5 July - Kata Tjuta!!

5 July 2016 – 177 854

Kata Tjuta!!

Again, up at 5:30am and away. 
https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/do/walks/ 
Straight through the gates this morning, before opening time and off to Kata Tjuta dune sunrise viewing area.  Once again we were foiled by the clouds, but still beautiful to see the detail appear out of the darkness, with the cloud coming and going from the tops of the highest domes. From the Kata Tjuta sunrise viewing point you can also see Uluru, which was in cloud and being rained upon.  I wore hiking socks and boots, thermal long pants, jeans, tank top, black thermal long sleeved top, blue thermal long sleeved top, long sleeved blouse, windproof jacket zipped all the way up the neck, scarf, beanie and gloves – and was still freezing!!  

Picnic breakfast was held inside the car this morning due to the cold. Valley of the Winds full circuit was the plan for today (12.5km) – it was very obvious how it got its name as the wind pours through this gap in the rocks.  The view from Karu lookout was good, but the one from Karingana lookout was amazing.  To walk through the domes gave me a much greater idea of the scale and grandeur of these rocks. 

Again we were fortunate enough to see water in places that only infrequently have water – there were lots of wildflowers, plenty of tadpoles in the streams – the area responds to rain here more than temperature in deciding when life should proceed.

We headed to the sunset viewing area to have a picnic meal and investigate the sunset options. Walpa Gorge walk was our next stop (4.4km), this goes deep between two rocks and is partially in shade and partially in full sun – not surprisingly this involved taking layers on and off as the temperature varies enormously. Once again, the size and height of these domes was on a grand scale.  The rock itself is very very different to the sandstone of Uluru – Kata Tjuta reminded me of rocky road, with all the various size, shape and coloured chunks held together by a silty mudstone; even where rocks have broken, you have the pieces sticking out or holes remaining from where the chunks stay whole and the mudstone cracking keeps some and loses some.

Sunset was very cold again, despite all the clothes we were wearing and the heavy cloud cover.  At times we thought we might get some amazing cloud colour, but the cloud was too thick.  And just when everyone was ready to give up and go home, the sun broke below the clouds and lit the domes a brilliant orange that glowed.  Truly beautiful – definitely worth the wait. Back to camp for hot food and sleep.  What an amazing last two days!!!

Mum

4 July - Uluru

4 July 2016 – 177 758

Uluru!!

Up at 5:30am and away!  We were lined up to buy our entry passes to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park at opening time – 6:30am at this time of year.
https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/ This took quite a while, but we were soon at the Uluru Sunrise Viewing Point of Talinguru Nyakunytjaku with hundreds and hundreds of other visitors.  Before the sun rose the sandstone of Uluru had a texture of velvet.  Unfortunately, the clouds prevented the sun lighting up the rock, but rather it gradually got light.  We enjoyed a picnic breakfast in the car park and then headed to the Cultural Centre – this had lots of good information, as well as a documentary video that seemed to engage children and adults alike.  There was also a “I chose not to climb” register, which we will complete when we have done all the other activities at the National Park.  I had decided not to climb as requested by the owners of the land, however the climb was closed due to forecast rain anyway. 

The base walk was a flat easy walking track; however, some areas were slightly more difficult due to large puddles on the track – I am sure that drainage of the track is not often an issue in the desert. The walk was really interesting, the levels of erosion of the sandstone varied greatly in degree and pattern.  There were also noticeable differences in the microclimate as we moved in and out of gorges.  We got rained on!!, twice and had the sun come out beautifully, all in the space of 4 hours. Some of the waterfalls flowed from the rain – amazing to see.  When Uluru was rained on, the way the sun reflected off the surface it looked like snow! The colours of the striations in the sandstone from the layers varied with the light.  After our walk we headed back to Yulara to cook up a stir fry for our main meal.  We then took this with us back out to the Uluru sunset viewing area where we selected our spot and had a picnic dinner. 

Sunset on Uluru was worth the cold – and it certainly was cold – the colours changed as the sun angle changed, we were blessed with a completely clear sky for sunset. After the sun had set the rock appeared to glow with retained light.  Home for a hot shower, then sleep.

