To Mataranka
We arrived Monday 6thApril, found the Yulara Ayres Site Caravan Park and set the van up. We then went for a drive to Uluru. Now even though we had seen this monolith driving to Yulara, one does not really realize the hugeness ( if there is such a word) of this rock, its BIG. We duly paid our fee we continued into the park, the ‘rock’ always in our view. Now I must be excused for my ignorance, but, there was a bonus for us, for on our right hand side, as we were getting closer to Uluru, we saw the Olga’s, what a bonus.
We continued on, being the afternoon we didn’t have sufficient time to stop and walk around, but even seeing it from the car was awe inspiring.
Tuesday morning saw us up, not real early, but early enough and off to the Olga’s we drove, water, camera’s, walking shoes, fly spray, fly hat nets. Not really appreciating what was in front of us, we sort of was caught out again by the enormity of these rocks. We pulled up at a car park, called the Valley of the Winds, and on inspection of the handout, realised that there were three walks we could undertake. The temperature today was a nice 23 degree c, with a cooling breeze.
Off your two intrepid explorers went, after transferring water and spray to a back pack. The intention was only to do the first walk, of 1.3 Klms, which by their board was about one hour duration, we ended up doing the three walks, a total of 7.4 klms. The scenery was mind boggling, rocks like one has never been seen before, huge, ginormous, big even. We walked up and down the valleys in between these pebbles, every turn revealed a new scene. Camera’s do not do justice to what we have seen
At about two thirds he way, the Navigator wanted her apple, no apple, still sitting in the car, luckily we had plenty of water, and there was refilling tanks enroute. The flies were a pain, but didn’t detract from what we were seeing
We got back to our car some 4 hours later, loving what we had seen. This trip being fully justified.
That evening we decided to get an evening photo of the Rock, followed up by an evening meal at Yallara. So we showered and shaved, and kept our eye on the clock, to make sure we were at the rock in time. Unfortunately there was some serious Sirius clouds about which virtually killed off any decent photo’s, but we did try
We ventured back to Yallara for tea, and found a nice restaurant, smorgasbord style where we propped, a couple of glasses of fine wine, and some beautiful food, topped off a great day
We had made up our minds, that seeing we had failed to get evening piccies of the rock, we should try for some morning one. A cup of tea at 5 A.M. and into the truck, again we were beaten by the serious Sirius clouds again.
We packed up the van and drove to Kings Canyon, our perceptions of the Rock and the Olga’s putting our mental capabilities into overload, truly a remarkable adventure
The trip to Kings Canyon was about 300kl’s, so we just took our time, again, Mount Conner blew us away. This huge flat top loaf style mountain, out of nowhere, truly amazing
Thursday morning saw us up early again, with back pack filled with water, sandwiches, lollies and apples, off to the start of the Kings Canyon walk.
Now there is two walks, one of 1kl and one of 6kl, seeing that we had endured the 7.4 klm of the Olga’s, we didn’t hesitate on doing the 6 klm, silly people.
The first start of the walk is straight up, maybe 300 metre’s or there abouts. The heart is going 100 miles per hour, the lungs are puffing enough to put all compressors to shame, and that wasn’t only us. There must have been about 30 people all doing the same thing. We did reach the top, and what really peeved me off, was seeing 2 children, probably 10 or 11 year old, running up the last steps, little *()^&^&%^!!!!
Once again, a truly remarkable walk, bit scary, the cliffs were sheer, and the navigator was determined to get some good pictures, then there was the cliff walk, along some man-made steps and planks down into all places, “the garden of Eden” I must admit it is apply named, it was beautiful. We stopped there for some sustenance. The Garden of Eden is a ‘gash’ in the rocks, where water collects, and trees now grow, cycads are in abundance, estimated age of these cycads is 400 years, plus.
This walk was not for the feint hearted, but truly worth the time taken to do it
Friday saw us off and out, we drove from Kings Canyon to Alice Springs where we stayed overnight
Saturday was a drive from Alice to 3 ways, the main intersection of the Barkly and Stuart Highway, and a place where road trains meet for a meal
From 3 ways we then drove north to Larrimah, passed Elliot, a staging ground for the forces in WWll, Larrimah was one of the main communication posts in WWll. We stayed overnight in Larrimah, at the Pink Panther, the hospitality of the staff was great
From Larrimah, we stopped off at Gorie Airstrip, again a WWll strip, and one I do believe that Dad would have been involved with
Monday saw us arrive in Mataranka, the home of the thermal springs. The temperature of the water is 32c a bit cooler than the ambient temperatures, which are taking a toll on us. The aircon in the van is working overtime
Tuesday, still in Mataranka, although we did go for a drive into town and go through a museum. Again Mataranka was a major part of the WWll forces
The Pajereo is going great, so far we have travelled just on 9000 klm’s, used 1300 litres of diesel, had one flat tyre, and a re having a ball
