Bush Camping

Our original plan to go camping a couple of days after the boys' birthday was cancelled due to bad weather (too much heat), so we rescheduled it for after Easter.  We are VERY glad we did!  It was in the upper 80's to low 90's (which still feels very hot in the Australia sun), but it did get relatively cool at night, although not quite like the Idaho mountains.  It was a different experience not camping by water, but there were enough interesting things to make it good.

This camping trip was our epic journey to Ayers Rock (Uluru), the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) and Kings Canyon (Watarrka).  We came to the realization that we weren't going to be able to fit all of our camping stuff in the back of the Disco and on the roof rack, so we checked around to see how much it might be to rent a trailer. For the price it would cost us to rent a trailer for a few days (very expensive), we bought one.  It was quite a good find, as little junky trailers can sell for several thousands of dollars here, and this one was fairly nice.  We figured we could get quite a lot of use out of it and then sell it, likely for more than we paid for it.  We bought it from a Turkish fellow who owns a local Pide restaurant (pronounced like "pita", the bread).  He used to install satellite dishes until he got Leukemia from the associated radiation produced by them.  I guess he is in remission now.  He is a very nice man and treated us very well, both with the trailer purchase and when we bought some food from him several days later.  He gave us five pieces of real Turkish Delight for free and treated us like we were old friends.  Very nice.

Anyhow, we left Thursday morning and headed to Ayers Rock - a four and a half hour drive from here.  While at Ayers Rock, we reserved a two-bedroom cabin at the resort there and planned to spend the rest of Thursday and most of Friday morning roaming around Ayers Rock and the Olgas.  The indigenous people actually own Ayers Rock and don't like people to climb on it, so they let you climb it but post signs and fill brochures with propaganda telling how climbing is allowed, but it is VERY disrespectful to the Aboriginal people and they ask that you not climb it, but they do allow it.  There is a chain handrail with metal posts and a gate at the bottom of the Rock, but they don't want you to climb it, but go ahead, but it is very disrespectful of you, but you can if you want to.  Confusing...  Needless to say, they find every reason to prevent you to climb the Rock and we were spared the guilty feeling of climbing the Rock due to it being closed for "high winds at the summit".  The Rock is only about 350m high, and there wasn't even a breeze at the bottom.  We have heard from local Australians that they really try to find any and every reason to close the climbing path.  The sides of the Rock are very steep and smooth, so would be highly impossible to climb anywhere but the designated trail without some serious equipment. So, (without any bitterness) we did a bit of hiking around some the of base trails and got some good pictures!

The next morning we headed to the Olgas, which we thought were much more interesting than Ayers Rock.  The Olgas (550m high) are a bunch of rocks that are just like Ayers rock, geologically speaking, but there are trails all around and through.  Much more interesting.  We saw some of the only clear, flowing water we've seen in Australia at the Olgas.  If anyone goes to see Ayers Rock sometime in their life, we highly recommend the Olgas - very much worth the extra 50km drive to see!

After the Olgas on Friday, we headed off to Kings Creek Station (ranch) campground where we planned to camp for several days.  It was great!  Kings Creek Station is a working ranch with horses, camels and cows.  We were given a nice grassy plat right at the edge of the campground away from most of the hubbub.  The bathrooms/showers were right near our campsite for the kids to rush off to when necessary, and we felt ok to let the kids go by themselves since we could see it easily.  The worst part about the trip were the flies!  Swarms and swarms of flies (yes, normal houseflies, called bushflies here)!  We were prepared with bug spray and fly nets, but you can't eat with a net over your mouth and bug spray didn't really work, so there were times of pure torture with very persistent flies forcing their way into every orifice. It is just one of those things you have to persevere if you are going to camp in the Central Australian Bush this time of year!

We did get to see several things we hadn't seen yet; wild emus, camels, processional caterpillars, a thorny devil (lizard) that I think I may have ran over on accident, a scorpion in the pool, etc.  One morning, we woke up to some "grazers" in our "pasture".  There was a full grown horse and a Shetland (or similar) pony happily chomping away at our grass!  I got up while it was still pretty dark (one of the few fly-free times of the day) to start the campfire and made friends with the horses, who then proceeded to follow the kids around when they got up.  The kids enjoyed them until the horses started trying to eat their oatmeal - it's one thing try to keep a dog from eating your food, and quite another to keep a horse from eating your food!  In the end, I had to shoo them away to the next campsite so the kids could eat in peace! On our last morning, we had some young cows in our pasture, but one of them was an intact bull with some small horns.  I shooed them off before they got rooted, being a little wary of how protective a young bull might be with cows nearby.  Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures of the horses or cows.

