Day 17

 Leaving Alice Springs.  The mountains are almost

right into the town.

 McDonnell Ranges as you are leaving Alice Springs 

 Connor Mountain.  A lot of people think this is Uluru

(Ayers Rock) when they first see it.

 Our first view of Uluru

 The car park where most people go at sunset to see the

changing colours. 

 The Olgas.  About 50 kms from Uluru

 Some of the crevices in the Olgas

 A walking track into one of the crevices

Part of The Olgas taken from a different angle
.

We left Alice Springs at about 8.00am this morning.  The journey to Ayers Rock was pretty uneventful.  There is not much in the way of towns between Alice Springs and Ayers Rock.  Just mainly roadhouses, some with camping grounds.  The closer we got to Ayers Rock the higher the petrol prices.  One place was $2.20 a litre.  We finally got to the Ayers Rock Resort.  What a surprise that was!  It is an oasis in the desert.  There is everything a person needs here.  They have a small shopping centre, all different types of accommodation ranging from the expensive to the budget minded, a campground, a police station, emergency services and a medical centre.  It is about 15 Kms from Ayers Rock itself.  Once we got here we put up our tent and went straight to the Rock. The climbing track was open but it looked pretty steep so we gave that a miss.  Charlie went for a short walk around the base and said it was great.  From there we went for a drive to the Olgas.  They were just as spectacular.  From there we went back to the Rock to watch it change colour at sunset but it decided to get cloudy so there was no sunset.  A bit of a disappointment but all told the trip down here was well worth it considering we were not coming down this way in the first place.

 

Days 15 & 16

 Two of the rocks balancing at Devils Marbles

Another balancing act!!!!

 You can see how the rocks just fit together

 Wycliffe, apparently a town that has the most UFO

sighting in Australia.

 Going down into Alice Springs, the mountain ranges around it

The Welcome sign into the Alice

Well yesterday was pretty uneventful.  We left Darwin at about 8.00am and drove for about 960 kms to Tennant Creek.  We stayed there overnight but didn't get much sleep as we were right next to the highway and the aborignes don't seem to know when bed time is and were yelling up and down the street.all night.  They finally quietened down just as we were leaving at 7.00am this morning.  We decided to drive to Alice Springs and got here at about lunch time.  On the way we stopped at this place where there was a formation of rocks called the Devil's Marbles.  Really it was amazing how the rocks were balancing on top of each other.  These were not put like this by man but were caused by thousand of years of erosion.  Tomorrow we are going to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and staying there overnight then continuing on down south.  We should cross over the border into South Australia on Sunday. 

Days 13 & 14

 Parliament House, Darwin

 Front of Parliament House.  People up here think it is a big joke

because of the size per population

 Mitchell Street, Darwin's main street.  Notice how busy it is.

 Feeding the fish at Aquascene.  Everyday when the tide

comes in the fish come in and can be fed by hand.

Just the commentator's stand at Aquascene.  You can

see on the left hand side of the picture the ramp where

 the fish come in to feed.

Well this is our last day in Darwin.  We had a very relaxing day yesterday and were going to leave today but we had to organise some personal business and because we wouldn't have phone reception we decided to stay the extra day.  After we sorted out our business we decided  to do the touristy thing in Darwin, as you can see by the photos.  The thing I like about Darwin is that it is such a quiet city.  As you can see by the photo of Mitchell St (taken at 1:15pm) how quiet it is. This is the time of the year to be here before the tourist season really starts.  It isn't  really that hot, although I have got a bit sunburnt on the shoulders. 

Tomorrow we leave Darwin but we have decided to take a different route and are now going straight down the centre through Alice Springs to Port Augusta and then heading East.  We have some business to attend to in NSW and then we will work our way back to Queensland up through NSW.  At least I will get to see more of Australia that I haven't seen before.  Going to be a long trip though.

Days 10,11 & 12

 Edith Falls, Northern Territory

 Mayse's Cafe, Pine Creek

 Mayse's Cafe, again.  Takes you back to the 50's

 Magnetic Termite Mound, Litchfield National Park

Casuarina Beach, Darwin. 

 View of Darwin City, taken from Charles Darwin National Park

 Feeding the Crocs at Crocosauras Cove, Darwin

 Edith Falls again

Crocodile having a rest after being fed.

We arrived in Darwin on Saturday.  We were going to stay in Litchfield National Park but it looked quite busy what with being Easter so we decided to go straight into Darwin. We went into Litchfield for a drive and that is where the photos were taken of the Magnetic Termite Mounds.  These stand around 2 metres tall.  There are three different termite mounds.  The magnetic ones are the most interesting as the termites build the mounds in a north to south direction. It is to do with the heat and coolness of the day.   We found a caravan park about 9 kms from Darwin.  We were only going to stay here for 2 days but decided to stay an extra 2.  Today (Monday) we went into Darwin and had a bit of a look around and then went into Crocosauras Cove.  The photo of the croc being fed is the croc that featured in the Crocodile Dundee movies. 

Tomorrow I think we are going to have a quiet one. 

Day 7, 8 & 9

Here is Mt Isa.  As you can see the town is built around the

                                      mine.  The tour of the mine is quite interersting but wouldn't
                                        like to live there.

Katherine Gorge.  An absolutely spectacular boat cruise.

