After a night of catching up with friends around Michelle and Stewart’s fire pit, with slightly foggy heads, Rod and I planned a bike ride towards Simpson’s Gap. I say ‘toward’ – whilst we would have made it TO Simpson’s Gap, our pleasant ride would then have turned into a 50K + return. I was VERY aware of the ever so slight downhill vibe I was getting. Where there’s downhill there’s uphill…
This ride is incredible in that, the views are amazing: blue skies and red rocks as far as the eye can see. Loved every minute (even the uphill) and it’s felt good being back on the bike this week. Rod stopped for a nature break on the way back and found a bike stashed behind a tree. Stolen? Cross training? Weird regardless.
We returned the bike and picked up Eli and Hamish for a quick trip to the Eastern Macs to have a look at Emily & Jessie Gap. Jessie Gap has ancient rock artwork and Emily Gap is currently full of water. They are both beautiful sites to visit within 20 minutes of Alice.
Michelle met us back at St Phillips, where the three of us met 20 years ago. It was lovely to walk around the school; fond memories of our time here still fresh in our minds. My handprint in the Topsy lockers still front and centre; Jessica’s on the back wall.
We returned to Suellen’s to clean up and pack up for our departure back to Melbourne. Suellen is an absolute treasure opening up her house to us since Tuesday. Plans for last night revolved around dinner at Hanuman’s, but it is booked out for 3 days! We ate at the Juicy Rump at the Casino outside with the gas heaters on.
The biggest issue of the night however, was a lost ticket for the concert Michelle, Jess and I are going to tomorrow night. I paid for it back in April, the money was taken from my account, but I can’t find the ticket anywhere! After multiple calls to Jess, searching email accounts and documents on my laptop (with no success) Jess secured another ticket. Crisis over. Writing this today it sounds like a non-issue, but I can assure you I was less than calm last night trying to work out WHERE this mystery ticket was!
I am stealing Michelle for the next 5 days. We’ll be in Melbourne this weekend then will have 3 nights at Phillip Island with two other girlfriends from home. I can’t wait to show Michelle around Phillip Island and take her to see the Penguins; she’s going to love it.
I take Hamish and Eli to the Desert Park for some easy strolling activity which does not involve attachment to a screen. The birds of prey show is the big drawcard and it starts at 10. Things have been busy here in The Centre and I am wary of queues, so I get us there just after 9. There is nobody about and we amble in, with 40 minutes or so to wander around before taking our seats. Eli is a little anxious about missing the show, so we get there with 15 minutes to kill. Now it gets crowded. The show starts and it is a lot of fun. The birds are well-trained and/or just following their instincts. The star of the show is not a bird of prey but a humble little local Willie Wagtail. It follows the presenter everywhere and does every swoop with the big birds as they try to catch the scraps. The show is enjoyed by all and then Hamish waits to get a photo with a wedgie (eagle.) We resume our pleasant stroll around the park. We all love the Nocturnal House and the boys are extremely well-behaved. The only downer was the closure of the café. But we make do with a couple of pies from the kiosk.
Afterwards (thanks to Eli’s recommendation of ‘Desert Dwellers’) we manage to find a replacement cable for the car fridge that I clumsily broke at Yulara. My conscience is eased.
Back on the bikes
Belinda has hired a bike (hard tail Orbea) from the Outback Cycling bike shop (where they have bikes AND coffee) and I have borrowed Stewart’s dual-suspension Polygon. A bit of logistics follow; I drop Belinda at the shop, drive back to the house and then ride my bike to meet her there. It all works out as I try to remember my way around town. Belinda has a route picked out, but the man in the shop recommends another trail. So, we head off, past our old school and follow the Todd River towards the telegraph Station and beyond. The trail is coloured green (beginner) on the bike shop map and blue (intermediate) on Trail Forks (MTB app – which Belinda uses all the time). Blue wins. No question. It is quite rocky, fairly narrow and often quite steep.
There is also a (sand) river crossing to contend with. We manage the trail well, though; only having to walk our bikes occasionally. Neither of us has a fall and we feel pretty satisfied with our effort, given that neither of us have been mountain biking since Belinda’s injury. A pleasant ride home, mostly following the Todd River follows. We start planning our next ride, tomorrow.
We (I) planned to leave by 0800 to enable us to get to and explore, Kata Tjuta. It’s a decent drive from Alice to Uluru – approximately 4.5 hrs, thus my early departure plan.
To my complete delight, we were on the road by 0745 and headed through the gap towards Yulara. If you’re getting confused by my terminology, I’ll Anglicise it for you:
Uluru – Ayers Rock
Kata Tjuta – The Olgas
Yulara – Yulara
We made great time, stopping at Erldunda for fuel and the toilets. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know Rod has no sense of smell due to some random football injury that took out his olfactory nerve. You’ll understand then why, he was completely innocent as to the smell he emitted from his slender body before getting back into the car. Hamish and I let loose with both barrels; “you can’t bring that smell in here” and “honestly, what did you eat?” and “how can someone so small make such an overwhelming smell?” It was all in good nature and Rod took it well. But it wasn’t until he tried to wind up the windows that I suggested there was no way on God’s Earth this was going to occur. I will admit, my language was particularly colourful, but not disproportionate to the crime. One poor man walking by, heard this entire repertoire and gave us a look of shock. It’s tough being in our family: survival of the fittest!
