Our Walkabout

Planet View: S12°25.652’ E130°50.230’

Street View: S12°25.652’ E130°50.230’

We’re just about to finish up a very fun week-and-a-half stay in Darwin with my auntie, uncle and cousins.  It’s been a little luxurious for us, being able to enjoy their wonderful home in Fannie Bay after getting used to living out of The Tank as we traversed the country from Adelaide.  Margot, my middle cousin of the three girls in the Hudson family, proved to be a fantastic tour guide during our time in Darwin, showing us all the sites of Darwin from the mangroves of East Point to the best bars and clubs in the city center.  We enjoyed spending time at a few of the many street markets Darwin has to offer, the Mindil Beach markets on Thursdays and Parap Markets on Saturdays were two we visited during our time here.  The markets were a lot of fun, more food stalls and local artists than one can imagine, it was difficult for us to decide what ethnicity of food to eat with all the choices.  We also enjoyed the once-monthly Indian night held at Mindil Beach, the regular markets transforming into Indian- and Sri Lankan-only cuisine for the event.  So many scrumptious curries to choose from! 

A few days after we arrived my youngest cousin Sophie arrived in town fresh from finishing her final university exams in Adelaide.  Her boyfriend Richie, in town from his job in Jakarta to celebrate his 30th birthday, had a function at the Deck Bar in the city where we met the girls for a night out on the town.  They gave us quite the tour of Darwin drinking holes: after the Deck Bar we moved to Wisdom and finished the night up at the Tap Bar.  Never one to dismiss a late night bakery I also sampled the fare at Tommo’s Pies in Mitchell Street around 2:00AM, Lisa deciding to join the party for her favorite spinach and cheese roll.  The Tap Bar offered quite hefty cocktails (Margot and Lisa are pictured enjoying one below), they’re called fishbowls and are probably the size of a human head, definitely a good way get in the mood for the night!  Lisa slotted in like an older sister with the girls and I haven’t spent any significant time with either of them since I was a teenager, so it was great to catch up with them both here in Darwin on their home turf.  It was unfortunate that my oldest cousin Amy couldn’t be here with us all as well, but she’s off conquering the world with Ernst and Young in Zurich so we’ll have to catch up with her and her boyfriend Andy at another time. 

One of the other attractions we enjoyed whilst using Darwin as a base for the past week-and-a-half is the Deckchair Cinema, located on the water’s edge just below the city center.  The cinema is an outdoor establishment set in the tropical palms of the Darwin waterfront, rows of deckchairs set up facing a large outdoor cinema screen.  With surround sound, a licensed bar and what looked to be quite scrumptious food, we enjoyed watching a movie there so much that we’re going back tonight for a second helping.  The first flick we saw was an Aussie claymation feature called Mary and Max, a sometimes serious but also very funny story about an unlikely couple: an Australian girl from a broken home named Mary and her Jewish New Yorker pen friend Max, who happens to have Aspergers Syndrome.  Definitely worth a watch, the animation is fantastic and characters are a real hoot.

We’ve both really enjoyed Darwin, spending time with my family has been great and it’s been nice to have a few days to just sit and relax.  We even managed to go jogging around East Point a few mornings when we rose before the humidity started to kick in.  It’s been a great base for a trip to Litchfield National Park as well as a day trip over to Mandorah.  The sunsets up here have been fantastic and the ease of getting around is like nothing we’ve experienced before when it comes to a capital city.  As a send off my auntie and uncle took us all out for dinner for my 30th birthday at Yots Greek Taverna in Cullen Bay.  Some of the best Greek food we’ve ever had, and the oysters flown up from Coffin Bay in South Australia, shucked in front of us, were delectable.  We’ll be sad to leave Darwin but The Outback awaits so it’s time to repack The Tank and get moving again tomorrow morning.  We’ve done quite a shopping run this afternoon and yesterday we had enough meat vacuum packed to feed an army, so should be set now for a few weeks as we make our way across to Kununurra via Kakadu and Gregory National Parks.