Mum

04/07/2016. Uluru, we have arrived.

Up at 5:30am and we drove out to the sunrise lookout at Uluru via purchasing our 3-day park pass, which was a bit of a slow process. It was cloudy, so the sunrise was nice, but not spectacular. We then visited the culture centre and had a look through. The information was mainly information on the local indigenous people and their culture. We then visited the rock itself and completed a 3.75 hours walk around the base. It was a fair nice, flat track all the way around, but with a few puddles due the recent rain. We even were rained on, and the rock changed again due to the rain. We didn’t plan to walk on the rock, however the walk up the rock was closed anyway. The base walk is great, and the rock is different from every angle and at all times of the day. Uluru is massive! 10km around and 363m tall. After a quick return to the van for food we then went to the sunset lookout and we were treated to a perfect sunset. We saw many colours and Tracy took many, many, many photos over the entire day. A long day completed.

03/07/2016. To Uluru, almost

After a very slow start by some as it was around 7 degrees, we drive the 70 km to Yulara Campgrounds, which is where you camp if you wish to stay overnight whilst visiting Uluru and the Olgas. We are lucky to get an unpowered site in the overflow, as the cost is $20 per night and not $50, and we are less than 25m from a full paying site! We then spent the afternoon in the village centre looking at indigenous shows. A drama of the story of Walawaru, Kakalyalya and Kaanka, and information session in the museum about the history of the area and some of the animals, and then watched the Putitja dancers. We also visited one of the small lookouts to get our first real glimpse of Uluru. It is massive, and I am looking forward to a dawn to dusk visit to the rock tomorrow.

Dad

03/07/2016. To Uluru, almost

After a very slow start by some as it was around 7 degrees, we drive the 70 km to Yulara Campgrounds, which is where you camp if you wish to stay overnight whilst visiting Uluru and the Olgas. We are lucky to get an unpowered site in the overflow, as the cost is $20 per night and not $50, and we are less than 25m from a full paying site! We then spent the afternoon in the village centre looking at indigenous shows. A drama of the story of Walawaru, Kakalyalya and Kaanka, and information session in the museum about the history of the area and some of the animals, and then watched the Putitja dancers. We also visited one of the small lookouts to get our first real glimpse of Uluru. It is massive, and I am looking forward to a dawn to dusk visit to the rock tomorrow.

Dad

02/07/2016. Drive to Curtin Springs

After a small sleep in we packed up camp, did a bit of shopping to top up all stores and headed to Curtin Springs to camp about 90km from Uluru. Curtin Springs has a free camp ground for unpowered sites. The weather fined up, so fingers crossed if still fine tomorrow we will head to Uluru for 4 nights!

01/07/2016. Desert Park Marathon / Happy NT day!

Up at predawn to visit the Alice Springs Desert Park. I thought we should be OK with around 3 hours at the park, however 8.5 hours later we forced Hayden to leave. The park was very well setup, and the bird presentation was excellent. The nocturnal house was super amazing with all animals in what was lighting to simulate a full’ish moon. If you visit Alice Springs, you must visit this park. We then headed to ANZAC Hill, to get a view of the town. The hill did have a good view, however The RSL has done a great job setting up the hill with memorials and information on all conflicts Australian military personnel have been sent to. On the way back to the van park, Tracy spent some time in the Todd River taking photos. Back to the van the sky was bright all night with fireworks for NT day and show day. It seems anyone in NT can purchase and use fireworks on NT day, so we have a lot of fireworks going off a large part of the day and night.

Day 14 30/06/2016. A town like Alice

We were a bit slow to get going this morning, but we made it to Alice around 9:30 am. The city is larger and nicer than I expected. We checked into a van park for 2 nights, and hit the town to visit the tourist information centre and Woolworths. I stayed with the van to rest and recover a bit, and Hayden and Tracy headed out to Aviation museum and to the Pioneer Womens Hall of Fame. It is only getting to 23 degrees Celsius but it is a strong sun.

