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.

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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