Andy, Nessa, James & Jemma’s All Aussie Adventures: Spiky, venomous or trying to eat you....

I know I am a little behind on the blog so will do my best to catch up on Days 9-23 of our trip. The truth is we get the best coverage when we are in towns, which means caravan parks, and that translates into getting chores done. We have been in Darwin for the last 3 nights and each morning has been a flurry of loads of washing, breakfasting, folding and putting laundry away, cleaning out the fridge (spilt milk, broccoli buds and meat juice has been swishing about for weeks), organising and planning for our next little jaunt into National Parks, and then sight-seeing.

Where was I up to? Again, I will not go over all details as Andy has covered a lot in his last few posts, but we do have slightly different perspectives and experiences that I though you might like to read ( the numbers help me to keep track)

KINGS CANYON (9&10) – we pulled into the Kings Canyon Discovery Park and were somewhat dismayed to find it looked like another caravan/trailer convention. Kings Canyon Resort has invested umpteen million $ in the resort in the last 18 months as demand continues to increase. Some things don’t change;

nightly visits from dingoes who seem completely unfazed by us humans are a feature I recall from our previous visit.

A wonderful addition to the resort is the ‘Sunset Club’ – a wooden platform overlooking the incredible Carmichael Crag and the George Gill Range in the Watarrka National Park. Drinks were available for cash from 5-7pm from a caravan and there was with a singer making for a great atmosphere.

Sunset Club, Kings Canyon Resort

Sunset Club - yes it was cold

Cuppa with a view - sunrise over George Gill Range, and yes ice on the bannister

The kids made a fast friend in Natalie who had been travelling with her Dad for several weeks and starved of kid company. James and Jem were only too happy to teach her how to play Monopoly Deal in the comfort of our tent – which they did for hours. They were on their way to Alice Springs for Natalie to take a flight home to Brisbane (I think) while her Dad and other travel buddies took on the Simpson Desert (a dream of Andy’s and mine from our last travels, so we were happy to indulge him while he mused on fuel economy and the various logistics in the planning of such a trek).

After a quick good-bye and exchange of Messenger Kids ID the next morning we got organised for the walk we had come to do, Kings Canyon Rim Walk, a 6km, 3-4hr loop walk up to the top of Kings Canyon and around the rim as the name suggests. The first section is vertical, getting you to the top in short order with views back across the plain, cars in the car park looking like matchbox cars according to the kids. Got our hearts "beeping" as Jem says.

Ascent from carpark up to Kings Canyon rim walk is hard to capture

Selfie with a view

James took a keen interest in various rocks along the walk

I would like to take a moment here to credit the kids. At home my kiddos are generally walk averse, and all walking is accompanied with much whingeing. Perhaps it’s because there is usually a time-pressure in our normal lives, and we are currently walking for the pure pleasure of it, with time to watch the birds and ants etc, that there has been zero complaining. It has made walking with them a pleasurable experience and has forced Andy and I to slow down too.

The Kings Canyon rim walk is an exceptional walk with something different around every corner. As we walked, we noticed helicopters buzzing around doing scenic flights and I wondered aloud if anyone might be interested in going up if we could jag a flight at short notice. Jemma was 100% NOT keen (predictable) but James was. We pulled into the chopper office on return from our walk to ask about availability – they had 2 spots available 3:45pm that afternoon – just enough time for a quick shower and return for our flight. I do love helicopters, and James had never been up in one and as always was up for something new. The flight was incredible, and the pilot provided commentary as we went along. At one point we could see as far as Uluru one way and the West MacDonell Ranges the other.

About to take off

James and I before our flight

A very good day. We decided that it was too cold to just hang out in the campground for the evening, so we headed to the pub for a great meal, some red wine and some silly dancing.

Redbank Gorge (11, 12 & 13)

Another frost at Kings Canyon meant ice all over the tent and camping gear, making packing up and getting going take a little longer. Cold hands and faces and general reluctance to get out of bed delays things further.

Glen Helen

Lunch at Glen Helen Resort

Damper - bit burnt but tasted yummy

All trees need to be climbed

Noodles for breakfast - it's a thing

Ormiston Gorge

Proper quiet time attempt 2

Ochre Pits

Standley Chasm

We acquired a permit to drive the Mereenie Loop road which is a ‘shortcut’ through Aboriginal lands between Kings Canyon and Alice Springs. It is a gravel road and a bit rough in places so slower going than the highway option. We started to see big piles of poo on the side of the road and had seen a sign warning of camels, so we were hopeful of seeing some wild ones. More poo and no camels – where could they be? It turns out the poo belonged to a herd of donkeys; if it was camels, we never saw them. And horses, wild horses running in the bush.

We made a quick 4WD detour to Gosse Bluff – site of meteorite impact hundreds of millions of years old for a leg stretch and lunch.

The Woodland campground at Redbank Gorge in the West MacDonnell Ranges NP was great; drop toilet, firepits provided and good wood collecting opportunities in the creek beds just outside the NP boundary. A highlight of this campground was the birds; especially the flocks of splendid fairy wrens and noisy zebra finches that were present almost all of the time, as well as soaring raptors like Wedge tail eagles and kites.