I’ve had a couple of enquiries as to why some of the posts on Our Walkabout have the pictures jumbled in a funny way around the blog content.  I try hard to avoid this, but the availability of different web browsers (Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox…) and different companies producing the browsers means that each browser interprets web pages a little differently.  I run a couple of browsers on our laptop, but quirks still manage to weasel their way through and it absolutely drives me up the wall.  When Internet Explorer went from version seven to eight Microsoft changed the way certain pages are interpreted and I had to spend hours fixing the aesthetics of Our Walkabout.  Ugh…  So, if you see something funky please let me know so I can fix it.

Something else I want to mention stems from queries I’ve had about the misty water shots that have started to show up on the blog.  No, this is not a Photoshop trick.  No, I don’t spend inordinate amounts of time doctoring these photos to make the water mist.  It’s all camera.  These shots are taken using a low ISO speed, high lens aperture and usually a neutral density or polarizing filter to reduce the amount of light entering the camera.  And, as with the photo to the right, it usually works best when the water itself is in the shade as the shutter can stay open for even longer, allowing the water to mist even more. 

Planet View: S13°14.970’ E130°44.698’

Street View: S13°14.970’ E130°44.698’

A couple of hours drive south of Darwin lies Litchfield National Park, where we spent that last few days enjoying all the waterfalls and swimming holes the park has to offer.  Litchfield’s main attraction is surely it’s array of waterfalls, Florence and Wangi Falls being the main two cascades due to their ease of access for day trippers from Darwin.  The falls in Litchfield flow all year round, fed by sandstone springs that absorb the wet season rains and empty during the dry.  The spring-fed nature of the falls results in almost all of the falls being permanently saltwater crocodile free, a welcome trait given some of the warning signs we’ve seen elsewhere in the Top End.

We entered through the southern Batchelor entrance, stopping off at Florence Falls for a swim on the way to our first night’s campsite.  After our swim we veered off the main Litchfield Road to tackle a 10 kilometer 4WD track to the Lost City, towering remnants of stone from an ancient time when the area around Litchfield was covered with sandstone.  The ancient pillars that remain appear uncannily like ruins of a city, an eerie place to walk through in the middle of the jungle.  Further down the road we veered into the parking lot at the trailhead to Tolmer Falls; Tolmer was probably the most majestic of all the falls we visited.  Tolmer Falls are closed to visitors, however, as an endangered species of bat inhabit the surrounding cliffs and human interference would threaten their habitat. 

Our goal for the first night was the Sandy Creek Campground at Tjaynera Falls, approximately 10 kilometers down a 4WD track from the main sealed Litchfield Park Road.  Throughout our travels so far 4WD tracks have often involved corrugations, boulders, sharp shale and the odd creek crossing.  The 4WD track into Tjaynera Falls, however, allowed us to test out The Tank in a true-blue Top End water crossing.  A bit of a baptism by fire: the crossing into the falls was an 80 centimeter deep, crocodile-infested swamp around 50 meters in length!  Our venerable 4WD instructor Tom Brown suggested we walk all water crossings before attempting them and try not to cross waterways deeper than the bottom of our air filter (even though The Tank has a snorkel).  At 80 millimeters we were okay with the latter air filter depth requirement, but neither Lisa or I were about to wade through the murky, croc-infested creek to check the stability of the track.  So windows down and 4WD low range engaged we motored across the creek praying that all of The Tank’s seals were ship shape, at the same time hoping we didn’t see any red eyes glistening at us from up- or down-stream.  True to form, The Tank handled the crossing with ease, we could both practically hear each other’s heartbeats as we exited the swamp, full of adrenaline declared our christening deepwater crossing a victory.  We learned later the next day that an unfortunate traveler attempting the creek after us in a smaller rig without an air snorkel had water enter the engine through the air filter and was stuck in the middle of the creek with an hydraulically seized engine.  They had to sit in the vehicle waiting to be towed out by park staff later in the evening.  No thank you!  The photo above was snapped by Lisa as we were crossing the swamp on our way out from the campsite this morning, and the one here to the right is a shot of a Land Rover tackling the water after we’d successfully made it out.

