Week 3: Central Australia to Katherine

LIVING THE DREAM - 81 days of pure bliss!

Week 3

Day 15 saw us leave behind Kings Canyon and make our way to Alice Springs. It was amazing to see hills and plenty of green vegetation; apparently the area has had one of its coldest and wettest winters on record. The drive was just over 500 kms with not much in between. The only diversion taken was to see the Henbury Meteorite Craters. The cluster of 12 small craters were formed after a meteor fell to earth 4700 years ago. After 2 weeks of easy camping dinners; pasta, tacos and bbq’s we took advantage of being in a big city, the first since Mildura and treated ourselves to a great Chinese dinner.

Day 16 saw us explore Alice Springs and two of Australian’s greatest institutions’; The School of the Air and the Royal Flying Doctor Service Base. The School of the Air is absolutely fantastic, we were lucky enough to be able to sit in on a grade 4 and a grade 2/3 class. This school has 240 students and covers an area greater than Eastern Europe. The use of IT to conduct classes now makes the distances between the pupils disappear as all are connected by a live video link. Like all government schools the service is provided free to all students including the necessary infrastructure to allow them to participate. Adelaide was very taken by the concept and now wants us to move into the area but at least 80kms from Alice Springs so that she can enroll in the school. After discussing how apples wouldn’t really grow that well in this region she decided she will marry a station owner and then have her 4 own children attend the School of the Air. The Royal Flying Doctor Service Base was as equally impressive. It is amazing to think that such a critical service that allows people to live and work remotely only receives approx 40% of its funding from the government, the rest comes through funding raising, including the necessary capital to purchase new aircraft and equipment. The rest of the day was spent completing a home work session and planning the rest of our week’s adventures.

Day 17 was another National Park adventure this time exploring the West MacDonnell Ranges. The countryside is just beautiful with the most fantastic rock formations and waterholes. It would be great to come back and actually walk some if not all of the Larapinta trial. The first stop for the day was the Ormiston Gorge and Pound, where we decided to walk the Ghost Gum walk, a moderate walk giving lovely views down the gorge. Due to the recent heavy rains, the last section of the walk was underwater and involved us trekking through the very cold river and scaling up and down rocks, which the children thought was a fantastic adventure. The weather was beautiful and thus the children could not resist swimming in a beautiful rock hole even though the water temperature was just above freezing. Next stop was Glen Helen Gorge (one of few permanent waterholes in the region), which was disappointing after Ormiston Gorge, as the lead up to the gorge was just grassy weedy plains, although I did get the feeling that if we had actually progressed through the gorge the view would have been superb. The final stop of the day was the Ellery Creek Big Hole, a huge natural rock pool, which many locals use in summer to cool off in. Once gain Tavi and Fred couldn’t resist the temptation of the water and again braved the cold. The area definitely deserves a longer visit.

We have been very fortunate that a good friend Meagan has agreed to keep Pete company when I head back to Mt Martha to visit Dad for 12 days and thus Day 18 was spent picking up Meagan from the airport and introducing her to caravan life with 3 children. The afternoon saw us visit the Alice Springs Desert Park, which has on display a good representation of the flora and fauna found in the region. Both Pete and I are very surprised that Meagan agreed to stay on after Day 1 and is willing to take on the challenge of the Thompsons.

Day 19 saw the lovely weather (high 20s disappear) to a very wet and cold day which was a great pity as we had planned another day exploring the West MacDonald Ranges. Like true adventurers we didn’t let the weather deter us and we set off to explore Simpsons Gap and Standley Chasm. The weather held off as we explored Simpsons Gap and completed a nice 1 hour walk to a nearby lookout. Unfortunately the weather and our adventurer spirit didn’t hold and by the time we got to Standley Chasm it was pouring like rain, being unprepared without rain coats or umbrellas’ we decided to call our expedition to a halt and head back to Alice Springs for a nice hot chocolate. We spent the evening with Greg (Paul Thompson’s twin brother – my sisters partner) and his wife Susan sharing a lovely meal and hearing about all the tricks that the identical twins (Paul & Greg) had played over the years, the children we fascinated.

Day 20 saw me kiss the family and Meagan good-bye and wish them all the very best for the next 12 days without me. I spent the day further exploring Alice Springs, visiting Art Galleries and having a behind the scenes tour of the Art Precedent with Greg who works there before catching my flight back to Melbourne. The others set off on their long drive to Renner Springs. It is now over to Adelaide to update you on their adventures of the following 12 days.

Adelaide wrote:
Day 20 we went from Alice Springs to Renner Springs, it took 9 whole hours in the car. We left Alice Springs about 9am and arrived at 6pm, but we stopped a few times on the way. On the road just after we left Alice Springs we heard a quiet boom, we pulled up on the side of the road and saw that one of the caravan’s wheels had exploded. Luckily we had a spare tyre on the back, so Dad changed the tyre, it took 1 hour to do, but we managed, When we finally got on the road again we stopped at the Devils Marbles. The Devil Marbles are huge rocks in the middle of nowhere. We took some photos of us holding the rocks and then got back on the road. We filled up on petrol in Tennant Creek and decided to keep going to Banka Banka, but the park was full so went to Renner Springs instead. We arrived just before it got dark and set up the van. We had dinner and the site we where on had no power, I guess that’s living the dream.

Day 21, today is Dad’s birthday. We got up early and said Happy Birthday to Dad. Dad opened his presents and then we finally got on the road. We were heading for Bitter Springs but in the end decided to keep going to Katherine. But we did stop in Bitter Springs for a swim in a very warm water hole. The temperature was about 34 degC so we played in it for along time. When we got out of the water we got changed and then got on the road again to Katherine. When we arrived in Katherine we set-up the van and had dinner. The weather has finally changed and now it is really hot. Today we finally got some hot weather and even though it is really hot now, its living the dream.