Jaypatrol

We arrive at Alice Springs at last, on the 4th of June at 4pm .
We booked into the Heavitree Gap Caravan Park for a week at first, but ended up staying there for 4 weeks. Lindy camped near us.
After the first night camped under the trees, we decided to shift from the site we were on and moved into a clearing in the park, as the birds were camping overhead and not only were they noisy in the evening and early in the morning, but were making such a mess, by leaving their calling cards on the vans and matting outside the doorways. Arthur reckons they should make glue from this stuff as it was so hard to clean off.

The next morning we caught up with the usual washing etc.
As we were so tired, we rested for the first few days. Lindy and some of the others in the park suggested that I had finally “hit the wall” when I arrived as I was so tired. I was still struggling with the virus I had a few days earlier and all I wanted to do was sleep. So we chilled out till we were all bright eyed and bushy tailed again. We did get the usual shopping to stock up the larder and checked out a few shops in the town.

When I was up to it, Arthur and I got the bikes out and decided to tackle the 10 kilometre return ride into the township. The weather was warm and the ride was easy on the bike track. It was a leisurely peddle.

We went into KMart and the nearby sports store. We also went to the Coles store to pick up a few necessities.

On the Wednesday afternoon, Arthur went to the truck museum, as he had heard about it from friends and wanted to check it out for himself.

On Wednesday evening, we walked over to feed the Black Footed Wallabies in the Park. As Heavitree Gap (the Gap between the West and East McDonnell Ranges), is where the Caravan Park is sited , we were fortunate to have these gorgeous little balls of fluff on hand, every night. They come down from the mountain each night to be fed. They were so cute and friendly. The Park has bags of pellets to purchase, for feeding them. These little cuties are so tame that they feed directly from your hand and if you look like getting distracted by any of the other wallabies, he will grab your hand and pull you back to himself. They are so soft to touch.

Then, when we were all rested, we checked out the local camping store as we had seen it advertised on the local TV. It was quite a good store and we purchased a few things, including a smaller version of a “camel pack” a backpack with a bladder in it to carry water (ours can carry 2 litres of water and has lots of pockets to carry extras, like lunch, sunscreen etc), when we were either hiking or riding our bikes. These packs also have a hose fitting that fits into the strap over your shoulder so that you can sip water whilst riding or walking. Lindy bought one too. Later on, Margy, Lindy’s friend from WA bought one as well. These were certainly our best buy.

On Friday. we headed up to Anzac Hill. This overlooks Alice Springs and a good place to get your bearings as Alice Springs is a bit jumbled when it comes to the town planning. It took us a while to remember where places and shops were. This was a lovely spot. Until then, I hadn’t realised that Alice Springs is in a bowl with the McDonnell ranges surrounding it.

On Friday evening, Lindy ’shouted’ us dinner in the Heavitree Gap Hotel, which is on the edge of the Caravan Park. This was certainly a surprise evening as there is entertainment every night.
On the first night we were there, two country and western singers were performing. I am not usually a C & W fan, but these guys were good. We all enjoyed the night immensely. The singers were Chris Callahan and Scott Dawson. They worked well together, bouncing off one another all night. We laughed and sang along throughout the show. Scotty could play the violin like you never heard before. We dropped in to the hotel regulary after that, just to hear these two. We didn’t have to eat a meal or even buy a drink as we were staying in the park. So every night we could have entertainment if we wanted.

Chris used to walk pass our caravan on the way to the hotel in the evening. He always stopped to have a short chat and tell us that is was “a new show tonight-all different songs”. We bought 2 of Chris’ CD’s and have just about worn them out playing them so often.

On Saturday, Arthur and I visited the Desert Park on the outskirts of the township. This was a great day. The Park was very well set out. It had displays of all the local flora and fauna. I loved the Thorny Devils. They were ugly looking little reptiles, but cute too. We got a few good photos here for the website. The highlight was the “Birds of Prey” demonstration. There were an Owl,
a Kestrel, and an Australian Hobby. Unfortunately for Arthur, the Wedge-tailed Eagles were nesting and were not available for the show. He had hoped to get some good photos of the Eagle.

