Wednesday 15^th October

Today we had a late breakfast at 7am followed by a short drive to Ormiston Gorge. It was a bit warmer than yesterday but still pleasant with a bit of a breeze. There were lots of steps to the top and then a gentle path around and down to a boulder scramble to get to the water hole.

Iain had a swim but it was too cold for me! We did have an excellent cup of coffee at the café which was by our parking place. After another short drive we visited the ochre pits where the aboriginals used to collect and trade a fine grade of ochre used for painting and body decoration.

Another short drive brought us to Ellery Creek where we had lunch and a lovely swim (still a bit cool though!) and relaxed for a couple of hours.

An hour or so on another dirt road saw us at Owen Springs where we dropped off the others for their ride back to Alice whilst we continued on to our remote bush camp on the banks of the Hugh River. We slept in swags under the stars and apart from being a bit cold we didn’t sleep too badly. Everything, including ourselves, gets covered in red dust but we have a swim again tomorrow!

Tuesday 14^th October

 

We were up at 6am today for a ninety minute drive to King’s Canyon for another three and a half hours walk around the rim. The weather was cloudy which meant it was much more pleasant for walking. We started with a 150m climb straight up a rock face with rocky steps, helped here and there with cement. It was hard work but once at the top it was a very beautiful walk up and around the canyon.

After lunch we drove to a couple of viewing points to see Gosses Bluff and then drove along the Mereenie loop – a bumpy, rutted dirt road – to Glen Helen. We had to collect enough wood for two nights today as we will be in the national park area later, where you are forbidden to take wood.

There was a bar at the campsite where we played pool in the evening for a bit but it was still a long trek to the toilet block. The sheer cliffs rise up from the campground and look quite amazing especially when lit up at night. We cooked steak over the fire and made damper which tasted very good!

Monday 13^th October

We were awoken at 4am for a hot drink and breakfast for those that wanted it and then a short walk from our camp spot to watch the sunrise over Uluru. We hung around for an hour and a half, in the cold, with nowhere to sit down apart from a fence post, for a very unspectacular sunrise. Remind me never to do sunrise trips again!

We then drove to Kata Tjuta, in the Olgas, arriving about 7.30am to start a three and a half hour walk through the ‘Valley of the Winds’ This was a lovely walk up and around the rocky outcrops, with spectacular scenery and quite cool because of the breeze.

We had lunch at the Ulara campground and thoroughly enjoyed a swim in their pool before collecting wood again on Mulga Park road. We then had a long drive to our campsite on King’s Creek cattle station. This was a more remote site with one loo and shower and an amazing water heater for the shower that we had to light a fire under.

I had a nice hot shower though which was good followed by an excellent chicken stir fry done over the barbe fire, of course.

Sunday 12^th October

We were picked up at 5.45am and discovered that there are only seven of us and only one other Australian couple (David and Glennis from Adelaide) are doing the final night and day. Our guide is a confident young girl (24yrs old) called Kate whose nickname is ‘Cyclone’ because she is such a bundle of energy and enthusiasm! We stopped at a camel farm for coffee but none of us had a ride. We then drove on and turned off the highway to collect wood on Mulga Park Road – lots of dead and dry wattle trees on the ground, so it didn’t take long. We then had a four hour drive through the outback to Ulura where we picked up the others, a delightful German couple (Walter and Rose) and a young Swiss man (David), who are leaving after the four day tour finishes. We found a thorny devil on the road and rescued it from being run over - an amazing creature!

The outback was much greener than I had expected but it is classed as semi-arid rather than desert and we are just coming out of their winter.

We then walked for an hour or two around part of the base of Uluru looking at various art sites and caves. It was very beautiful with lots of green trees, the towering, mainly smooth, rock of Uluru itself and the very blue sky.

We then drove to a sunset viewing area where we had a good view of the iconic outcrop, most of which, apparently, lies buried below the ground. We had champagne and nibbles which kept us going until our kangaroo bolognaise (very tasty) later in camp. We elected to use the tents as they had beds but it was a very long walk to the toilet block!

Saturday 11^th October

We arrived in Alice Springs and had an uneventful transfer to our B&B which is a little outside of town and right opposite the centre for the ‘School of the Air’. We walked down the road to a pizza/pasta family restaurant that our hosts Margaret and Alf booked us into and had an excellent lasagne. It is unsafe to wander around town in the dark and anyway it didn’t look particularly interesting.

Friday 10^th October

Today was a day to catch up on washing, e-mails, diary etc and then to get our medications (apart from my doxazocin which is unavailable in Australia). Joan and Simon are so helpful and a really delightful couple to be staying with... we really feel part of the family! It is getting increasingly hot and humid so we were glad of the pool!