Ti Tree
2nd April 2010 - Day 107

Another overnighter! After spending the day stocking up on groceries, water, fuel and beverages (no wine though, you can't buy cask wine in Alice until after 6pm - what am I to do!!!) we did some touristy things at Alice. Visited Anzac Hill and The Royal Flying Doctor Service. It was so good for all of us to see that medical needs weren't just a short drive away for lots of people in Australia. We stopped at the Highest Point Marker, between Darwin and Adelaide and the Tropic of Capricorn and a few other historical markers on the way. If you are interested I'll tell you them all. LOL!!

Roadhouse at Ti Tree

Manda can relate to this woman !

Rainbow Valley

1st April, 2010
Day 106

A one night stopover to take advantage of this tiny part of the Simpson Desert before we head back to Alice. To see these amazing rocks at sunset and sunrise was a treat. We woke to the sounds of absolute, eerie silence. We were the only ones around for miles. How's the serenity? Then the kids woke up!

Curtin Springs Days 103 - 105

29th - 31st March

The next three days we spent exploring sights along the Mereenie Loop, Gosse Bluff (a massive meteorite impact crater), Kings Canyon, Uluru and The Olgas.

Nothing could quite prepare us for the magnitude of the monolith as we caught our first glimpse driving through the burnt red sand dunes. Nor how mesmerised we would we be at the continual changing of colour of the rock throughout the course of the day. We were also amazed at viewing the rock from all aspects, and how different it is on all sides. We even got a special treat at sunset when a full moon popped up behind Ayers Rock.

Rock in the morning

Rock in the arvo


Rock after sunset

Spotto the kids at the base of part of The Olgas - its huge!

Ormiston Gorge Days 99 - 102
25th - 29th March

We spent the next three days doing some amazing bushwalks and sightseeing through bush, water crossings, up stairs, over rocks, down gullies, with fantastic effort from all the kids. Blake, Amber and James were able to keep up with Wayne and I as we piggybacked Darcy and Eamon for the tricky and lengthy parts.

The gorges here are spectacular and have beautiful and very full waterholes to reward yourself with a dip after you are done exploring them. Ormiston Gorge waterhole was our favourite. The flies were not anyone's favourite. James, Eamon and Darcy are trying their best to escape them in the photo below.

The flies were a shocker!

Jervois to Alice Springs
Day 99
25th March 2010

The road from Jervois to Alice was half unsealed and half sealed, much better than the run yesterday. The everchanging landscape was indescribable. One minute you are passing low lying shrubs with orangey white dirt then some magnificent ranges will pop up and the dirt turns to rusty red. The mirages on the road are like nothing we have ever seen, you really believe there is a flood plain on the road.

Arriving in Alice was really exciting for us all. We stocked up on food, fuel and water and headed to the West Macdonnell Ranges for our next stop.

We pulled into Ormiston Gorge campground late in the arvo, set up camp and marvelled at the colours and size of the rockface we would wake up to for the next few days, while we explored this part of the ranges.

Agnes Water to Bogantungan
Day 93
19th March, 2010

So we decided to head inland as fast as we could, with the cyclone looming towards the coast. Our aim was to make up as much ground toward Alice Springs as we could. A very dodgy overnight stop at a free camp in a ghost town. We woke to the sounds of silence. A very eerie place where we heard voices inside a house and lights on, but no one ever went in and no one ever came out. Let's get outta here!

Winton
Days 94 - 97
20th to 23rd March, 2010

We pulled up at a free camp behind the North Gregory Hotel. We spent the next few days exploring the "Home of Waltzing Matilda." We visited a museum dedicated to the history of the song, it was full of so much information and very interesting. Winton also has lots of dinosaur tracks close by, so we were very exposed to fossils and life size replicas of various dinosaurs - a boys delight. The kids had a ball banging on the public musical fence, a junkyard of objects that you can into the next Michael Jackson. We were camped in front of Arno's wall, another junkyard creation. A guy has made this concrete wall wth everything you can imagine in it, even the kitchen sink. Just when we thought we had escaped Ului, the edge of it got us. Flooded again!! So over rain!

