Saturday, April 30, 2011

Bitter Springs

Little Roper River (runs along the back of the caravan park and has good fishing and yabbying)



This morning, the water across the floodway and round about had receded a little and the clarity in the springs was better. We had a lovely swim-mostly had the place to ourselves too.



On the way down there, we met an aboriginal family fishing off the floodway. They looked so happy and healthy and colourful and I'd have loved to get a photo, but would never ask!

While we were swimming at the springs, I rescued a little boy (4 yo) who was in trouble in the deceptively strong current, swallowing water and going under in a very scary fashion! I swam down with my trusty noodle and he and I paddled to the first set of steps whilst dad looked after his 6 yo brother who'd also managed to swallow a lung full of water via his snorkel!

We came home for a nice big, healthy chickpea salad then took a drive along the Roper River. Bit scary to see a croc trap baited and waiting about 50 metres from where we swam 4 years ago. At the time, we "swam at our own risk", but today, the swimming spots are "CLOSED due to crocodiles"!

Tennant Creek

As you approach Tennant Creek, you see a number of signs; "Tennant Creek,Desert Oasis", "Tennant Creek, Heart of Gold" Tennant Creek, Desert Harmony" etc etc. Tennant Creek is a sadder hole than the last time we stayed and if we'd thought about it, we'd have driven straight through to Three Ways Road House or Banka Banka Station.

We were here about 10 years ago and stayed in quite a nice park, but decided to try the other one this time and without really looking at our neighbours settled in. The community next door must have been having a Royal Wedding Party (or any excuse for a party more like it) They yelled and screamed, raced cars up the road, we heard what sounded like gun shots and police sirens all until around 1am. Then at 5am kids were up screaming their heads off. I'm exhausted right now after our drive to Bitter Springs.

There was quite a lot of water around and the roads are a bit chopped up after the rain and floods. Bitter Springs is really knocked about-the beautful underwater garden has been washed away and the water clarity is not so crystal clear. Still pleasantly warm though.

We are here for 3 nights so I plan to swim often while Russ can fish and try to catch us a few red-claw yabbies.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Alice Springs

Blog wise, our three nights and two full days in Alice were a bit lean. We have been here before and after our 4 nights at Uluru and all the walks etc we were quite happy to just kick back and do nothing. So, no photos and not a lot to write about.

I'd heard Mick talk about a great restaurant Claire has taken hom to in Alice, so we decided to treat ourselves and go there. Food was reasonably priced, but the wine was exhorbitantly expensive. Russ had just finished a bottle of wine we paid $10 for at Seppelts winery-it was on Hanuman's winelist for $50.00 (a good mark up I'd say). No matter, the food was fantastic-as good as I've eaten in any Indian restaurant we've been to! We had a mild barramundi curry, medium red curry duck, spicy lentil dahl, roti, raita, rice and a nice bottle of NZ Sav Blanc. Highly recommend the place if you're in town!

We crossed the road and bought ourselves a ticket to the Araluen Cultural Precinct. The precinct contains an excellent art gallery, the Strehlow Research Centre, Centrel Australian Aviation Museum a local craft gallery and work shop and a performing arts centre.

We were able to use the tickets ($10 each) over two days so visited a few times between shopping, laundry and just relaxing.

I especially enjoyed the Albert Namatjira gallery and an exhibition showing the importance of visiting "home" to the aboriginals. That one contained some amazing grass weaving, tin toys and cloth sculptures. Fantastic (but no photos allowed).

I Googled and found this photo of the grass Toyota made by the women. It was fantastic!!! and around a metre high and more than 2 long with dogs in the back


The Strehlow RC houses artifacts collected by anthropologist Ted Strehlow who was born and lived most of his life amongst the aboriginals of Hermansberg where his father was a missionary for 22 years.

It seemed to be an under visited facility-often we were the only ones wandering around, but it was really, really good.