Tjaynera Falls was worth the drive, a majestic waterfall emptying into a huge plunge pool at its base.  We hiked the couple of kilometers into the falls from the packed Sandy Creek campground, whilst swimming I asked others in the falls if we could share their campsite for the night as the campground was full when we arrived.  We found a friendly couple that was amiable to our company, which was quite lucky as leaving Sandy Creek late in the day would have meant crossing our croc-infested waterway in the dark to find a campsite at Wangi Falls!  We spent an hour or two swimming at Tjaynera before heading back to Sandy Creek for the night, crystal clear water and such a relief from the humidity.

We’d planned to meet my cousins, Sophie and Margot, at Tjaynera Falls on our second day in Litchfield, but we didn’t think they’d be up to the creek crossing described above so left Sandy Creek early to head them off on the other side of the waterway.  On the way out of Tjaynera Falls we stopped to snap some shots of Litchfield’s magnetic termite mounds, named for their north-south orientation.  The mounds are constructed facing the poles to regulate their temperature during the hotter months of the year, they were quite a sight, the ones pictured here are at least six feet tall.  We also stopped off next to the most gargantuan of the regular termite mounds we’ve seen during our travels thus far, the one pictured here to the left towering over The Tank, even with Lisa standing on top of the bull bar!

We had a bit of time to spare before heading-off my cousins so we drove up the road to the Wangi Falls campsite to stake out a sleeping spot for the night.  Lucky we did so as we nabbed one of the last spots, unfortunate campers filtering through for the rest of the day eyeing off our pad with wanting eyes as they realized they’d have to motor out of the National Park to sleep at one of the distant caravan parks.  After hooking up with my cousins, our first ‘house guests’ for the Australian portion of our trip, we spent the day frolicking in the pool at the base of Wangi Falls.  Another one the Litchfield’s more popular falls, the swimming area was very busy for most of the afternoon, the cool water a welcome relief from the heat and humidity.  Lamb chops for dinner and a fun evening of board games had us in bed around 9:00PM.

This morning we had a gourmet brekky of bacon and eggs, packed up relatively early and headed off for a morning swim at Buley Rockhole.  Lisa and I tried to stop off at Buley during our first day in Litchfield but the parking lot was full so we had to jot it down for a later visit.  Our early morning arrival today ensured the parking lot was almost empty and we managed to secure one of the many swimming holes for ourselves for the entire morning.  I think Buley was my favorite swimming spot in the park, it doesn’t boast the picturesque falls of many of the other attractions at Litchfield, but the cascading water forms a plethora of deep swimming holes along the creek and is absolutely beautiful.  I spotted a large water monitor (that’s a big swimming goanna for you northerners) sunning itself next to our pool, something I’d been on the lookout for during our days in Litchfield, so I was excited to finally see one.  It was too quick for the camera though, swimming up the Buley cascades with ease at the sign of my approach.  We spent a few hours in the seclusion of our Buley swimming hole before packing up and heading back to Darwin.  Litchfield, what an amazing place, I doubt there are many places on the planet with such an array of picturesque waterfalls and swimming holes.  Definitely worth the visit!

It was another typical dry season afternoon today: hot and humid with big blue skies and pleasant enough if you’re lucky to have some swimmable water nearby!  We decided to take a trip across to Mandorah from our current home at my auntie and uncle’s house in Darwin.  Mandorah is located across the bay from Darwin, a couple of hundred kilometers around by road but only a short 15 minute ferry ride from the harbor at Cullen Bay.  The ferry runs every couple of hours so there’s quite a community over in the small enclave of Mandorah that work in Darwin by day and return across the water each evening.  Mandorah boasts a popular pub on the water’s edge, the Mandorah Hotel, that offers what looked to be quite good counter meals as well as live music and a relaxing setting for an afternoon beer.  We spent the afternoon on Mandorah Beach, Lisa reading her latest book on the sand while I tried my hand at a spot of fishing, again with no luck.  The mud flats and tide pools kept me occupied, however, teeming with all kinds of crabs and juvenile fish.  We’re still not used to being in the hot and humid tropics without being able to take a dip for fear of saltwater crocodiles and box jellyfish.  I don’t think either one of us will ever become used to that part of Australia’s Top End!

