After talking to some people at Halls Gap, we found out that Port Fairy was supposed to be a good place to visit. Well, we are here today and there is not much here. Good for a getaway weekend at the end of a busy work week but nothing much else here. Cute quaint town :-)
Here we are at Halls Gap. The base of the Grampians. The weather is quite fresh. I've dug out the winter clothes. Not many of those :-( In fact, can't seem to find any for E. He mustn't have packed any. Done about 6 loads of washing. Kids are off with friends they have made here.
Now we are about to go for a walk in the mountains ;-) Went up to the Pinnacle lookout. Phew! What a walk! It was an interesting walk, something new to climb over round every corner. Whole walk was 4.2km. Kids did great. D was the only one that complained but my legs were sore at the end and his are half the length of mine. He didn't complain too much though. At one point I commented on how tired my legs were and his comment was he had put that tiredness out of his brain so he wasn't tired anymore ;-)
They made friends with some other kids that had previously been around oz so they had lots to talk about.
Free camped 2km just outside Peterborough. Gone from a comfortable 24º overnight to a very cold 6º. We were okay, but the kids were a bit cold in their cheap licensed sleeping bags. D ended up in bed with us. On the big plus side, no flies;-)
Went to the stream train museum. The only place in the world that still has a turntable that works. Some of the carriages dated back to 1860's. First time the kids have seen a train with beds and dining car's.
Arrived in coober pedy yesterday. Talk about fly city :-( Didn't seem to bother the kids though, still running around outside on the play ground. Much more comfortable in regards to comfort in the Caravan though ;-)
Paid a visit to the Old Timers Mine complete with underground home from the 60's. So cool underground and no flies either. Saw the underground church and the pastors wife invited us in to have a look around her underground home. It was very big and spacious. She was originally from Port McQuarie and desperate for company ;-)
20th
Uluru
Saw the big rock about 150km out of Uluru on the horizon. Lol! What a mistake! The Rock we saw was actually Mt Connor..Ha! No one tells you anything about that rock. The amount of people that stopped to take a photo believing it was Uluru. .....lol!
21st
Early morning start to try and get a good view of Uluru and the sunrise. Now at 5.30pm, we are on our way back to the van and D is fast asleep. Lots of walking and fresh air had really wiped him out. We're all quiet too, ready for an early night ;-)
Uluru, seeing the whole of the rock against the flat bushy landscape, is magnificent. Close up, not so magnificent. Didn't walk it as it was closed. Not sure I would have if it wasn't closed but I didn't have to make that decision. Kids were disappointed they couldn't climb it, but after some discussion I discovered they were expecting a full on rock climbing session. ...lol!
Walked amongst the Olgas (or as E says ogres) instead ;-) ps. Los of flies. Bought fly nets, made such a difference in comfort ;-)
Made a rash decision (much to E's horror) to go with our original plan and visit Uluru. Then back out via Mel and Syd. E is over the traveling. He just wants to get back and see his friends. Guess this trip will make them appreciate school. .....lol!
19-Apr-2013
Went to the reptile farm today. Saw a large goanna. Got to hold a bearded Dragon and an olive tree python. So cool! The bearded Dragon looked spikey but wasn't as spikey as expected. The python was heavy. 2.5m long. About 30kg. It was soft and smooth.
Had plans of going to the didgeridoo show in town. Purchased tickets too, but due to low nos it was canceled. :-(
Guy said after 19yrs he was closing cos of what goes on in the mall - vandalism :-(
Named for where John McDouall Stuart, the famous Explorer, was attacked by natives.
