Alice Springs - Part 2

Monday was our first big drive to check out the West MacDonnell ranges.  Our aim was to get out to the Ormiston Gorge as early as possible and slowly make our way back into town stopping at all the other natural attractions.  The scenery as we drove along was just stunning and unfortunately my photos just don’t do it true justice.  We ended up breaking up the journey by pulling up at Serpentine Gorge and that was thankfully only a short road in as it was quite rough and slow going.  I lost enthusiasm for the gap before we even got there – really it was just the sight of how far in we had to walk as I knew what was ahead of us.  Hamish did pretty well and probably walked about 2 km of the 4 km round walk but it was worth it when we got there.

Woke up to drizzle and a nice cool morning.

Walking into Serpentine Gorge.

Serpentine Gorge.

Hamish took a photo of us in the gorge.

 

Next we headed onto Ormiston Gorge and my gosh that place is spectacular.  You can obviously tell which places are the must see ones as they have bitumen all the way in so all the motorhomes and hire cars can easily get in.  At each of these places there are massive long walks or steep walks up to the lookouts but we aren’t doing them.  Maybe another time, but for this one it was a short walk into the waterhole and just the sheer size of the cliffs around you were spectacular.  I tried to capture it when Jason and the kids were on the other side of the waterhole but again I just don’t do it any justice. 

Jason and the kids in Ormiston Gorge

Just picture perfect.

You can see Jason and the kids on the other side of the water.

Beautiful red cliffs.

As we walked back up to the café that is at Ormiston Gorge I spotted a little boy about Hamish’s age.  I got excited for Hamish as maybe he would have someone to play with whilst we had a coffee.  I went to point him out to Hamish but he was gone, suddenly he was right up and beside us, he gave me a fright.  Obviously he was keen for a new play buddy as much as Hamish.  Suddenly Hamish who had complained most of the walk that his legs were sore recovered miraculously and off he ran with his new mate. 

The drive out to Ormiston Gorge.

More of the drive.

So peaceful.

 

I ended up talking to his Dad and they run the café out there.  Originally from Melbourne they had travelled Australia for two years before hearing about this opportunity in Alice Springs and taking it up.  They have now been there for 18 months and have had a third child but love it.  Though obviously it won’t be forever but they have enjoyed the change and experience.  Time had come to head back home and off we went to find Hamish.  We found him just outside with Flynn.   They had found a big log and dragged it over to a rock and made their own see-saw.  It was so cute to see them using their imagination and playing together.

Just one last picture.

On the way back home we pulled in and saw the Ochre Pits and a lookout.  I got a bit annoyed with the campfires people had made right in front of the monument.  People need to have a little respect.  Our final stop for the day was Ellery Creek Big Hole where you can actually go for a swim.  I didn’t brave it; someone has to take the photos!  However I was more than happy to send in the kids and Jason.  They had a blast swimming in there and it was a nice way to cool down at the end our day of exploring.  Jason and Hamish even swam out to a sandbar that was in the middle. 

Ochre Pits

The view from the lookout.

Swim time.

A little oasis.

Happy snap with my girl.

They made it to the sandbar.

 

Back in town we saw the Ghan pulled in then Jason being the awesome Dad that he is, tracked down some food for the Rock Wallabies so we could go and feed them.  It is actually sold right where you can feed them but the motel has closed down so the opening hours of the shop are a bit all over the place, but he persevered and Hamish got to feed them.  Kayla just seems to like bossing them around – for once something was smaller than her.

Two different modes of transport.

Feeding the rock wallabies.

Cute little fellow.

Kayla being a bit bossy.

They weren't shy at all.

 

Tuesday was allocated to be a day of rest.  No we didn’t lounge around beside a pool; instead we took the car in for its service and headed off into town on foot.  Two blocks in and Hamish was over walking and to think we had even been blessed with a beautiful day as it was only meant to get to 32 degrees today.  Jason did joke that you can tell it is a cool day when you see a local wearing a beanie and another one out running in tracksuit pants.  Our first stop was a funky coffee shop in town for a wake me up drink before heading to the library to do some eKindy sessions.  We arrived just in time for story time so we just sat down and relaxed whilst the librarian read a book to the kids and sang songs.  Nothing like some free babysitting and entertainment for the kids, not that Kayla was very interested but she was happy to just walk around and bring me different books.  We then completed a few eKindy sessions and played with their toys for a while before venturing back out to the mall.

Cool coffee shop.

Someone else's toys are always more fun.

 

There we uncovered the old hospital which was designed by John Flynn.  For those of you who don’t know, he is on our $20 note and was the founder of the Royal Flying Doctors Service.  However, I was mighty impressed with his design of the hospital and the way it would be cooler in summer.  His achievements for outback Australia were mind blowing and are responsible for saving so many lives. 