Planet View: S14°19.067′ E132°25.252′

Street View: S14°19.067′ E132°25.252′

We arrived at the famous Nitmiluk National Park mid-afternoon and setup camp in the beautiful campsite run by the National Parks and Wildlife Service.  Green grass amid towering gums, again with hot showers and a fabulous pool surrounded by a tropical garden, definitely our best camping spot yet.  Other than the main attraction of Katherine Gorge, Nitmiluk boasts an array of hiking trails to the various gorges and waterfalls throughout the park, ranging from a couple of kilometers to a six day 66 kilometer slog between Katherine Gorge and Leliyn (Edith Falls).  After our arrival we had time for a couple of hours of hiking to the Southern Rockhole, a small swimming hole just above the water level of the first gorge in the Katherine Gorge system.  Lisa had a keen eye for wildlife (again), spotting the small snake pictured here on the trail to the Southern Rockhole, as well as sizeable keelback snake hunting for rocket frogs next to the Southern Rockhole.  The rocket frogs were absolutely everywhere around the Southern Rockhole, fingernail-sized little brown frogs that would jump all over the place as either one of us approached their resting places.  Pat’s lookout was a short hike off the trail to the Southern Rockhole, an amazing view of the first gorge in the Katherine Gorge system.

We were told by a number of people that one thing we must do at Nitmiluk National Park is take a boat tour of the gorge system.  We chose the extended tour, four hours through the first three gorges, which included a swim and a few snacks along the way.  As the water level is so low in the dry season a single boat can’t traverse the entire gorge system.  At the end of each gorge we’d disembark our boat and make the few hundred meter hike between gorges to board the boat for the next portion of the cruise.  Our host for the tour was Shane, a quick-witted and very friendly Tiwi Islander who managed to get the whole boat laughing a number of times during the tour.  The second gorge was amazing, massive towering walls of red rock on either side of the water, beautiful shades of red and orange.  We spotted a couple of freshwater crocodiles along the way, one of which is pictured here.  Awesome to see the prehistoric-looking beasts up close in the wild, to get close enough to see the rows of razor-sharp teeth.  Shane mentioned that in the wet season the water level in the gorge system rises between eight and twelve meters from its dry season level.  What an amazing amount of water!  He also talked about the estuarine (saltwater) crocodile control, detailing that the gorge is closed to swimming for three months while the waters are patrolled for the man-eating beasts after the rains of the wet have passed.  That left us feeling a little more comfortable as we were frolicking around in the water! 

After finishing up with our gorge tour we headed back into Katherine to grab a few beers after the mandatory 2:00PM opening time for liquor stores in Katherine.  As we were waiting for the shop to open Lisa had a chance to call her dad for Father’s Day while we had Telstra connection.  We then headed around 50 kilometers up the Stuart Highway and back into Nitmiluk National Park at Leliyn (Edith Falls) (S14°10.795′ E132°11.178′).  Leliyn is a much lesser-known area of the park, but by no means any less grand, the campsite is located right next to the lower falls of Leliyn and we fell asleep on both nights listening to the gushing of the water as it cascaded down the falls.  The lower falls at Leliyn empty into a huge cliff-hemmed swimming hole, in which we took a sunset swim after setting up camp on our first night.  Today we explored some of the myriad of hiking trails beginning at the falls, taking the roughly four hour return hike up the river to Sweetwater Pool (S14°11.247′ E132°12.998′).  Along the way we passed the majestic upper falls of Leliyn, such a picturesque spot, the pools surrounded by all kinds of wildlife: from orb spiders the size of my palm to giant butterflies drinking from shaded pools (the two pictures to the right).  We passed Longhole on the way to Sweetwater, holding out to swim until reaching our final destination.  Sweetwater Pool was just beautiful, cascades of crystal clear water flowing into a large, deep pool.  We spent the better part of an hour swimming and exploring the pool’s surrounds before making our way back along the hot midday walk to Leliyn’s upper falls for another swim.  I managed to snap a good shot of Lisa being pelted by the upper falls’ cascades, it’s all the way at the bottom right of this post.  We ate lunch at the upper falls then made it back down to camp for a mid-afternoon kip before yet another swim to finish up the day, this time at Leliyn’s lower falls just next to our campsite.  Lisa noticed that the estuarine (saltwater) crocodile signs were a little different at Leliyn than those at Katherine Gorge.  Leliyn’s signs read something to the effect of ‘saltwater crocodiles may inhabit this area, swim at own risk’ instead of the more comforting signs at Katherine Gorge pictured higher up in this post.  So Lisa only spent a few quick minutes in the pool for our final swim!  At the campsite ranger presentation later in the evening he assured us that they wouldn’t allow swimming should there be any chance of an estuarine crocodile in the area.

