4th July, 2016
We are off and getting in the travel mode again. Decided to have two days in Port Augusta ,
We had dinner with Trish McLatchie and her husband, Jim related through the Glover family at Corack and now living in PA. Good to go over family histories and old days and legends .
Did some shopping today and stocking up for the outback. A nice city of 13,000 and a lot of history because of its location at head of Spencer Gulf and springboard and service center to all that’s north.
Had to call at Port Pirie yesterday to get a new water pump fitted in van, had trouble with it for a while and hope it is fixed now, all else is fine and the heaters are all working well as it has been wet and cold , 12 c here which is pretty unusual for the area .
Spent an hour or two at the Outback center, an excellent display of history, Aboriginal, railways and the original Ghan to Alice Springs, the cattle and mining industries and original exploration. Bit of deja vu with Route 66 in the USA, we discovered this time last year.
Friday 8th July
Had a little time in Cooper Pedy and fuelled up and got some food and checked out the beautiful Catholic Church 100% underground like a lot of the buildings in this unique opal mining town, decided to head out of town and find a campsite in the bush.
Drove from 30 ks north of Cooper Pedy over 8 hours drive to Yalara camping park for Ayers Rock. Had the diesel heater on last night and it was 10/10 cloud and wet since we left home but sure enough as we crossed the border into the Territory the sky came out and the clouds disappeared and we had the a/c on this afternoon and is nice and warm here but i guess it will be a frost in the morning .
The road is magnificent and we were sitting around 100 kms most of the day but had to fuel up pretty often only getting 400 kls to tank.
Finally decided to make the detour into the Rock as we have driven past it several times and i have never been here. It is a 270 kls drive into here and it looks just like all the pictures I have seen of it, Alison has been here twice once when she was at Teachers College and once with clients she was working with at Murdoch House in St Arnaud.
Decided to join a free group walk with a Ranger telling us some stories and history of the area .
He asked if anyone had been there before and Alison voluntered that she had visited the Rock first time in 1959 and again in in 89 . The Ranger was impressd and asked her about her first visit and said it was soon after Bill Haley had started tours of the Rock and it has been a significant part of the Australian tour itinery ever since.
Of course the area has been an important part of the indigenous peple of the area and resulted in a name change to Uluru and the aboriginal groups really control the area now .
I followed the group on my bike and many families were riding around the Rock on their pushbikes. There were huge crowds here because it was a school holiday time and all the camp sites were chockfull .
We could only get an unpowered site in a back paddock with tight restrictions on where people can camp
Later in the day we drove out to the Olga rock group and saw the sun set on these rocks also .
We planned to drive to Alice Springs and made the decision to go by the Kings Canyon and the Yarapinta loop road . This is a dirt road about 190 kms of it and it was very corrugated with many inverts and flood ways .
We found it slowed us down for the sake of the van down to 50 kms per hour in spots, other areas we could get going and fortunately because of recent rain there was minimum dust .
We had booked a park in Alice but could not make it as it was dark when we got to Hermmansburg still 130 odd kms from Alice .
Hermmansburg was a Lutheran mission and is famous for the home of the Aboriginal painter Albert Namatjira. We drove into the town looking for maybe a campsite or a shop of some sort but found the place very quiet. It was Sunday night and we also found we had a flat tyre which we had to change, we could have done without that. After all that travelling we decided to drive out of town and find a camp on the roadside which we did right near the airstrip on a graded track which was quite convenient.
We arrived at the Big 4 Park in Alice about 10.30 am and had to wait till 11am to get in and as we have been here before we knew our way around and so we are having and couple of days R and R here.
I went to my favorite spot in Alice, The outback transport Hall of fame and found some local contributions mainly Bill Fitzpatricks 83 Mack superliner that was totally restored by a group of enthusiass in honour of one of their drivers ,
Time to update our blog for any who may be interested .We are now in Katherine that icon town on the Stuart Highway and we have been here for the last week with Debbie, our eldest daughter who has just moved north from Tennant Creek and is working in the hospital here . Three of her kids are also here all working and boarding together so we are enjoying the time with them all .
We have been to the local show and rodeo and met the Chief Minister of the Territory, Adam Giles at the Show , also been to Edith Falls and last night we enjoyed a dinner cruise on the Katherine Gorge, indeed one of most beautiful places on the planet .
Went to the Baptist Church on Sunday and found relatives of friends who we later had around for dinner .
Last night, we had dinner with Margot Paynter who with husband, John, friends from Donald are travelling back home after being further north for their daughter’s wedding. Unfortunately, Jon is sick with gastro and could not be with us. Also met Nicole, another nurse friend of Debbie’s.
McEwen Farming and Family Stuff 