IDENTIFY THE ROAD KILL - A GAME FOR ALL THE FAMILY

Deny, Deny, Deny. Yep we are in total denial here on the Smith tour. We are very quickly running out of time and we are so sad about it. But to combat this feeling of denial we are finding every back road and dirt track we can to bring oursleves home. Doing a bit of a zig zag on the map you could say. Part of this is because the futher south we head, the colder it becomes. But I suppose all good things must come to an end.

Oh That's how you spell it

Two miners in an Opal mine

Divining for Opals - very clever

Bit of a fixer-upper-a William Creek

We've put in a few big days in the car since we left Uluru to get ourselves further down the road. First stop Coober Pedy. What a place that is... we loved it there. First thing I learnt about Coober Pedy was that it wasn't spelt 'Cooper' with a P for Papa. Nope it's 'Coober' with a B for bravo. Well there you go. Didn't have to pay any tour guide for that snippet of info did I? Suppose I should have paid more attention to the map, instead of standing in wonder underneath the big truck at the entrance to town with the words Coober Pedy in big lettering, and saying- 'oh I think they spelt it wrong'.  I would describe Coober Pedy as a combination of  scene from 'Mad Max' or the town of Radiator Springs ( from the Cars movie) 85% of the residents live underground in houses carved out of sandstone. It's like another world there. Everyone has Opal fever and everyone watches their back. (and we were also told that everyone carries a gun) Another interesting fact about the place was...it's up to it's fifth police station because each time they build a new one it gets blown up. Every second man has a beard and there are lots of shady looking characters around. But strangly enough it was one of our favourite towns that we've visisted and we felt safe. We took in a Opal mine tour conducted by this crazy young girl who seemed to have a faciniation with explosives. (yes I know I have previously mentioned that we were not going to go to anymore mining tours but we hadn't covered Opals yet)

After there we made a bee line for 'The Oodnadatta Track'

Oodnadatta, what a cool name for a place. Love it! We stopped in at the William Creek Hotel and found ourselves having a beer mid morning with some locals (there are only 12 people who reside in William Creek and most of them seemed to be in the pub) then headed to Lake Eyre.

This was a complete suprise to myself and passengers as I wasn't aware that we were going to be visiting Lake Eyre and we were all quite excited as the lake was full, which is something of a rare occurance - like once every 150years. Here's some interesting facts about Lake Eyre.....

It is actually the lowest point in Australia at -15.3m (or there about's) below sea level
The catchment area for the lake takes in about 1/8th of the total of Australia
Even though the lake is normally empty, no one knows how all the millions of birds that fly there when it's full, know when it's full.
The water is saltier than the sea
And there was a plague of native mice residing there when we camped there - Nice!

We were excited to be at Lake Eyre - even if it wasn't full

Sunset over Lake Eyre

Lake Eyre was a spectacular sight to see and really nice to camp beside. It reminded us very much of home as the air was very salty, there was sand dunes and lots of seagulls. (me thinks we are missing the beach lots). We were quite looking forward to seeing the lake and had been talking to some people at William Creek about it prior to us going there. Whilst we were having this conversation another fellow whom had chartered a flight from Broken Hill to take in the sights of said lake was going on about how disapointed he was about his sight seeing over Lake Eyre, because he had been told that the lake was full. But when he flew over he could see where some of the water had started to evaporate....I'm thinking that this man was your glass half full kind of fellow, considering that it was probably a once in a life time thing to see ANY WATER AT ALL in the lake.

We've since driven through some fantastic small towns whilst making our way south and like I mentioned we have covered some miles. We have also played all our music three times over and no matter how much I try to mix it up there is no escaping the classic hits of Psuedo Echo, The Cars and Van Morrison all in one stretch of road. Geoff especially loves it when I change the words around to the songs. We have created some great games to keep the occupants of the vehichle amused on such journeys. One of which is who can identify the road kill on the side of the road the quickest. Not such an easy task for the driver when he is negotiating road trains, corrugations, massive potholes filled with bulldust and me serenading him from the passenger seat. I have to say it's an easy point score when you drive past a camel laying on the side of the road.