On one of our shopping trips, I went to the chemist to get a prescription filled. My health care card was declined. I handed over Russ's aged pension card-declined. Went round to the saddest Centrelink I've ever had to visit. My health care card hadn't been processed from April 3rd in W'bool, pension card cancelled for failing to meet the identity criteria. Finally all fixed for US, but Centrelink still a sad, depressing place in Alice!

I saw lots of things in Alice that made me sad. Probably the one that has affected me the most was watching a group of about 6 boys aged between 9 and 12 descend on Target. They split up and were racing around the isles. The security guy was trying to keep an eye on them, but they were just everywhere all at once. I watched them brazenly stuffing things in their track suit pants before they left the store. What's the future hold for them?!


Today we left early and drove to Tennant Creek. It's been a lovely day. The country is looking beautiful-lush and green with water in lots of the creeks, floodways and waterholes we crossed or passed. So different to last time we came this way. We took time out to stop at the Devil's Marbles which were also looking so much prettier this time.




We had a slight scare today! We drove through Ti Tree expecting to have lunch and get diesel at Barrow Creek. The pump there was out of order, so we had to drive on SLOWLY to Wycliffe Well Roadhouse where we were very happy to pay $2 a litre for fuel!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Not Waving, Drowning

Please, please stop waving at me. I'm over it. I have RSI from waving, I have stress from deciding whether or not I'll wave to you, anger because I did and you didn't wave back, and anxiety because you waved late and couldn't see me wave to you. We aren't on an epic journey out here, there are hundreds maybe thousands of us on this road at any one time. We don't need to wave to EVERYONE!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

The Olgas



We went out to the Olgas this morning and took the short walk (1.1k each way) up to the first lookout.

This grass on one of the domes reminded us of the chalk horses we saw in England

My left foot is a bit tender after yesterday's 11k walk around the base and someone (who shall remain nameless-oh ok, Russ) came away from home without his runners so the walk onto the next lookout or the larger loop needed better footwear than thongs. Must say, my feet were rather glad of the fact! The Olgas are stunning, but it was incredibly busy out there with the rock climb being closed.

This arvo, Russ is off for a walk to town to grab a couple of things for our dinner while I sit here and veg out.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

The Olgas and Uluru




Saturday 23rd of April we took a drive out to the Olgas and then a 1 hour 2k walk in and out of Walpa Gorge. The Olgas are amazing close up and equally impressive as Uluru (but different). It was a pretty walk and not too long considering what we had planned for this morning! After the walk and some lunch at home, we went back out to the cultural centre at Uluru and spent a couple of hours there. A walk round the tiny shopping centre and a dinner of roast veal and veg finished off the day nicely.



Uluru Base Walk
This morning we got up early (well, early for us) and got ourselves organised for the walk around the base of Uluru. It's 10.6ks and adding in a walk in and out of the waterhole, we reckon we did 11 ks. It was cool (around 12c) when we started our walk but soon warmed up.



I'm glad we went the way we did as we came back the last couple of ks to the car in the shade. Its a fantastic walk with so many colours and textures of the rock. A lot of the walk is sacred ground, but we still got lots of photos in the places we were allowed take them. I was suprised how few people do the walk and how many people still do the climb although the traditional owners ask that they don't! The walk took 3 1/2 hours including stops to chat to people, look at rock art and go into the waterhole.



I was so proud of myself doing it as I know 12 months ago I wouldn't have been able with my weight and blood pressure as they were and my legs would have been like big puffy sausages if I did happen to finish.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Marla to Uluru April 22nd

The highway reopened around 7pm last night, so it was a wise move to stay over at Marlo. We heard that the accident involved two cars and two people died in it, 2 adults and three children were injured. Very sad.

We had a good trip here, but the accident makes you think and I reckon we both drove a bit slower and more carefully than our usual slow and careful!

