Half-lap Day 51: Darwin -> Edith Falls

It was another cooler morning. Funny how we have adapted quite well to the hotter weather and our interpretation of cool/cold has moved up the scale quite a bit. No one had felt ready to leave yesterday, today we were all prepared and it felt like the right day to move on.

We got up and continued packing and organizing our stuff. When the kids woke Caitlin read them some stories from her iPad mini. After they’d had breakfast they went to say goodbye to the chickens, chicks, rabbit and guinea pig. We finished packing in the late morning, then went and chatted to our hosts before eventually saying goodbye to them and the dog and leaving Darwin after 8 nights.

We’d had no trouble at all with the car while we were in Darwin. On our way south the temperature briefly started to climb – when Tony increased his speed the temp dropped again. It seems that it really is just a matter of managing the load on the engine and not pushing it too hard at low revs.

We drove to Edith Falls, just north of Katherine, which we’d been keen to see when we were in Katherine and hadn’t made it. We hoped we’d be able to camp at the campground there, but it was full when we arrived. We changed into our swimmers and headed down to the falls. These falls were not spectacular in themselves like some of the others we’ve seen – instead there was a large pool of water surrounded on two sides by tall tall cliffs, with a small waterfall sneaking out between some rocks in the cliffs on the far side. The point where we entered the water had a shallow channel and then a rocky island, with the larger pool beyond the island. I could just stand up all the way across the channel – but I preferred to swim as the bottom was a mix of sand and rocks and was hard to walk on. The water was clear and fresh and the channel was edged on the shore side with very green trees which reflected in the water. Swimming there, with the cliffs rising up on our other side, felt so relaxing and refreshing and I was so glad we’d come.

Caitlin was nervous about crocodiles – there are freshwater crocs here, the signs say not to swim between 7pm and 7am, but when the pool is open it is safe the rest of the time. She was reluctant to spend much time in the water, so she and LiAM explored the rocky island. Tony spent some time skimming stones along the water of the channel. He and Millie stayed near the edge then while I joined the others on the island. I walked across to the other side and it was very hard to balance and walk on the rocks. There was a lovely view across the pool to the falls and cliffs. I decided to swim back rather than walk back. It wasn’t hard to swim to the end of the island and then back along the channel, and I enjoyed swimming out in the larger pool too. LiAM stayed on the island, sitting on sun-warmed rocks and looking at the cliffs and the insects around him. He's not so keen on swimming in waterfall plunge pools - he's done it a few times now and figures that's enough. He's not not that fussed on even seeing the waterfalls anymore - but he usually finds something to amuse him when we are there.

Caitlin had swum back to shore and was sitting on the steps, I stood in the water and chatted to her and little fish nibbled at the dry skin on our feet and legs. The first couple of times it happened I yelped and jumped a bit, but I soon got used to it and it was cool watching them swim around our legs and come up for a little nibble.

Once we were all out of the water we walked along the path a little further to get different views of the falls, cliffs and pool. There was a bridge across a creek that left the pool, with some archer fish swimming underneath, and we watched them for a while. We went and got changed and looked at some photos of what the place looks like in the wet season – very different!, then headed back to the car.

I’d found a free campsite back on the highway a little south of the turn off. It looked good although there were no toilets – we decided to try our first toilet-free camping and see how it went – if it’s ok it opens up a lot more of the free camps to us.

The site was basically lots of cleared areas in amongst the (sparse) bush. We found a flat-enough spot a bit back from the road – not in the area closest to the road, but at the front of a larger area further back. The ground was too hard for pegs, so we used the car and Tony’s bike to attach the guy ropes to, and the beds hold down the end of the tent so we can manage without pegging the floor in. The kids explored the campsite and Tony and I sat and relaxed for a while. We’d set up just before sunset and it was a lovely clear night – with hardly any mosquitoes. It was really relaxing sitting and looking at the trees and stars and feeling excited about camping and exploring more places. The moon rose a bit later – one night past full, so it was really bright and we could almost manage without lanterns. The temperature was really pleasant - it was probably around 28 degrees, much cooler than the evenings had been in Darwin and we all enjoyed it and laughed that we thought 28 was cool. We had noodles for tea, Caitlin kept reading stories to the others and we made a few phone calls to friends. We braved the bush to go to the toilet (everyone was fine) and made sure we put away all our food (not sure what animals might be around here) and headed in to bed to read a couple of chapters of Brisingr.

