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