Our first stop was Kata Tjuta. I feel this incredible site is underrated, but not by us.
We walked the Walpa Gorge section and were amazed by the sheer presence of the structure: it is the height of Uluru.
We then headed to Ayers Rock Resort, Yulara, to “check in” to our camp site. There were many, many vehicles queued in front of us and to cut a long story short, we waited for close to an hour to “check in” to our powered camp site. It was a little underwhelming, but I kept telling myself it’s just for one night.
Our swags were quickly set up along with our camp chairs and cooking equipment. We travelled light but were happy with our little corner of the campground. We were the only group with swags. This was NOT unnoticed by a man from TAS who enquired how’d we managed the night before with the swags. His entire conversation then turned to a ‘mice issue’ in Erldunda and he was curious how we’d managed them! Bloody Hell! Not being a girl who camps, I toughened up momentarily and told him it didn’t matter, as this was all we had anyway and we’d be fine. Also mentioned if we weren’t I’d knock on their tent.
However, I did get a bit sooky and cleared out the back the 4WD to enable my swag to fit inside. See pics. After quite an amount of honey bourbon, Rod slept without waking, suggesting the comfort of the swag was superior to any camping he’d done before…Swag or bourbon – you be the judge. Hamish ended up climbing in with me in the wee cold hours of the morning.
Day 4 – Uluru to Kings Canyon
We were up early as I’d hired bikes to ride around the Uluru (instead of walking). Preparing breakfast toasties and packing up camping gear in 1 degree is a tough gig (and one of us did it with a decent hangover…).
However, we packed up and got our bikes. Having walked around Uluru a number of times (and now being a self-proclaimed cyclist) I loved the idea of the bikes. The bikes were not like ones we are used to, they’re Cruisers with one gear and back pedal brakes and I kinda felt like I was back in Primary School. Hamish came close to an early melt down (“this is why I hate bikes…”), but I fixed his gear issue and we carried on. I couldn’t help but do a skid every time I stopped – it was fun.
We finished our ride and rewarded ourselves with local gelato before heading back to Yulara for fuel and food before our long drive to Kings Canyon. After a cold and restless night for at least two us, we were tired when we arrived at our basic lodge accommodation hours later. We had our first shower in 36 hours and settled in for a relaxing afternoon. There was music and drinks on offer at the sunset viewing platform; this kind of thing is usually right down our street, but we opted for an early dinner instead. Thankfully we made this decision as the queue was already 20 deep when we arrived at 6pm.
Rod and Hamish entertained themselves with Flip Uno as I patiently waited in the line. I engaged my brightest, chirpiest self at the cash registered, “Hiya, how are you?” to be instantly told “It’s a 45-minute wait!” I’ve obviously lost my touch when it comes to charm…Needless to say we all slept well after a huge day and a half and woke up early to be on the road to complete Kings Canyon rim walk by 0830.
Day 5 – Kings Canyon to Alice
I’ve completed the KC rim walk about 5 other times with various members of my family – the youngest being Jess when she was 5. The oldest being Phillip when he was in his 60’s. It’s challenging to start with, but definitely worth the 400 steep steps at the start. We stopped a few times on the way up (unless you’re an Olympic athlete or robot, you’re going to need to stop) but then cruised for the rest of the hike. All up it’s about 6km and we had a glorious day to match the amazing views. Nothing like it in the rest of the country. Hamish was very brave and lay down to look over the edge on the South Wall (Rod could hardly look at us doing this let alone do it himself). We did the walk in about 2 hours (1-2 hours less than the suggested time) and were all pretty proud with each other. Rod and I especially proud of Hamish; we think he’s great.
I’ve hired a MTB to explore some local trails Wednesday arvo and Thursday morning. Really keen to explore this town on two wheels for the first time. Rod is taking Eli (now Covid free) and Hamish to the Desert Park tomorrow morning and I’ll do a bit of washing and catch up with Michelle and Tracy.
Woke up early with a cracking headache from a winning combo of beer, wine and not enough water…your never really learn do you. I thought Rod was similarly afflicted, however (he tells me) it was his chronic ghost abdo pain that hits randomly and flattens him for a couple of days.
I took a very excited Hamish to the breakfast buffet; his face not masking the joy he was feeling. We walked into the lavish spread; Hamish didn’t even sit at the table we were shown to: “I’m going Mum!” He came back quickly with two mini muffins and a pastry. I suggested having a bit of a look first before grabbing the first attractive thing he sees (there’s a life lesson if ever I’ve read one) but dashed off for a couple of mini sausages. I finally convinced him to make a bit of toast, get a drink…you know, like we’d do at home, but there was so much choice on display it muddled his decision making.
