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| Great view at the free camp. |
It stretches for kilometres each way and there were only about 5 other campsites taken at the far end so it was like we had the place to ourselves. We parked the van facing the water and watched the birds and clouds as the sun set right in front of us.
The peace and quiet was shattered several hours later as we
sat watching a movie. Around 9pm we saw
a flash out of the window and thought someone was outside with a torch. A short time later there was a mighty crash
and the heavens opened. Crazy wind gusts
buffeted the van and the rain was so heavy and loud hitting the roof that we
had to turn off the movie as we couldn’t hear it! Somehow Ben slept through the whole
thing. The rain and wind continued for a
few hours but in the morning when we opened the blinds it was sunny and the
skies were clear again.
The storm was obviously moving south as we caught the back
of it as we continued towards Alice Springs though Tennant Creek to Ti
Tree. By the time we got to the free
camp at Ti Tree, the roads were awash and it was spitting but thankfully there
was no more stormy weather.
As we passed through the town of Aileron the following
morning we noticed a giant statue of an Aboriginal Warrior on top of a hill
overlooking the township. He holds a
spear and stands just above some enormous white letters spelling out the name
of the town, Hollywood style. This
remarkable sight definitely warranted a closer look so we pulled off the
highway into the art gallery to check it out.
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| Tall man behind the Aileron sign. |
As we parked, we saw another giant statue, this one an Aboriginal female
standing at the edge of the carpark.
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| Female statue in the carpark. |
The
owner of the gallery said we could climb the hill to look at the warrior statue
so we headed around the back of the building, along the trail towards the
hill. The trail passes a paddock
containing a huge pet pig and a pet kangaroo with the most enormous arms we had
ever seen. He looked like he was on
steroids. Ben loved the animals and
stood chatting to them through the fence as long as he could.
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| Roo and Pig. The pic doesn't really show how enormous the roo's muscles are. |
The climb up the hill was not too hard and we
got fantastic panoramic views from the top.
The statue is a fibreglass sculpture and is around 20m high. It’s an amazing thing to find in such a
remote location.
 |
| Panorama from the top. |
We made it to Alice Springs and stayed at the Big 4 holiday
park there. They are totally set up for
kids and have playgrounds, 2 jumping pillows, a BMX track, 4 pools and a
brilliant water slide. It was bucketing down
rain and was cold though! We were amazed
that after having spent the previous 6 weeks in 35+ degree temperatures, it
could get so cold so quickly moving south.
We were dying and had to dig out all our warm clothes (which we didn’t
have many of!)
The following day our good friends Sue and Dave and their
son Jack (one of Ben’s best friends) arrived in Alice for a red centre
holiday. They came to visit us and had a
swim/water slide in the Big 4 pool. It
was so awesome to see them! We went out
to Anzac Hill and then to the RSL for dinner.
The boys had crazy fun playtime, reconnecting without issues despite not
having seen each other since January.
We said goodbye to them that night but planned to meet up
with them at Uluru in a few days time.
It would be Ben’s birthday and we planned a birthday dinner at one of
the Uluru resort restaurants.
After doing a huge shop we headed to the airport to pick up
Lou’s Mum (aka Grandma). Ben was super
excited and when he saw her he ran up, gave her a huge cuddle and then didn’t
leave her side. We loaded her bag into
the car and then set off for Kings Canyon.
That night Grandma had her first taste of free camping as we
stopped for the night at the Salt Creek rest stop. It is a big, clean space but doesn’t have toilets
like many rest stops do. It does have a
resident dingo who isn’t shy about walking up and sniffing around for food
though and that was quite an experience for her. We had a camp fire and rejigged our sleeping
arrangements so that she wouldn’t need to try to squeeze into a caravan
bunk. Jenny had that honour and it
actually worked out well.
 |
| Free camping at Salt Creek with Grandma. |
Kings Canyon
We arrived at Kings Canyon the following afternoon and set
off to do the 6.5km walk around the rim.
It starts with 500 really steep, uneven steps. Despite giving it a
crack, after the first 40, Grandma sensibly decided that she would give it a
miss and meet us at the end.
 |
| Setting off up those crazy hard steps. |
It was a
very good decision as the walk is hard and long, especially in the full sun (it
had warmed up thankfully!). We did the 6.5km
in around 3 hours and Ben was awesome.
He is like a little rock wallaby, sure footed and energetic. The views were spectacular and well worth the
effort.