We’ve covered a lot of ground in the last couple of days!  After taking a drive through West Macdonnell Ranges National Park next to Alice Springs we headed north and spent the night at Devil’s Marbles Conservation Park about an hour south of Tennant Creek.  The termite mounds were ubiquitous for the drive north of Alice Springs, some areas had fields of thousands of them alongside the road, other spots only had one or two poking up between the spinifex.  We started to see a lot more road trains as we headed north from Alice, I managed to snap the one here as it was roaring past, it was a three trailer rig but we saw quite a few laden with four trailers behind the truck.  Talk about some weight!  We arrived at the Devil’s Marbles campsite just as the light was fading, we have been trying not to drive around dusk for fear for nailing a kangaroo or, worse, a roaming cow, but we were both scanning the sides of the road for any movement and thankful for the new Lightforce driving lights I installed on The Tank before leaving Adelaide.  We did have to slow down for a couple of kangaroos along the way but as soon as they saw our lights they hopped back into the bush as we were hoping they would.  The Devil’s Marbles campsite is located in an ideal spot next to the famous rock formations, only about one kilometer off the Stuart Highway.  It seemed, however, that the rest of Australia was there with us for the night: the campsite was absolutely packed.  We had a bit of an uneasy late night conversation with a couple of grey nomads from New South Wales who thought that the entire campsite would like to listen to their geriatric music instead of enjoying a quiet night under the stars, but other than that it was great to wake up with the Devil’s Marbles at our doorstep.  I managed to get quite a few snaps of them illuminated by the sunrise. 

We arrived in Tennant Creek to refuel and decided that while in a largish town we’d try to find a doctor to give me some antibiotics to deal with the sinus infection I’d been battling for a few days.  Lisa left me at the hospital for an hour while she refueled and upon returning, we both decided that we’d be in the emergency department all day waiting for the single doctor on staff to see me, so kept heading north up the Stuart Highway.  The further north we headed the yellow spinifex and red dirt of The Outback was gradually replaced by eucalyptus trees and grasses with hues of green and orange.  We were in The Tank with the air conditioner on for most of the way, but when we arrived at the famous Daly Waters pub for lunch we definitely felt like we’d left the desert and were finally in the tropics.  The Daly Waters pub was a real hoot: the walls covered with everything from brassieres to baseball caps.  Out the back is a large open-air seating area setup for live bands where the paraphernalia continues: thong trees, number plate fences, a lot to look at!  The food was fantastic, great Aussie burgers on homemade damper rolls, Lisa had a barramundi burger and I opted for chicken.  We’d definitely recommend making the stop for a meal and beer at Daly Waters.