Another good game is to get as many waves as you can from passing motorists. Now this game cam play tricks on your mind and you can suffer from quite a bit of regection when you are faced with a large amount of non wavers in a row. We have found that Far North QLD and the NT were the places that had the most enthusiastic of the wavers. In SA we had to work hard to encourage the wave from passing cars. And people from Victoria were the worst - they just don't wave no matter what state they are driving in. You have to keep an eye out for the late wave too, which can be easily mistaken for a non wave if you are not carefull (it also depends how fast each car is travelling at the time) The game can also be broken down into the type of wave you recieve. But i will leave the technical details of that part of the game for another time. As you can see it is quite an intense game and I will be making a submission to the Olympic committee for the London 2012 games.

We've probably done the last of our bush camping and driven on one our last dirt roads for this holiday which is very sad too. We happended upon a Cattle Station in the Flinders Ranges in SA that let us camp, a few nights ago. It was a massive 450km sq property and was so much fun and so very quiet.

We've landed in Broken Hill, caught up on a bit of 'admin' and having a look around. We are making preparations to head futher south. Tomorrow we are going to have a sit in on a class at the School of the Air. Which should be really intersting - can't wait.

Even though this holiday is fast coming to an end we are still having a ball. The kids are exhausted and are starting to talk about home alot. Perhaps an indication that they are ready to head home? I'm not sure.

So in one week we have vistited Australia's lowest point at Lake Eyre and at the end of the week we will be at Australia's highest point hopefully skiing in some freshly fallen POWDER!

I am not sure if this will be my last oportunity to chew your ear off with our tales, but I just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed sharing our holiday. And to just say that we are truly blessed to live in such a BIG BEAUTIFUL country. It has left us speechess on many occassions and provided us with lots and lots of memories.

Slide night our house upon our return, you are more than welcome.....I promise to cull the 5000 photos I have taken.

Mmmm an old railway sleeper from the Ghan rail track
would burn nicely

Nope too heavy for the trailer ....what to do?

I know...chop it to bits

Then stuff it in the roof bag - we were very warm that night

PALM VALLEY - KINGS CANYON - ULURU



PALM VALLEY – KINGS CANYON -  ULURU

Let me just clarify the RED STILLETTO situation I found myself witnessing whilst at The Devils Marbles. (Due to popular demand) Let me paint a picture of where exactly The Devils Marbles is….It’s in the middle of the Northern Territory Desert! It’s dry, baron, hot and certainly no place for such a fashion statement.  I actually have photo evidence. I think I should be a detective. I have skills in surveillance like you wouldn’t imagine! After getting over the shock of said red shoes, and having to deal with the experience all on my lonesome at the campsite. I composed myself and grabbed my camera (which is always on my person for that perfect holiday snap) thinking to myself that no one would believe me if I told them about the red shoed lady from the campervan next door, I stood in my camper trailer, quietly unzipped one of the windows just so I could put my camera to the fly screen and snapped a picture. But my evidence was not required as the lady didn’t fail to bring out the RED STILLETTO’S the next morning. So here I am quietly boiling the billy for a cuppa and had to some how get Geoff’s attention to get him to look. Oh we are still getting mileage out of that one.

Palm Valley…. Finke Gorge NP in the Northern Territory. If you ever get the chance pop in for a look. Oh my goodness. We had done a bit of reading about Palm Valley and were looking forward to going there. It’s amazing!! This NP is in the NT desert and has the Finke River running through it. But what makes it all the more special is that it is home to The Red Cabbage Palm which is unique to that area and has a population of about 3000 of these palms. The history of this place and the reason that these palms can grow in such dry adverse conditions is so interesting. To get to the NP was an adventure, it’s about 2hrs from Alice Springs and the only access is via a 4WD only track that follows the Finke River. The camping area in the NP is about 16km from the main road and the sign at the beginning of the track makes it quite clear that it is ‘A severe 4WD warning’ Put it this way… it took us over 2hrs to drive there towing the camper (and no the length of time did not have anything to do with my superb navigational skills) it was very tough going. Not knowing really what we were in for on the track, we were totally amazed to find this lovely camp spot in the middle of the desert complete with fire pits, toilets and showers. We could have spent more than the three days we were there. But we took in the sights, went for a beautiful bush walk into the Valley of the Palms which took us about 3 hrs to walk 6km. absolutely stunning.

