions that women have made in helping to establish this country.  We thoroughly enjoyed it all & have nothing but admiration for the early Australians, who were so courageous in overcoming the tremendous obstacles that faced them.

  We ended the day with a meal at the Alice Springs Golf Club - a good old-fashioned roast!

July 4, 2012 - Exploring the area around Alice Springs

Charlie took us on a great trip today into the West MacDonnell National Park.  The scenery was absolutely fantastic - I hadn't realised that Australia had this type of terrain.  We stopped at Simpson's Gap, where we walked along the river, with beautiful trees & rock formations on either side.  Some film makers were on location there & a large work force seemed busy "setting the scene".

We moved on to Stanley Chasm, where we had quite a long walk, over rocky ground, to arrive at a spectacular gulley, where the light was perfect for photography at 12 o'clock midday, when the sun was in an ideal position.  We took some great photographs & met up again with more of our fellow travelling friends.

Next stop was Ochre Pits, where the coloured bands of rock were amazing to behold - cream, yellow, purple, etc.; an artist's delight.

Finally, we visited the breath-taking Ormiston Gorge, with its sheer red walls & permanent waterhole.  Several dingoes were running about amongst the rocks & a lady told me that she had seen one catch a fish!

We'd had a long day, but a really enjoyable one, with some welcome exercise & plenty to see.

July 3, 2012 - a look at Alice Springs

Sunny & bright again, but the wind was still chilly.

When Judy & Charlie drove us into  town, we saw a lot of Aboriginals.  The poor things do not show themselves in a good light & generally look unkempt, aimless & rather pathetic.  They do not appear to have any aspirations & merely sit around or wander about in the shops.  How sad that they do not seem to want anything better.

We drove up to the Memorial, which is high above the town & had some panoramic views.  Whilst up there, we met a young family that we had befriended at Uluru - we do tend to meet the same people again & again, as we all follow the same route.

 

We had a brief look at the shops.  Judy & I found a couple of bargain tops, had some lunch, then bought some food in Woolworth's.

In the evening, we did lots of work on this blog in an effort to bring it up to date.

July 2, 2012 - King's Canyon to Alice Springs

We left King's Creek Station at 9am - it was bright & sunny, but very cold.  We had to travel along the Lasseter & Stuart Highways, the latter of which goes all the way to Darwin.We hoped that we would soon have mobile phone contact again.

We passed a shorter dirt road to Alice Springs but weren't game to try it.  Didn't fancy being "all shook up"!  We stopped for coffee at the Lasseter H'way junction & met a couple with an "off-road" caravan.  They'd travelled 100km along the dirt road & had found chaos inside their caravan when they stopped - the contents of the fridge were all over the floor, units had come away from the walls, the glass microwave plate had shot out, etc., etc!  We were wise to avoid it.

Lasseter Highway Junction

We came across some road works & the red dust was unbelievable!  Quite a lot has found its way into our van & my feet will probably be red for ever!

We joined the Stuart H'way at Erldunda, where we refuelled.  It was a very busy filling station as cars, coaches & caravanners queued to fill up for their long journeys ahead.  When we moved on to the highway, the speed limit changed to 130kph & we "shuddered" as huge trucks thundered past us!

We found a pleasant rest area for lunch, then set off again through a range of sharp-ridged hills.  Throughout the rest of the journey, the terrain alternated between hilly areas & vast, wide plains.  The sun shone relentlessly & we were grateful for the extensions on our windscreen shades.




Lunch stop

We saw markers, at intervals, to show the depth of floods in the wet season - hard to imagine, since all the river beds we'd seen, were dry!  At Stuart's Well, there was a camel farm - very suitable animals for this environment.
When we finally arrived at the Winter Sun Campsite, in Alice, Judy was cooking a roast pork dinner for us - magic!

July 1, 2012 - Rest day at King's Canyon

We decided to have a relaxed day, as we'd been very "busy" previously.  Had a late breakfast, caught up with the laundry in the site's antiquated washing machine, then sunbathed & read our kindles.  The site was quiet, peaceful & well spread out - most relaxing.  We enjoyed bright sunshine & a perfect blue sky, but the wind was a bit chilly, probably because it's winter & we were at a fairly high elevation.  However, it was absolutely gorgeous, sitting in a sheltered position.

We tried to work on the blog, but without success - we were in such a remote spot that we were unable to make connections of any kind.  After dinner, the generators failed & there was no electricity, so we had to rely on our battery.  We did enjoy the location, though, despite the rather hit or miss amenities.

30 June - Uluru to King's Canyon (304km)

Another glorious day - not a cloud in the sky!  We left Yulara just before 10am.  After numerous kilometres of "sameness", we noticed wooded hills ahead.  The road began to wind & the terrain became more undulating.  At first, we saw no wildlife at all, apart from the occasional magnificent eagle, hovering & swooping above us.  However, roadside droppings suggested animals in the area (probably kangaroos).  Finally, we encountered a group of wild horses.

Frequent "Floodway" signs appeared, making us glad we'd come in the dry season.  The route became more scenic & gum trees became prevalent among the bushes.

We climbed, with a massive escarpment on our right, which developed into a vast panorama stretching far into the distance.

At King's Creek Station, we took the last powered site - it had electricity, but no hook-ups for water (only free-standing taps).  We settled in, had lunch, then set off for the Canyon., which was 38km further on.  Wild melons (known locally as "paddy-melons") grew along the roadside, but we learned that they were inedible.

10km from the Canyon, we saw towering escarpments, reminiscent of many we'd seen in Arizona.  The King's Canyon environment was very picturesque - massive walls of rock, huge boulders, sunlight on leaves, the trunks of gums gleaming white, bright orange rock against intense blue sky & birds darting amongst foliage, the tiny honey-eaters feeding off orange holly leaf grevillea flowers.  A truly beautiful place - only wish I'd been fit enough to climb the ridge & look down into the canyon below.

29 June - a day in Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park

No travelling today.  We went to the Cultural Centre at Uluru, where the Aboriginal way of life & their beliefs were explained & illustrated.  We watched a husband & wife, Millie & Brian, painting in the traditional style, using the tips of sticks to produce hundreds of tiny dots.  We found one of Millie's pictures particularly attractive & so we bought it.

We paid a second visit to the Rock & watched people doing the climb, which is not popular with the Aboriginals, but reluctantly tolerated to promote tourism.  It looked really challenging, not to mention somewhat dangerous!  In fact, one of the climbers snapped his Achilles Tendon & had to be brought down by helicopter.



See climbers at top, right of picture.

We did a short walk around the base of Uluru & were surprised at how the elements had carved out wierd & wonderful shapes, some of which we were allowed to photograph.  Others were regarded as too sacred & so we could not take pictures of them.
On leaving Uluru, we moved on to Kata Tjuta (the Bungle Bungles), which are also fascinating structures that make an impressive outline on the horizon.  Unlike Uluru, they are made up of several massive rock formations with huge crevices & valleys between.  We saw four wild camels grazing nearby (apparently, Australia has an enormous number of them, roaming freely).