Sunday 29th March
The morning started with pancakes and syrup followed by a morning Camel ride. The three children, Sam, Abbey and Phil all went on a short walk around the yard. Sam’s camel was called Coober, Abbey’s was called Oprah (much to abbeys delight it was a girl) and Phil rode on Barney. The Camel behind Abbey kept trying to nibble her and Sam reported that the Camels had very bad breath and Bob expressed concern about Phil getting back in the car due to smelling like a camel. The camels are not breed in captivity but are caught in the wild when they are 6-7 years old. It takes them a week to break them the camels in and a few more weeks for them to become people friendly. They have 52 camels in total and only 7 of these are girls, with the others being castrated boys. The lady informed us that they didn’t keep un-castrated male camels as they can be a little nasty and cause stampedes during mating season. That is the other reason they don’t keep many females as it can attract the wild males to the property.
The rest of the day was spent driving to Kings Canyon (300km from Uluru). We arrived at about 3:00pm so decided to go on the short walk (1hr). It had just started lightly raining but it didn’t prevent us for going for a walk. Actually having the rain present gave the walk a whole different experience. As we walked you could make out different tree smells. One section smelt like Eucalyptus, another like fresh bark and another section had a new leather type smell. It was really pleasant. The kids enjoyed finding little caves and right at the end was a hidden water hole.
Tonight we are planning to free camp. It is about 10km from the King Canyons Resort along a dirt road. The road is heavily corrugated and we are hoping with the rain it hasn’t turned to mud. Phil assures us that Wiki camp says it is worth the trip.
Monday 30th March
Today we are heading toward Alice via the Namatjira drive. The track is red sand and gravel with a lot of corrugations. It feels like a real adventure. The car is shaking and rattling along and things are moving all over the place. Hopefully we won’t end up breaking all our plates. The landscape is absolutely quintessential Australia and is constantly changing. The dirt track continued for about 120km and it was certainly rough but we only ended up breaking one wine glass. It was certainly a relief to get to Tarmac road.
By 12 noon we managed to reach a look out where you could see the Gosse Bluff and the west MacDonnell Range. It is thought that Gosse Bluff was created 140million years ago when a comet crashed to earth. The Aboriginal legend tells the story that a group of ancestral women were dancing across the Milky Way and one of them put her baby down to rest in a wooden carrier while she was dancing and the baby fell out of the sky and that is what caused the deep circular walls of the mountain range.
Arriving at Orminston Gorge at about 2:00ish we began to get excited as we were approaching the possibility of a swim. We decided to do the lookout walk and end with the water hole (1.5hr). Abbey wasn’t feeling really well so half way through the walk Veronica started piggy backing her. The view from the top was spectacular. The tall red walls of the gorge towered above us and below was the tempting waters of the water hole. I am sure we each considered jumping (accept for Phil due to her fear of heights) the 60mtrs off the cliff into the water. Wisely however we didn’t and we gradually meandered down the cliffs and along the river bed at the bottom until we reached the water hole. Hot and sweaty none of us were bothered by the fact we had to change into our swimming togs and risk people seeing us naked. The shear joy of the coolness of the water in such a beautiful surrounding was an experience to treasure. Sometimes it is the simple things in life that make for great memories.
Bob very generously brought us all an ice cream. Now we are off to find our “bush camp” for the night which we think will be Ellery creek Big Hole. It is a lovely spot with great facilities. ($5/adult $2.50/ child). The water hole is about 100 mtrs away and a lovely place for a swim. Phil and I took some seats down to the waterhole and while the kids had a swim we had a “drink”.
Tuesday 31st March 2015
An early morning swim before setting off to Alice Springs via Stanley Chasm. Stanley Chasm itself is very beautiful and the way the sun shines into the chasm absolutely lights up the walls to a very bright orange/red. The disappointment was the excessive entry free of $25 dollars for just being allowed to walk into the area. It just felt very opportunistic and although the money was supposed going to the traditional owners of the land there was very little evidence of “effort” back on their behalf to provide any educational information or even decent maintained paths.
Phil did a fantastic job of picking our caravan park the G’day Caravan Park. On getting out of the car the children very excitedly said that this was their favourite place as it had “grass”. They promptly found a low bush area and set up their chairs in the bush and created a natural retreat.
The evening was finished with a few games of Rummy Cub, where Veronica won her first game against Phil. The moment was dutifully photographed.