The roadhouse at Erldunda was mad with traffic-it's a sort of crossroads to North, South then out here to Uluru and King's Canyon. It was crawling with people. Our fuel tank is on the driver's side so we drove straight up to a diesel pump-the woman filling beside us had queued for half an hour on the other side to fill hers (on the passenger side.

The pretender Mount Connor about 100ks from Uluru


First real view of the real thing


We got out here to the rock around 3pm and I have to say it was amazing to arrive here in daylight and see it rising out of the plane as we drove in. The last time I was here, we arrived in the dark and I didn't get my first look at it until I'd fed 44 kids and teachers on a school bus their breakfast!



Russ and I set up the van, did a load of washing, then drove out to the park gates to get our 3 day park pass. We ended up at the base of the rock having Russ's first close up look then went back to the sunset viewing spot (with a couple of hundred other people) and waited til the sun went down before heading home for dinner. It truly is an amazing place and much more so in real life than you can imagine if you've only ever seen it in photos or on TV.





While we were at the base looking round, we found a phone on a bench. I put it in my pocket and waited for the owner to ring. She did around 8pm and we arranged to meet them at the office with the phone at 8.30. Linda and Illias are a lovely young Slovakian couple living in Sydney who were very happy we found the phone. They ended up back here at the van sharing a bottle of wine and a lot of talking and laughing with us and just left for their hotel at 11.15. A lovely day again!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Coober Pedy and on to Kulgera

I was a bit sad leaving Coober Pedy this morning-I felt as though we needed another night so's we could do the half day town tour. We did it about 9 1/2 years ago so I'm sure SOMETHING must have changed! Our very nice neighbours Sue and Terry decided to stay on another night and I'd have enjoyed getting to know them a little better too. We've exchanged e-mails though and may meet up in Exmouth in a month or so.

We planned to drive as far as Kulgera Roadhouse today but were told at Cadney Park Roadhouse that the highway was closed at Marla due to a fatal crash 60ks north of there. Funny, we'd commented that we weren't seeing much traffic and certainly no trucks, motor homes or caravans-just the (very) odd 4WD. We decided to go on to Marla but sussed out a couple of likely free camping spots in the event we couldn't get in at the road house. It was crawling with cops and travellers but the caravan park was quite empty so we decided to stay on rather than hang round hoping the road would open and we could contnue on. That was likely to be at least 4 hours and maybe early evening-way past our travelling time no matter what!

So, here we are, very comfortable for the night, with a few more ks tomoroww to get to Ayers rock than we'd planned on.

Lake Eyre

William Creek Road


Home from a FANTASTIC day out. We drove to William Creek and took a flight over Lake Eyre which we both loved-I still haven't stopped smiling about it! It's 160ks out on William Creek Road and about 6 along the Oodnadatta track into William Creek (population around 20 in the tourist season) to catch our plane at 1pm.



Our pilot (who looked about 12) arrived around 1.30pm to take us to the plane. We sat on the runway for almost 30 minutes as our plane wouldn't start in the heat ("a fault of these old Gippland Aviators" apparently), but finally got off the ground and took the best light airplane flight I've ever had. A bit of a worry though as the longer we sat on the runway, the shabbier our plane looked!




Our twelve year old pilot found great joy in flying low over the lake, then banking (often) even lower over it. We had two little girls (about 7 & 9)on board who'd NEVER flown before and the look of delight on their faces was worth seeing-they also asked lots of intelligent questions which was great as most other head sets didn't work apart from hearing them and the pilot.


The lake is awesome (to use a much over used word) and it's almost impossible to imagine it just dries up and goes away for so much of the time. Amazing to think all the birds, fish and even the odd yacht find their way to it when it is full of water. We saw a trailer sailer out on it today even though the traditional owners request no one does so. The flight out over the land was pretty amazing too with lots of waterholes, salt pans and just the ever changing colours of the land. The lake is about 100ks long, 40ks wide, and 4 metres at it's deepest! We started and got too late though to come home via Ooodnadata and the painted desert so we'll be back! And we both highly recommend if you're up this way the flight is
expensive, but well worth it.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Wilmington


We spent two really enjoyable nights at Wilmington, but I couldn't stomach another night in the company of the "Nissan Club" (and one woman in particular), so we had a quiet night by ourselves last night. We watched Charlie and Boots-a nice easy to watch little movie thanks Mick!