While we were chatting with a bloke during our morning swim at Dalhousie Springs it was recommended to us to spend some time at Bitter Springs in the town of Mataranka (S14°55.133′ E133°4.044′).  Mataranka is about an hour south of Katherine and is well known for Mataranka Springs thermal pools.  Bitter Springs, however, isn’t as well known and hasn’t been developed like the touristy Mataranka Springs.  Bitter Springs is a few kilometers down a side road from the town of Mataranka, we stayed at a campsite called Territory Manor along the same road, both agreeing that it was the best site we’ve stayed at since leaving Adelaide.  Beautiful fig trees all over the property and we very much enjoyed a night with grass underfoot instead of the red dust we’ve become accustomed too.  Territory Manor’s grounds are home to a vast array of birdlife, everything from peacocks to flocks of cockatoos, and when the sun went down the ground became alive with tropical frogs.  A great place!  After a breakfast of bacon and eggs this morning we headed down the road into Elsey National Park for a swim in Bitter Springs.  What a magical place: a short walk through the swamps on a well-maintained path and we were greeted with crystal clear deep blue water flowing as a small creek through the tropical jungle.  The water gives its blue tinge to the surrounding flora making it seem that everything is glowing with an effervescent blue, a really special spot.  The water’s heated to around 34°C (93°F) and has a current that allows one to float from the beginning of the springs through the jungle, then make the walk back to the headwaters.  So thankful that the fellow at Dalhousie mentioned it to us, we absolutely loved it! 

After having our fill of Bitter Springs we ventured back into Mataranka and down Homestead Drive to the more publicized Mataranka Springs.  We took our swimming gear with us but after being spoiled with Bitter Springs didn’t end up getting wet.  The thermal pools at Mataranka Springs have been built up with concrete and don’t have anywhere near the charm of their neighbor thermal pools down the road.  We did end up spending some time at Mataranka Springs, however, as they’re located on the edge of the Waterhous River which is supposedly a good spot for barramundi fishing.  I tried my hand at fishing, seeing a few barramundi in the shallows but not being able to land a hook in one.  The river was an eerie place, supposedly patrolled for saltwater crocodiles by the Elsey National Park staff with traps always baited, all the signs say it’s safe for swimming.  But when I got one of my lures snagged it sure took me some time to convince myself to even put my feet in the water to go get it.  Take a look at the murky water to the left, would you be swimming in that water in the Northern Territory tropics?!  A quick lunch and a couple of Paddle Pops from the Mataranka Springs kiosk and we were off north toward Katherine.

Planet View: S23°41.973′ E133°51.695′

Street View: S23°41.973′ E133°51.695′

Our original plan was to head from Uluru to Finke Gorge National Park via the Finke Creek 4WD Track.  We drove the 250 kilometers to the beginning of the track but, upon seeing that it would be almost 50 kilometers of 4WD low-range in a sandy river bed, we instead decided to skip Finke Gorge and head straight to Alice Springs (Tom Brown stop shaking your head!).  We’ll get plenty of low-range driving in the Kimberley, and it’s probably better if we attempt a track like that when we’re not by ourselves and have two full fuel tanks…  We took the Ernest Giles Road back to the Stuart Highway, stumbling upon Henbury Meteorite Conservation Park along the way for a bit of a geology lesson.  The meteorite responsible for the crater to the above left was around four feet in length, imagine the speed it must have been traveling!  Around 50 kilometers out of Alice Springs we started to be able to tune to some of the local Alice radio stations.  We stopped on a local Aboriginal station that was fun for a listen, I will never forget the song Tourist Dollar played by a Northern Territory Aboriginal group describing how they’re all kept fat and comfortable by the tourist dollar!  We arrived in Alice Springs late on Thursday afternoon with enough time to have a stroll around central Alice.  Some fabulous artwork in the local galleries as well as a plethora of opal jewelers and a few good outfitters in the central Todd Mall.  Also some very eye-catching artwork being sold by the local Aboriginal artists in the Todd Mall park, we noticed one or two of them that had their pieces also featured in the local galleries but at many multiples of the park price!  Opting to leave our camp kitchen packed away for the night, we hung around in central Alice for dinner at one of the local pubs, a schnitzel for me and kangaroo fillet for Lisa.

