Saturday Day 21

On our way to Darwin we stopped in at Adelaide River and had a look around the War cemetry. So many made the ultimate sacrifice.

We made it to Darwin a bit travel weary but all in one piece. Out to the Territory Wildlife Park where we were all taken by the birds of prey show. All the boys were able to hold a Rufus Owl.

On the way back from the Wildlife Park we stopped in at Berry Springs to wash of the red dust of the 'Centre'. It was very refreshing (no crocs this time).

We caught up with my brother Ken at the Darwin wave pool. I must say that the boys and I all caught waves on boogie boards, not a bad effort while being in Darwin where the only waves in the ocean are created by cyclones and are shared with crocs and stingers.

We checked out Ken's pride and joy his MR2.

The last few days - Wed 21/7/10

Albert Namitjira's House, where he grew up near Hermannsberg.




Amazing land scapes at Serpentine Gorge.

Night at Ellery Creek where the kids slept in swags and woke up covered in frost!!! They were all still warm thought and slept well! Remarkable.

Walking down Ellery Creek.

Have been out of range for the last few days but tonight we are back in civilisation at Mataranka. Last night we spent at a free roadside campspot basically beside the highway, where you are allowed to stay overnight. There were about 30 other vans of various descriptions all taking advantage of a night without fee's. We got chatting to a few people around the campfire & met an older couple from Mt Eliza! They spend about 5 mths of every year traveling round some part of Aus. They had just come back from a few weeks at Wadeye (Port Keats), which is a remote Aboriginal community - John Howard did a PR stunt there a few yrs back. Had a great chat to them about their experiences there. They told us about the spot we are staying in tonight. Bitter springs campground. Its near some springs that are less popular than the main Mataranka springs where all the coaches pull in. We had a great time this avo soaking in the warm, crystal clear water. You can float along carried by the current, down through the creek (in warm spring water) along about 500 m and then jump out and race back to the start. We were looking out for long-necked turtles that are supposedly there but didn't see one.
We left Alice Springs on Mon after spending 2 nights out in the West Mac Donnell Ranges. It is really gorgeous out there and we could have spent a lot longer there. While we were in the West Mac's we based ourselves at Ellery Creek waterhole and spent a day exploring Serpentine Gorge, the Ochre pits, Ormiston Gorge (very impressive) and an old meteorite crater called Ngarla. We did a small section of the Mereenie loop road along the Larapinta Hwy and called in to Hermannsberg community.

There is an interesting historical area here that presents the mission history of this community. Unfortunately we got there a bit late and missed out on seeing most of it. Felt a bit like an intruder driving in through the community - and we probably were- so we didn't stay too long. Bananas stuffed with chocolate wrapped in foil on the fire that night. Mmmmmmmmmm.
Monday we packed up and headed back towards Alice and stopped in at Stanley Chasm. I had been there before and we nearly drove past it but so glad we didn't. It's really a lovely spot, didn't see it at midday as you are supposed to, with sun beaming down into it, but beautiful none the less. After that we took the kids to the Alice Springs Desert Wildlife Park. This was really great, we spent about 4 hours there wandering through the different habitat displays, bird avairies and a great nocturnal house with Bilby's, Quoll's and Mala's (nearly extinct desert mini wallaby/marsupial). Kids really enjoyed it. At the end they had a 'Birds of Prey' demo with Whistling Kytes, Falcons,Black Kytes , spinifex pigeons. The boys have been hawk spotting ever since as we drive along.
Hope to get to Darwin tomorow to catch up with Pete's folks and his brother Ken. It will be nice to stop driving for a few days (hopefully 5 days) and to wash all of our filthy clothes.

Day 13 : Fri 16th July : Alice Springs

Spent today in Alice trying to get ourselves sorted out. Dropped camper into repair place and spent an hour unloading some of our gear into an oily corner of their workshop, so the guys could access the bit that needed attention. Then went and got Josh re-Xrayed at the Alice Springs Hospital and confirmed that he has definitely fractuered the far end of his collarbone (distal end of R Clavicle). After all that we took off to do some sightseeing. We started with lunch in the Todd Mall at a place where I was pretty sure a scene from the movie "Sampson & Delilah" had been shot. We asked the chef and I was right! He told us a bit about the making of the movie which was great and his thoughts on the view of Aboriginal Alice Springs that it portrays. Then we visited the old telegraph station that once passed on all the world news to rest of Australia before being turned into a home for Aboriginal kids. This guy in the photo with the boys, Alec, shared his story with us of living as a 'half caste' kid in this home for removed Aboriginal kids. He was adamant that it had been for the best in his case. We discussed the difficulties for those from whom he'd been taken and the experiences he'd had of being moved around to several different missions as a kid including being separated from other kids he was related to and not being allowed to speak language. Amazing story and interesting to hear his perspective. After the old telegraph station we went to have a look around the School of the Air. This was really interesting and made the boys want to move to a cattle station to get the experience of joining a School of the Air class. They have about 133 pupils that live in NT, WA & SA within a certain radius of Alice and the teachers get to visit their pupils once or twice a year. Pete's Aunty June used to work for the School of the Air. Sounded like a great job.
After all that we headed back to pickup and repack our camper - all fixed up now thank goodness. On our way back to the campground we decided to make a completely spontaneous holiday purchase - 3 swags! We'd passed the swag factory on the way to pick up the camper and the guys from the workshop were raving about how good they were. We have been enviously eyeing off other campers along the way who've been sleeping under the stars so we thought seeing as though we are in swag country and will be for a while, what the heck. Needless to say the boys are in them tonight and have fallen in love with the idea of being under the moon & the milky way every night from now on.