It was also cold. Really cold. Being able to have a fire prolonged our outside presence by a few hours, and there was ice on the tent every morning we were there. One morning 5cm of water in a saucepan had frozen solid, not just the surface, solid. Little did we know it was to get colder yet.

We have not been cold in our tent at night. We were sleeping in pants, socks (sometimes two pairs), t-shirt, long sleeved jumper, then a fleece over the top of that, and a beanie. Jackets are then needed when you get up as the coldest part of the day is yet to come.

Redbank Gorge was a super spot from which to explore Tjoritja NP (West MacDonnell Ranges) (unfortunately no time for the East Macs, we will save that for the next trip) and we visited Redbank Gorge, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Ochre Pits and Glen Helen Gorge Resort (no fuel), Ormiston Gorge and Standley Chasm. I think Andy would really have liked to take on some of the Larapinta trail treks, but we really aren’t geared up for serious hiking – Jemma does all her walks in light-up shoes!

We had 3 lovely nights at Redbank Gorge, exploring in the mornings, not too early as we needed to wait for the weak sun to do its best to warm the world, and relaxing in the afternoons. The first afternoon of prescribed ‘free time’ did not go very well as it was really the first such opportunity, the kids had hammocks up and were noisy and excited and not really down with the chillax, asking lots of questions and distracting the grown-ups from what we were trying to achieve – peace at last. Day two of free time went much better with the kids all set with hammocks, books and pillows.

We knew the good times at Redbank couldn’t last forever and the time came to pack up, again after an icy morning. Next stop is Alice Springs where we had a few jobs to do…

Alice Springs (14 & 15)

After a quick change of heart regarding the Caravan Park I had booked online months ago without doing any research we ended up in the Alice Springs Discovery Park with a powered site right next to camp kitchen and amenities. While this might not sound ideal to all you die-hard bush-campers (us included) it makes for very convenient camping when its freezing cold and Queen of the Toilet is travelling with you.

The park I had booked was dodgy to say the very least and we just did not have a good feeling about it, not least it was out the back of a pub with a drive through regulated by NT coppers.

We arrived in Alice on Friday afternoon and while Andy checked us in, I called a clinic and booked an appointment to have my stitches removed Saturday morning at 9:10am. My hand had improved massively, with no signs of infection and I was using it more and more but was still anxious to see how it was healing and keen to get the stitches out.

I made a laughable attempt at doing some shopping at Alice Springs Coles at 4pm on a Friday afternoon – laughable as you could barely get in the doors, I don’t think I have ever seen so many trolleys queued in one place before. I didn’t even bother going in – we picked up the essential tin of Milo at a servo instead. The shopping was now scheduled for 7:30am Saturday.

Low on supplies and in a big town for the first time in a few weeks Andy booked a table at the Alice Springs Golf Club which turned out to be a great option – and kept us out of the freezing Alice Springs evening for a few extra hours. This we felt was a cunning strategy we used time and again – go to a club, pub, or restaurant, have a meal and stay for as long as is polite/possible.

On Saturday morning I got the shopping done while Andy took the kids off in search of breakfast. Andy and the kids then dropped me at the clinic to have my stitches out. The GP listened to my story of being stitched up in the campground laundry and assured me that it wouldn’t hurt a bit. However, the stitches were now embedded in the wound and required significant poking and tugging and each one hurt more than the last. Overall, this process hurt more than any other, and my hand felt like it had regressed a few days. The GP said it looked fine, gave it a good clean, stuck some steri strips on it and sent me on my way.

Stitches out!

While I was at the doctors Andy managed to have the left head lamp replaced - a very successful morning!!

Later that day we visited the Alice Springs Desert Park which showcases the various arid land habitats and the plants and animals that live there. It also inspired the title for this blog post after one of the kids brushed up against a plant and said ' careful that one is spiky'. I said to be careful of all living things, plants and animals, from now as they will likely be spiky, venomous or trying to eat you. This is my new mantra.

The Desert Park also had aviaries dotted around the park, some of them walk-through, with fantastic information boards. The diversity of bird life in arid Australia is astounding and we were all in our elements spotting the various birds – most of which we would never have seen or noticed in the wilds. Some special highlights were Princess Parrots and a pair of Bourke’s parrots. The nocturnal house had a ‘keeper talk’ happening about Mala, echidnas and bandicoots. My personal favourites in the park were the numbats!

And a free-flight bird show – a willie wagtail tried to steal the show, but the real stars were the kites showing off their speed and agility catching treats and eating them on the fly (one of the few birds that can do this I later learnt on the croc cruise).

As it was freezing again, and forecast for sub-zero overnight, we decided to spend our second and last evening in Alice at the Alice Springs Brewing Company brewery in the warmth with yummy pizzas and a foosball table for fun. At one time I reckon Jem & James were two of eight kids around the table having a whale of a time until their respective families called them for dinner.