We are about 50km N of Tennant Creek. Free camping. While the sun was out there was heaps of flies, then came a shift change when the sun went down, with the mozzies. Not a bad place for a free camp. Right on the highway so could hear the road trains throughout the night :-(
Argh!!! We are to early! Everything is closed due to the Wet Season just finishing. Now they have to scout the area for salt water crocodiles that may have found their way inland due to the flooding, prior to opening the areas. The lookout was open though, so we had a walk to that and saw some aboriginal art en route ;-)
There were lots of flies much to the kids disgust. It was very hot and humid in there. They grumbled a little about the walk, but I enjoyed it ;-)
Free (cheap) camping at a place called Pussy Cat Flat near Pine Creek. 90km outside of Katherine. $22 a night with power. No charge for the kids. Extremely happy with that since it means we can still have air con ;-)
Wed
Went to the Crocodylus Farm today. E fed a crocodile. Some of those crocodiles are massive. They also had a little zoo. There were monkeys, tigers and Lions. The monkeys were cheeky and cute ;-) We all got to hold a crocodile and have our photo taken. E chopped my head off though :-(
Then we spent the afternoon at a FREE water park complete with water slides and a bucket.
Thurs
Went to the military museum and learned about the bombing of darwin. There was a room you went into and watched a movie of the bombing. Declan was a little scared. He wanted to know why they were bombing darwin. Lots of interesting details.
Fri
Went to the art gallery today. It included information on cyclone tracey, the before and after. A prehistoric gallery and a discovery for the kids. Then on to the wave pool. Just like wet and wild wave pool but a little smaller and not as crowded. We all had a ball.
Went on a boat cruise through the Katherine Gorge today. Spectacular. The kids loved it too. The driver drive the boat under a waterfall so those that wanted to get wet could. E and J were keen for that :-) We had lunch in the picnic area afterward. Took some rolls and sausages. We were feeding a couple of little birds some tidbits when along came a great big Hawk. It swooped in and snatched D's roll. Scared the heck out of us. D cried his little heart out. Said he wasn't finished with it. I think he was a bit traumatized. He said he felt the Hawks wings touch him :O
Crossed the border about 9.30am WA time. Lost an hour and a half. So, now only half an hour behind everyone
Staying at a place on the shore of Lake Kununurra. There is a resident croc there called "George". He is missing part of his bottom jaw and half of one of his arms. Every day he comes to visit the shore at about 5pm. Kids think it is great :-)
Great! Overnight, battery charger decided to stop. If its not one thing its another :-( Fortunately, Paul brought all this useless stuff with him and he had a battery charger in his kit and caboodle ......lol;-) which means we can wait till we get to Darwin to fix it :-) New Age have to get back to us. It's still under warranty.
Visited a lookout called 'kelly's knob', then we went to the National Park and climbed the mini bungle bungles. Went out towards Wyndham and checked out the Ivanhoe Crossing (they have it on postcards here). We went to The Grotto - a swimming hole and waterfall. Then we took a drive out to Wyndham. A very old town. Most of the establishments are made from corrugated iron. In fact, I can't remember seeing any brick. That was where we found the Big Croc ;-)
Went and got the car checked yestersay morning. Apparently, the land Rover agent has to have access to the Internet to connect the diagnostics up to the car. Well, they weren't getting any response from land Rover and can't say how long it will be before they get back on line. Could be days, could be weeks. So, we're making the break tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. Fingers crossed.
Broome WA
Not sure if I'm a little disappointed with Broome. Haven't seen much yet, but of what I have seen, I don't much like it. Feels disorganised.
Staircase to the moon
Last day in a run of three days to see the staircase to the moon. The first two were stormy nights. Tonight was a beautiful night. A couple of clouds in the sky. It was like watching the sun rise but it was the moon. The reflection of the moon on the water gave the effect of a staircase to walk up. J wondered if we were talking about a real staircase cos she had seen a staircase the night before when we were looking for it. ...lol!
Camel ride
EasterSunday
Rode the camels today. Took the morning option since we left it too late to book a sunset ride. One nearly took my hand off when I touched it's head. ....lol. mine and Ds was called Alice. Ewan was on one by himself. His was called Baza. Paul and Js was called Raj. It was different ;-)
The easter bunny managed to find us in Broome. Kids were a little concerned that he wouldn't ;-)
03 Apr - Broome
Stuck in Broome now. The car keeps displaying errors, we're not sure what they mean. Because of the Easter weekend, nothing was pen for 4 days. We rang the mechanic this morning but can't be seen till the morning. We haven't had the error all the days we've been here. But today, the day before we are sure to head off, we get another error. Don't know yet, but there is no telling how long we are going to be stuck in Broome :'(