Thursday 15th July : Drive to Alice Springs

Rock Wallabies at Heavitree Gap

Todd River - flowing ! There's been lots of rain and some roads are closed due to normally dry river beds, now flowing. The Finke River (usually dry) is also flowing

Wed 14th July Yulara

Busted camper winding gear

Pete lit a campfire and we cooked Erica a 40th Birthday roast dinner in our tiny campervan oven. It actually turned out surprisingly well. We ate it round the campfire and topped it off with Erica's brownie and my IGA chocolate birthday cake with candles and the birthday song. A very outback birthday dinner.

Mon 12th - Wed 14th July : Uluru & Kata Tjuta

When we arrived at Yulara we discovered another drama. Winding gear on camper stuffed. Possibly my fault from overwinding it the day before. With some help from our friends we managed to jack up the lid with poles and timber so that we could ignore the problem for a few days and enjoy being at Uluru.

We started by going out to the sunset viewing area for drinks & nibbles as the rock morphed through various colours. Very beautiful. Later that day we also found our other Mornington Peninsula friends Mandy & Liam and their 2 boys Christopher & Luke. They had just driven out of the bush after an adventurous couple of weeks well off the beaten track.

Next day we all headed off to walk the 10.6 km base of Uluru. It was quite a long walk for the kids but they all made it. Finn & Luke scooped up a mouthful of water out of the Mitujulu waterhole along the way when no one was looking so we are now waiting to see if Finn comes down with Giardia!

The following day we spent exploring Kata Tjuta. We walked into the Valley of the Winds and into the Walpa Gorge which was gorgeous. The weather during the day is starting to warm up now. Low to mid twenty's during the day but still very cold overnight ( 1 degree at Uluru last night).

Sun 11th & Mon 12th July : CP - Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse NT

After a great time in Coober Pedy we got up on Sunday before the crack of dawn and headed for the NT border. We stopped on the way for a roadside breaky as the sun came up over one of Erica's awesome coffee's. Took us most of the day but we managed to cross the border into the Territory and on to Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse for our next stop. Not a lot there but the roadhouse supports the local Indigenous community by having artists space and selling their artwork with money going back to the community. Seemed a positive model.

On Monday we had ~ 200 k's to get to Yulara. We woke up to fog and all the way to Uluru was misty and poor visibility. Missed Mt Connor because of the fog. The good thing was that as we got closer to Uluru it started to break up. After being a bit disorientated by the fog we rounded one corner and Lachy shouted ..."There it is!!!!" And there it was. Uluru. The boys were amazed by its size and it was no less impressive to Pete & I despite having seen it before years ago. Incredible.

Sat 10th & Sun 11th July : Coober Pedy

After all of the previous drama's we met back up with our friends Nick. Erica, Sophie & Thomas in Coober Pedy & had a great couple of nights/day there. We all stayed at the underground backpackers in our own cave. Finn's fears were realised overnight as dust & small bits of rock sprinkled him while he was asleep. We spent a day visiting an old Opal mine, going through an underground house and spending hours 'Noodling' through the local heaps of mine tailings for bits of undiscovered opal. Pete had the biggest case of Opal fever of all of us! Found a few momentos to lug around with us. Had a night out at the local Pizza joint which did great pizzas - a nice break from rice & 2 minute noodles.

The road to Roxby Downs

Roxby Downs Hospital - poor Josh

Woomera to Coober Pedy 'via' Roxby Downs

Well day 5 started out OK, beautiful outback sunrise, all set to go and then....... Joshua decided to try once last hurdle over a fence and took a spill landing heavily on his right shoulder. We soon realised he was more than just winded and headed for Woomera hospital. No doctor there but two very helpful nurses (1 had only been there for a week & was from China). We all decided that the unusual shape of his shoulder and his extreme tenderness meant an xray was required. So instead of heading off for a 365km run to Coober Pedy we had to go 160 k's in the wrong direction, to Roxby Downs - yes the Uranium mining town- to see a Dr and get an xray. Two hours and an xray later we were back on the road to Woomera. Had just pulled up for fuel when an S.A. cop pulled up to us to let us know our brake, tail and indicator lights were not working on the camper! What next!!
Got on to a local bloke, Kev, who fiddled round with a few wires & got us back our tails & indicators. By this stage it was clear we were not going to make Coober Pedy by sunset. We headed off anyway and took it easy as the sun went down - definitely not the greatest time to be driving through stations with cattle & roo's roaming round. Despite it all we made it to Coober Pedy by 7:30. Not our best day. Josh is sore but OK & will need re-xraying in Alice.


Woomera missile exhibits - a bit freaky

Outback sunrise at Woomera caravan Park

Starting to get into the rhythm of this trip now. We've just had a great couple of days at the Flinders Ranges where we met up with friends from home. We took all 4 cars for a 4WD trek on the Arkapena track. Was lots of fun and Pete has found a new passion. Was very cold (subzero) at night, water frozen in buckets by morning, even the olive oil! Starting to aclimatize to the cold though and doesn't seem so bad now. So glad we packed the thermals. There are actually lots of people out camping in this temperature. Now in Woomera, went to the observatory tonight to do some stargazing but after standing round in the cold for 45 mins a local drove up & told us the volunteer rostered on tonight has a cold. The stars look great anyway. Travelling now with Nick, Erica, Sophie & Thomas (from home) to Coober Pedy & Uluru. Scenery is starting to look vast and very outback, but a bit green from recent rains. Sky goes on and on forever.

Thurs 8/7/10: Coming in to Woomera

Coming in to Port Augusta Thurs 8/7/10

Wed 7/7/10 : Stunning views at Flinders Ranges National Park