We had a slow relaxing breakfast and headed back to see how Rod was faring. Hamish pulled two additional mini blueberry muffins out of his pocket – you know, like a breakfast chaser, we ate them on the way back to the room. Two bites and they’re gone.
We were surprised to see Rod had dragged his sorry butt out of bed, was dressed and had just enough constitution to go to our first friends catch up for the day. Our beautiful friend Pushpa had a 4 hour stop over in Alice (flying home to Sydney) so we saw her at the café at Araluen. It’s funny how time is both a reality and a tangible concept, but when you haven’t seen good friends for years, time melts away. Lots of hugs, a few teary eyes and that bridge of time vanished.
Much of our day has been spent preparing for the next 3. Tomorrow we leave early for Uluru, we’ll go to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) in the afternoon then set up in our powered campsite. We’ve camping gear and swags for the night, courtesy of Michelle and Stewart. We also have one of their 4WD’s. I forgot Alice is a town with more 4WD’s than people…Monday morning I’ve booked bikes so we can ride around Uluru, then we’ll head to Kings Canyon where we’re staying in a 4-bed room with shared bathroom facilities.
Essentials have been purchased and I’ve just made up an entire loaf of bread into ham and cheese, and chicken and cheese sandwiches. There’s lots of driving the next few days and we have a car fridge, so figured this would save both time and money. Of course, I suggested to Rod he needs to buy some honey bourbon as it’s going to be super cold camping. He couldn’t find the brand he was familiar with: “Just get ANY brand!” I say, the tone of my voice reflecting the exasperation of me having to deal with the worst check out chick in Australia.
Re-reading that paragraph, it looks as though ‘the essentials’ consist ONLY of sandwiches and bourbon, please be assured we have pasta, yoghurt, fruit, cereal, coffee, chocolate and chippies (some of the other essentials!).
I’ve unpacked and repacked our bags for the next 3 days. Our excess luggage is now safely at our friend Suellen’s house, where she’s kindly offered us two of her rooms to stay in when we return late Tuesday afternoon – our Alice friends are friends for life.
Missing Jess – partly because we love her and partly because she loves Alice as much as we do. Buying her gifts so she doesn’t miss out completely.
Wish us (me) luck with our camping tomorrow night – overnight temp of 3. Honey bourbon may not be enough to get me through. Oh and we also went to Flynn’s Grave – on the way there Hamish asked “Was Flynn a friend of yours?” Little cutie.
Honestly, if you’re reading this blog, you know Hamish has travelled. He’s seen stuff loads of Aussies will NEVER see both in Australia and overseas. For the past 18 months or so we’ve been hearing the following: “How come I’ve never been to Uluru. It’s not fair! Everyone else has been there!”
It’s been quite a year, has 2022…Rod and I separated at the end of Feb with a determination to be the best parents we can be. This included the lofty goals of shared occasions, no push-pull and a very modern approach to housing. We have definitely managed this so far and to be honest, we’re all getting along better. So we’re walking the talk with a week’s trip to Alice, including Uluru and Kings Canyon.
I first moved here 20 years as a fresh secondary teacher, Rod was an experienced chalkie. We both loved and hated our years here due to many things, but that’s basically another couple of blogs worth of content. Suffice to say once you get some red dirt in your skin, you’re hooked.
I finished work yesterday afternoon. We woke up at 0500 this morning to enable us to get to Melbourne for our 1030 flight. The only thing that kept me from completely losing it over my coffee this morning was a super happy, excited, flappy Hamish. He turned around my tired state: “Can you believe we’re going to Alice today!”
Rod drove and I slept. It was a quick trip to Tulla and we made plenty of time. Having travelled extensively with Hamish since he was 4, it’s sooooo much better now. He can carry his own bag, he can help with other luggage, he can clip in his own seatbelt, he can basically just about do everything an adult can do whilst travelling except pay his own way. He’s like a little broke best friend…
I am the first person to tell anyone how exceptional I am at packing. I am literally the most efficient person when it comes to packing for holidays. I have prided myself in going to Europe with 2 pr of shoes and 1 medium sized suitcase…This has NOT been the case for a week in Alice (and another week in Melbourne and Phillip Island). My case weighed in the heaviest at 15.8kg and did not survive the flight intact. Fortunately my bras and undies were not spilled across the tarmac, but I have replaced my case with a sturdy $20 duffel bag on wheels, from Kmart.
We’re heading to Uluru and Kata Tjuta Sunday, camping the night (which everyone thinks is hilarious (“I can’t believe you’re going to sleep in a sleeping bag!”), then riding bikes around Uluru before we drive to King’s Canyon. We’ll head back to Alice Tuesday arvo and hopefully get to catch up with our besties (who’ve been slidelined due to COVID).
111daysineurope 