Wow it's amazing!!!

6th May - We walked around the base of Uluru, today took 3.5 hrs and we were beat, so spent the afternoon resting, then I spent a few hours shrinking the size of photos for this blog. We have many, many photos of ‘the rock’ and can’t put them all up here but needless to say it’s quite a garden feature!!! Absolutely amazing and photos or words do not do it justice, you just have to come and see it for yourself :)

7th May - Packed up and went to the Olgas today to walk through the Valley of the winds before heading to Kings Canyon for the night.  We only went to the 2nd lookout at the Olgas and decided to turn around rather than attempt the steep descent to the floor and around the rest of the rocks, we must be getting old ‘cause we are very tired from walking mornings then moving on to the next site to start again.

Ray’s description as he reached the lookout ‘spectacular’ describes the view pretty well, I think.

8th May - Walked the rim of Kings Canyon this morning and my vocabulary, on these walks, has reduced to ‘wow’ and ‘amazing’. Everything is huge and just so amazing. The climb up to the rim just about did me in, though it wasn’t that far (I’m soooo unfit!) and the walk around gave us spectacular views of the canyon with so many interesting information ‘boards’ around explaining the formations and vegetation. 

View from our camper at sunset

We then headed to Palm Valley on the Finke River, again a recommendation from fellow campers, for a bit of a rest. The road in was 4wd only so limits the number of vehicles and led us along a dry riverbed to the Finke River National Park.  The photo to the right  is the view from our camper at sunset. What a lovely spot, so peaceful with a limited number of camping spots, surrounded by rocky red sandstone outcrops along the Finke River. There are few other campers, 3 lots of which come from Port Macquarie, just up the road from Forster!  We all had a lovely evening around another great campfire. 

9th May - After a great night’s sleep we went for our first real off road drive up to Palm Valley and Cycad Grove up river through very rough terrain but the car handled it really well. We then went for a 2 hour walk up the valley where there were more spectacular views. Everything is so lush and green here, it’s just beautiful.

I’m sure we’ve come at a good time as all the countryside is quite green and fairly well covered, not what I’d expect in a desert. This afternoon is relax time and some hand washing (which dried in 2 hours) then another fireside tea.

Palm Valley where  cycads and palms  are hundreds of years old

Hidden valley view from lookout above camp

10th May - We walked up to the lookout above our camp this morning just a short 35 min walk to be amazed again by the fantastic view of a hidden valley and returned to pack up and go to Standley Chasm, when we got there we decided to keep going to Alice Springs as we had arrived just after a Gold Wing Bike Club had and were going to have to line up to pay behind them all as they ordered coffee etc. so we decided to continue on to Alice Springs because we wouldn’t have time to do the long walk anyway so we have to come again to spend more time in this area, there’s just so much to see and do here. Set up in a caravan park and did a week’s washing then went into ‘town’. This is a big place, so many galleries and tourist info shops, some lovely artworks and an aboriginal print patchwork fabric shop that I could have spent a fortune in, even Ray liked the fabrics and would have liked a quilt for our bed made from it until I told him how much it would cost! The price of their fabric was very good, Ray just didn’t realise how much you need, I hope he forgets real soon!!

We’re spending 2 nights here and have service on our phones and internet so need to catch up with family and friends before we head for the Tanami and no service for a few more days at least.

The weather has been fabulous, 28 - 30 degrees without the humidity, cool nights but not freezing and we have been blessed with great roads, even the dirt ones. I suspect it's going to get a lot rougher so am bracing myself for a bone jarring trip along the Tanami Track.

Happy Mother’s Day to both our mums, daughter and daughter-in-law especially and all mums in general for Sunday, have a lovely day.