Palm Valley - NT

Palm Valley - NT

Palm Valley - NT

Leaving Palm Valley we shopped up a storm at the Hermannsburg supermarket, got a permit to travel through Aboriginal land and headed to Kings Canyon. Are you getting the feel for a bit of theme here? Yep – it’s all about THE ROCKS, and boy is they big out here. Kings Canyon is this massive rocky and sandstone mountain range where you are able to explore massive 100m high canyon walls and walk around the top. The walk is called ‘The Rim Walk’ for the moderately fit. It’s 6km long and took us about 4hrs. Absolutely amazing! To start the walk we had to scramble up the side of the mountain on these rough rock steps for about 250m at about a 60 degree angle. Phew it was a thigh burner! Once you reached the top of the mountain we then had the opportunity to walk for the next 5 ish km around the rim of Kings Canyon. Breathtaking and mind-blowing. Once again I will let the photo’s do the talking.

They say that you are meant to scare yourself at least once a day. We managed to have a bone chilling moment at the top of the Canyon when Ben’s hat blew off and was blown to near the edge and he went after it, being a natural reaction. Thankfully the hat and Ben stopped in time.  Now, don’t be fooled by thinking that my kids are getting into the swing of trekking and taking in the scenes via a lengthy walk. Oh no sireeeee. On this particular walk, Geoff and I had put a lot of forward thinking and planning into it the night before. We pulled out the big guns! IPods. Yep, I charged our two IPods the night before and they were ready for use the next morning at the beginning of the walk to motivate any non walkers. Nothing like climbing the side of the mountain to the strains of Katie Perry and a Michael Jackson classic. It did the trick and got us to the top without too much of a whinge fest. But we insisted they turn them off for the rest of the walk due to the safety issue of them not being able to hear us tell them to get away from the edge.

At the bottom of Kings Canyon - that's part of the rim walk
up the top left to right

On top of the world Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon

Absolutely exhausted, we left Kings Canyon the next day full of excitement because we were now heading to Uluru. A place that people talk of and we’ve seen lots of pictures of. But none of the Smith Tour has ever visited. There were points for the first sighting of the Big Rock. Score being…..Geoff scored points for first sighting of Uluru, Marley has two wild camel points, Matty thinks he has 50 camel points because he saw all the camels at the camel riding place (no protest there from the score keeper) and Ben has points for the first sighting of Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)

We are currently at Yulara which is where Ayres Rock Resort is; we’ve set up camp in the camping ground and have spent the last 4 days exploring the area. We have walked around Uluru….a snappy 10km walk – very flat – which took us about 3.5hrs. An amazing way to experience the rock though, I can’t even begin to explain how we all felt when we first got out of the car when we drove to Uluru. Overwhelmed perhaps. We’ve decided not to climb Uluru out of respect for the traditional owners of the land here. We’ve been Camel riding which was a hoot and a great way to see the sights. We explored Kata Tjuta today, didn’t do all the walks there, it was just so hot and we were completely exhausted. We also experienced the sunset at Uluru which was fantastic. They have a special place that you can drive to which gives you a great view of the rock, so in true Australian tradition, we cooked sausages on the barbie and enjoyed a few cold drinks whilst watching the rock change colour with the sun going down. MAGIC

At the base of Uluru

Sterlo the Camel and his friends

MAGIC

Sausage sangas at sunset at Uluru

Pretty stoked to be here

WOW! WOW! WOW!!!!

LAWN HILL QLD – WEST MCDONNELL RANGES NT

20^TH – 31^st July 2011.

Lawn Hill NP

Lawn Hill NP was only about 90km from Gregory Downs – where we last left you. But 90km on a dirt track way out here takes a lot longer than zipping down the freeway for 90km. Bulldust, creeks the odd heard of cattle grazing in the middle of the road, road trains oh yes and crazy emu’s darting in front of our vehicle.

