The Red Centre, NT - Alice Springs to Uluru - Part 1

We had a great stop in Alice Springs, it's got a good vibe here, perfect coffees and loads of emphasis on indigenous art. We met Queenie at the local markets and purchased a beauty 'Possum Dreaming'.

Queenie and the boys with 'Possum Dreaming'

The Red Centre is spectacular countryside, so much to see, this was so unexpected for us.. I guess we were expecting dry red barren land all around and nothing for miles...

We travelled the Red Centre Way to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (460kms south-west of Alice Springs). The heavens opened up and it rained and rained and rained, so we booked a room at the motel there and headed out to Uluru for a cloudy sunset, a bottle of Moet and ginger beer, for the under 18's.

Having a champagne at Uluru




 

Water running down Uluru



all thebumps, ridges and marks on Uluru have dreamtime stories as to how they occurred




Textures of Uluru

The following day whilst Mumma walked around the base of Uluru, 10.6kms, silence and bliss.... the boys visited the Cultural Centre for a talk on bush tucker and learnt about which seeds you can grind into porridge and dampers. Here are some pictures from the base walk...

Base Walk - Uluru

 

Men's Cave



Cool chairs on the base walk to stop and take in Uluru


We then all walked into Mutitjulu Waterhole (at the base of Uluru) and saw some rock art and edible plants, like bush plum and the native fig.



Mutitjulu Waterhole



Rock art in a cave at Uluru

some more rock art in a cave in Uluru

For those that are interested in the dreamtime stories...

"'The Dreaming' is not a creation myth, but a myth of formation. The world existed, but was featureless. Giant semi-human beings, resembling plants or animals, rose up from the plains, carrying out tasks (camping, digging for water, fighting each other and performing ceremonies). When the heroes became tired of doing these things, Dreamtime came to an end.

Uluru is inhabited by dozens of ancesral 'beings' and the physical features at each ancestrial site on Uluru represents the activities of the ancestral being a the time of its formation and the living presence of Tjukurpa within that physical feature today. One story is that Kuniya, the woma python, lived in the rocks at Uluru where she fought the Liru, the poisonous snake.... Most of the explanations are in the realm of secret information and are not disclosed to non-Aborigines." (Source: Department of Enviornment)  

We then went out to Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), for a look around...

Its so cold we are wearing jumpers and wool blankies at Kata Tjuta

Karlu Karlu - Devils Marbles

From Daly Waters, we drove south along the Stuart Highway and pulled into Threeways (the turnoff for QLD) and left our caravan there.

With Bilbo loaded for a week of camping, the five lucky ducks headed south towards the Red Centre... first stop.... Karlu Karlu (Devils Marbles).  These massive granite boulders were a never-ending playground for the dare-devil lucky ducks..The boulders change colour throughout the day, glowing at their most spectacular at sunrise and sunset...

our camp

boys playing on the marbles

balancing marbles

never-ending entertainment



hanging around camp with Moochy (the bear)



sunset at Karlu Karlu

We had a dingo come through camp in search of some food scraps... Ross kindly asked him to leave.

the yawning dingo

Katherine - Daly Waters, NT

We drove into Katherine,  intending to camp at Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park, however the Gorge Road was closed, so we headed north to Edith Falls instead. We hiked upwards and into the Top Pool for a beautiful swim...

Top Pool - Edith Falls

Boys enjoying Edith Falls

We had a few days around Katherine but the heat was getting too much for us, so after a couple of 35 degree nights we decided to head south for Mataranka Thermal Pool and Bitter Springs (Elsey National Park). We are loving the thermal pools and springs...

Mataranka Thermal Pool

Getting ready to snorkel in Bitter Springs



Boys adventuring around Bitter Springs

 Heading further south, we stopped in at Daly Waters. Daly Waters is a historic town, home to Australia's first international airport, refuelling planes in WWII and also lays claim to have the oldest pub in Australia. We had a night camped by the pub, the most relaxed staff and icy-cold refreshments. There's a pool off the side of the pub too, which stays open for a night swim!

Daly Waters Pub

Hello Northern Territory....

We've made it into the Northern Territory.... We pulled into Timber Creek for a night and fed the resident fresh water crocodiles...

Freshwater croc at Timber Creek

Dadda dangling some food over the bridge

This lucky duck wants to finger knit all the way to Mullumbimby

Lake Argyle.... Diamond country

Beautiful, relaxing, stunning scenery at Lake Argyle (also home to the Lake Argyle Diamond mine)... Hard to believe you are in the East Kimberleys, looks a bit like NZ.... Here's where we are in WA... top right corner...


