NT Camping

No roads to be seen out here!

Ahhhhh, the serenity! After a whole week in compulsory caravan parks (there really is no other options at Uluru and Kings Canyon) we were going totally bonkers and in desperate need of some remote camping.

We had always planned to do the Mereenie loop after Kings Canyon, but were unsure of the road suitability with our Glamper. After speaking to a couple with kids and a camper trailer in Winton who had done it, we were sure we would be fine. On our departure from Kings though, we checked in with the reception people to do a last check of the road conditions especially after about 4 days of slight rain. The road was open with only a couple of spots with “slight caution” and one spot with “extreme caution”, we decided to ignore the “unsuitable for caravans” bit….. Karen is a camper, not a caravan!

Anywho, on the way back from the reception I got chatting to a bloke who had taken the Mereenie loop just yesterday to run into Alice to pick up some bearings for his busted trailer, they had been doing some pretty rough stuff. He said it was up there with some of the worst road conditions he had driven yet! He strongly advised that we don’t do it in Karen Camper…..hmmm…. This would mean we would have to go back to Alice the way we got in, ie back track over road we had already driven…. Something Jess and I have realised we have a rather severe allergy too.

I confirmed that it was plenty wide enough to turn around if we don’t like it, and decided we would give it a shot. We bought the permit required ($5.50 per car from the servo) and grew ever more nervous as the attendant told us 2 4wd’s had already turned around this morning, so we filled up with magical rocket juice (at $2.34p/L I assume it’s magical??) and headed off.

Well, it was fine. Sure Karen lost a mud flap and the foot off one of her legs, Peter Prado has a new rattle (or 7) but it was fine. We dropped tyre pressure down to 25psi all round and took it eeeeeeeasy. This road was different to the Plenty or the Harts Range road, which were both really just corrugations and a few exposed razor blades, the Mereenie Loop was corrugations, washouts, pot holes (or craters more correctly speaking) soft sand, rocks, boulders, the odd spare tyre just lying on the track (had the wrong stud pattern to be any use to us, bugger!) and a few random mountains of brumby poo…… All and all not that dissimilar to the Bruce Highway.

McGyver-ing a solution to a broken foot (On Karen, not me, I just had pins and needles!)

Locating a number of new rattles. 3 loose bolts on the bull bar, 2 loose wheel arches, and then a general once over with the grease gun while I was under there.

After being told we couldn’t do it by a number of people, we thought we would take our sweet time and take a few days to get to Glen Halen Station, but, because we were making good time we decided to branch off and check out Palm Valley, the thing attracting me was the “extreme high clearance 4wd track, no caravans”. After a week “camping” next to 40 foot caravans and Maui and Britz motor homes filled with foreign tourists running their aircon and hair dryers all day and night, this looked like a winner.

Spectacular Drive into Palm Valley

Well! I can tell you, this place is a must do on anyone’s list! It took us about an hour and a half to get in, driving some really beautiful country, essentially 80% of it driving up the dry Finke river bed (washed river rock base, all smooth large rock/pebbles plus sand) Beautiful!

The campground has gravel sites with some grassed areas, 3 communal fire places, flushing dunnies and……. Hot Showers! (Well, it’s solar hot water, but being the sun has come out since waaay back when Julia was Prime Minister there was none) and how’s this, the ranger came down at 1900, lit a big fire and sat around telling us all about the park, the challenges, future plans, joint management etc, very informative. Although I think he has talked Jack out of being a ranger now with his many references to the fact that a ranger is just a glorified maintenance guy, fixing fences and signs, and cleaning toilets. So Jack will now do a bachelor of science majoring in biodiversity, or just become the next Steve Backshall.

So we found a spot without too many dingoes circling, set up and planed the next day, head down to Cycad Grove and the actual Palm Valley.

Camp Palm Valley

Now this track was “high clearance 4wd only”!! There were a bunch of “diff banger” spots on this track, and man-o-man was Peter Prado flexing his legs, we had a ball! It was great to be unhitched and push into somewhere not every bloke and his Rav 4 can get too. (Sorry Benji, I think even Raging Rav would have got hung up on her diff’s through here, there were plenty of gouges and scratches on the rocks through here). As rough and tumble as this was, I only engaged the low range once for about 10mtrs of very uneven rather steep rock hopping.

Happy with the Suspension Upgrade!

How do they capture it so well in the 4X4 mags?