Bit of history.

The old hospital.

 

We got the call our car was ready so we went back and relaxed for a while.  Way too cool for a swim today!  We ended up going back to feed the rock wallabies again and then went out for dinner at one of the local clubs.  Tuesday nights the kids eat free and they have a kid’s playgrounds.  Not just one, but two play areas dependant on age, a massive lawn and two big jumping pillows.  We managed to have dinner in peace and just watch the kids play together.  Be it they were throwing Kayla’s doll over the fence and then fetching it, but hey they were having fun.  On the way home we drove up Anzac hill to see the night lights.  Unfortunately no photo as we didn’t have the camera, but it was still lovely to check out.

So Wednesday rolled around and so did my birthday.  Today was also the day that we had all agreed to do the Palm Valley/Finke River Gorge drive.  Something in my gut was telling me I wasn’t going to really enjoy this day but I tried to push it aside and just go with the flow.  You know, relax Trish, it isn’t going to be as bad as you think.  I would soon later discover that honestly I need to trust my gut, or at least talk to the Information Centre staff about the true quality of the road.

Getting some help opening my presents.

The kids really enjoyed it.

 

The drive out to Hermannsburg was easy and nice, but not as scenic as going out to Ormiston Gorge.  From here we did a quick toilet stop before heading into the national park.  We only had 16 km to go, how bad could it be.  Yep as soon as we turned off it was straight onto rough road of which we were crawling along at about 20km an hour at our fastest speed.  So yes they were right in that it would take at least an hour to get in.  Eventually I saw buildings and thought to myself, yay we are here, but no, that was just to the first two walks.  Of which we were doing neither as it was only getting hotter and we just wanted to see Palm Valley.

This isn’t how I imagined spending my birthday; my initial thoughts were of relaxation and maybe a foot massage or something.  Obviously there is no adventure in that, but for a worry wart, this was more than enough for me.  From here the road only got worse, narrower with bigger rocks and holes to avoid.  At least we saw a few other cars which I felt could help us out if we needed it.  I think the Information Centre should think a bit harder before just sending people in here; probably some 4WD experience is also helpful as the hardest part we found was picking the line to go up some of these jump ups (large rocks).  At one stage we couldn’t even get up one and the tour truck, that had by this time caught up to us, ended up stopping, getting out and helping us pick a better line to get up.

The start of the gravel road - not so bad.

We followed the river along.

Met some locals.

And found some interesting rock formations.

 

Jason handled it all well; especially as I am sure he just wished he could knock me out and do it without this person constantly freaking out beside him.  We eventually got there, not that I could fully relax and enjoy it as I knew we had to get back out.  My first question was to ask the tour guide how long they were going to be there as I sure as hell wanted to get going before them in case we couldn’t get out.  Luckily they were doing the full hour walk so we chose the fast easy walk in.

We have arrived.

Oh look a puddle and some palm trees.

Now we have to walk in.

 

Was it worth it, well my opinion is no.  However I have done Carnarvon Gorge before and I thought that was way more impressive with less stress!  Jason however loved the challenge of the 4WD track and learning new things.  Next time I am more than happy to send him on his own.  When we got back to the cars there was another couple there with their 3 year old daughter.  They had just done the hour walk which we were amazed with as their daughter had walked a good chunk of it.  After chatting for a while we learnt they have been travelling for 11 months and plan to continue for another year at least.  I asked if we could follow them out so that way we could follow their lines they took but also if we got into trouble we would have someone to help us out.  They more than happily agreed.  It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Jason that we could get out but I just needed to settle my nerves and I felt safety in numbers was good.

Palm trees in the middle of nowhere.

A whole lot of them.

Right I have seen them now lets get out of here.

 

In all honestly it was easier getting out and when we made it back to the first section we said goodbye to our fellow travellers as they had left their Jayco there and were heading onto Kings Canyon.  As we were coming back out we passed some backpackers doing weird dances/actions.  Who knows what they were on but I thought they were crazy for trying to go in as one of their hire cars was only a Subaru and to me its clearance just wasn’t enough.  Well it ended up they weren’t going any further and they soon caught up to us on the 16km road back to town.  They sat so close that we pulled over and let them past, but their tarp was flapping around so we soon caught up to them again when they had pulled over to fix this.  However instead of them hopping back into the car two of them opted to sit on top, and it wasn’t like they were driving slow and to the road conditions (in my opinion anyway).  I just thought they were crazy and I kept expecting to see them pulled over up ahead with one of them injured.  Luckily we didn’t.

