Day 8 – Free Camp outside Uluru – Uluru
Rose to a beautiful sunrise. It will never cease to amaze me how beautiful this country of ours is. Got all excited thinking we had seen Uluru for the first time, only to realise it was Mount Connor. Finally come across Uluru and it’s beautiful. We checked into the overflow camp area at the Campsite and it is one big dust and about a 1000 other campers.
We decided to do the base walk. Hamish and Bridget still aren’t 100% so didn’t make it the entire way around. Scotty and Liam completed the walk, which Liam was quite proud of.
Armed with our chairs, a deck of cards and some snacks we headed out to watch the sunset over Uluru. So glad we did, we got a prime position. Not too sure what was going on but there was smoke coming from the top of Uluru. Regardless, the sunset was incredible and I’m so happy I got to finally see it.
Day 9 - Uluru
Woke up to a mass exodus of the caravan park, pretty sure it will be full again in a few hours. The turnover of people here is incredible. Next up was The Olgas and we did the Valley of the winds walk to the 2nd lookout. It was absolutely breathtaking. Kids did a great job on the walk. We know why it is called the valley of the winds, incredibly strong chilly winds for the majority of the walk. Liam and Scotty tried their luck at climbing Uluru, only for it to be closed because of strong winds at the Summit. It is blowing a gail here. Kangaroo for dinner tonight! Kids LOVED it!
Day 10 - Uluru to Kings Canyon
This morning started bright and early for Scotty and Liam. Unfortunately the rock climb was still closed due to strong winds. Liam was devastated. So they went around to watch the sunrise over Uluru at the Sunrise Viewing Area. The saving grace for Liam was that he saw a Dingo! The sunrise was beautiful.
Made it to Kings Canyon Resort with a great tail wind just in time for lunch. We are in an overflow area again, less people than Uluru but just as much red dirt. Kids were filthy in no time. We went and did the quick little Kings Creek Walk which was absolutely breathtaking. The contrast between the red of the dirt and the canyon walls, the green leaves, the blue sky and the white tree trunks is completely magic. Once we were back at the caravan we sat down for a sneaky wine and some relaxing after a very busy first 10 days of our trip. Kids again took up playing in the dirt and with sticks. Brig decided it was a good idea to crawl under the caravan through the dirt, after attempting snow angels in the dirt. Needless to say she’s filthy. She wouldn’t let me wipe her down as she “had to get back to fighting” hahaha. She definitely keeps us on our toes.
We walked up to the viewing platform at the resort to watch the sunset over Kings Canyon. Wow it was beautiful!
Day 11 - Kings Canyon
Today we did the Kings Canyon Rim Walk. We spotted a dingo wandering through the campground on our way out. Everyone thought it was pretty cool and the dingo was attracting quite a crowd.
The Kings Canyon ring walk was un-freakin’-believable!!!!!! I have seriously never seen anything like it. Walk took us about 4 hrs. But that included us doing all the little lookout walks. Kids were troopers and no one complained (much…). Hammer has decided to do a video blog. It’s super cute.
Once we made it up the other side, the view of the canyon was indescribable. Photos are required to actually show how amazing it was. On the way down with about 10 minutes to go, when we could actually see the car park, I took a massive stack. I managed to hurt my hands, knees and hurt my ribs quite badly. I suspect they are either really badly bruised or even cracked :(. To top it off camera is damaged and my favourite lens is scratched. Another amazing sunset.
Day 12 – Kings Canyon to Alice Springs
We started our morning at Kathleen Springs to do the little walk there. Beautiful little easy walk through a small valley to a lovely little water hole. Another very windy day, and tough drive driving into a headwind.
Drive into Alice is beautiful. We stayed at the Alice Springs Tourist Park. Enjoyed a quiet afternoon at the caravan park.
Day 13 – Alice Springs
Very slow morning pottering around the caravan. My fall has taken a bit of a toll on me and I’m still quite sore. We went to the Alice Springs Reptile Park, it was great. For those of you who don’t know, our kids are reptile obsessed, so they were in heaven. Best Gecko exhibit we’ve ever seen. We saw a Saltwater Crocodile “Terry”. You can descend underground to a viewing platform to get a good look at Terry through the glass under the water. It was great, the kids got quite the fright the first time the handler annoyed him. We also saw lots of snakes and lizards, lots of the snakes on exhibit are not typically at a zoo.
Little drive around Alice. Went for a look up Anzac Hill. Great view of Alice. Scotty and Liam headed to the Australian Transport Hall of Fame Museum. The museum was a great display of trucks from the 1920’s through to today. Liam was in his element!
After dinner, Scotty and I did some more planning for our trip, everything looks so amazing it’s really difficult to choose what to include and what to miss! I wish we had more time, but then again, it probably still wouldn’t be enough.
Day 14 – Alice Springs
We moved to the Showground for our last night in Alice, which is great. Grassed sites that are huge! So great to not have dirt underfoot for a change.
We drove out to Standley Chasm. Wow! We were there at mid-day which is the recommended time for ultimate viewing as the overhead sun pours in lighting up both sides of the chasm. Pretty special. Next stop was Simpsons Gap, very quick little walk down the dry creek bed to a beautiful little watering hole. The creek bed is so dry and dusty it’s hard to imagine what it would look like in the wet season. I saw a glimpse of a Rock Wallaby, but it snuck away quickly and his friends were being quite elusive.
We can’t wait to see what next week brings!!!