Boulia Day
Day 98
24th March, 2010

A quick overnighter at Bouila, hot showers, some washing and watching the kids concert they made up for us. We visited the Min Min Encounter which gave us an insight into the very mysterious Min Min Lights and kept heading inland. We headed along the Donohue Highway that had been recently opened after all the rain and made it to NT Border - hooray. The very hairy unsealed road we had been travelling on had turned into the Plenty Highway. We were getting closer to destination Alice Springs.

Jervois Cattle Station
Day 99
25th March, 2010

We were now in the Red Centre. The earth was so rusty and red, it was an amazing feeling to be this far inland. The ground may have been red, but everything else was so green. All this rain we had experienced had given us this enormous treat of new growth and freshness. We filled up with diesel, at $1.88 p/L it must have had gold in it. We also found out that the road we travelled on yesterday was still closed on the NT side. We were officially the first ones to make it across the QLD/NT border on that road for this year. We can brag about it now that we made it across, don't think I would have posted it if it turned out we were the first ones to be stranded on the Plenty Highway. Alice here we come !!

Canungra
15th Feb - 2nd March
Days 59 - 74

Continuing up the coast from Bangalow, we wanted to be near the Gold Coast but not in the thick of it, so we ended up at a riverside camp at Canungra. The campground was so lush and green and we had a fantastic time swimming in the river.

The highlights were spotting platypus in their natural environment and watching a hatchling turtle make its way into the big wide world.

We had lots of laughs catching up with good friends, The Browns and they spoilt us with their hospitality and hot showers.

We visited Surfers, Gold Coast and a few National Parks in the area, including Mt Tamborine. It was really beautiful and reminded us alot of Glenbrook, but without the glow worm caves and wineries.

The kids had a great, but very hot day at Dreamworld, everyone getting braver as the day went on.

Then the rains came !!!!!!! We always said that unless we really had to, we wouldn't pack up in the rain. So after staying a week longer than we wanted to because we didn't want to pack up in the rain, we bit the bullet and packed up. Guess what, it didn't rain while we packed up! But then rained for the next 2 weeks!

Oh, we didn't wake to the sounds of anything too different there, but we fell asleep to the sounds of gunfire - Canungra Army Training Camp was really close to where we were - a bit freaky!

Maleny and Caloundra
2nd - 11th March, 2010

Days 74 - 85

Woke to the sounds of rain hammering on our tent and water dripping inside it. (Livin' the dream lol!)

Ok, so moving to the Sunshine Coast hinterland was not the smartest thing to do in retrospect. After surviving 4 days of solid rain, we had localised flooding where we were and had to get out.

We think Maleny is a really pretty place, but couldn't make it out through the raindrops, we renamed it Marainy. Timing couldn't be better though, as Pete and Bez (Manda's parents) we coming up to the Sunshine Coast to see us all, so they very generously put us up for 4 nights in a 3 bedroom apartment in Caloundra.

We spent those days drying out, washing everything, swimming, having hot showers, watching some TV, sitting on a lounge, opening and closing doors (cause we could), not checking our solar and getting our electric brakes and back up generator fixed. We had a great time catching up and spending time with Bez and Pete, we even dragged them along to Australia Zoo for the day.

Time to move on from this luxury before we get used to it. We decided to keep heading up the Bruce Highway, aiming for the top.

Agnes Water/ 1770
11th - 19th March
Days 85 - 93

Woke to the sounds of brush turkeys scavenging around, macaws screeching in the trees and the sway of palm trees.

We found a camp at Workmans Beach at Agnes Water. We soon set up and it poured and it continued on and off for a couple of days.

Wayne was happy to get some fishing in, eventhough it wasn't putting dinner on the table.

We discovered the history of the area, particularly of Seventeen Seventy and visited a couple of the nearby National Parks, with gorgeous unspolit and empty beaches.

We met 2 other families that are doing a similar trip to us, its nice to know we're not the only crazy ones out there. The kids had a great time playing and socialising with other kids their own age. We just need to find some more girls for Amber.

Just when we were convinced we were heading in the right direction, we get news of Cyclone Ului heading for the area we were in. What to do, what to???? North, South or West ???