The dirt road back in felt like a highway after the last 4km into Palm Valley, but I did breathe a huge sigh of relief when we got back onto bitumen, and when we got back into town I enjoyed my cold beverage even more.  We even made it back to the Caravan Park in time to partake in some photos for their new ad, of course only those with Imparja have the chance to see it and only if you get Alice Springs ads, but if you do happen to see it, let us know if we made the cut.  It was for the Big4 MacDonnell Ranges Caravan Park.

So yes I aged another year today but I think I gained way more grey hairs then I really needed to.  Jason loved the sense of adventure and getting off road more and is now talking about all these other drives and kitting out the car, I needed another beverage at just the thought of doing more.  At the end of the day Jason cooked me Mutton Roast on the weber and a nice birthday cake which was greatly appreciated after the stressful day I had.

Nothing like birthday cake to end the day.

 

Our last full day in Alice Springs had been set aside to clean the inside of the van, finish off eKindy for the week, food shop and just calm my nerves from the day before (I am going to be scared by this for a while).  I also wanted to be prepared and wanted to bake Hamish’s cake so all I needed to do was decorate it when we got to Yulara.   We did eventually venture out to see a few last things like the Simpsons Gap which was just spectacular and I was glad that it was the last one we did as it would have made the other ones not feel as good.  It is also quite close to town so if you are only going to do one then it is still a good one to do.  We also went back up to Anzac hill to get a few pictures overlooking Alice Springs and finally John Flynn’s gravesite.  The rock on top used to be a Devils Marble but it is now a rock from the local area and the original rock has been returned to the Devils Marbles area due to cultural reasons.

View over Alice Springs.

Simpsons Gap.

Even the walk in was just beautiful.

John Flynn's gravesite.

 

We also did Hamish’s last eKindy collaborate session for the year.  I can’t believe we only have one more week of eKindy and then a big break before tackling Prep next year.  We also thought it would be cool to watch the Ghan leave Alice Springs as it headed down to Adelaide.  It was a bit of a wait but it was certainly impressive to watch it go past.  I did look up to see how much it would cost for us to go on it and at over $6000 for a family of four (in gold class of course) going from Darwin to Adelaide I think we will give it a miss.  Well maybe one day we will do it but when we don’t have the kids to pay for.

Manual changing of the signals.

Here comes the Ghan.

 

That night we packed up to leave Alice and it was hard.  I have really enjoyed my stay here (except for our Palm Valley trip) so really didn’t want to leave.

Captivated by Alice Springs - Part 1

First stop for the day was the Devils Marbles and weren’t they impressive.  We could have spent ages just walking around these rocks and if it had been cooler I think we would have camped there one night.  Unfortunately the kids didn’t seem too impressed so we bundled them back in and continued to Wycliffe Wells for a coffee and another break.  

The photos just don't show how big they really are.

Okay so we are a bit small in the family photo.

Kayla showing off some rocks.

Of course Hamish didn't want to miss out.

Yep they look like they belong out here.

 

Wycliffe Wells claim to fame is to be the UFO capital of Australia, so they had all these aliens and spaceships around.  Now the kids loved this and the local resident dog so they were happy to stay and have a play around here for a while.  Even as we were leaving the guy who runs it put on an alien mask and had a photo with Jason and the kids.  They also have a caravan park here and it looks nice and green and shady, but it was way too soon for us to stop for the day.

Our two aliens.

Friendly look critter.

Family happy snap.

Pick the odd one out!

The plan had been to drive to Ti Tree and stop there for the night, but as we were on such a roll and we took the punt that Kayla will most likely fall asleep, we decided to just do the last 190km or so to Alice Springs.  I am glad we chose to do it as Kayla did fall asleep and I even managed to pull out the laptop and type up a bit more on the latest blog I was working on.  I am happy to report that the lady we met in Tennant Creek was wrong and the drive between there and Alice Springs is beautiful and there are heaps of different things to see.  We even spotted the two camels in the yards with the cattle that Sandy and the lady had told us about.  They did have a massive tank of water in there just as I had suspected!

Kayla entertaining herself in the car.

Beautiful cloud cover.

Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn again.

 

I don’t know what we expected of Alice Springs, but the moment you start driving into town you are just amazed at how it is built around the ranges and its size.  Jason had told me the other night that it was actually bigger than Mt Isa which I found hard to believe until we arrived there.  We drove straight through town as our caravan park was on the other side but I was captivated and couldn’t wait to get the van off and go exploring.  As we booked in for a week we got upgraded to an ensuite site.  Now I know that we don’t’ really need one, but Jason was smart as they had a bath tub on the ensuite site so we could break up the showers and offer the kids a bath.  Also saves emptying our toilet so often when you have another one you can use that is so close.

The welcome sign.

Coming into Alice.

 

There were storms starting to build so we got in a quick swim before retreating to the van to wait it out.  Wait we did but nothing really eventuated so we just had dinner and went out for a drive around at night.  Not that you can see a lot at night but we were really impressed with what we did see and just the pure size of the place.  It really made us excited to get out and explore the place.