Wednesday 1st April 2015
This morning we visited the Alice Springs School of on Air. We all loved it and were very lucky to be there at the same time that a school choir and small school band was visiting and performing for the children on the air. It brought back many fond memories for Veronica who had worked for the school of Distance education in Charters Towers. The school was opened in 1951 and currently has 122 children enrolled. The school services 1,300,00 sq km approximately 10 times the size of England. The cost of running the school is very high with the average cost of technology equipment being $10,000-$15,000 per family. The school had a lovely program running where you could pick a children’s story book and donate the money to buy it for the school library. We brought a book about a book about a naughty dog. We wrote a message inside the book for the children who after they read the books keeps a record on a map locating where the donator of the book came from. Such a great idea.
We stopped in at the Royal Flying Doctors Service and opted not to do the tour but spent $6 and went into the plane. The kids (including Veronica and Phil) had a wonderful time pretending to fly the plane or being sick patients.
In the afternoon we visited the transport Hall of fame. It was massive and full of old trucks and cars. Phil and Sam loved the trucks and tried almost off of them to decided which one they wanted to own. There was also a documentary about a guy called Tom Kruse who had been one of the first “mail men” on the Birdsville track. It was an inspirational story which certainly highlighted the Aussie spirit.
The temperature was hot so exhausted we headed back to the campsite for a swim and some repairs to the drawers on the Van…..
The evening again ended with glasses of wine, laughter and a few more games of Rummy cub. Mick managed to also win, Phil very promptly won her title back and is still the champion!!!!
Thursday 2nd April 2015 Alice Springs Cont’d
The plan to day had to drastically change after we found out that we couldn’t get on the gem Fossicking tour on Saturday and so had to make a sudden unexpected itinerary change. We had hoped to get to Palm Valley but decided we would leave Alice early and so decided to go to The desert Park. We quickly packed up camp in about 40mins and got to the desert park right on 10am. The Desert Park was fantastic and well worth the visit. We went to the raptor show (Australia birds of prey e.g. eagle and falcon) we got in there a little late so sat at the back but this ended up being great as the birds sweep right over our heads.
The presentations by the Rangers were top quality and we tried to attend most of them. We went to the bush survival session, the how to find bush food, a dingo talk, desert rivers and the nocturnal animal section. At the bush food talk we tasted bush tomatoes (bush raisins) which tasted a little bit like very dark chocolate with a bitter after taste and also some seeds. Mick and Sam went to the Eagle encounter and got to see the Wedge tail eagle up close. We learnt a lot more about the Aboriginal culture and how their Tribal structures worked and the way they survived on the land.
Friday 3rd April Gem Tree
The flies this morning were dreadful, constantly on your face or legs. Today we were heading out to make our million and try our hand at Garnet fossicking. Four sieves, a bucket, 15ltrs of water, a shovel and a pitch fork. In family teams we descended onto the Garnet field hoping to strike it lucky. Team McKeon got off to a good start with four team members.Team Allen decided to move a little way away and forge new ground. Digging started about 9am and by 10:30am team McKeon had lost its two youngest members to the shade of the car, and Mick had decided to follow the lead of another guy in our group and wander the gem field and see what he could find just sitting on the top. This left Veronica in the trenches alone. Mean while team Allen stayed consistently strong, digging, sieving and washing quietly working their territory.
By 11:30 we decided to take a break from the dusty gem fields and had a little bit of lunch in the only shade we could find…the back of the car. We did another hour on the gem field and after noticing Mick’s success we all decided to try that technique. Hot tired and dusty with our tins rattling and heavy with our garnets we head back to the caravan park to get our gems appraised. Anxious with excitement we tipped out our “rocks” and the sorting began. When they spotted one that was suitable for cutting they put it in a pile next to them. Unfortunately we didn’t make our million as the pile of unsuitable gems was much, much larger than the ones worth cutting. In the end Team Allen found 3 gems (size 3) and 1 (size 4). Team McKeon ended up with 6 (size 3), 2 (size 4) and 1 (size 5). The guy told us that size 3 were suitable for earrings, size 4’s were good got larger earrings and pendants and that size 5’s could be made into rings. All in all we had a great day and we would definitely come back again and try my luck at more fossicking.
We then continued our trip in the north direction with the hope that we could over night in the camp ground below the Devils Marbles .We arrived at about 6:40ish a few minutes after the sun had set. The camp is right at the base of the devils marbles and you really feel apart of the landscape.
Saturday 4th April 2015 Devil’s Marbles
Last night was uncomfortably hot and I don’t think any of us slept well. Even after the night cooled down which wasn’t until 1am and then the strong winds started so it was an unsettled nights sleep. The kids were up early again so the McKeon’s headed up on to rocks to watch the sunrise from there, while we casually watched it from the comfort of our bed looking out the window. We also saw some hawks enjoying the strong winds, gracefully soaring above the Marbles. We had been told that there was on old Dingo who lived at the Devils Marbles and he came out to meet us.
