Day 24: Darwin at last

Good morning all, we arrived in Darwin on Wednesday afternoon approximately 4.00 pm and were we glad to arrive, warm weather at last.  The long days of travel since Curtin Springs has been worth it to finally warm up.  Now it will be rest and relaxation for a few weeks while we recharge our batteries in the sun.  There hasn't been any thing spectacular on the way from Curtin Springs and we haven't been anywhere of note.  However we have caught up with Amy, Ian and family (thanks for the use of your washing machine), the children were excited and I have promised to take back some card making gear to make some cards with Emily and Jade.
I'm not able to add any photos at this time, there seems to be some thing wrong (I'll work it out later) with the system so until next time stay well and happy.

Day 19: Catch up

It's Monday night and we have stopped at a place called Ti Tree which is a camp ground behind a roadhouse, (site 31 in camps 6) very basic but it has power for $20/night.
Saturday morning saw us up early to catch the sunrise on the rock,

it was a lovely sight and included the Olgas.



The Olgas




this was taken as we were driving around The Rock

We then drove around the rock as they were not allowing anyone to climb it, it was too windy, after the drive we picked up the van and drove to the Olgas for a look around and I must say I was more impressed by them than Ayres Rock, they have so much more to look at.  The following photos are from our walk up the gorge, it was freezing and quite windy but well worth the effort.

The gorge is made up of what looks like molten rock with different size pebbles in it, like pebblecrete




This is some of the handicrafts around Ayres Rock and The Olgas

From the Olgas we travelled to Curtin Springs where we stayed for 2 nights so we could have a look at Kings Canyon, this is another place that we will come back to as there is not enough time to do it justice, we only had time to walk up Kings Creek but it was an experience that is hard to describe, Nev kept saying feel the serenity and he was right the creek bed certainly had a feeling to it.  The following photos are our walk up the creek.

 

The climb up to the ridg

On completion of our walk we drove back to Curtin Springs where we ate dinner at the outdoor restaurant, we were talking with another couple that have been on the road in a campervan for four years and still love the life. There's hope for us yet.



The emu is the mascot of Curtin Springs



 It's now time for bed as tomorrow will be another long day if we want to get to Darwin by Wednesday, we probably won't have internet know until then so stay well and safe and I'll write soon

Day 15: Uluru (Ayres Rock)

Last night was spent at Marla South rest area which is 35 km south of Marla and 46 km NW of Cadney Roadhouse on the Stuart Highway, for those of you that want to keep track it is site 646 in the South Australian section of Camps 6 the following photo's are the usual sunset. We met a french couple of backpackers here, they were quite impressed in our country and the size of our van.



They are so relaxing

Friday and the clouds are clearing, hopefully the further north we go the warmer it will be.  It won't be long and we reach the Northern Territory border.

We arrived at Uluru this afternoon about 4.30pm and what a shock that was, I thought the camp fee was about $20/night but was surprised when we were charged $42/night (more free rest areas for us).  During the drive into Uluru we stopped at Mt Connor Lookout.


Mount Connor



After we set up camp it was out to the rock for the sunset and wasn't that a cold experience, the rock is spectacular in both colour and size but the wind was blowing and it was bitterley cold but well worth the discomfort, I don't think my photo's do it justice.

                                      and surprisingly enough there are still some flowers around.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Olgas and Sunday we should be in Kings Canyon, I don't think there will be any internet cover there so my next blog will probably be Monda or Tuesday night so until then stay well and keep warm.

Day 14: Good bye to the cold



Sunrise at the Racecourse 8-6-11


Its Thursday morning and I'm writing this in the car so I'm not sure how long we will have signal for and it's a bit bumpy so we'll see how it goes. We left Broken Hill yesterday heading to Port Augusta.  We had expected to catch up with Ken & Lyn in Broken Hill but they were having a great time in Burra Gorge without phone coverage that we had to leave B.H., however we were lucky enough that we had both left about the same time and were able to meet up at a rest area 7km NE of the turn off for Peterborough,  it was great to see them again, (like it was only yesterday we'd seen them) They are enjoying the nomadic life as much as us.  We said goodbye after about an hour and agreed to catch up in Darwin or some where on the west coast, we parted as they are going to the gem fields in Qld then onto Darwin and we are going to Ayres Rock then Darwin.

This is us crossing the SA border

Manahill Museum

The journey to Port Augusta was uneventful however the country side was beautiful but no pictures as we took them last year on our trip home from the desert.  The photo's following are from Monalena Lagoon Rest area where we stayed last night.  The sunset and sunrise were impressive, I think it is a beautiful part of the day.  It has been very cold since we left Broken Hill but we have not had any rain which is fortunate, it is winter after all and we'll be in Darwin soon so we won't have to be cold much longer.

Sunset @ Monalena Lagoon rest area from the doorway of the van

Sunrise @ Monalena Lagoon

Still cloudy

The view from Island Lagoon lookout 153km NW of  Port Augusta was a photo opportunity not to be missed.

The internet dropped out and we only came back into range at Uluru (Ayres Rock) today Friday, so it took a little while to catch up with this blog.