 I have missed a few days but here is a bit of what we have been doing.  We arrived in Katherine, Northern Territory on Wednesday.  We found this beautiful Caravan Park about 6 Kms outside Katherine.  It is so quiet, and lots of shade.  The owners are very friendly and I would recommend this place to anyone.  It is called Shady Lane Caravan Park.  Anyone coming up here, this is the place to stay.  Anyway, after the long drive on Tuesday, we decided to stay three nights here.  Just to rest up a bit from driving.  Yesterday we went to Katherine Gorge.  I would recommend the boat cruise to anyone.  Even though the Gorge wasn't at its best because of the rains they have had up here and the water was still quite murky, it was still a magnificent sight.  The town of Katherine itself I can take or leave.  It is an experience.  Because of the high population of Aborigines and their drinking habits the bottle shops are only open for a few hours a day.  To get any sort of alcohol you have to produce photo ID and then what you get is limited.  It is pretty well policed.  A bit sad really.  Glad I am not a drinker....hahaha. We leave here tomorrow morning and   are heading further north.  Probably to Litchfield National Park and then on to Darwin.  Hopefully will be able to write a few lines tomorrow night.

Day 6

After a very sleepless night we left Mt Isa at about 8.00am.  Once again the landscape was so varied.  It is quite interesting. We crossed the border into Northern Territory at about 10.00am,  We went through a station (cattle station) called Avon Downs and there beside road was a Police Station, nothing else, just the station.  Across the road from it was a rest area and we stopped there for morning tea.  Further along the highway there is a place called Barkly Homestead which is a fuel stop, Caravan, Motel and camping area.  We were going to stay there the night but everything was just so expensive we decided to drive on.  The next stop was called Three Ways where once again we were going to stay but it looked run down.  To cut a long story short, this went on for a few more towns and when we finally found somewhere to stay we had travelled over 900 kms.  The place we stayed at was Dunmarra and I must say, it didn't look much, basically just a roadhouse with a few motel rooms and a caravan park.  Because it was getting on a bit and we were just too tired to put up the tent,  we opted for staying in a motel room.  After a huge meal, we went to bed.

Day 5

It was good to just relax today in Mt Isa and not have to pack the car up again.  We went on our tour of the Mt Isa mine.  It was quite interesting.  It is so big, not only does it mine copper, but zinc, silver and lead.  It took us 2 hours to drive around it.  We went to a big dam which is Mt Isa's main water supply and had lunch.  We are just relaxing now.  Tomorrow another long drive into the Territory.  Don't know when I will be able to go online again but will post further blogs whenever I am able.  

Day 4

After staying overnight in a cabin (no tent) at Winton, we left at 8.00am and continued on our way to Mt Isa. As I said on Day 1, Australia is such a land of contrasts. Basically from Winton to Cloncurry it was quite flat with the occasional rocky hills scattered here and there.  But heading from Cloncurry to Mt Isa it started to get quite mountainous.  For those of you that don't know about Mt Isa, it is a mining town mining copper.  The open cut mine is just on the edge of town.  Apparently the mine was here first and then the town was built around it.  Tomorrow we are going on a tour around the mine and doing the touristy thing.  We will stay here for two nights and then head across the border to the Northern Territory.

Day 3

Day 3

We arrived in Longreach at about 8.00am and stopped and had breakfast.  Later we went to the Qantas Museum but didn’t go through it as it worked out too expensive.  Across the road from the Qantas Museum was the Stockman’s Hall of Fame.  We went in and had a look at the exhibits they had there.  It was quite interesting reading about our forebears who pioneered this country.  We were going to stay in Longreach overnight but decided to travel to Winton which would bring us 180 kms closer to Mt Isa so we would have 460 kms to drive tomorrow and not such a  big drive.  Pity it is a Saturday as Winton hasn’t reached the 21^st century yet and everything was closed except for an overpriced opal store and the visitor information centre. And hotels of course!!!!!!  We were quite taken by the countryside.  Travelling between Longreach and Winton it was very green after the rains rather than bare red dirt with sparse dry vegetation.  The countryside was also very flat until just before Winton where there were a couple of mountain ranges in the distance.  Apparently because of millions of years of erosion, dinosaur footprints are now visible in the rock formations.

Day 2

Day 2

We left the caravan park at about 8.00am but before we could leave Emerald we were delayed for 3 hours because of a fatal truck accident about 20 kms up the road.  We were going to stay at Longreach but ended up staying at Ilfracombe.  A very small town with a historic pub called Wellshot Hotel.  The caravan park was nice but being right next door to the pub and also on the highway, it was very noisy.  Needless to say we didn’t get much sleep because all we could hear was some woman laughing at the top her lungs and trucks going past.

Day 1

Day 1

We left home at about 8.00am and arrived in Emerald at about 1.30pm.  Australia is a land of such vast contrasts.  In about ½ hours driving near Clermont, we saw formations on the horizon, then vast fields of sorghum (grain feed) and then not long after that an open cut coal mine.

We stayed in a Caravan Park just outside Emerald at a place called Lake Maraboon/Fairbairn Dam.  It was a lovely place.  We were sitting outside our tent having nibblies and drinks and the lorikeets came down for a feed.  They weren’t scared of humans at all and were sitting on Charlie’s lap eating out of his hand.

The night before we leave.

Boy, has it been a hectic day.  Getting all the packing done.  Most of it is done now.  Just have to pack the toiletries into my bag in the morning and pack my bag and my craft box into the car and we will be off.  We are hoping to get away by 8.00am.  Our first stop is Emerald which is about 4hours from where we live.  Hopefully I will be able to get some photos to post on here.  Maybe we may have time to fossick for some sapphires.  See you next time.

Just getting started

This is the first of many blogs.  I mainly set this up so I can share my experiences on my camping holiday.  Hope to have lots of photos and experiences in the near future.