We did a great walk in the morning down to Alligator George. I reckon it was around 300 steps to get to the bottom, then we walked into The Terraces and out, along to The Narrows and then UP to Blue Gum Flat.




I thought we'd reached the end of the walk, but we had another (almost) vertical kilometre to get back to the car park. Every corner we came to revealed an even steeper stretch of road. I was exhausted by the time we made it to the car, but figured if I couldn't do that, I better forget the base walk at Ayers Rock later this week.

Last night I defrosted a duck stock I'd made plus a salmon portion and turned them into a Thai style soup with noodles and veg. OMG it was so good.

Today we packed up and drove almost 600ks to Coober Pedy where we'll stay 2 nights as we need to drive out to William Creek in the morning for a flight over Lake Eyre. The country today looks like it has had plenty of rain but it would give the Nullarbor a run for its money with the lack of trees in most places from Port Augusta to here. And the only stock I saw was about 8 big dead herefords and around the same number of sheep (all hit by trucks I'd say).

We are staying two nights in Riba's Underground Camping and Caravan Park-only underground for the campers though!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

On The Road Again

Russ and I headed off on Friday 16th of April for around 7 months away. I hadn't planned to blog again, but several people suggested I should and I got as far as Morgan on the Murray River when I decided that I should too. I loved doing it previously and if you love reading it, please read on, if not, well, don't! I haven't started to take photos yet, but now I've begun, I promise I will!

We left home heading for South Australia on the Friday morning. I kissed my son, the house sitter goodbye, and drove off crying to be leaving him and the house. That lasted til we hit highway one (about 5 minutes)and I thought "we're on our way"! Another few tears after leaving Ryan and Kirstyn in Port Fairy and we really were on our way.

Night one was spent in Bordertown SA. The little town gets my vote as the friendliest place in Australia-so many smiles and hellos from townspeople as we took a walk around and did some shopping.

Day two we drove along the very flooded Murray on a gorgeous day. It broke both our hearts to have to drive on by when we saw what looked like half of SA's population out yabbying on the river. If only we'd known we'd have factored in extra time and stopped ourselves! We overnighted at the tiny and very historic town of Burra. We were lucky to get the last site in the only caravan park. After a nice walk around town, we enjoyed a lovely dinner of roast chicken with all the trimmings.

Sunday, we tossed up whether we should drive straight out to Crystal Brook and the highway or take the more scenic, windy road through the Southern Flinders Ranges and on to Port Augusta. It was a beautiful morning, so the more scenic route won. While lunching in a little place called Wilmington 44ks out of Port Augusta, we decided it was too pretty to move on. We found a great little bush caravan park and booked for two nights. It's $15 a night (due to the only shower being situated in a tent in the middle of the grounds) and 8 vans here in total. Funnily enough, 6 of us drive Nissans. We were invited by the rest of the "Nissan Club" to share their fire last night and while it was fun, it was the sort of pissing competition we really aren't into. All the crap about what modifications they've made to motors and clutches and brakes and springs and kilometers per litre and must-have long range fuel tanks several spare tyres and much more bores us witless. We service the car regularly, the wheels go round, we stop every few hours for fuel and we're happy. What's more it worked for over three years that way.

We'd been toying with the idea of a flight over Lake Eyre for the past couple of days and finally got word back from an air company who can get us on an hour flight. We'll stay Tuesday and Wednesday in Coober Pedy and drive out about two hours to William Creek where we'll meet the plane at 1 pm.