Half-lap Day 23: Kings Canyon -> Finke River

I was up early enough to watch the sunrise from the viewing platform, very cool watching the sun pop up over the ranges. I had a bit of a wander through the scrub near our tent afterwards, looking for LiAM’s swimmers – I saw lots of shoes and socks and bags and other things, but not what I was looking for.

We did a fairly relaxed pack up, and were ready to go by 11. We stopped not far down the road to do the Kathleen Springs walk which we’d heard was quite beautiful. It was sunny and hot today, and there were a lot of flies – our fly nets and/or the fly repellant we’d bought came in handy for everyone. I really enjoyed the walk, it was a paved, easy path down into Kathleen Gorge, between red gorge walls – not very tall but really that image that I have in my head of the Northern Territory. This gorge used to be used as a cattle pen and there were still signs of cattle yards and watering troughs which were interesting to see. There were also lots of signs explaining the indigenous stories from around this land which were great. We could see a bit of water flowing over rocks towards the end of the gorge, and there was a lovely shady waterhole right at the end. We sat and rested and looked at it for a while, then headed back out. LiAM found a big stick insect, we saw lots of butterflies, and one lizard – I’m so glad we saw him because I’d told LiAM I was sure we’d see lizards at Kings Canyon and there had been none.  Tony didn’t enjoy the walk so much, with the heat and flies and he also ended up carrying Millie most of the way so it was a much harder walk for him.

The Waterhole at Kathleen Springs

We had some sandwiches at the car then drove a bit further to Kings Creek Station to get petrol, a lot cheaper than at Kings Canyon Resort (thanks to wiki camps for that information 192c/l as opposed to 176 I think). It was still expensive though so we just put 20L or so in. We had a bit of a look around the station, and the kids found zooper doopers for sale for $1 each so we grabbed some of those.

It was a long drive back out from Kings Canyon to the highway and then east again to the Stuart Highway. We finished listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, then listened to music for a while. Eventually we arrived at Erldunda where we’d planned to get some supplies – there was no bread and milk was $4 for a litre of UHT milk so we decided to do without for now. There was mobile signal though so we caught up with the messages we’d received over the past few days, and there was an emu farm and we were able to feed the emus – these pellets were bigger than the ones at Uluru so it was slightly less scary when the emus pecked them out of our hands. We also saw a couple of emus fighting – they fluffed up their neck feathers until they were huge and ran at each other – one emu didn’t want anyone else eating the pellets so chased a few of them away. We also sent some postcards while we were there.

We drove north for another 70km or so and stopped at a free camp by the side of the Finke River. This is one of the oldest rivers in the world - it's been there for between 100 million and 350 million years! We arrived just before sunset and Caitlin and I wandered down to check out the river bed – there was water flowing and it was so beautiful standing in the dry part of the river with the bridge to our west and the sun setting behind it.

Sunset over the Stuart Highway and Finke River

As we were setting up 2 of our neighbours from Kings Canyon arrived, they had driven across the Ernest Giles track instead of coming around the sealed road (and they’d left an hour before us) so we were keen to talk to them in the morning about what the road was like.

We had ready made pasta packets for tea, and sat outside marveling at the brightness of the stars – they haven’t been so bright for a while because the moon has been so full – but at first the moon wasn’t up yet and the stars were mesmerizing. The moon rose before we went to bed, a big orange almost full disk, very very cool.

Half-lap Day 19: Uluru

I had been worried that I’d be grumpy for the whole time we were at Uluru, but when I woke up the next morning I felt much better and excited to be here. I was up well before sunrise, so I wandered up to the lookout at the campground (I couldn’t find the path in the dark, so went over the sand dune for a little way until I hit the path). It was a cloudy morning, and the sky to the east was soon glowing red, so brightly it looked like it was on fire. Uluru looked pretty cool slowly emerging from the dark, and the sunlight on Kata Tjuta was impressive. There were about 20 people at the lookout, and everyone was completely silent, it was pretty cool. We watched the sky in it’s various stages of red – once the sun hit the horizon though it was completely behind the clouds, so there was no lighting up of Uluru, the sky was suddenly grey and uniform. Still a spectacular morning though.

