25/6
Travelling north up the Stuart Highway today. Stopped in at the roadhouse at Marla for a coffee. Lots and lots of traffic on the road especially 'caravaners'. Also stopped at the border for the obligatory photo, but did not hang around long as there were too many flies.
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| The border |
Had a lunch stop and fuelled up at the turn off to Uluru and then headed for Kings Canyon. Made our bush camp down an access track leading to a radio tower, just short of the Watarrka National Park. Great spot but unfortunately the short drive off the bitumen lead to the Giles' third flat! Not happy campers!
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| Camping before Kings Canyon |
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| Visiting dingo |
Were joined by a dingo as we sat around our camp fire, who skulked around in the shadows for a while. He was just curious, but we had that feeling of being watched all night.
26/6
Driving into Kings Canyon Resort this morning we came upon a couple of camels. Mike, looking for the best photo nearly caused 'an incident' when the stalked camel took fright and ran across the road in front of an on-coming car. Oops!
Set ourselves up at the caravan park and then we were off to sight-see at Kings Canyon. Walked the 6 km rim top trail. Very rocky, lots of up and down and light drizzle which became heavier and heavier until we would have to call it rain. Made rock scrambling interesting, but absolutely amazing landscape and views and lots of fun!
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| Kings Canyon |
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| Kings Canyon |
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| Kings Canyon |
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| Kings Canyon |
Also did the creek walk into the bottom of the canyon and met a young guy who was carrying his congo drum into the lookout. He drummed a 'conga in the canyon' for us and the sound was amazing. This evening after our camp oven dinner we went across to the Dingo Bar for a few drinks. State of Origin was on and we were surrounded by very passionate supporters. More rain during the night.
27/6
Quizzed fellow campers this morning about the state of the track from Kings Canyon through to the Western MacDonnell Ranges. Did not sound promising as a number of people had done damage to their gear coming through. Decided to back track a little and go straight to Alice Springs via the Ernest Giles Road. Nearly made it! Twenty kilometres of dirt to go and more bad luck for the Giles' rig. A ricocheting rock must have hit the back window of the Colorado canopy because it shattered into a thousand pieces. Understandably Keith and Sue were very unhappy by this stage and completely 'over' their string of bad luck! Soldiering on, we drove into Alice Springs, booked into the caravan park for two nights and Keith set about doing repairs to the tyre and makeshift repairs to the back of the Colorado.
28/6
Today's plan was to visit Mike's Uncle Maurice who works at the Aboriginal community at Hermannsburg. We could not believe it though when we phoned ahead a few days ago to tell him we were coming to see him, and he said he was flying back to Adelaide yesterday. Never mind, no personal tour, but we were going to the Western MacDonnell Ranges anyway, so we started by heading out to Palm Valley this morning. Once we left the bitumen, it was forty two kilometres (return) of rough 4WD track. The Hilux has now experienced the real deal!
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| Palm Valley Track |
We were well and truly shaken up, but enjoyed a 2 km walk along the valley and then back along the ridge top while we were there.
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| Palm Valley |
Then to Hermannsburg for a walk around the historic Lutheran Mission precinct, had a quick look around the community and headed back towards Alice Springs.
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| Hermannsburg Historic Precinct |
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| Managing Hermannsburg! |
Stopped in at Standley Chasm where they wanted to charge us $10 each to walk, so we bought a coffee and went to Simpson's gap instead. More amazing scenery and rock formations!
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| Simpsons Gap |
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| Simpsons Gap |
We were recommended to eat out at Sporties Bar tonight. Great meal!!!
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