WARNING: this post is a long one as lots has happened since our last.
Departing Coober Pedy at about 10 thirts after refuelling and ‘airing up the tyres’ we headed north up the Stuart Highway for ‘The Centre’. The highway doesn’t offer a great deal of sight seeing so we pressed on with one rest stop at Cadney Station then right on over the SA border to the Northern Territory to Erldunda. Some rain on the early section of the trip helped loosen some of the mud we’d not removed at the car wash.
Another top up of the tank at Erldunda (intersection of Stuart and Lassetter Highways) we headed west toward Uluru(Ayers Rock). Our overnight was at a roadside stop where we made our first camp fire and cooked damper and toasted marshmellows. The kids had a ball! When they were down to sleep, Dan and Liz enjoyed a bottle of sparkling wine around the fire and watched the mice which were still in large numbers, run back and forth. Occassionally Liz jumped when one ran across or near her shoe. However, while you chuckle and imagine Dan laughing at her as well and making some remark about being scared of mice, hear this… As we sat there enjoying the peace Dan suddenly leaps from his chair dancing around, slapping his pants and stomping his feet! Yep. You guessed it, a very quick and enquisitive mouse went exploring where he shouldn’t. Dancing the jig worked… so no claims will be made about a snake scaring it off. It was decided it was time to go bed.
The next morning we took in our surroundings a bit more then continued to Uluru. We only planned the day at Uluru and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). While much more time could be spent here it was enough with the kids. When the kids saw The Rock they were both saying,’It’s Massive!!!” with no prompting from us. We didn’t climb it, but took the kids for a small walk up to just below where the chain starts. They though that was great, and we couldn’t stop them climbing around the low rocks at he beginning area, especially Aidan. Missy had to follow of course. Missy keeps saying, “There’s the rock that we climbed.” whenever she sees and photo or picture of it.
Kata Tjuta was very nice too, and we took a short walk with the kids along the Walpa Gorge Walk and took plenty of photos. It was much quieter than Uluru and it would have been good to spend more time exploring. After this we returned to Uluru in time for the sunset which was sure to be good with the much inproved weather we were now having (finally, some blue sky and sun on our faces, with it being about 20 degrees).
The sunset on The Rock was pretty good, however we were not as early there as we might have been for the best position. Still we got to see it, and took plenty of photos to prove it. Dan then created an argument (discussion) about the tourism and how we all rush in to ‘get our photo’s’ and leave. Uluru is the pinacle of this side of tourism, and generates big money for the regional and national economy. So you can look at all aspects of it, but at the end of the day the park and resort of Yulara are managed really well which we were quite impressed with.
We ended up staying in the overflow camping area at Yulara as we’d not made a forward booking. Then (Sunday) we drove to Alice Springs. The landscape becomes more interesting as you near ‘Alice’ and the Macdonnell Ranges. Again we’d not made a booking but found an affordable powered site right near the Todd River and just on the outskirts of the south side of town at ‘The Gap’. We had dinner at the Tavern near the park which was a $10 special and there was a reptile show as well. The guy was excellent and at the end had all the kids line up while Barry the python slid along their shoulders. Aidan wanted nothing to do with it but Missy seemed happy enough to be involved. She smiled through the whole thing. When it was done she burst into tears, saying how she didn’t want to do it! We couldn’t believe the delayed reaction and just hope she’s not been scared for life!
Coming highly recommended from a number of sources is the Alice Springs Desert Park that we visited Monday(18th). All the exibits are well presented and the park it self is well maintained. There is loads of information about the area, including the geology, flora, fauna and culture. We watched one of those bird shows where the birds fly in on cue, which was really well done. All of this was made more remarkable with the West Macdonnell Range set as the backdrop. Just beautiful. In the evening Dan had a third attempt at washing the car and Liz and the kids feed some Wallabies that come down the hill each evening for handouts.
Alice Springs is a lovely town on the surface of things. It is well laid out, taking the natural landscape into account and respectfully managing it.
It seems we are writing an epic here, however for us this is also a journal of our trip. We understand you might want to skim over it all, but just remember you will be tested when we get back. Obviously that’s not true… just read what interests you and ignore us when it goes on a bit.