Lake Argyle - WA

Dam overflow area - Lake Argyle


Lake Argyle was a stopover that coincided with Rugby World Cup finals (hence we called ahead to ask if they were playing the game.... just to be safe). We stayed at Lake Argyle Caravan Park where there is power and a TV and everyone in Lake Argyle knew who was supporting the All Blacks !! By day, we spent alot of time in their infinity swimming pool - the boys have mastered freestyle...

Lake Argyle's infinity pool

Swimming lessons.... freestylin!!

We got into some great homeschooling activities... Watercolour painting, seed and boab fruit collecting and dot painting - inspired by the local indigenous artists....

Boab nut collecting

painting boab nuts in the Shearer camp

He tries everything the big boys do now...

Masterpiece... dot painting some seed pods



Sadly.... it's time to leave WA.... Its been sooooooo good travelling this amazing state of Australia, bit sad to leave really, but time to move on...

Kununurra and Gibb River Road, WA

Kununurra is our last regional town before leaving WA for the Northern Territory, so we had big plans whilst here to catch up on shopping, tax, dentist, etc. Only our littlest man spiked a fever and that pretty much changed our plans. Mumma took him up to the hospital and after a quick check (nothing serious - virus brewing) we headed to the local shops to buy fans to try to cool our little man down.

The weather is really changing now, we are starting to get some afternoon rain and thunderstorms.... The wet season build up is upon us...

Rainbow over Kununurra as we approach town

Storm clouds to go with the rainbow...

We travelled only a short way along Gibb River Road and hiked into Emma Gorge. It was another scorching hot day, so hard on the boys, but the swim at the end was so refreshing, just what we needed.

Emma gorge pool .... ahhhhhhh

Leo spotted this snake as we were walking along Emma Gorge - we believe its a yellow python

We then went into El Questro Station and visited Zeberdee Springs. The thermal pools is 28-36 degrees all year round, natural rock and tree setting, was just beautiful.

Thermal pool waterfall... boys are having a massage

swimming at Zeberdee Springs

We had a look at a few local art galleries; Zebra rock Art Gallery, Red Rock Art Gallery.... oooohhhh how I would love to make a purchase there.... we bought a lottery ticket instead at the local supermarket!

Purnululu National Park - Bungle Bungle Ranges

We dropped the caravan off in Turkey Creek and drove into Purnululu National Park (Bungle Bungles Ranges) for an overnight camp. The drive in along the Spring Creek track is about a two - three hour drive and covers only 53 kms... we had some fun on the bumpy, rocky road in...

The Bungle Bungle ranges are spectacular, famous for the striped sandstone domes. These stripes are caused by layers of sandstone; one with more clay content (darker layers) which support cyanobacteria (blue-grey algae) growing on the surface, creating a protective outer layer that prevents erosion and the second lighter-coloured layer containing less clay content, that does not support cyanobacteria, hence is exposed to "rusting", creating the beautiful orange colour.

First stop for us to see the Bungle Bungles was the Domes and the Cathedral Gorge walks.

Start of the Cathedral Gorge walk

Our first sight of the Bungle Bungles



Walking into Cathedral Gorge

 

Inside Cathedral Gorge.... that's mumma lucky duck in the bottom right corner

Water monitor in the gorge

Second stop was the heli-pad..... All five lucky ducks then got in a door-less helicopter and took a flight over the Bungle Bungle Ranges, Picaninny Creek, Y gorge, twin gorges... It was really exciting.

Getting ready to leave....

flying over the Bungles

aerial shot of the 'Y' Gorge

.... so beautiful

having a laugh

chatting to the pilot

aerial of Piccanninny Gorge

on our way back to base..

After all the excitement, we headed back to settle into our camping spot at Walardi Campground....

His first driving lesson...



Dry river bed we camped beside

hungry and exhausted lucky ducks.

Then came the super-duper fiveluckyducks experience, Rossco had met the principal of Purnululu Community School (Alex) in Broome whilst watching the rugby the week before. Frog Hollows is home to the school and is a closed community. Alex had invited us to the school, but as it turned out the children and teachers were also camping in the Purnululu National Park the same time as us, so we hung out with these energetic, friendly, loving children...



playing ball with the school children



Off to play with the neighbours

They were so much fun, we were invited to come along to a swimming hole with the school, all the kids swam in the river, we were blessed by the waters edge and the ladies gathered wood, threw out some fishing lines and caught some lunch. There are freshwater crocodiles in here but apparently they are more scared of us than we are of them, they must be terrified of us then!!

Boys receiving blessing to swim in the river

Mumma lucky ducks blessing

The ladies fishing for lunch

the lucky ducks learning a few fishing tricks

one of the catch

swimming in the river

the gang in the river

the gorgeous Narni