I started chatting to another lady up there, we compared cameras then talked about our trip and our kids, she also has a Caitlin, about a year younger than mine. When we compared itineraries they were remarkably similar for the next few days.

Back down to the tent where I pottered around and everyone gradually emerged from bed. LiAM and Millie and I played cards for a while. We took our time getting ready, and headed over to Uluru around 10.30. Our plan was to do the base walk around Uluru, and we were pleased it was cloudy and quite a bit cooler than the previous couple of days. Being right up close to Uluru was impressive as always – it is SO big and it constantly surprises me, I think my brain can’t comprehend its size and so shrinks it a bit in my memory. We started at the Mala parking area and walked to the right – I wanted to make sure we at least got as far as the Mutjilipu waterhole, so we went the direction that would get us there the quickest.

At some places the rock was almost sheer – looking up to the top was incredible. In others there were folds or caves in the rock, it kept changing constantly and, where it is permitted, I took loads of photos. Some areas are culturally sensitive and it is requested that no one takes photos there – because the place is part of the story and belief of the local people, it is supposed to only be viewed in it’s actual location. I enjoyed looking at those parts too, and imagining the generations of people using these areas for their ceremonies and learning. We ran in to the lady I’d met in the morning, and met each other’s families and had a bit of a chat.

The first third or so of the walk was through trees, it was quite green on that side. The waterhole was very cool, there was still a trickle of water running in to it. We saw water in one other place and the rest was dry. We saw lots of different types of ants, and several bugs – there really haven’t been a lot of animals around in this region, compared to other places we’ve been. LiAM saw a kangaroo. The last 2 thirds of the walk was mainly further away from the rock – so we got a longer perspective of the view, which Tony preferred, while I preferred the bit where we were close up and could see lots of detail. The middle third of the walk seemed to take forever – we could see features on the rock which didn’t seem to get any closer for a very long time, and for some of it we were more exposed to the sun, which was occasionally peeking through the clouds. Tony gave piggy backs to each of the kids at different times which helped them get a bit further. After a while Caitlin offered to carry Millie in the sling, so we set them up and Caitlin walked a long way with Millie on her back, we were all quite impressed.

This side of Uluru was less green but had different flowers – lots of banksias on this side. We played games to pass the time – first person to see an ant (easy), first person to get a fly on their face (also easy – except for Caitlin who was wearing her fly net), first person to see a bird – less easy. Right near the end of the walk we went back close to the rock and were able to go in a little cave and see more of the folds. There was a short walk to a gorge but everyone was just keen to get back to the car so we skipped that.

Back at the car we sat on the ground for a while and recovered our energy. The walk was 10.6km and we did it in about 5 hours, so a huge effort all around. It was only 90 minutes until sunset so we decided to stay and watch that. We popped in to the cultural centre and bought a couple of pieces of cake to share, then drove to the sunset viewing area. We ate the cake in the car, then Tony made us all hot drinks while we waited for the sun to set.

There was blue sky behind the rock but it was cloudy in the west, so there wasn’t direct sunlight on Uluru. It still looked so amazing though, rising up out of the desert by itself. About 20 minutes before the sun set, it broke through the clouds briefly and Uluru was lit up by a brilliant orange light. It only lasted a minute or two, then the sun slipped behind clouds again, and it was amazing. Very exciting to see. The sunset itself was again a bit of a fizzer as the usual gradual colour change didn’t happen, although we could see a bit of a change as the light dropped. The moon rose behind Uluru shortly after the sun set, which was cool to see.

Back to camp and we were all exhausted. I went to have a shower and Tony was going to cook some chicken that I’d bought at a greatly reduced price that afternoon – when he opened it, it didn’t smell great so we ditched that idea and had soup and noodles for dinner instead. Once we’d eaten we were fairly quickly in to bed and read for a very short time.