Lindy left on Sunday the 11th to fly to Singapore for about 11 days, to catch up with her friends and do a little shopping. We baby-sat her mobile home in her absence.

On the second week, Arthur and I thought it was time for checking out the West McDonnell Ranges. After packing a lunch and filling the water bladders in the back packs and headed off for Ellery Creek Big Hole. This was such a pretty spot. The park has been well provided with pathways, BBQ areas (where BBQ’s are provided with free gas for cooking) and tables and seats for visitors. It is a popular swimming hole and the water looked cool and very inviting. Unfortunately it wasn’t ideal weather at this time of year. But I imagine that it is very busy in season. Ellery Creek Big Hole was not too far from Alice Springs.As we hoped to see all the gorges in the West McDonnell ranges, we decided to go to the furtherest site next. This next stop was at Glen Helen Gorge. This was a little different to Ellery Creek, but very beautiful also with a waterhole that is used in season for swimming. There is a Resort here for those who like this kind of accommodation. But from the outside it looked pretty ordinary.

Ormiston Gorge was our next stop. I loved this site. There is a short walk up the track to the waterhole and there is a sandbed where the river flows (when there is rain) that we walked down on the way back to the carpark. We could see the fish in the water here, in the water hole, but it didn’t look like they were very healthy and there were a lot of dying and dead fish at the waters edge, as the water was stagnating from lack of rain. We walked further into the gorge and there was a man sitting on top of a high rock, sketching the surrounding scenery. He pointed out to us that there were Black Footed Wallabies up the hillside. We saw one of them.

When we got back to the car, we had our picnic lunch before heading off again.

Moving down the highway, we stopped off at The Ochre Pits next. This is where the local aboriginal people collect the ochre for their artwork. These were awesome as the side of the hill had layers of red, yellow, orange and white ochre. Unfortunately the photos don’t show the intensity of the colours as we saw them with the naked eye.

Our last stop off for the day was at Serpentine Gorge as it was getting very late and nightfall was not far off. Whether it was because we were getting tired at the end of the day, we were a little disappointed here. It was a longer and rougher drive into this gorge and we may have been spoilt by the other spectacular places we had visited. It was lovely all the same, with another water hole at the end.

After here we were weary and dusty, so we headed back to the Caravan Park. It was only about 17 kilometres away.

To be continued:

I am finally able to begin sifting through hundreds of photos and trying to remember where and when we have been, up till we arrived here in Darwin.

I will continue on from Alice Springs on our journey in the journal. I will need to refer to the photos to remember on a day to day basis.

To all our family and friends who have been patiently visiting and waiting for my next instalment, I apologise.

And Graham, there is nothing wrong with my fingers, they have just been with me visiting and enjoying this great land of ours. There is so much to see and do along the way. We first of all ran out of internet time and then we were out of service areas for about a week and a half and then we were on the road, which means we drop in and out of service regularly too.

So stayed tuned folks for the next instalment

On the 1st of June, we leave Coober Pedy and begin our long journey to Ayres Rock.

We stop off at the border of South Australian and Northern Territory to take photos and read the information boards on display.

We didn’t stay too long as I had come down with the virus that Arthur had the week before and I was very tired. I slept most of the journey that day.

We stop off overnight at Kulgera. This is a simple roadside caravan park behind the local roadhouse and petrol station. There were some lovely people to meet at this park, but as I was unwell and not wanting to spread my germs, I stayed in the caravan. Arthur was left with the meeting and socialising..
I did surface later to go to the local hotel for a lovely meal of Braised Lamb Chops. Delicious! 
We retired early that night to prepare for the next long leg of the journey.

We rise early the next morning to get on the road. We were meeting Lindy it Ayres Rock (Uluru).