Lawn Hill NP is a spectacular place and was high on our to do list for this holiday, we had heard and read so much about it and were so excited when we arrived. The excitement is like waiting for Santa to come, the build up nearly drives you insane and then when you get there after all these KM’s  you just can’t believe you are finally there. Whilst exploring Lawn Hill we camped at a place called Adels Grove. A beautiful camp beside a river under all these really old trees, so very, very cool in the shade, but no good for Solar Panel use.

Lawn Hill NP - girl power

Lawn Hill NP

Lawn Hill is known for it's Gorges, and one of the ways to explore them was to paddle a canoe. So off us Smith's set in our two hired canoes. What a way to see this place! I will let the photos do the talking.

I have to say that this post will not contain many words and mainly pictures. The places that we have been to and seen in the last 10 days have just been awesome, breathtaking and my words would not do them justice. (yep believe it or not i have been lost for words on more than one occasion this holiday)
The best way I feel that I can share these places with you are through my photos. I hope you enjoy.

Lawn Hill NP

Never smile at a Crocodile

After Lawn Hill we headed south, passing through Camooweal (groovy name for a town!) and hitting The Northern Territory. Now how excited were we! They even have a special place to pull over so you can take a picture on the boarder between QLD and NT.

Let me tell you some interesting facts about the NT.....

Maximum speed on the highway is 130km/hr
The highway is dead straight
You can see nothing for miles and miles. ( I am loving seeing nothing - I love nothing from my window)
Every passing vehicle waves to you
The ground is rock hard. Normally the density of the soil would not worry us, but when we need to bang 7 pegs in to set up our camper you begin to appreciate how hard the ground is.

our camp at The Devils Marbles

We had been here two minutes and I heard Ben and Matty yell out from this rock - heart failure!!!

Heading further south we stocked up at Tenant Creek. Now there's an interesting town for you! Can I just say is was a very brief stop. I will fill you in on the details another day. But needless to say we managed to leave the town with all our possessions and vehicle intact and set off to The Devils Marbles.

The Devils Marbles was unreal. We ended up staying two nights and exploring the area. The kids loved climbing all over the big boulders, it was every little boys dream come true to clamber all over the rocks. We camped with some great people and shared a rather late night around a rather large campfire with them all. The sunrise and sunset were spectacular. BUT I have to say that the most memorable thing for me at The Devils Marbles was.....The massive rental camper van that pulled in next to us one afternoon whilst I was preparing dinner, out hopped the two kids and the dad, then not long after out hopped mum, all decked out in her finery, hair coiffed, face on, wearing her Sunday best and something that I will never forget.......topping her outfit off with a fabulous pair of RED STILETTO'S - yes you read it correct. I was by myself at our camp and had no one to share this moment with and had to take myself inside my camper trailer and peek out through one of the windows to get a better look to actually confirm what I was seeing. Too funny! the lady didn't let me down the next morning when she stepped out in the very same pair of RED STILETTO'S. Love it!

Woo Hooo on top of the world - Devils Marbles

I always knew Geoff was STRONG

Spending only one night in Alice Springs as a stop over, we would have loved to spend some more time there but were keen to get out into to the wilderness and see the West McDonnell Ranges.
We stayed at and walked so many spectacular Gorges, camps, waterholes and experienced the Dessert in the Northern Territory. Like I said my words cannot describe what we have seen and done.

Enjoy the photos.

Only three weeks until we come home.....very sad.

Also may I just also say that not long after I was bragging about the 48% humidity in the Gulf, we experienced a chilly -4 degrees in Alice Springs overnight when we were there. So I eat my words. The days are still gorgeous blue bird days and we are still managing to keep our bones warm in the Northern Territory sun.

A Simpson at Simpson's Gap woo hoo (I was a Simpson's before I became a Smith)

Ellery Big Hole - West McDonnell Ranges NT

Ormiston Gorge - West McDonnell Ranges NT

Ormiston Gorge - West McDonnell Ranges NT

We are off to Palm Valley and then Uluru next.....can't wait