Blog 5 The Big Rock

After leaving Alice we moved south to the turn off to Uluru at Erldunda only a distance of 200klms and camped there for the night, went into the bar and had a beer, but there was no atmosphere so we went back to the caravan and went for our usual nightly stroll, drink in hand. Ran into a friendly couple there and had a drink with them, Sandie and Jeff. Jeff was in the Skippy Squadron in Vietnam.

There was a great sunset there that night.

The next day we moved on to Yulara, the resort/camping area outside the national park for Uluru. On the drive in I was becoming a bit cynical about the rock, thinking we have seen so many mountains, gaps and gorges and I was wondering if all this was going to be worth the drive in. On arriving and queuing up to get into the park, my mood was getting worse, then into the park to set up, someone called it the Afghanistan caravan park, it is all red sand, with a small concrete block, all the facilities are good.

That night we went up to a small hill within the park to watch the sunset on the rock which you can see in the distance, hmmmmm that was interesting????.

However the next day we decided to reserve our judgement and went out to Uluru, well I have changed my mind and I take back my cynical remarks of the day before, it was spectacular.

 The size of the bloody thing, we decided to do the walk around, its 10.6 klms, but all flat. Packing the water bottles and lunch we set of, it was huuuuge; we did a side track of 800 metres into one of the waterholes.

I found the mens cave, this is where the all the guys got together and made inma (ceremony/party)

The women also had a cave Kulpi Minymaku

We didn’t try to climb the rock as the local indigenous people who are the owners ask you not to climb, and not to photo certain areas. Having said that I don’t think even if I was asked by these people to climb, I wouldn’t any way; it would kill us, besides the height would have had me frozen anyway.

Please don’t climb Uluru

“That’s a really important thing you are climbing. You shouldn’t climb. Its not the real thing about this place. The real thing is listening to everthing. We are obliged by Tjukurpa (traditional law) to teach people what behaviour is appropriate.

It has been this way since the beginning.”

 Went back to the car park to watch the sunset, unfortunately there was too much cloud cover and there was no show of the colours.

Although on the way back to Yulara we came across the sun setting through the clouds.

Next day we did Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), these are a bit further out but again well worth the trip, we did a small walk only 2.2klm return with a slight incline up to the lookout in the Valley of the winds.

Kata Tjuta means many heads in the local language. This area is sacred under Tjukurpa and Anangu men’s law

At one lookout you can see the Olgas, but on turning around you can see Uluru in the distance, it certainly stands out in the desert.

On the way back we came across a group of camels going for a stroll through the land.

Last day at the Yulara camping ground was spent resting reading and writing and getting ready for the next stage. Moved on on the morning of the 14th and went back to the Stuart highway at Erldunda, and again camped there for the night.

Blog 4 A Town like Alice

After Tennent creek we decided to drive straight thru to the Alice, setting up camp there at the MacDonnell Caravan Park on the 28^th June. On the way down we stopped at Barrow Creek one of the old Overland Telegraph Stations, first used in 1872, the buildings are still there and maintained. It was here we saw the memorial to Tom Roberts; I used to work with his son Bill Roberts in Townsville in Telstra. Tom was one of the last linesmen to work on the line and lived there from 1952 till his passing in 1988 as a caretaker.

Next day we had a set up and rest day and planned the visit to the Alice area, it was our intention to make camp here for a while and do overnight trips to Yulara, Kings Canyon etc, however the cold weather soon put a stop to that, so the plans changed to doing day trips around here and then taking the van to Yulara.

On the Friday we set out to the east MacDonnell’s travelling out to Ross River Resort and then back into Trephine Gorge. This gorge gave us a bit of a hike ( more bloddy climbing) but it was worth it, up around the rim of the gorge and then back down to follow the creek back to the car park.

On the way back we stopped at Corroborea rock and did a stroll around it. ( No we did not dance around it)

Couple of days later we went back to Jessie’s and Emily’s Gap, there are a few gaps in this high range the one that the Todd river runs thru is Alice itself is interesting, the river and the rail line as well as the main highway all pass thru this gap.

We decided to do the West MacDonnells next driving to the end of the bitumen at Tylers Pass lookout. Here we were approached by a German tourist, his car had broken down, he had his wife and 16 yr old daughter with him and they were driving to Kings Canyon via the West MacDonnell’s.  If you have a look at the map from there it’s another 135 klm of dirt road to the Canyon that way, all right I suppose if you have the right vehicle they had a “Wicked Van”. We all know how reliable they are, we took the wife back to Glen Helen Resort so she could call the company, leaving her there after we were sure arrangements were made with the company for them to come out and replace the vehicle.

We then went and did some more gapping and gorging through Ormiston and Serpentine Gorges.

Ormiston Gorge

Serpentine Gorge

We also had a look at the “Ochre Pits” where the Aboriginals got their ochre for the paints. You can see where they got all the colours from, wern't allowed to pinch any though, which is fair enough.

 

In town apart from the usual shopping for food and grog we also visited the Museum (ours is better) and art centre, and went and had a look at Flynn’s grave.

We are just about gapped and gorged here at the moment I think we will spend the next couple of days blugging out until we hit the road again on Monday.
Overall Alice has been great we have had some relaxation as well as some climbing, walking and sightseeing.