We stopped off at Erldunda. Whilst Arthur fueled up I went to the shop for drinks and some dried apple to nibble on the way. We then travelled on to Curtain Springs and looked at the price of fuel. We decided it was too expensive at $1.88 a litre against $1.64 at Ayres Rock (as someone had told us earlier),  so decided we had enough to get to our destination and travelled straight through to Ayres Rock. Arriving at 12.45pm. Lindy arrived about 45 minutes later from Kings Canyon. We stayed at the Ayres Rock Camping Ground in the Resort.

The first evening we were there, we packed up some nibblies and a bottle of champagne and headed for Uluru, (Ayres Rock) to get some photos of the sunset on the rock.

 It was a cool night, but it didn’t dampen our enthusiasm. There was quite a bit of cloud cover so the sunset wasn’t as spectacular as we hoped, but it was lovely. As night came down, we were the last 3 left in the park, so we packed up the table and chairs and the leftovers and headed back to camp.

After a sleep in, we went for a walk around the Resort checking out what was on offer there. We stopped off at the Information centre and then had lunch at a restaurant. This was a lovely relaxing meal in the warm sunshine.
After lunch, we went out on a tour to Kata Tjuta National Park (the Olga’s).

We walked up the gorge to view the beautiful vegetation, the colours of the rocks and breathe the crisp fresh air. Whilst we were there the sun began to set. So again we got more beautiful photos of the sun setting and reflecting off the Olga’s (Kata Tjuta).

On Saturday, we again went out on another tour. This time we went out with a smaller group with a couple Aboriginals to Uluru (Ayres Rock).

This was a most informative tour. Because we were with the original caretakers of the area, we were honoured to  be instructed on the culture and the different foods that the original Aboriginals eat. We were even offered different “bush tucker” to try. We were told that as we were guests of theirs we were allowed to try foods from their kitchen. We tasted wild figs and wild plums. They were quite different than I thought they would be. We were also permitted to go into areas otherwise not permitted to go. They explained the importance of the Rock to their culture and the Spiritual  significance of the area. They also explained to us why they do not like people to climb the Rock. We had already decided not to climb it, so we were glad of our earlier decision after talking to these men. They showed us important secret womens and secret mens areas as well. There were areas we were not permitted to take photos or video, but we were still able to get plenty to remember the tour. At the end of the tour, the elder man gave us permission to take photos of him and each of us with the Rock behind us. A truly memorable day.   

In the afternoon we went for a walk around the other side of the Rock to see some more of the sights and take more photos, where permitted. This was a lovely experience as well.

Then that night we went back to the Rock, to get some more of the sunset photos, without the cloud cover this time. We weren’t disappointed. We found a better position this time and Arthur set up the tripod in readiness for the big show. We again took nibblies and drinks and set up the table and chairs to absorb the moment. It was lovely.     

Early the next morning, Lindy and Arthur headed back to Uluru (Ayres Rock) and the Olga’s (Kata Tjuta) to get sunrise photos this time. I stayed back at camp and packed up the caravan ready to head off again. They arrived back exhilarated with their booty of the dawn photos.
As soon as they were back, we hitched up and were on the road again. This time we headed for Alice Springs.

At last it was our turn for the Mail Run Trip. 

We had to be up early as it was to be a long day. The trip took 12 hours minimum.
We walked to the Underground Book Shop where we were to meet the Bus. It was an Oka 4 Wheel Drive and took 13 passengers.

The driver was late as he had to pick up some food to be delivered on the way. We were to stop off at 5 Stations and 2 Townships.

While we were waiting, Arthur took a couple of photos of a Sturt Desert Pea. Very pretty.

First stop on the journey was at the Dingo Fence. This is a 9600 kilometre fence from Surfers Paradise in Queensland to the Bight near Western Australia. Dingoes are found north in cattle country and protected sheep country is to the south of this fence. 
Next stop was at Lake Cadibarrawirracanna. (try saying that with a mouth full of smarties).

The next stop was at the first homestead at Ana Station.

Ana Station is the largest station in the world. It covers 24,000 square kilometres.  There was a newborn pony for us to photograph whilst we were waiting for Derek. We couldn’t wait to get back on the bus before we were carried off by the flies. They were so bad here.

