Time to go home

The worst part of any holiday is going home (in my mind anyway. We are 1633km away from home, towing 2.2 tonne of van, and some very weary legs, knees and children. 

The majority of this trip until we reach Pt Augusta is also without Telstra service. I am not sure how we are going to survive without posting hourly updates on Facebook .....

We had originally planned this part of the trip to take two nights, however we have agreed to just get up and drive until we can’t drive anymore, and see where that gets us. 

Despite a horrible headwind that meant I was chewing through closer to 18litrea per 100km instead of the normal 12-13, I kept my foot down and soldiered on. 

The kids kept themselves entertained in the back seat playing Minecraft on their iPad’s, whilst Tracy dozed and jumped out of her seat in fright occasionally when I powered over a cattle grid across the road. 

We eventually stopped at 5:30pm after a 8am start and could hardly walk. 

We were at a roadside stop (called Bon Bon) with about 10 other vans with another beautiful sunset and the most incredibly clear night sky I have seen. The stars and Milky Way are just amazing to see when there are no city lights around

It was also nice to have a night where the temperature stayed above 5 degrees again.....

The morning greeted us with our last country sunrise, before we started on the last leg home. 

This was a little slower and thankfully a little easier on the fuel use thanks to a tail wind. We stopped at Pt Augusta for lunch and gave the caravan a wash at one of the commercial wash bays, and then made a bee line to pick up our very missed and loved Taz from mums....

Battling peak hour Thursday night traffic with the van on the back is not my favourite thing to do, but we eventually got home and started the arduous task of emptying the van. 

The rains are coming tomorrow, so it is going to be fun removing everything that can be removed to try and get 6 weeks of red dust out of it, but I am sure every last bit of dust will be a reminder of the amazing journey we have just completed. 

And No... I am not going back to work tomorrow just because I got home a day early. 

(143 hours, not 43.....)

Our last walk

The sunrise over Uluru is supposed to be almost as spectacular as the sunset. Apparently. 

We get up at 6:15am in -2 degree weather and speed off into the darkness. Along with about 50 other cars in front of us. 

At least by the time we arrived at the Eastern car park and walked to the vantage spot, it had warmed up to 0 degrees. 

As we stood there in our our 4 layers of clothes, we heard somebody mention that the sunlight doesn’t reach this side of the rock in winter. It would have been really nice to have heard that yesterday 🤭

Once the sun was up and the temperature had dropped back to -1, we drove to the main car park and started our big base walk. 

There are many different areas of the rock that are fascinating to see from different angles, and despite still not being able to feel our fingers through the cold, we all chatted  about the adventures so far and what we interpreted from the story placards located around our trail, as well as what we had learned yesterday from the cultural tour. 

After what seemed to be an eternity, we reached the car park again. By now, both Tracy and I were not able to feel our knees and legs, and we collapsed into the car for a lazy afternoon. 2 hours and 50 minutes for nearly 11km. Certainly not any type of record, but a time that we will remember. 

Kata Tjuta - The Olga’s

Surprisingly we woke up able to walk and so headed back into the National Park. This time our destination is The Valley of the Winds , at The Olga’s. 

This turned out to be. 2.5 hour walk winding through the base of The Olga’s to an incredibly mesmerising two sided lookout. 

It was still mid morning so the North Eastern side was completely in shade, with the opposite side just starting to light up as the sun peered over the top. 

The composition of these rocks are very different to that of Uluru. This is a mixture of rock, mud, pebbles and granite formed hundreds of thousands of years ago, as opposed to the solid sandstone construction that is Uluru. 

The track led us through some warm sunny patches, to some cold windy valleys, to some shady rock filled mountain sides. We decided not to walk the 7.4km loop as the rest is just through scrub, so we turned around and once again hobbled back to the car,

After lunch we visited the local Arts and Cultural Centre in the Town Square, where they had a free tour by a local Aboriginal guide who told us all about the local wildlife, scrub and the beliefs surround Uluru and Kata Tjuta. 

