2012 Around Australia: Day 62 - 69 15th April

Day 62 Sunday 15th April 2012

We left bright with all the angst of whether we were going to get out of jail free. Needless to say the panic and sleepless nights were for nothing. The road to Mount Dare was a damn sight better than the road from Oodnadatta to Dalhousie.

We arrived at Mount Dare possibly 10:30ish not quite sure of the time. It was just that much relief, time didn't factor into it. I think that Oscar was more anxious than I was and just wanted to get to a place where he could get some comms and get some news from home and special friends.

The journey was fairly eventless. We travelled on dirt road from Dalhousie right through to Kulgera. Oh by the way, I forgot to tell you we had a made a slight detour. By going via Mount Dare we actually crossed over the SA/NT State borders. So we have been officially to Northern Territory before we actually meant to, and this is my first time in NT since I have been in the country. I have now been to all States and Territories in Australia including the ninth State New Zealand.

Arrived at Kulgera approx. 5:00pm and went to the caravan park. Oscar kissed the asphalt when we arrived as he was so happy to be off dirt roads. I think this last stint has soured his enthusiasm for the trip. Time will tell. Set up camp, had a divine shower, mine was cold but great and then went to the pub for much deserved beers/shandies and hamburgers.

We had decided that as we had taken this slight detour we may as well see Ayers Rock/Uluru. It was so close and we would be better off doing the southern part of Northern Territory whilst we were up this end, and I could stay in Alice Springs whilst Oscar returned home for the birth of his granddaughter.

This decided we went to bed bone weary and ready to roll the following morning.

Mount Dare - don't blink you will miss it and we couldn't afford to

The nest of the Itchy Grub

We are officially in the Northern Territory with our mate Houdini

Happiness is being back on the bitumen

The army were on the move in Kulgera

Day 63 Monday 16th April 2012

Ok we are on the move again. Things are pretty strained between Oscar and myself; a few issues that will need ironing out.

The drive to Curtin Springs which is 103km's out of Uluru and which is a free camping site was very quiet. The landscape in the Northern Territory didn't help much either. It is very flat and every now and then you get a glimpse of a hill. The sand dunes, the closer you get to Curtin Springs are a gorgeous red colour.

We arrived midday and decided that we were going to do our laundry. I wanted to get the smell of that desert dust out of my clothes, bedding and the van. We spent most of the afternoon doing laundry. We had three loads to do and with the heat in this part of the world the laundry dried pretty damn quickly. At the price you pay for beers and fuel in this part of the country we may be home sooner than expected. Fuel at the moment we are paying anything from $2.20 to $2.50 and a beer can set you back anything up to $8.50 a beer.

The laws in the Northern Territory re: sell of alcohol are strange. If you are not resident at a venue that sells liquor you cannot buy it there. So here we are in the Northern Territory no bottle shop anywhere in sight and you cannot just go into a pub and buy a drink unless you are living there. We are stuffed………AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH………..the silence is killing me and the lack of alcohol is driving me nuts, cause I can’t block out this deafening silence.

After all this was complete we had a good shower made a light dinner and crept into bed.

Speed Limit Northern Territory - no longer limitless

Mount Conner

Home for the next 2 nights.

My newest mate

Keeping Tabs on Oscar

Ready for bed just a little way from our van.

Day 64 Tuesday 17^th April 2012

I had set the alarm the previous evening for 5:00am so we could leave early and catch Uluru at Sunrise. We were really good and got out of camp pretty damn early. I drove to Uluru which was 103k’s. I couldn’t drive fast (110k’s an hour is the limit) as I had read that not only do you have Roo’s to worry about but Camels to boot. Well we had done half the trip when on the side of the road we found a whole herd of Camels.

I got such a fright I asked Oscar not to step on my heart which lay at his feet. Once I had recovered from my fright we continued the journey. We arrived at Uluru as the sun was rising but did not make it to the Sunrise viewing early enough. It was still pretty spectacular.

We took the base walk which is approx. 9.4k’s around the base of Uluru. We were not able to climb the rock as the winds were very strong on the summit. So we settled for the walk of the base and we did have a “WOW” moment. There is a waterhole at the base and it is a beautiful and extremely peaceful place.