Our lunch stop was at William Creek. This is the first township. There is a hotel, a cafe & a camping ground. We had a quick snack at the cafe and then ventured outside to check out the surrounding area.

There is an historical display on the grounds between the cafe and the hotel. This was a lot of space junk, very interesting and amusing. There is also a display board telling Kidman Story.
We then strolled over to the hotel, as we had been told to check it out too. Wow! Is all I can say. A bit like the dugout of Crocodile Harry, there was so much memorabilia strewn about the walls. There is also a plaque stating that “the back room was built from the sleepers from  the Narrow Gauge Old Ghan Line by Harry Wehramuller of Robe, South Australia and Eric Garner of Robe, South Australia (formally of Wentworth New South Wales) in 1989.” The air conditioning was a sight to see. 

Back on the bus and the next stop was at an old aboriginal tool making site. We were fortunate to collect some remains of spearhead making that were at this site. The driver hadn’t been here before, so it was truly a unique area and a great find.

Continuing on, we stop off at Nilpena Station to drop off their mail. The folk that live here own a Blue Heeler dog, which makes me a little homesick and missing Comet. Unfortunately this poor older dog is very overweight, but he was very friendly and he greeted each of us individually.

We leave this homestead and continue our journey, noting the different terrain in this area.

We then stopped off at an old Ghan  Railway Algebuckina Bridge and Waterhole. We climbed up the hill for a better view. From here we could see in the distance. There were some pretty wild flowers here too. Unfortunately we didn’t see them till we were leaving, so didn’t get any photos as the bus was too quick to focus on them.

As we leave this area, again the terrain changes again. Nightfall is quickly descending on us and we need to get a move on. We still have another couple of homesteads to visit to drop off mail. So we get our skates on so that we can reach Oonadatta for tea and before it gets too dark for photo taking.

We finally arrive at Oonadatta and the Pink Roadhouse. 

This is a unique area. The roadhouse is painted pink and everything inside is pink too. There is a souvenir area with pink memoriabilia. I purchase a pink stubby holder as a memento of this trip. We have tea here and wander around the town.

Derek, our driver was telling us on the way into the township about the unique program they have in this township for the local aboriginals: The whole town got together, including the Elders to discuss how to overcome the alcohol and poverty of the locals. They came up with the idea that all the men must work for their dole monies, either in normal work or at least 30 hours a week in volunteer work. All the children must go to schoool and the women were to do home duties. No alcohol was allowed in the town either. This plan has been so successful, that last year they had their first 2 children graduate from high school and they are now in university. These people now have a better lifesyle and are very popular and the whole town is united in their endeavours. Derek told us that he really loved these people and has a lot of respect for them. At last there is a good story about the people in this area. “Their a good mob here” as Derek says.   

It is time to continue the last leg of the journey in the dark. We were fortunate to see kangaroos in the wild as they come out to feed after dusk. An American lady on the bus had never seen a kangaroo, so this was a real bonus.

Derek put on a CD of  Len Beadell, so that he could continue the journey concentrating on the road as there are no fences and there is always a lot of livestock and wildlife on the roads at night making it dangerous if one isn’ t alert. The CD was very amusing as he gave details of how he surveyed the outback and the township of Woomera. He also surveyed the areas for the outback roads and tracks. Another area he surveyed was the site for Australia’s first nuclear bomb testing.

Derek talked and joked most of the way. He was a real character, but he made the trip a time to remember.

We finally arrive back at the Caravan Park at 9.45pm. We were weary, dusty and ready for a good nights sleep. But we all enjoyed the experience immensely.

On Saturday the 21st of May, we hitch up again and continue our travels to Coober Pedy.
This is to be a long drive, so we are up early in the morning to allow time to stop off at various sight-seeing places on the way.

The first stop was a lookout looking back toward the Flinders Ranges. This is a beautiful panoramic distance view – lovely.
The next stop was at Lake Hart. Amazing to see such a large salt lake in the outback so far from anything. The soft colours were so beautiful that we had to take a few photos .