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| Winding through the rocks. |
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| Amazing rock walls. |
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| Surprise! |
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| The weight of the rock (before it cracks off) causes semi circular stress lines. |
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| On the homeward stretch! |
We went back to the van briefly for an icy pole and to pick
up Grandma and then we all did an easy 2.5km walk through the trees along the
floor of the canyon. At the end of the
walk you can see into the canyon and get glimpses of the amazing rocky
walls. Ben was still rock hopping, even
after the earlier walk and we were all very impressed with his stamina.
 |
| Walk into the canyon at ground level. |
We ended up driving back to the Salt Creek free camp as the
one we had planned to stay at closer to Kings Canyon was closed off. It meant we got to camp after dark but also
saved us some driving time the following day.
Uluru and Kata Tjuta
We stayed at the Ayers Rock Resort campground and explored
Uluru and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) over
the next week.
We met up with Sue, Dave and Jack again for a few days of
fun and thoroughly explored the rocks at all times of day (including a sunrise
or two!)
Here are highlights:
Ben’s Birthday!
Grandma had brought presents, including a gift from Jenny’s
Mum, and we had decorated the van with balloons and streamers. Lou baked a super chocolately cake in the van
which turned out surprisingly well but the heat made icing it tricky. It was covered with M&Ms and had
chocolate biscuit sticks all around the edges, but it was so warm in the van
that the icing wouldn’t set and the biscuits kept sliding sideways.
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| Caravan cake! |
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| Family birthday! |
We had a birthday dinner with Sue, Dave and
Jack that night and took the cake for dessert.
I asked the waiter to put it in their fridge and he looked at it closely
and said “Absolutely, and I’ll have the chef fix it up for you.” They were awesome and it came out looking as
good as new!
 |
| Ben and Jack about to divvy up the chocolate biscuits. |
Sue, Dave and Jack ‘took the cake’ for great birthday fun
surprises though. Part of their very
generous present was a book called “The 13 Storey Treehouse” which is silly and
funny and a current hit amongst the prep age group. Ben absolutely LOVES it and asked us to read
it to him at least three times every hour. We have since bought him every book
in the series (26, 39, 52, 65 and 78 Storey Treehouses and the activity book)
and even weeks later, as soon as he wakes he asks us to read it, whenever we
drive, when we stop, while we make dinner, before bed…. “Mummy, can you read me
another chapter please??” It’s
brilliant. We are about to start “The 65
Storey Treehouse” and when we asked what he will do when we finish the last book,
he said “read them all again.”
Uluru
Uluru is awesome and we went there several times. Every visit and every angle you see it from
provides a new perspective and greater appreciation for its grandeur. We did short walks at the base as well as
Jenny and Lou doing the full base walk. On
that day, Ben rode his bike and Grandma walked 2km of it before they then took
a further 2km trek down a trail to the visitor centre where they hung out until
we got back.
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| Riding around the base (some of it anyway) |
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| On the walk with Grandma. |
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| Rest stop on an amazing branch bench. |
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| A shade stop. |
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| Two cheeky monkeys having a brilliant time. |
Kata Tjuta
We went out to Kata Tjuta a couple of times too. The first time we did the short Walpa Walk,
into a gorge and on the second visit we did part of the Valley of the Winds
walk. I suppose we shouldn’t have been
surprised, the Valley of the Winds walk was INSANELY windy. We got to the first lookout and the wind was
howling, hats were flying off and Ben couldn’t even stand up straight. He and Grandma were going to walk back to the
car while Jenny and Lou continued on but we had to accompany them so far back
down the trail to make sure they weren’t going to be blown over that we decided
we had done enough.
 |
| On the Walpa Walk. |
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| Found a passing tourist to take a family shot. |
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| Panorama of Kata Tjuta. |
An interesting fact that we learned about Kata Tjuta is the
translation of the name. The Aboriginal
dialect here (and other places) has words for one, two and three only. Anything more than three is ‘Tjuta’. Kata means ‘heads’. There are 36 rocks, so the name translates as
‘More than three heads’
Cultural Activities
There were many cultural activities to see at the resort and
we got to as many as we could.
We saw traditional dancing and had pics with the warriors.
 |
| Ben and Jack with the performers. |
The Mani Mani theatre was really interesting. They acted out a traditional story about the
Eagle, Crow and Cockatoo using a combination of lighting, stage props and
actors. It was a fascinating story and
technically really well done.
We also listened to a hunting talk where a local indigenous
hunter, Lester, showed and talked about all the different weapons used. It was brutally honest and there was a lot of
frank description of how to break animals’ legs, how and why they are killed
quickly, how the spears stick into ribcages and so on.
 |
| Lester - super interesting talk. |
Lou, Jenny and Grandma found it really
interesting while Ben lasted about 5 minutes before spying a row of nearby park
benches and running off to do parkour on them instead.
 |
| If it can be jumped over, he will.... |
It was a brilliant week and we absolutely loved catching up
with friends and family. We were very
sad to take Grandma to the airport at the end of it and she was equally sad to
be heading home.
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