I was up early as per usual but of course my sleepy heads were out to it.  Though it is a good thing as it allowed me to type up another blog entry and catch up on the emails.  Our first port of call was the information centre which is located in the mall.  Jason wanted to ask about a few of the places that he wanted to see that were out of town.  I decided to take the kids across the road to the little shopping centre to entertain them as they were getting into everything in the information centre.

Hamish made a new friend.

 

When Jason met up with us again and showed me some of the driving times they had written down to visit these places I was a little turned off.  Whilst I wanted to see some of these places the thought of more big days of driving to see them dropped my enthusiasm as I was looking forward to 7 days of relaxing and don’t’ want to make the kids any more over travelling then what they are already.  Most of all I was worried about Palm Valley as the last 21km was going to take up to 1 ½ hours to do, making me question the state of the road.

Random bogged car in the Todd River.

 

Still we weren’t going to do them today so instead we went out towards the East MacDonnell’s Ranges to check out the Emily and Jessie Gaps.  These are where there are breaks in the big mountain ranges and have a creek flowing through them.  It is quite amazing to see but it was hot when we got out there and Kayla had fallen asleep so we took it in turns to get out and walk in to see them.  There were aboriginal paintings in each of the gaps too along with information boards that told the story behind them.

Emily's Gap

Someone doesn't look too impressed.

Jessie's Gap

The East MacDonnells Ranges.

 

We decided to hot foot it back into town so we could have a rest whilst Kayla was still asleep.  This didn’t happen as she woke up on the way back into town.  It is like she has a sixth sense for as soon as we get a sniff of time out she will wake up.  Instead we decided to go to the Reptile Centre which was in town which turned out to be a fantastic idea.  The price to get in wasn’t through the roof and we didn’t have to pay for the kids.  They had heaps of snakes and lizards on display along with a pig nosed turtle and crocodile. 

So glad he was in a glass box.

Just chilling out.

They were very interested.

Of course he loved the crocodile.

 

The highlight though was when they did their talk on the animals as they bring out a few different ones.  I thought that was great and that we might get to touch them, but no, we actually got to hold them and take our photos with them.  Most places charge you extra to be able to hold the animals and get your photo taken with a massive snake, but here it was just included.   I couldn’t convince Hamish to hold the snake but he was happy to have a go at the lizards.  Not that I could blame him, I wasn’t going to hold the snake and well Kayla didn’t even want to touch the lizards.  Jason did however hold the snake though secretly I don’t think he looked too comfortable about it, especially when it started to move its tail end up his shorts.  I don’t know who was more embarrassed, Jason or the poor guide who had to unravel the snake.

Kayla didn't look too keen.

Hamish loved it.

He was pretty relaxed.

My new friend.

Jason's new friend.

Not so sure about this one.

Kayla would touch them from the safety of my arms.

 

Ahhh Sunday, the day of rest.  Well maybe for some but not for us.  Though we were very slow getting going this morning as we got chatting to the family staying in the van behind us.  They had so many great tips on what to do and see around Alice but also just in future locations to google and see what free activities the council might be running.  They had also sold up their home and were having 6 months off to travel, but only 3 months in Australia.  They had also spent a few weeks in America visiting his family.

So first stop on the agenda today was actually in the caravan park, they do a free pancake breakfast on Sunday mornings.  Mind you it doesn’t start until 8:30am so for our family it is more like morning tea but all the same we lined you for some delicious food.  The family we were talking to were leaving that day so the wife and three kids joined us whilst the husband packed up the Jayco pop-top.  Yep we are so glad we don’t have to do that anymore.  Yes we have still got to set up the outdoor area, but you don’t have to do it straight away.  If anything we can just plug in the power and water and retreat into the air-conditioning until we are ready to do it.

Next we went to check out the markets in the Todd Mall and finish off the last of our Christmas shopping.  They were great markets and we picked up a bit of food and finished off all our Christmas shopping, now just to wrap them and get them in the mail.  In the afternoon we headed out to the Transport museum where they had a massive collection of trucks and lots about the history of transport in the area.  To put it into perspective for my family, it is a place where you would drop Dad off in the morning as it opens and pick him up at closing time.  I was even impressed but I knew at first glance it wasn’t going to keep out kids too entertained.  Still I was impressed with what we did manage to get to see and read and it is hard to believe that it used to be dirt roads into the Alice.  Certainly would have made it hard to visit with our caravan.

Checking out the markets.

Someone found a big chess game.

Nope, no air-conditioning in this one.

The old bus coming into Alice Springs.

That is a lot of road trains.

Some newer ones on display.

 

I can’t believe we had only been in Alice and already we had seen so much, yet there was still a lot more to see and do.