We called into the Glendambo Roadhouse to stretch our legs and get a hot cup of coffee. It was very cold here, so we needed warming up.
This roadhouse was quite basic, but the man behind the desk was friendly and the coffee was hot. We also fueled up again here.

We followed the map all the way, pointing out the various mountains, lakes and towns as we passed through them.

We finally arrive in Coober Pedy in time for a late lunch. We were weary, but not too tired to check out some of the town. Lindy was on one of the tours she had booked previously, so we had time to fill in.

We managed to find a great viewing area, overlooking the township and the dugout homes built into the side of the hill. There are many of these scattered throughout Coober Pedy, as they are cool in the 50+ degrees in summer and warmer in the winter. The dugouts remain at a constant temperature all year around, varying only a couple of degrees in seasons.

Lindy arrived later in the evening and we were able to catch up on each others news.

After an early night and catching up on the usual domestic stuff, we headed into town again.
Lindy was off on her Mail Run Tour so we made our own way around to check out some more of Coober Pedy’s offering. We also got some essential shopping. We then had an easy day resting around the park and catching up on washing.

The next day, we all headed back to check out some of the sites with Lindy. We saw Fay’s House. Fay and 2 of her friends built her own dugout using a pick and shovel back in the early 60’s. This is an amazing achievement in itself. The house includes 3 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, lounge (with TV, Sterio and everything one would find in a normal 60’s home). There is another later addition of a games room. This includes a billiard table and a built in indoor swimming pool.
Fay went on to become a very well known lady in Coober Pedy, in the days when women were not well supported here. So nowadays, she is a legend in the town. Fay is still alive and living in Queensland, but is expected to return in the next couple of weeks. The first mail truck to Coober Pedy was housed in what is now her kitchen. Her house is now owned by a local and opened for tourists to view.

We also toured the Old Timers Mine. This was a working mine in the old days, but now a tourist attraction. This was very interesting too. There is still opal seams visible in the walls of the mine that has been left for people to see it in the natural. There is a mock mine set up with displays of miners models performing the things they would have been doing in the mine to search for the elusive stike of the precious opal. A very well thought out and set up display.

Next stop we called into the undeground pottery, this is where we had to pay for our Mail Run Tour. We also checked out some of the pottery and talked to Derek, the son of the owner. He is such a character and we were looking forward to our tour as he is to be the driver of the bus.

On the way back to the caravan, we noticed a sign to go to see Crocodile Harry’s. We had heard from quite a few different locals to make sure we check him out. Harry is the local eccentric. He is quite a character to meet and his dugout home is surely something not to miss. He has old newspaper cuttings scattered about in which is an article of him calling for 1000 virgins to sign his bedhead. By the looks of his home, he has achieved his goal. He certainly has a fetish for women’s underwear as there were plenty strewn about the ceiling. We could now see what the locals meant.
As we left his house we looked around some to the other dugouts around his house. This is apparently where Mad Max-Beyond Thunderdome was filmed. We could see why.

That night we packed some drinks and nibblies and headed out to the Breakaways. This was a mountainous and sandstone area where at sunset, you can get spectacular photographs as the sun reflects off the various colours on the different rocks and mountains. The views were indeed beautiful. Unfortunately, when we got there the wind was so cold, that Lindy and I had to sit in the car. Poor Arthur was left to take the photos in the freezing wind. But the end result was amazing. The photos reflected the colours of the sunset magnificently.

Lindy and I checked out all the Opal shops over the next couple of days. They are quite expensive in some places, a little cheaper in others. Most of the jewellery was very beautiful. But as I am not an opal lover, I didn’t purchase anything for myself. I hope I don’t regret it at a later date.

On Sunday, we went to church at the Catacomb Underground Church. It was good service and similar to what our services are. After the service the Minister showed us through the rest of the church. We went out on the santuary to the right, up over the top and re-entered the santuary through the left hand side door. The congregation was very friendly and gathered to ask us where we came from and where we were heading. There were a lot of other visitors from various areas of Australia and one couple from USA, to the church that morning too, so the church was quite full.

A very lovely morning indeed.