It is always great to hear facts about the places we visit, rather than just looking  without understanding. 

Time to relax with a few beers, and get ready for sunrise viewing and the base walk tomorrow around Uluru. This is a 10.6km track with a few diversions to see local wall art and other interesting parts of  Uluru - neither of us are sure this is a good idea with our knees and legs feeling the way they are, however it is a goal we always said we would do, so we are determined to do (with a new box of Nurofen in our pockets!)

Uluru

We arrived at the campground at around 1pm, set up in the overflow area and then went into town to find the visitor centre and get ourselves orientated. The forecast was for another windy day tomorrow and hopefully calming down after that. 

Tonight we went to see Uluru at sunset, along with an incredibly expensive locally purchased bottle of wine and some beers, and some cheese, crackers & chips to celebrate my birthday that was on Thursday. 

Despite the cold, it was great to see this monolith change colours as the sun disappeared behind us. 

Morning came and we were back at The Rock prepared for the base walk around it. To our surprise it was open for climbers. I am not sure we knew what we were getting ourselves for bro, but 5 minutes later we were 50m up. 

History tells me I should have stopped there, however we continued the climb. Never in our lifetime did we imagine how much more difficult this was than what it appeared to be. But we did it. The climb had its moments with Dylan losing his hat in the wind, and the car key that was in a strap around my neck broke off and started rolling down. Thankfully Tyler was behind me and fearlessly leapt sideways to grab it without a second thought. (Apparently he has a fear about being stuck at Uluru for the rest of his life with a car but no key.  ). We got to the top of the chain section after a few rests and admired the view. “We’ve done it” we muttered to ourselves. 

Apparently not. 

Apparently, the end of the chain marks about 1/3 of the way. But it is also the hardest part. So off we went, up and down the valleys on top of this not so flat topped rock. In fact, some of the valleys up here were almost as difficult as the first section, especially for this of us with bung knees and the agility of a rhinoceros. 

But the views were fantastic and worth every minute of the climb. 

We had found out from all the people that passed us that the rangers had closed Uluru for climbing. They didn’t tell us the reason, however once we were at the final point and noticed we were the last ones here, we also noticed the wind was gusty and strong enough to carry me into the next Galaxy.  (That is one hell of a strong wind by the way...)

I also noticed a huge dust storm in the East getting closer to us by the minute, so we hurried off to begin our descent. 

By now, I had a real appreciation for why the rangers close Uluru for climbing. At times, we actually had to hide in valleys to stop being blown off, and it was getting quite frightening for the kids. 

As we approached the chain, I decided to forge ahead with Tyler and Kayla and get down as quickly as my knees would allow. Dylan had waited back to five Tracy some moral support as she occasionally slid down on her backside, and hobbled down backwards for the other parts, showing off her backside to all the amused spectators below watching us. 

But we did it. Sore as hell and 3 very relieved kids who had actually thought we weren’t going to make it at some stages when the wind howled through us, but we did it. 

Back to the caravan we went, had lunch, warm showers and a few beers. Not much else happened this afternoon... just chatting about the amazing experience we had just completed. 

Kings Canyon

It was freezing cold again in the morning, but we are in the middle of the Red Centre in August so we cannot expect anything different. 

This morning we drove past bro Kings Canyon and took off on the famous rim walk. This is a 6.3km walk that starts with 500 steps almost straight up made from natural rocks. Somehow I made it without having a heart attack and we began the remaining 6km walk. The surrounding rocks and bush made us feel like we were walking on the moon (but apparently I have never been to the moon so it wasn’t an accurate comparison). 

The kids were climbing on ever bit of  rock they could find and had to be reminded many times that there is a minimum 100m sheer vertical drop below them. 

It was nearly 2 1/2 hours later that we finally made it back. My knee had popped again about an hour earlier and I was hobbling down the mountain waiting for this moment to pop some pain killers, and the relief couldn’t have come soon enough. 

