The Red Centre

Crossing the border into the Northern Territory

 

The Devil's Marbles

Our first stop was the Devil’s Marbles where we camped for the night. The campsites have a great view of the marbles and you can walk from the campsite all through the park. This is a really beautiful place and the marbles look great at early light. We had a dingo running around camp at night and a bush fire nearby which kept us on alert during the night.

Excited Russ

More Marbles- at sunrise

Sunrising on the marbles

Our next stop was Alice Springs where we stayed a couple of days at the McDonnell Range Caravan Park. Russ had a full schedule of TV and radio interviews about his you-tube vid which was funny to watch. The days were beautiful and warm, but as the sunset the temperature dropped, with minimums of -1.6 degrees!!! There was ice on our table and chairs in the morning, and we needed to buy an extra blanket for the swag. There isn’t much to do in Alice so after all the interviews we continued on to the West McDonnell Ranges NP. We checked out Ellery Creek Big hole, Serpentine gorge and Ormiston gorge which were all really pretty (but too cold to swim in). We camped at Redbank gorge at the rim campsite which was a lovely bush camp overlooking the valley.  

Rock carvings at Roma gorge

We went to Roma gorge which has one of the largest collects of rock carvings in Australia. The Aboriginal men used to gather here from numerous tribes and the carvings took place over hundreds of years. 

Rock carvings at Roma gorge

We went to the Kings Canyon which is such a beautiful place with sheer red rock face cliffs towering over 100 meters high. The rim walk was spectacular, with a steep climb at the beginning which got the heart pumping!!

We camped the night at Curtin Springs which was infested with mice. There were mice climbing all over our tent trying to get in out of the cold- it was gross!!!!!

Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon

Sheer cliff face- Kings Canyon

Russ on the edge- Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon

Me climbing Uluru- holding on for dear life!!

The following day we drove to Yulara were we camped for the night. We went to Uluru and climbed it (well I only made it 3/4’s of the way before freaking out and heading back down!!!) It is amazing! I can’t believe that they let people climb it!! It’s 350 meters high, and steep red rock. There is a metal chain running up part of the rock face to assist with the climb. And 35 people have died whilst climbing it. We went down at sunset and watched the rock change colour- it is so beautiful.

And coming back down

The climb up Uluru- CRAZY!!

The changing colour of Uluru at sunset

The changing colour of Uluru at sunset

The changing colour of Uluru at sunset

The changing colour of Uluru at sunset

The following day we got up early and went down to Uluru to watch the sunrise on the rock. We then packed up camp and headed out onto the Great Central Road. We crossed the boarder into WA and it felt like weren’t far from home now. We camped the night at Warburton Road house.

Sunrise on Uluru- beautiful!!

Sunrise at Uluru

Lasseters cave

Camel walking down the Great Central Road

The following day we continued on the Great Central Road, passing through some beautiful country. We stopped in at Kookynie which is a ghost town. It was built in 1900 for the gold rush in the area, but now only a handful of people live there. The Grand Hotel still remains and we stopped in there for our first drink in a month (we did Dry July). It is a really interesting and quirky old pub. We camped the night at Niagara Dam which was a nice camping spot situated on the Dam. The Dam that was built to provide water for the local towns, however just after the completion of the Dam they found underground water in the area.   

We continued onto Kalgoorlie were we stayed in the Palace Hotel which was cool. We were hoping to check out the super pit and the mining museum, however it was pouring with rain all night and the following day so we decided to make our way home. We stopped in at Westonia where they are in the process of setting up the Hood-Penn museum collection, and it is looking great.

The Hood-Penn museum, Westonia

And that’s the end of our travels around Oz- for now anyway!!!

Just some of the books we read while traveling