Anyway, we made it to the beginning of the walks (a dirty word for the kids at the moment, poor kids, I reckon they have done about 40klms of walking in the last week!) whilst this was a spectacular spot, and very few people, I think it would probably be more enjoyable if you were into the Red Cabbage Palm, which is really the whole point of Palm valley. This is the only place on the planet where they grow.

Red Cabbage Palms on the left

We virtually had the place to ourselves

Resting weary legs

The kids could run and jump and make as much noise as they liked down here

Not saying it wasn’t a nice place to have lunch.

Lunch under what we dubbed “Dingo Head Rock”

So, if you find yourself in this neck of the woods, make the trip into Palm Valley, you will easily get a camper in (although a few of the other punters down here see us and wonder if we got Karen Heli dropped in) it is well worth it and there is a great track to really test the approach and departure angles along with the limits of your rigs suspension.

Toby Spotted the rare black footed rock wallaby…. can you see it? It’s right there next to the tree….

See!

and here is another one… can you see it….in the cave, next to the green bush…..

See! We called this one the “Tobias Rock Wallabus” a close cousin of the black footed wallaby, this one just has red hair!

The “Car Park” at the beginning of the walk.

Our Little Pink Mountain Goat

I’ve been amazed by the sheer volume and variety of wild flowers everywhere!

Palm Valley

So, now that we have reception for a few days here in Alice Springs we are catching up on our blog posts and trying to fill you all in on what we have been up to for the last two weeks.  Prepare yourself to be ‘gorged’ out as we have done heaps of beautiful walks through some spectacular gorges and have a tonne of photos to share!

Kata Tjuta (also known as ‘The Olga’s) are the large doomed rock formations which also make up the same national park as Uluru.  We purchased the three day national park pass for $25 per adult (kids were free) for the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and after spending the first two days exploring Uluru we decided to spend our last day in the park checking out the ‘rocks’ we had seen from Uluru.  After walking all the way round Uluru the previous day, we had planned to just take it pretty easy at Kata Tjuta, but when we got there we couldn’t resist the 7.4km full circuit ‘Valley of the Wind’s Walk’.

It was a pretty tough walk and took us about 4 hours with the kids but they managed pretty well.  We did piggy back Lexi for a bit and she fell asleep on my back for a short time but the boys again walked the whole way.  This walk was quite interesting for the kids as there were lots of little water holes to stop and play with their ‘leaf boats’ in.  At first we tried to hurry them along or get them to look around at the views a bit more – but then we realised that this was what the walk was all about for them – the simple pleasures of finding their next perfect stick or leaf to sail down a creek – so we left them to it and they were happy to keep plodding along.  I must admit I was quite sore after climbing the rock in the same morning we tackled this walk so I probably found it harder than anyone!  The scenery made up for the pain though – it was beautiful!  Again – another walk not to miss if you head out to Uluru.

The Valley of the Winds Walk – very hot and dry – would be a really tough walk in summer!

Karu Lookout – about 1km into the walk

The domes are really interesting to look at

Quite steep and rocky in parts

A stop to check out a small creek

Karingana Lookout – really spectacular – very hard to capture it with the photos

Family shot

Time to finish the walk down to the bottom and around the domes to the other side

Leaf boat racing

Beautiful wildflowers as we walked back through the valley at the base of the domes

Lex and I waiting for the boys to catch up

We finished the walk all quite tired and hot and sweaty, but then we decided it would be a real shame to waste the last hour of sunlight and not do the short (2.6km return) Walpa Gorge walk.  The kids did dig the heels in on walking again but we piggy backed Lex and Tobe to start with until they were happy to walk again and there was also the reward of poppers and chips and dip at the end!  Because it was so late in the day we had the gorge to ourselves which was quite a treat and although not as spectacular as The Valley of the Winds Walk – it was worth the effort at the end of the day

Walpa Gorge Walk

Walpa Gorge

Tired but happy!

We had the place to ourselves!

There wasn’t much of a sunset on this day but still pretty special sky!

Matt getting clever with the camera

‘Super Moon’ on the drive back to our campground at Yulara – very hard to capture!

The beautiful ‘Olga’s – definitely worth the drive out to them!

