Central Australia Trip - Part 2



Saturday 6 Aug drove to Kings Canyon. Allan & Ineke did the Kings Creek walk, Sandra & I took the rim walk. It’s a steep climb to the top of the canyon. Along the track stairs & boardwalks lead to different areas of the canyon. One of these staircases descends into a delightful area with cool waterholes, lots of birds & stunning vegetation. The top of the canyon with its fascinating rock formations, reminds me of the Bungle Bungles in many ways. It’s a great walk. About 6ks took us 3½ hours.

Sunday arrived at Ayres Rock campground. That afternoon drove out to the Olgas. Did the Olga Gorge walk, 1 hour return. Found a good spot to watch the sunset. Settled in had a few drinks and nibbles and waited for the sunset. More photos of rocks.

Monday morning I left early to see the sunrise on Uluru. Quite cold. Many people already there. Lots of tourist buses. More photos of a rock! 7.30 am the gates opened for the willing to try to climb the rock. Took me about an hour to get to the cairn at the top. Cars & buses looked like toys, cold and windy at the top. Surprising how rough and undulating Ayres Rock is at the top.

That afternoon we drove back to the Cultural Centre. Prices very high for Aboriginal art. Had a look around the various shops. They had dot painting workshops the girls would have liked to have done (if they had known about it). Drove back to the sunset viewing area, we sat on the roof racks, had cheese & biscuits & drinks all round. Lovely evening. Lots of people. With the amount of land out there, why they make people cram into such a small area, who knows.

Tuesday morning left campground continued back along Lasseter Highway. Stopped for lunch at Mt. Ebenizer Roadhouse (free camping). Very well put together. Aboriginal art around the walls in a separate room. Much more reasonably priced. Lots of seats and tables in large room with open fireplace. Refuelled at Stuarts Well then on to the Hugh River Stock Route. We crossed over the Ghan Railway line through to Maryvale & Chambers Pillar.

The road from Maryvale to Chambers Pillar is quite rutted with evidence of quite a lot of rainfall. Collected firewood before entering park. Good facilities at campground with 2 long drops & 2 gas BBQ’s. The next morning we walked around Chambers Pillar & up to the viewing platform. Hard to find original engraving from early explorers. Lots of people scribbling their name in the sandstone. From the platform, thoughts of the early explorers climbing up & looking for miles in each direction, where they came from & where now. We walked around Castle Rock later that day. Having a shared meal tonight. Ineke cooking a roast, Sandy roast vegs & apple crumble. Sandra, Allan & I walked to the sunset viewing area & Ineke kept an eye on the roast. Magic meal. Each night is a beautiful clear night with thousands of stars glistening overhead.

Thursday drove back to Maryvale, got directions to the old Ghan line. Rough track, some sleepers still embedded in the track. Plenty of dog spikes. Stopped at Bundooma old railway siding. The large water-tower is still there. Passed through the town of Finke mid afternoon lots of water on the track to Mt. Dare we camped there that night. The days travel has been hard for all, had good nights rest, looking forward to Dalhousie tomorrow. Still plenty of flowers on the side of the road. Plenty of corellas. Road still fairly rough. Took 2½ hrs to do the 70 ks needed.

First time for Sandy, Allan and Ineke to Dalhousie. Tents up, bedding done and into the water. A lovely 37deg. Plenty of inner tubes to float around on. Stayed in the water for a while then had lunch, then back for a dip. Just magic. We collected plenty of firewood before arriving, staying 2 days. Lovely clear nights, nice warm fire to sit around and talk about the days events.

Saturday got up for the sunrise, some clouds over the horizon made for a nice photo. Went down to the spring, steam rising took some good photos. After breaky guess what ... we went back for another swim. After lunch we drove to the Dalhousie Ruins. A large number of mature date palms there with lots of white corellas high up in the fronds. Very rough road to the ruins. Back at camp we went for a walk to find the source of the spring. After many dead end tracks Allan found the way through. Not much to look at although bubbling up quite fast. We spent the rest of the afternoon back in that lovely warm water.

We departed Dalhousie 8.30 am Sunday morning heading towards Oodnadatta. We originally planned to take the road that passed the ruins of Dalhousie & Pedirka, decided against that because of the state of the road, being an un-maintained track. We back-tracked a bit, driving past Blood Creek, Eringa & Hamilton Station, stopping at Oodnadatta for lunch. We camped under the Algebuckina Ghan Railway bridge beside the River Neales. Very windy night, tables & chairs were blown around, lots of dust. Early night, ate dinner inside tents.

Easy trip from there to home. Lunched at William Creek pub. Camped at Coward Springs (unusual amenities using railway sleepers for showers and best longdrop we’ve seen). Stopped at Lake Eyre South complete with water. Farina was our last camp site. Called in to Ochre Pits, Talc Alf ... an interesting man who loved to talk and had an interesting slant on many aspects of life.

Driving through the Flinders Ranges it was great to see so much green. Checked into a cabin at Clare as planned. Enjoyed a pub meal, a nice way to finish off our great trip.

Thanks Allan and Ineke for your great company. We all enjoyed ourselves very much.

Tony and Sandra



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