Mae wrote this bit:

When I went on holiday l saw a camel running across the road and kangaroos jumping across the road.

Love Mae.

---------

So now for the other 2½ of us.

In the last update we told you about our adventures coming down the top half of the Stuart Highway from Katherine to Alice Springs.

Segment 3 of the journey runs from just north of Alice Springs at my well, out to a really beautiful canyon and a few big rocks sitting all by themselves in the middle of the desert and then back to the main road again and down a long and lonely stretch of the Stuart Highway to a very dusty town called Coober Pedy (white mans burrows).
Just prior to arriving in Alice Springs we stopped at a little, un-assuming art shop / road house in Aileron, NT. This little place was an absolute Gem. It didn’t look like they got a whole lot of trade and they were very keen to sell me this digeridoo! So we came to a very reasonable price (if you are ever travelling down this road then look into Aileron. The prices are great and the art is fantastic) and I took it!

After that stop we got hungry so when we came up to the following sign a few kilometre’s down the road from Aileron we just had to stop. The early settlers, telegraph linemen and other Australian pioneers wouldn’t have had a chance of surviving without the water from wells dug by a guy by the name of Ned Ryan in the mid-late 1870’s. We just happened to bump into the one well that was named after him! This well once served cattle farmers (pastoralists), telegraph linesmen and all other sorts of travellers. We took a few fun shots from the Glen Maggie homestead which is situated just across the road from the well.

You will be surprised (or not if you’ve been there) but we don’t have any decent pictures of Alice Springs. It is really simply because there are no decent pictures that one can take. The place has very few (if any) redeeming features so we chose to move on straight away. After a night “free camping” we arrived in Kings Canyon only to take our first casualty of the trip. This pigeon chose the worst possible time to fly out of his favourite bush, he landed straight in the front of our van. After arriving in the campground we decided to head for the canyon straight away and walked around the rim. It is a beautiful place, the surrounding landscape is pretty arid but Kings Canyon manages to provide permanent water to the people willing to brave the heat, flies and camels.

After our visit to the Canyon we went back to the camp, washed up, slept and headed straight for Uluru and Kata Tjuta. A short stop to let Mae have a camel ride did well to break up the trip. She really enjoyed it and we enjoyed watching.

We arrived at the caravan park just in time to make the evening showing of “sundown at Uluru”. It was amazing. We celebrated the occasion in true Aussie style by sitting in our camp chairs and enjoying a glass of white. The next morning we watched the sun come up across it and a cup of coffee. Mae took some great pictures of the rock close up and we did a bit of a ranger walk which was pretty informative. I asked him why he thought that the Aboriginals never seamed to develop beasts of burden or methods to transport water but he didn’t have anything particularly insightful to say.

The next stop was Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). Here we had a great 2 hour walk and enjoyed walking through the “Valley of the winds”. Mostly because the wind from the Valley kept the flies off. We saw some very interesting inhabitants of the valley which included a beautiful parrot with a dark head, yellow band around its neck and a vibrant green body but because he flew off I had to do with this beetle. He was cute to though.

Another long drive and a free camp (at 3 degrees C) had us crossing the Northern Territory / South Australia boarder. After the family photo session Mel chose to try out her skills as “sporty spice” by jumping on top of a low fence post. The result was a sore thumb, a bruised elbow and a variety of aching joints!

Mel and Mae did a great photo outing at Marla and then we headed into the famous Coober Pedy. You might not know why it’s famous but it is. It is the Opal capital of the world AND very close to the site of Mad Max Beyond Thunder Dome. Although the people here are very nice, I am quite sure that many of them were extras on the film set. They fit right in.

We did go and see one of the mines, an underground church and an underground house though. Very interesting stuff.

Now we’re off for another big drive. We will head 700kms or so South to Port Augusta and then start our Eastward journey towards Sydney.

Hope you are well. Trust in God.