After we had completed our walk we drove to Yulara the resort town of Uluru for a look around and a shop at IGA. We also filled up with fuel there as it was only $2.174 per litre. Had a beer that a German couple, that are staying at the resort, bought for us (our money of course), and tried to connect to the internet. No luck. I guess that is the one thing that is really frustrating me at the mo, the lack of communications.

After a quick lunch we took a drive to Kata Tjuta (The Olgers). We did a little walk to the viewing area of the Valley of Winds, nothing spectacular. Oscar did the walk of the Walga Gorge by himself as my feet were killing me. I was sorry that we had crammed all this into one day. I don’t think that we did The Olgers any justice.

We left the region at about 5:00pm and made our way back to camp which took approx. 1 hour. I was so tired I just wanted to shower and get into bed.

Uluru at Sunrise

Sunrise Uluru

Waterhole at Uluru base

The Olgers

The Walga Gorge at Kata Tjuta

Day 65 Wednesday 18^th April 2012.

We left Curtin Springs at 8:30am we were headed for Kings Canyon. The drive once again was very uneventful. Saw a feral cat, a camel and that was about as exciting as the journey got.

At least we were nice and early to arrive at camp. We setup and then had a lunch. After lunch we went for a swim in the swimming pool. The water was absolutely refreshing. We went to see if we could get connected to the wireless internet they advertise, and we tried several times before we finally got onto it. It was so aggravatingly slow. It took me the rest of the day just to upload the blog.

Blog done, we returned to our van, Oscar had a light dinner (help yourself) and I finished writing the blog up to date. I set the alarm for 6:00am for the following morning as we wanted to get up early and do the Kings Canyon Rim Walk.

Parrots at our drink stop on the way to Kings Creek Station

Kings Creek Station Resident

Kings Creek Station

Day 66 Thursday 19^th April 2012

We woke before the alarm went off and went outside to eat our brekkie, special cereal I have made. As we were eating a horse came on over to the fence and asked for some. I have named the horse “Mark”. I guess only Mark will get this. We headed straight out after breakfast to Kings Canyon. We were on the start of the walk by 6:30am. The start of the walk was extremely steep to the summit. The rim walk was spectacular. There are only so many photos’ you can take of the rocks before they all look the same and boring. The entire Canyon was a WOW but there was a special WOW which would have to have been the Garden of Eden, a water hole down in the bottom of the Canyon. It is just a very cool and peaceful place. Oscar and I sat down there in silence for a while before making our way back up and out of the Canyon. We also found out that the difference between a Canyon and a Gorge is that the Gorge is formed by water and the Canyon by earthquake. So there you have it, this blog is very educational as well.

The walk was 7.2k’s and we finished by 10:45. We then took a drive to the Kings Canyon Resort a mere 6k’s down the road to see what the caravan park was like and also how much the fuel cost. Bonus!!!! We managed to get fuel for a $2.33per litre. Better than $2.42 where we had set up camp. After this we returned to camp via Katherine Springs where we took another 2.6km walk to the spring. No WOW here, almost disappointing but you know if we had missed it we would have wondered how spectacular it would have been.

The pool was closed for maintenance reasons when we returned so we took a cold shower instead. I went to the café and bought a six pack of XXXX Gold $30.00. Well not as bad as paying $8.50 each. The remainder of the afternoon was very quiet just catching up with the blog and relaxing.

Dinner was steak and roast veggies. We were heading on out again in the morning and I had no idea where we were headed. But anywhere the road takes has been spectacular and I am loving this country.

We have to get to the top of THAT!!!

Starting the climb

Garden of Eden Kings Canyon

Unusual Rock formations

The peaceful waters of the Garden of Eden

More formations

The rocks look like African Huts

Enjoying the peace and tranquility

Day 67 Friday 20^th April 2012

We did a whopping 480 km’s today. More than we have done any other day that we have been on the trip. We went the long way round as Oscar is still not over his experience with the dirt roads of the desert. We made one stop at Erldunda on our way through to top up with Fuel and Gas.