Dad

Day 13 29/06/2016. The long road south

We drove from The Pebbles to 30 km north of Alice Springs, again in a free camp ground. This camp ground being on the Tropic of Capricorn. It was also the first time we drove into unlimited speed zone roads. We had already agreed on a speed limit of 100km, as the fuel used was excessive over that speed with a van. This road was described to me as more boring than the Nullarbor road, and I agree there is very little to look at. We did drop into Devils Marbles to look, and decided that would be an overnight location on the way to Darwin, as they are truly incredible. At night you could hear the cars doing 150km/h plus coming from a long way off, as the tires make a lot of noise at that speed.

Dad

Day 12 28/06/2106. Into NT we go.

We drove from Mount Isa to just south of Tennant Creek, crossing into NT and leaving Queensland for the next 6 plus months. I must say the roads in NT are general in a better state than QLD. The speed limit also changed to 130 km/h, but I only did that once, downhill with a tail wind. We spent the night in a free camp ground at “The Pebbles”. The camp ground is nice, but the rock formations were just beautiful. We also had our first fire for the trip, although I must say we had a communal fire. This is also the first day of my head cold gratefully given to me by Tracy. Night time temperatures are also starting to get very low, around 5 degrees Celsius.

Dad

Day 10 and 11. 26-27/06/2106. Mount ISA break

The last 2 days we did little in the way of adventures. We spent the days dedicated to Hayden doing school work, and whilst he was doing that we cooked, cleaned the car and van the best we could, washed cloths, and recharged everything that needed it. I was able to get an exercise session in with Hayden, but he found it a little hard. We will work on that.

Dad

3 July - Yulara Campground

3 July 2016 – 177 666

Yulara Campground

This morning we drove from Curtin Springs to Yulara Ayers Rock Resort, about 100km. https://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/
On the drive in we got our first view of Uluru – I knew it was big, but it is really really big!! After doing a full set up we walked to one of the lookouts for our first clear view of Uluru – it certainly is impressive  .https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/

Then we headed to the information centre to book the activities that required booking and find out about the free activities. https://www.ayersrockresort.com.au/experiences/detail/free-daily-activities  Walking across on the paths it is obvious there has been recent rain as everything is very green and there are puddles – not an overly common site in desert country. Hayden and Drew are booked in for the Astro Tour on Wednesday night at 8pm – this was the soonest we could get.  The Field of Lights Tours are booked up until at least Thursday, not that this was on our must do list anyway – I was the only one particularly interested and with my poor night vision I was not sure whether I should go or not.  Hayden and I would like to do the dot painting but have not booked yet as we wish to do our Uluru and Kata Tjuta activities first if the weather is good. The Mani-Mani Indigenous Cultural Theatre told The Story of Walawuru, Kaklyalya and Kaanka (The Eagle, Cockatoo and Crow) using a cleverly woven together mix of film and acting.

Next we went to the Wintjiri Arts and Museum Centre where “Leroy”, our aboriginal guide talked about the fire farming used to maintain the spinifex at the necessary heights for different animals; how Uluru was formed; and how tourism has developed in recent times.  Last on today’s schedule was the Putitja Dancers – who performed traditional dances and explained after each the story it was telling.  Another full day.  Tomorrow up early to go and see the sunrise at Uluru, weather permitting.

Mum

2 July - Lasseter Highway

2 July 2016 – 177 304

Lasseter Highway

This morning we packed up, stocked up on food and set off toward “Curtin Springs”, a cattle station about 100km from Uluru.https://www.curtinsprings.com/

We drove through country that is far more desert in nature, being made up of red sand dunes. Despite this we got rained on.  Due to the recent rains, there is plenty of green around and even some wildflowers in bloom.  The rest area we stopped in for lunch had swathes of lovely white wildflowers as well as grasses growing on the dunes.

Along the Lasseter Highway were signs that reminded people to wear their seatbelts in a variety of languages, as well as signs reminding drivers that we drive on the left side of the road in Australia.  Given there were none of these signs on the Stuart Highway before turning onto the Lasseter Highway, I suspect anyone who had not worked out that we drive on the left would not make it to the Lasseter Highway to see the signs.  We have camped tonight in a free camping area (unpowered) at Curtin Springs and will see what the weather looks like in the morning before deciding on our next move.