We did a couple of hikes at Kings Canyon.  The first hike was about five and a half kilometers long, along the rim of the canyon.  The second one was about 1km and was in the bottom of the canyon.  One of the guys that I work with who is from Wisconsin (and Florida) said he thought it was comparable to the Grand Canyon, but he had never been to the Grand Canyon.  Well, let me tell you, he should probably go visit the Grand Canyon, because Kings Canyon is very small compared to the Grand Canyon!  It was still very beautiful however.  We saw a type of Lizard we hadn't seen before, and amazing geography/geology. Whenever we see the signs with "billions of years", etc., etc., we always give the kids the Biblical interpretation of how all of the mountains were formed.  When all of the signs say "there used to be an ancient lake where you are standing" or something similar, we try to get the kids thinking about what that lake might have covered, and how often you read that there used to be an ancient lake on the top of a mountain and then we ask them if they can think of a large "lake" mentioned in the Bible that might cover the tops of mountains.  It is fun to see their little minds working and their eyes light up!

On Tuesday, we drove back (100km of which was an unpaved dirt "track") and arrived at home around 2:30.  We stopped at a meteorite crater for lunch, but we didn't go look at it.  It was very hot and fly-ish and the kids were tired of hiking.  It is only about 120km from where we live, so we figured we can go back some other time if we want to see it.  All in all, it was a fun and interesting trip - an experience that we would never have had in the US, but it also makes us miss Idaho and Oregon a whole lot!

Trent

Road to Uluru

Mt. Conner on the way to Ayers Rock

Desert landscape

Kids in front of the Rock

Uluru climbing trail

Uluru

Touching Uluru

Aboriginal paintings

Aboriginal paintings

Uluru hiking

Uluru

Water hole at the base of Uluru

Looking up to Ayers Rock

Killing time

Sunset at the Olgas

Australian sunset (Olgas on the horizon at right)

Driving to the Olgas

The Olgas (or giant taco shells if you ask Beaux)

The Olgas

Starting the "Valley of the Winds" hike at the Olgas

Small stream at the base of the Olgas

Ascending into the Olgas

Waterfall in the Olgas

Kids spying out tadpoles

Between the rocks (Olgas)

Scaling the Olgas

Lunch at an Olgas lookout

Valley of the Olgas

Lunch at the Olgas

Lunch at the Olgas

Lunch at the Olgas - should I eat mine or Hilary's?

Coming down from the lookout

Flowing, clear water!

Jones with some perspective

Eye of the needle

More flowing water

Looking down the waterfall

Looking down the valley from the waterfall

The Olgas

Camp

View from the campground at Kings Creek Station

Camp at Kings Creek Station

Camp at Kings Creek Station

Sunset at Kings Creek Station

Camels making their way to the  water hole at dusk

Sunset at Kings Creek Station

Camels at the water hole

A walk through the station

A walk through the station

Starting Kings Canyon rim walk (6km)

Climbing the rim

Kings Canyon

Atop Kings Canyon

On the rim

Jax on high

Don't get too close Hilary!

Overlooking the "Garden of Eden" inside Kings Canyon

When you see water in Central Australia, you take a picture of it - even if it is just a puddle!

Foot bridge crossing a portion of the canyon

Gum tree growing out of solid rock

I see you Jones...

A waterfall spills down from the cliff when it rains

Playground at Kings Creek Station.  The old Land Cruiser was a favorite.

Scorpion!  We fished this out of the pool - still very much alive!

In the morning at our campsite

Billy can (water pot)

Processional Caterpillars - you should Google these.  They went right through our campsite!

Our first Emu siting in the bush.  There are two - can you find them both?

Long Nosed Dragon - a fairly common lizard in the Outback.  They run on their hind legs.

Sign at Kings Canyon trailhead

S'mores!

Beaux thinks the fire is a bit hot for marshmallow roasting!

100km of dirt/sand road on the way home from Kings Creek Station