We arrived at Alice Springs mid-afternoon and setup camp. The caravan park is a fairly safe/secure park. I did not understand what the hoo-hah was all about when we spoke to people about Alice Springs until late into the night when we heard why.

We setup as usual and then went down to the local shopping centre to see if we could top up on alcohol supplies. We found the Coles Liquorland and oh boy now we are really smiling we are only paying $1.50 per beer. Better stock up before we leave as it will be sometime again before we arrive in a town which has civilised prising. It’s incredible when you live in the city how much you take for granted. We had to produce our driver’s licence, which was scanned, before we were able to purchase alcohol. All of this is extremely foreign to us but apparently it is to try and help curb the drinking problem amongst the indigenous people. So you cannot have one law for one set of people it is one law for all. Fair enough.

I decided to buy a portable vacuum cleaner at Kmart whilst we were out shopping as I was still battling to get the desert sand out of the van.

After shopping returned back to the van had a shower and decided to treat ourselves to pizza for dinner. We had also bought ourselves some wine and took a bottle of white with us. Oh just in case you wondered I have worn make-up only on special occasions this trip and last night was one of those occasions; I spoilt myself.

We had a great night out took a little drive through the town centre on the way back from dinner to see what the night life was like in Alice. Not much except a lot of corroborees happening in the parks, on sidewalks and car parks. It was still too early for us to witness any real action.

Later that night and into the early morning hours we knew all about it. Not only was it difficult to sleep because we were not used to the sound of traffic but the games were on for all and sundry. I thought I had potty mouth. Damn I’m an angel.

For the next few days whilst in Alice Springs I will just publish some of the "Arty" photo's that Oscar has taken during the trip as we have not taken many photo's in Alice.

Runners on a tree - Kulgera

Whale Rock of Uluru

Day 68 Saturday 21^st April 2012

We woke or rose should I say pretty early; as we had planned a maintenance day. I got stuck into the van whilst Oscar got stuck into the car. He emptied all our plastic containers out of the car as we were advised that if we wanted to do the walk to the Gillen Ranges that we needed to ensure that all our valuables were out of the vehicle. I think we might just not make it to any of the walks locally.

Well I thought I had got most of the desert out of the van. I realised that the desert has a way of sneaking into places you never dreamed of cleaning out. Well I used that vacuum today and I am happy to say I think I have got the desert well and truly out of each and every crevice in the van. The van is ready for the next onslaught of the desert.

Oscar had the wheels balanced, has booked the car in for a service on Monday, vacuumed the car and off to the car wash to give her a well-earned wash. All in all we had a very productive day.

After working hard at cleaning our home and transport we decided we would treat ourselves to a night out at Alice Springs. We had dinner; I had a beef curry and rice while Oscar had salt and pepper squid. After dinner we went for a walk around see what it was like. We eventually went back to our home around 11:30ish.

Day 69 Sunday 22^nd April 2012

Well it poured with rain last night. When we woke we decided to stay linger in bed as it was a bit chilly. Oscar eventually got up and went for a walk around the park where he ran into Bevin and Cathy who he had met at Kings Creek. They had spent the last couple of nights at Rainbow Valley and when the rain set in they hightailed it out of there as early as possible in the morning so as not to become rained in. The road into Rainbow Valley is a dirt road and it was pretty much under water when they left. We had planned to go back to South Australia via Rainbow Valley as this was one of the must stay places recommended by Belinda and Graham who we had met very early in the journey. We can no longer go that way as the roads will be impassable with the continued rain right up and until I publish this blog.

After Oscar returned we went over to Cathy and Bevin’s for a cuppa. We left them late morning and went to do a grocery shop. Bottle Shops are closed in Alice on Sundays.

Oscar made a wonderful suggestion to go to the movies. We watched “The Best Merigold Hotel”. It was an interesting movie and had a lot of messages for aging people. When we returned home I made a light platter and we watched a DVD “The Human Stain.”

Alice has been good from the point of view that we have had time to recharge our batteries and give everything a nice clean. We have not done anything really interesting but I can say, “I have been to Alice”.