Alice springs is situated along a mountain range named the Macdonnell Ranges.  For 222 kilometers to the west of Alice extendeds the West Macdonnell Ranges National Park; this morning we took a drive along the National Park stopping off at some of the famous sights.  You could spend days exploring the West Macdonnell Ranges National Park, it’s a beautiful area of Australia and the campsites are located at ideal spots.  There are also some great hiking trails joining the park’s main landmarks, the main hiking route is called the Larapinta Trail and extends from the park’s western boundary all the way into Alice Springs.  The two spots we visited were Ellery Creek Bighole, a popular permanent swimming hole in a beautiful gorge about 45 minutes drive west of Alice Springs.  The water was freezing cold but we gathered that Ellery Creek Bighole is very popular amongst Alice locals when the temperature is sweltering during summer.  Our second stop was Ormiston Gorge on the western edge of the park.  Lauded as one of the most spectacular gorges in central Australia, it was definitely an impressive sight.  The red rocks of the gorge extend for many kilometers back from the main waterhole, sheer cliffs with beautiful ghost gums finding a way to grow in the rocks’ cracks.  No fishing in the National Park, unfortunate because the waterhole at Ormiston was filled with ample sized swimmers!

Steve forwarded this article onto us, turns out the motorcyclist that we passed on the way into Dalhousie Springs was picked up by an army Chinook helicopter.  The article below from The Australian on June 15th.

Planet View: S25°20.566′ E131°01.281′

Street View: S25°20.566′ E131°01.281′

We spent the night at Mount Ebenezer (S25°10.817′ E132°40.698′) on Tuesday, Ebenezer roadhouse is basically a cattle station that has cottoned on to offering facilities for passing tourists, something we’ve noticed a lot of stations do in The Outback (William Creek, Mount Dare, Curtin Springs to name a few others).  The campsite wasn’t much: an open, dusty paddock on the side of the highway.  But it was free with hot showers and the roadhouse food was good, so we can’t complain.  Wednesday started with an amazing sunrise over the desert, the photo to the right doesn’t quite do it justice.  It was a couple of hours drive from Mount Ebenezer to the National Park, the desert sands becoming redder with each kilometer.  The landscape was dotted with spinifex as far as the eye could see, and Lisa had quite an eye for spotting huge wedge-tailed eagles in the morning sun (still need to get a photo of one).  On our way to Uluru (Ayers Rock) we passed by Mount Connor, a massive red-earthed plateau shooting out of the desert on the horizon.  Lisa and I both thought for a second that it was Uluru!

We checked into the Yulara campsite before heading into the National Park, camping in the Park isn’t allowed so Yulara is the only option.  A pricey campsite but the facilities were excellent.  It was first time we’d been able to get mobile phone reception since the Flinders Ranges so we spent a bit of time catching up with civilization.  Yulara is the name of the small resort town established just outside the National Park boundary.  It houses the famous Uluru Resort as well as a number of restaurants of varying degrees of classiness, a shopping center and, of course, our campsite.  We were prepared to pay the $25 entry fee on the National Park entry sign, but when the ranger took our $50 we quickly realized there was no change forthcoming and that the entry was in fact $25 each!  We first ventured out to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and walked into one of the gorges between the giant aggregates of rock.  While Uluru and Kata Tjuta look like they’re composed of the same type of rock from a distance, it’s actually a little deceiving: Uluru is, of course, the planet’s largest single rock but Kata Tjuta (S25°18.052′ E130°43.293′) is composed of a conglomerate of small red rocks held together by aggregate.  After a quick walk into Kata Tjuta we made our way back to Uluru and spent a few hours walking around the big rock.  Lisa had visited Uluru before when she was studying in Australia, but it was my first time.  Fantastic to see it up close, there are actually a lot of gorges and caves in the sides of the giant monolith, it’d be fantastic to see it when all the waterfalls are flowing down its sides.  We’d been told to make sure to catch Uluru in the sunset, it evidently changes color from its typical orange to a deep red, but the sinus infection I’d picked up the day before had us back at the campsite by the time the sun was setting so afternoon shots of the rock will have to do!