The Aboriginal story about the Devils Marbles is also very secretive and is not shared. A quote on one of the information board said “This is a really secret place. I’ve done ceremonies here. It’s a sacred place with big ceremonies. But we can not talk about it.” The local aboriginal people believe that people from the dreaming time live in the caves under the rocks here and they can turn people mad if they stay too long or be turned into the rocks around here. Geologists believe that the Devils Marbles were formed around 1700million years ago, when molten magma squeezed through ancient sandstones of the earths crust and cooked hard granite rock which is what forms the Devil Marbles granite. However as the rock cooled it cracked and over many years it was eroded by wind and water and the softer rock worn away, just leaving the very strong Devils’ granite in large boulders perched on top of each other. It is am amazing sight to see.
The aim today is to over night in Daly Waters, passing through Tennant Creek as the guide book indicates there really is much to stop and see. The population of Tennant Creek is approx 2000 people but as you drive through the town there really isn’t much around and it made us all wonder exactly what the people do here to earn an income.
So other then the termite mounds the only other variation at times is the potent smell of road kill that wafts through the car as we pass a dead animal and in 38 degrees it certainly does smell.
Wow!! We just left Elliot and three huge Wedge tails were sitting on the road right in front of us and didn’t move until the absolutely last minute. Lucky we didn’t hit them but we did get a great view of them sweeping up in front of us sadly though not enough time to get a picture as it was only then we realised quite how large they get.
Travelling up through the centre of Australia means that you are driving very long distances with not much to see other than long straight stretches of road and varied landscape. Along the road are many huge termite mounds standing about a metre (4ft) high. Some of them are dressed in clothing/hats which is very amusing.
Arrived in Daly Waters to find that the pub was a hosting a B &S (bachelors and Spinsters) ute weekend. Decided that joining in the gathering was not for us (especially) with the kids. The historical pub was very “kitsch” but interesting to have looked at. Bob and Mick were both very disappointed to have missed a cold beer and pub meal so we promised that in Mataranka. So yet again at 4pm in the afternoon we decided that we will drive the extra 2 hrs to get to Mataranka.
The other event that continues to happen is that we get stopped for random breath testing. Just as we came into Mataranka there was another Police stop. This is Bobs 6th random breath test since arriving in Australia. We asked the lady police officer for a recommendation for dinner which she kindly gave and just as we were pulling out Mick shouts “Do they serve cold beer.” Lucky for Mick she had a sense of humour and had a great laugh.
It was lovely to finally arrive but you could feel the humidity and water just dripping off you. A quick dip in the pool and then we head to cold beers and wine. It was a lovely night with live music playing and even a lunar eclipse.
Sunday 5th April 2015
Last night was the worst nights sleep that we had all had in a long time. The humidity and heat last night was very oppressive. We had air conditioning and even we had a difficult night. Mick and Veronica suffered in the tent but lucky the kids just happily went to sleep. The morning brought two very excited children as the Easter Bunny had visited them. Easter in the tropics presents some definite challenges with chocolate. The Easter bunny very wisely left the eggs in the caravan fridge and a note for the kids explaining why they couldn’t have an Easter hunt. Sam’s comment was “well that certainly makes it easier mum, as I don’t have to go looking for my eggs they just come to me this year.”
The caravan site has a lake where they do Barramundi feeding and so the McKeon’s hand fed some barra in the morning and then the caravan park organised an Easter egg hunt with paper eggs which got cashed in for real chocolate ones. It was now time to head off to the “hot springs”. It is very ironic but Phil and Veronica had been constantly commenting on how cold the pools and water holes are and now when a cold pool would be very welcomed you can only find heated water holes!!!
We started with the Bitter Springs which were just up the road from us and it was a beautiful natural environment. It will become the inspiration for Mick in his ideas for a natural swimming pool at home. The springs are a constant 32 degrees and crystal clear with a turquoise hue. They are just so inviting with lots of beautiful plant life and a flowing creek that meandered down about 100mtres.
After lunch we tried the Mataranka thermal pool which were much more man made looking and certainly more rowdy and commercial. Not as inviting or enjoyable as the Bitter Springs. we stayed for 10mins but decided it wasn’t our scene. We wandered down to the Roper River which was closed off as there had been a sighting of a Salt water crocodile earlier that morning. We promptly decided to take our noodles and return to the Bitter Springs and spent a leisurely Easter Sunday afternoon floating down the creek sitting on our noodles. It was a fantastic end to the day.
A highlight for us was getting to talk to all the family back in England who had gathered for Easter and although we didn’t get to speak to everyone it was great to chat and catch up.