We know not everybody is happy with our decision to climb Uluru but we hope that you can see from Matt’s post on the matter that it was not a decision we made easily (in fact much more difficult than we expected once we were actually there!) and we tried to tread as lightly as possible – being sure to keep on the marked path and leave no rubbish or toilet waste as we went and to take the climb seriously and stay safe (these along with the obvious sacred nature of the site are the most common issues with climbing the rock).  We don’t regret doing the climb – it was an amazing experience – one that I will never forget and I know Jack and Matt never will either!  It was very hard work – especially for those with no climbing experience like ourselves and I really had to give myself a talking to a few times to keep going as it was soooooo high and breathtaking.  We saw people doing the climb in ugg boots and thongs which was just crazy!!!!  It was our last day  at Uluru before I tackled the climb early one morning on my own – mostly because I just couldn’t not climb – I didn’t think I would ever get the chance to do something again like that in my life.  I had a good little chat to Uncle Murray who just happened to call my mobile just as I reached the top and sat down!  Hehehehe – nice to share the moment Uncle Murray!

Anyway – we wanted to share some photos and a short video of our experience – it was beautiful and so very different up there – it almost felt like we were on the moon.  Jack really is so proud of the fact that he did it – something he and Matt will share forever – they were both on a high that afternoon – a shared moment that I hope you can tell from Matt’s post – was a real father/son bonding experience.

We can definitely see why Uluru is such a sacred place for the Aboriginal people and it will live forever in our family memories now also.

The boys at the start

Jacko starting to climb

Very steep

Absolutely beautiful

Jacko talking to mum & the kids on the UHF about half way up

Jacko climbing

Beautiful views of The Olga’s

Checking out the view over the side

Great views!

Jacko so proud to make it to the top

Having a look at the weather station at the top

Me at the top

Scary!

The kids and I!

So, as you have guessed from Matt’s last post we headed from zircon fossicking at Mudtank pretty much straight to Uluru.  We left mudtank just as the weather started to turn very cold, very windy and a bit showery.  We had a quick stop in to check out the campground at Gemtree which looked really nice and the kids enjoyed having a wonder through the gem shop there and seeing some of the lovely jewellry that can be made from the rocks around the Harts Range area – we are looking forward to seeing what the ones we have found will look like all cut and polished by Grunda!!

Gemtree

From there we hit the end of the Plenty Highway – hooray!  We had to get a photo of us crossing the ‘Tropic of Capricorn’ line but found it very tricky to explain this invisible line down the middle of Australia to the kids!

We survived the Plenty Highway

The Tropic of Capricorn

Next we hit Alice Springs for a quick overnight stop as we needed to do a big grocery shop, fill up our gas bottle, do three loads of washing and have a much needed hot shower!  We were really surprised by how scenic the drive in to Alice Springs was – really beautiful and not dry and desserty like we expected!  We stayed at the Heavitree Caravan Park which was pretty cheap ($27 for a site for the night) and it was ok, but very busy and a bit dirty in the amenities etc.  A note for Alice Springs is that you need to pay 50cents to use the public toilets – just something we weren’t expecting!  We are planning on coming back through Alice Springs in a couple of weeks so will do some of the touristy stuff then!

And then it was on to Uluru – a place we were all looking forward to visiting on this trip!  We  had a quick toilet and coffee stop at Stuart’s Well which looks like a nice place to camp and checked out the emu’s and camels there.

Stuart’s Well

Two hours later we stopped for lunch (its about a four hour drive from Alice Springs to Uluru) on the side of the road and I will never forget overhearing Toby say to Jack when he hopped out of the car and started to climb up a sand dune to have a look, ‘Jacko, its soooooo tiny!!’ in such a hugely disappointed voice!  He thought we were at Uluru and the sand dune was it!  Hehehehehehe – so funny had us all laughing for ages and Tobes of course was cranky at being laughed at!

Our next stop was Mt Connor (Jack had to send a photo to his mate Connor!) which often gets mistaken for Uluru – it is huge in its own right!  We crossed over there road here and climbed a very red sand dune to discover a big salt lake on the other side!  Amazing!  The kids loved the novelty of the red sand!

Mt Connor from a distance – tricks you into thinking it is Uluru!

Mt Connor

Lex loved the red sand – her ‘Kanga’ is going everywhere with her – thank you Keria

Salt Lake

Then Uluru came into sight and it just got bigger and bigger the closer we got!

First sighting of Uluru

We camped at the campground at Yulara which is the resort township about 20km’s from the rock.  It was a nice campground with great amenities but obviously very busy with lots of tourists.  It was freezing during our time there – I even had to scrape the ice of the windscreen at 7.30am one morning before heading out to the rock – brrrrrr!  Anyway – we had a brilliant four nights camping here exploring Uluru and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) – I will get some photos and a post on those next – sooooo many beautiful photos from our time there so very hard to choose some to share!

The drive out to Uluru

First sunset over Uluru from the campground