We had lunch that had been packed in our ever faithful cooler bag, and then headed back, but diverted off to Kathleen Springs. This was a Gorge that the early settlers used to heard cattle into with its never-empty water supply, and a narrow neck where they built a fence to keep them in until the trucks would arrive later in the week to cart the animals off to market. 

Dylan couldn’t contain himself, despite the rim walk earlier this morning, and jogged most of the track at least twice whilst we gobbled along slowly admiring our surroundings. 

We decided we hat we had seen all that we wanted to here, so tomorrow we were off to Uluru and hopefully achieving our goal to climb it. Assuming our knees will let us. And the wind

A long day driving

Our night of free camping was cold, but pleasant and uneventful. We were on the road by about 9:30 for an hour and a half to Alice Springs. Here we found the mandatory Woolworths stop, and stocked up for the next week. It was actually nice to be not spending $6:50 on a loaf of bread or nearly the same for 2 litres of milk. 

The big error in our plans was, however, that none of the bottle shops open in the NT until 2pm. And I had not a drop of beer or bourbon left in the van. Looks like I will be getting into the 5l cask of port that has been stashed in the van since we left home. 

Lunch was some dry over cooked pies, pasties and sausage rolls from the Stuart’s Well roadhouse where we stopped for fuel, because I stupidly forgot to fill up in Alice where the price was semi reasonable

Not long after turning right at Erldunda, we realised how hard the last 200km of this trip was going to be. There was a headwind or at least 50 knots and the dust storm created, made visibility almost zero at some stages. 

I was now chewing through diesel at an average of 21 litres per 100km, rather than the usual 13. At an expected refill price of $2:15 a litre, this was not the welcoming trip I was hoping for. 

And once we had finally passed through the dust, the rain clouds appeared and even slightly dampened the windscreen for a moment. This was when we made the choice to go to Kings Canyon first, and try Uluru later. Our goal is to get to climb the rock, and with this weather, I expect it is going to be closed for a few days

We stopped at Kings Creek Station which is about 30 minutes short of the Canyon, and set up in the red dust. This is actually the reddest and dustiest stop we have had so far. And with the light rain falling, we were now being also welcomed with red mud

The site was pretty basic, but nice enough. The rain eventually stopped, the clouds disappeared and a beautiful cold night descended. 

The home journey begins.

it was time to say goodbye to Kakadu and begin our South bound journey.

Almost. 

We had just over an hour and a half in the car before unhitching the van at the Rangers Station and tearing down 60Km of dirt road to Gunlom Falls. This time we had no expectations of seeing running water, but did know that there will be rock pools for swimming. 

The walk was graded as steep and strenuous. Easy for us I am sure. 

Well..... after about 40 minutes of climbing rocks up the side of a mountain and my heart stopping twice whilst my calves were burning more than Satan’s backyard, we made it. And once again, it was well worth the effort. This time, we were swimming in “The Infinity Pools”, where they overlook the ginormous cavern that we just climbed, and appear to not have an edge. 

Despite the general green look of the water, it was crystal clear as always and cool and refreshing. 

After an hour of paddling and washing off the layers of expunged sweat, we dried off and got dressed, ready for the descent down the “steep and strenuous” rocks. 

Arriving back at the car sweatier than a barramundi at Cahill’s Crossing, we raced back to the van in air conditioned comfort, and had our usual lunch break. 

We were now on the road back to Mataranka. We had called in on the way up, but will now be staying at the Little Roper campground so we can enjoy a relaxing swim in the natural hot springs. There was also a performance on tonight by Nathan “Whippy” Griggs who is actually a World record holder in 3 different topics of whip cracking. And he was amazing. A super talented 26 year old country kid who specialises in making and cracking whips. The kids were mesmerised by him and felt chuffed to be able to have their photo taken with him. 

The swimming pools here in Mataranka must be seen (and swam in) to be truly appreciated. Perfectly pure clean water that has 31 million litres of water a day flowing out of the limestone into the pools and then into the riverways, free for everyone to use. 