Mum

1 July - Alice Springs Desert Park and Territory Day

1 July 2016 – 177 290

Alice Springs Desert Park and Territory Day

Woke early to the alarm on my phone – only to realise after our showers that my phone had not adjusted itself to NT time but was still half an hour ahead on Queensland time. We were at Alice Springs Desert Park just after its 7:30am opening time. https://alicespringsdesertpark.com.au/

We didn’t leave until 3:15pm – the displays were good, particularly the aviaries.  The “Free Flying Bird Show” was great, a passionate informative presenter who explained the reasons for the birds’ skills in terms of survival as well as showing off their capabilities – one bird species even uses a tool, for example a rock, to break open emu eggs to eat as it knows that it cannot get them open any other way.  We also went to talks on “The Largest Marsupial – The Red Kangaroo”, “Aboriginal Survival in the Desert”, “The Australian Wolf – Dingo Discovery” and “Emu – Desert Giant and Worlds Best Dad”.  I learnt something knew at all of them, even the Kangaroo one which I did not expect to.  We also watched a short clip on the evolution of the Central Australian Desert.

 

Next we headed to Anzac Hill to lookout over the town of Alice Springs – this is a truly lovely war memorial, with information on all the conflicts Australia has been involved in.  On the way back to the caravan park, we stopped to take some photos of the “Gap” and the Todd River, including some of Hayden “swimming” in the Todd.  As there was rain only a short time ago, the silt that was washed into the river has settled and dried on top of the clay and is now cracking and peeling, making the river surface look a lot like bark.

Today was Territory Day – the one day in the year which ordinary people are allowed to set off fireworks.  We heard the first ones about mid-morning, but they greatly increased in number from about 6pm and were going continuously for several hours. The ones on the street outside the caravan park went for at least two to three hours almost continuously.  I could still hear some going at almost midnight when I got up to use the bathrooms.  The most fireworks I have ever seen!!

Week 2 from Hayden

Week 2 from Hayden (10 yo boy)

25/06/16

We went to a lookout and looked at the mine, it is big! Me and Dad played bowling with rocks.  We went to the Underground Hospital.  One of the tunnels had collapsed!  Then we went and looked at the tent house where the nurses slept.  They had an impressive spoon collection around 100! We went and saw the megafauna at the Riversleigh Fossil Centre!  They were big, we saw the bones of a giant meat-eating kangaroo!

26/06/16

I got up at 7:00 today.  My first school day was today, I finished at 2:00.  Then we went to the Family Fun Park, Mum made two obstacles courses up.  It took 3 attempts on the first one and 8 on the second one, they were hard.  After dinner we played Uno.  Mum won the first and the fourth, Dad won the fifth round and I won the second and third.

27/06/16

I got up at 7:00 today.  My second school day.  I finished around 2:00.

28/06/16

We drove from Mt Isa to the Pebbles, it was straight and boring with nothing to see or do.

29/06/16

We drove from the Pebbles to Devils Marbles (they were big!)  Then we drove to the Tropic of Capricorn 30km from Alice Springs.

30/06/16

I woke up at 7:00 and drove to Alice Springs.  We went to the Aviation Museum, I got to play on a flight simulator.

01/07/16

I woke up at 7:00 again.  We went to the Alice Springs Desert Park.  There were two dingoes, Marlo and Digger; three emus, a male, a juvenile and a yearling; five kangaroos, one female, one dominant male, one yearling and two males; a whistling kite, black breasted kite, a wedge tailed eagle, a magpie (not an evil one), a barn owl (cute) and a heron at the amphitheatre/bird show.  At the night house we saw bilbys, snakes, thorny devils, lizards, spiders, rats, a striped bandicoot and a burrowing bettong.  When it got dark people let off fireworks because it was N.T. day.  My favourite was one that spiralled up, exploded in multi-colours and then glittered crazily.