Mel (+ ½ ), Ryan & Mae

Since our last update from Katherine, we’ve covered about 1000kms and arrived happily in Alice Springs. The trip has been pretty interesting; we made some friends in the caravan park in Katherine and bumped into them a few times since then, we’ve found a man who can catch Barramundi with his bare hands, beautiful hot springs, heaps of termite mounds, vivid flowers, old telegraph stations, some not so busy (or populated) towns, a man who claims to have the last remaining Oomidoodle birds (otherwise knows as goofy looking chickens) and a massive heap of marbles that apparently the devil has lost. I’ve put in the pictures below in the order in which we have seen them. The Barramundi guy was in a place called Mataranka. They have 6 or 7 Barramundi in a pond and they hand feed them twice a day. It is really cool. They are huge fish the one in the picture is a “medium” sizes one at about 90cms long. In the same place there is a really beautiful hot spring where you can swim around in the pool on the up stream end and then float down stream and see all the interesting aquatic life as you go. Our friends from Katherine (Lynn and Annie) were there so we stuck around goofing off in the water for a while. On our way out of Mataranka we saw an entire paddock full of Termite mounds. Mel took Mae’s picture next to one of the bigger ones. During our drive we did see some that were much bigger though. This one just happened to be close to the road.

After Mataranka we headed down to Daly Waters where they have a very entertaining guy by the name of Frank Turton. He is a comedian and singer who provides that passing caravaners a bit of a respite during the dry season. He has a clutch of chickens that he calls Oomidoodle birds of which he had 6 the morning we came and by the mid-afternoon he only had 5 because a Green Python decided that one of them was going to be lunch. Lynn and Annie were there as well and Lynn got herself into trouble by talking during a song so she had to join Frank on stage. It certainly was well worth stopping at Daly Waters for the show.

After Daly waters we decided that it was time to hit the gas a bit and we headed for Tennant Creek. We stopped at the Old Telegraph station there for a quick look around and then headed into “town” to grab some supplies before we continued on to Devil’s Marbles 100km further down the road. Devil’s Marbles is really beautiful. It is amazing how the stones look to be stacked on top of one another. According to the signs there the stones are actually just extremely hard packed clay and will eventually fall apart and disintegrate. Mae and I did a good bit of climbing around and managed to get on top of the highest rock in the whole park (Mel took our picture, she wasn’t keen on climbing up there with us).

Our last stop before Alice Springs was an interesting old Telegraph station at Barrow Creek. It is a really pretty building but we saw one of Gods little wonders while we were there. A bush was just dropping its most recent (and probably last) fruit. The entire bush was covered in butterflys. They had just slipped out of their cocoons and were trying to find a partner before their very short lives came to an end. Mae managed to make the best picture of the lot.
So now we’re in Alice and we’ll be heading out to Kings Canyon, Uluru and the Olga’s tomorrow. Mel (and a half), Ryan & Mae

Its been an exciting start to our holiday! We began the trip by getting up at a ridiculous time of day (4am) and heading to the airport for a 6.30 flight to Brisbane and from there on to Darwin. The flight was nice and peaceful.

On arrival we headed off to our hostel to get changed into some clothing more appropriate for 35C weather. We had started the day at 8C in Sydney so you can understand the shock we got when we got off the plane in Darwin.

We spent some time just bumming around Darwin and enjoying the heat. Then in the evening it was time for a beautiful sunset and the Thursday night markets. Lots of interesting crafts and things to buy at the markets. We decided to just go for a dinner of satay chicken, ?? and a dessert a mango lassie.



Early the next morning Mae gave us the biggest pressent of the day! She lost her first tooth! The tooth fairy couldn't find it on the first night but she managed to get it on the second. $2 and a note saying that it was a beautiful tooth.



That Morning we picked up our Kea camper and started on our tour. On a recommendation from a work friend of mine we went to a Crocodile farm to see some HUGE crocs, we were even able to hold a baby one.

We carried on to Kakadu National park where we went on a few beautiful bush walks and a boat tour. You gain a lot of respect for Crocs on the Crocodile farm but then you see them in the wild and realize that we really are just prey to them.


We are in Katherine now and off the see the gorge.

Until next time

Mel, Ryan & Mae