The Stockcamp we are staying in has its own unique way of keeping everyone happy. They bake bread every morning and sell it to whoever wants a loaf. They also have a variety of snakes that are brought out for the kids. This morning it was two small children’s pythons. Dylan and Kayla couldn’t get enough of them, whilst Tyler stood back and Tracy locked herself in the van. 

This stage of our journey had now also come to an end. Tomorrow is a huge day. Driving from Mataranka to as close as possible to Alice Springs. Which turned out to be a roadside rest area approximately 940 km away. A big day in the car, but allowed us to fit in the next stages of our trip without rushing. 

Tomorrow is shopping day in Alice before heading off to Uluru. 

Crocodiles are definitely king

Our rest day today started with a short trip to the Rangers Station and Visitor information centre. We had pretty well already decided what we would be doing today, but wanted to check if there was anything else that needed to be crammed in. Cahill’s Crossing was a definite location and this was confirmed by the Ranger. 

Cahill’s Crossing is the road into Arnhem Land and is underwater for most of the day. The unique thing about it is that fisherman gather just before the high tide for their chance at a Barra, all the while risking their lives with Crocodiles also gathering to catch a feed as the fish cross the road. It was an amazing sight to witness and of course fuelled Dylan’s desire to do some fishing himself. 

As luck would have it, he did manage to catch something, but unfortunately it was only a small catfish. But it was a fish. 

The heat and humidity was stifling (despite the locals saying it is the cold season) so we didn’t stay long and gave up on all other plans for visits, to spend the afternoon at the pool instead. 

The kids met some friends they first met in Alice Springs and were entertained through to 8 o’clock, and we splashed about with a cold beer or two - this entire pool area is a licensed venue with a bar so suited us perfectly. 

Tomorrow we leave for Mataranka, but will be stopping at Gunlom falls on the way for another hike and swim. 

Sunrise with crocodiles

This morning was a super early start for anyone that is on holiday. We needed to be at Cooinda by 6:30am for our sunrise tour in Yellow River, which happened to be 40 minutes away.  

Getting on a boat in a crocodile infested river just as daylight started (but still no sign of the sun) is an experience in itself. 

We motored slowly down, spotting and talking about all the birds and wildlife, with a keen interest on the Kings of the river system. 

Seeing the sun rise over the boggy marshes was incredible too, with many different shades of orange starting to reflect off the water. 

Before we knew it, our time was up and we were back on dry land. The good part of this was that we got a full buffet breakfast at the lodge as part of the ticket price. 

As we were about to embark on a huge walk, mountain climb and swim, we did the right thing and gorged ourselves until we were about to burst. 

We waddled back to the car and headed for Jim Jim falls. This is reached by travelling 55km on a reasonably good dirt road, followed by a further 30ish km on a 4wd single lane track. This was the moment I had been waiting for. Time to get Jerry dirty. I let the tyre pressure down and went forth. It wasn’t terribly difficult but had a lot of high spots, sand, rock and shallow creeks to cross. It was fun and the kids were excited about the bumps and wet bits. 

We couldn’t believe how many people were at the end of the track in the car park. There must have been at least 50 cars. 

The track along the creeks edge was difficult and of course horribly hot. We finally got to the end and....... no waterfall. 

Many words and phrases were muttered. We later found out it had dried up about 2 weeks ago. We were so hot and sweaty at this stage that we didn’t really care. We jumped into the rock pool and cooled down for the next hour. 

This definitely wasn’t as nice as some of the others, and nowhere has been as nice as Litchfield (in my opinion), but it was cool and refreshing. 

We hiked back to the car and got ourselves all sweaty again, had lunch that was still beautifully cool thanks to some ice packs in s thermal bag, despite the 60 degree temperature of the car, then returned on the 4wd track back to civilisation. 

A long day that had been filled with heaps of adventure, saw the kids and Tracy all asleep in the car on the way back, and then an hour relaxing in the caravan park pool when we got back 

We must be due for a rest day soon.