Alice Springs

We settled into the caravan park after getting the tyre fixed & decided to use the free pick up to the Gillen Club for dinner later. The lady bus driver was excellent & had many suggestions as to what to see here. We all enjoyed our meals & a good night until we got dropped back at the park. The very high gate was locked & none of us had taken the paper with the code on it ! However some one just happened to drive up & we all charged they the electric gate as it slid open. Most places have high fences & roller doors over Windows etc.
    It was 13 when Allan & I set off on Sunday morning to check out the Beanie Festival. We'd met people From Perth at a rest stop on the NT border who had been coming for 17 years & they lady was into felting. People  come from all over with beanies which are knitted,crochet or felted & some are for sale & all sorts of designs which are most unusual.

We stopped to take a photo & a guy offered to have us in it as well. He'd been before & had a big bag of goodies!

There were groups of ladies felting ,weaving & some aboriginals who looked to be sort of spinning but using sticks instead of a wheel. All very interesting & some most unusual beanies to see.

We decided to got to the Botanic Gardens for coffee which was great but quite cold sitting outside. A sign pointed to a 35 min walk so we climbed up very rough rock steps with Allan helping me as probably not good for my legs. I gave up 3/4 of the way up as knew going down wouldn't be easy but managed ok. We then walked around but nothing to see really as the hail the previous week had caused major damage & most of the foliage was on the ground together with most of the tree limbs & sure glad we weren't here then although our caravan park missed most of it.
  The afternoon was quite miserable with a few rain drops so happy hour was cancelled & the air con went on. Yesterday was a major washing day & then out for coffee & a bigfood shop plus fill up with fuel which is $1.25 & made Allan happy.  It was fine & sunny but still cold . We braved the conditions & John & Sue came to share our meagre sunshine for happy hour. Down to 3 over night! Love Allan & Bev.

Uluru & Kings Canyon

We drove to Uluru on Monday & difficult to get a park as many people there climbing the Rock & wandering around. We had a picnic coffee while watching the very steep climb being invadaded by people from all age groups. Spoke to an English girl a few days later & she had ruined her tights by coming down on her behind!

We drove on around & quite different looking the further we went. Found a much quieter car park & covered some of the base walk. Very cold in the shadows & pleased to find the sun again. We drove to a sunset viewing area which we had to ourselves & had our picnic lunch with champagne courtesy of John & Sue. 

Later that night we did a $35 per person bus trip to see The Field of Lights. It was very well done but certainly not worth paying the extra $200+ to include dinner & spend more time there. The next morning we headed out from Uluru & back to the turn off to Kings Canyon & a further 170 klm's which took us to 303 the day. The caravan park was quite large & packed every night of our three night stay. 

Wednesday morning we drove to the canyon & decided not to scale the steep slope leading up to the rim so followed the path along the bottom . It was not as good as we had been told & we were all a little disappointed so returned to the car to have a picnic coffee. We heard someone repeatedly calling out from the rim & turned out to be a father calling for his " lost " son. The wandering child had come down by himself & was too scared to to face his parents until a nice American lady informed them he was safe

                                       

Thursday was very cool & cloudy so we caught up on a few jobs & packed up ready to move on next day to Erldunda for an overnight stay. Friday morning was a chilly 11 degrees for our drive & decided to stop at the end of the 170 klm's to take a photo at the turnoff & discovered we had a flat tyre on the caravan! In ten years of owning a van it was a first so took awhile to get it sorted but Allan was happy to have the big jack I'd talked him into buying 18 months ago. It is also the jockey wheel so a dual purpose made the cost more bearable.

The highlight of the drive until then was seeing 4 camels & 5 wild brumbies. We arrived at Erldunda to find the wind not so cold & could enjoy the sun for awhile. Allan & John both washed the grime off the cars & we left early on Saturday morning for Alice Springs which was 200 klm without a spare tyre but made it safely. We pulled into a Beaurepairs & they fitted a new tyre & the spare went back into it's usual place all for a very reasonable charge. All good . Love Allan & Bev.

Yulara & Kata Tjuta

We saw this big rock on the way here & thought it very impressive although turned out not to be Ayers Rock .

The caravan park here is huge with over 200 powered sites & same without power. There is a viewing platform for the sunsets & this photo looking down on the park.

I packed up morning tea & a picnic lunch & loaded the car with chairs & tables & squeezed John & Sue in & we set off to drive to the Olgas. First stop was to pay $25 each for a three day pass into the National Park & we queued as many people heading out. It was a 44 klm drive & stopped at an excellent viewing area with metal ramps over the red dirt.

Once we arrived we had our picnic coffee & then did a 2.5 klm walk into the canyon. It was a very stony rough surface & had to watch where to put your feet but certainly well worth the effort to look up at these majestic domes.

It took about an hour to do the walk & we drove around to Valley of the Winds but decided not to do a second walk as lunchtime. We then found another car park with picnic areas but we just set up everything in front of the cruiser. It was really superb sitting in the sun although only got to 16 after a very chilly start. 

It was a very enjoyable day & came home to find the washing all dry. Happy hour was warmer too! We walked to the shops which were very busy as an amazing number of people staying at the many accommodation places. Large number of buses everywhere we go. Love Bev & Allan.

Hello from Uluru

We have thanks to John's help been trying to set up a new blog site. However days have flown by so I will keep this short just to see if it works.
On the way to Marla we pulled into a roadhouse for a picnic coffee & the driver was just climbing back into his truck. Thankfully we haven't met too many of them on the roads.

The roadhouse fuel pumps are very popular & arriving at Erldunda we waited for ages although didn't have to join the longest queue as our tank is on the least popular side .

If this is successful we will be able to get up to date. Two degrees overnight! Love Bev & Allan 

Coober Pedy to Uluru

Hi , John very kindly helped us to set up a new blog site which fingers crossed we can cope with. We had three nights all up in Coober Pedy & certainly found enough to see & do. We drove out to the Breakaways & saw more mounds from Opal diggings on the way.

It was a 70 klm round trip with about 40 klm on a dirt road but well worth the drive

    

We travelled on until we reached the Dingo fence which is 5,614 m long.

The next morning we went to visit the Old Timers mine which was excellent. Someone had done a couple of amazing sculptures in the museum part of the mine. 

The miners must have been skinny people to climb up & down the shafts as demonstrated.

We've been to get John's help a few more times but all a learning curve. Love Bev & Allan.