Troopy Travels

Back again

Geez! We are getting to know the Stuart Hwy pretty well by now. We confirmed our campsite just outside of Cadney Park. Didnt find the exact same one, but close enough and spent another goodnight on the side of the road (well, a few hundred meters from the road - behind some scrub). Just think, next time you are travelling up the Stuart Hwy early in the morning, keep the noise down cause we may be there trying to sleep in! hehe

We only spent a couple of days in Whyalla this time and then onto Adelaide.

Kiddy Camping

Well, the pictures for this part of the journey are on the slideshows page. Im not going to describe the whole journey because Ive left it too late for that.

We picked the kids up at Alice Springs airport. The kids had kept in touch with me over thier journey from Canberra via Liams phone. The QANTAS staff that looked after them the whole way were excellent. Anneliese and I have both seen this system in action before and have found Qantas to be very good in thier dealings with the kids. This trip was no exception, the kids had a great time and were delivered safe and sound.

We stayed the night at Alice Springs - Macdonald Ranges Caravan Park. They werent bad there, part of the Big4 network that we have found to be really nice parks. A little dearer, but if you need to stay in a caravan park then these are worth the money….we feel.

First thing in the morning we left towards Uluru (Ayres Rock), we decided to spend the night at Curtin Springs for 2 nights and visit Ayres Rock and The Olgas from there. Its a free camp and is well known (being right on the main road). So dont expect much for your money. Basically its a dustbowl with a few trees. But the main thing for us is that they had firepits, so we made a fire for dinner, cooked up a damper and had a great time.

We visited Mt Conner, took some pics, but couldnt get too close since some farmer had decided to fence off all the fences around the area (we didnt try real hard though, since we were walking).

We stopped at Ayers Rock, hoping to climb it. But found the gate locked. Apparently if its too windy or conditions are not good, the gate is locked. So we did a bit of walking around the base, looking at some of the other sites around the rock. Then around lunch we headed to the visitors center. The plan was to have lunch, have a drive around the rock and then head back to our camp.

As we drove around the rock we noticed that the gate was open and they were allowing climbers. Now they do ask that you dont climb, but you are welcome to if you wish…so we climbed. The girls made it to the start of the rope and then stopped. Liam was almost running up the rock, so I tried my best to follow him. I tell you…that bloody rock is steeper than you think. but we made it to the top. We didnt get to the book, I stopped Liam because it was hot, i was tired, and we didnt bring water (I didnt expect to climb up the bloody thing). But at least he got to the top of the rock (I stopped at the end of the rope).

The Olgas were pretty good too, but the day was wearing on so we didnt hang around there much. Both Anneliese and I were disappointed with both places now. We both saw Ayers Rock and The Olgas a long time ago and there wasnt the amount of tourists, walking paths, roped off areas that there are now. The mysticism of the places have gone for us and so we didnt feel the need to stay for too long. I think the kids had had about enough by now as well. So we headed back to camp.

Next day we headed to Kings Canyon. Went camel riding at Kings Creek station and considered staying there the night, but decided to get a room at Kings Canyon Resort instead. Phew! The prices there are steep! We paid $165 for a room (just an open room in a cinderblock dormitory) with 4 beds a small table, telly and fridge. Shared amenities were nearby and a camp kitchen for cooking. Laundry facilities were across the park at the campsite (of course). Very disappointing and if we were to do it again, we would certainly stay at Kings Creek Station instead. It may not be cheap either, but it seemed like a much nicer environment.

We didnt spend long at Kings Canyon. Liam really wasnt keen and we were all feeling a little tired and grumpy. So the next day we had a quick look at the canyon and left….Anneliese and I were also a little put off by our views on the day before and were getting sick of seeing these iconic places being ruined by walking paths and viewing platforms.

We followed the Larapinta/Mereenie Loop out of Kings Canyon to Gosses Bluff. A pretty eerie place. Then onto Glen Helen resort for GoldenBurgers (hamburgers that cost $15 each!!!! yeah you heard that right, thats why I called them goldenburgers).

Then onto waterholes Ormiston Gorge and Ellery Big Hole. Had a swim at Ellery Big Hole, it was bloody freezing, but still nice.

Back to Alice, we visited the Reptile park which had a good show and let the kids (and us) handle some of the snakes. Certaily worth a visit. But the Desert Park was wonderful. Well worth going to (catch the bird show!). Ensure you have a full day there though, we gave ourselves an afternoon and pretty much had to run everywhere to catch the shows and then didnt get to see the whole park.

The next day we saw the kids off…again, kudos to Qantas, they are always so professional and great with the kids (no, we do not hold Qantas shares and are not affiliated with them in anyway). They had a pretty uneventful trip home, good for us, not so good for the kids :)

Thats our week in a nutshell, lol

Back to Alice

After visiting Whyalla (go back a bit to here http://troopytravels.com/Blog/?p=72 for my Whyalla write up) we headed back up to Alice Springs to pick my kids up for a week of showing them the outback.

On the way back to Alice Springs we decided we didnt want to stay in any paid accomodation or camp sites, so we looked for a nice place to pull off the road and camp for the night. We had already decided to get breakfast at Cadney Park, because the food there really is good. So we wanted to stop before there.

In the end we found a great spot, about 50kms from Cadney Park, just off the main road. For a few kms along the highway they have run offs from the road that have tyre marks on them. We followed one of these and it headed into a fairly good copse of trees about 2 to 300meters from the road. Plenty of nice spots around there to park the car and plenty of wood for a fire.

We set up, got a fire going and spent the evening watching rain clouds come in from down south, took a few pictures of them and got a little sprinkling of rain. But the rain didnt last and we had a nice evening by the fire before retiring to bed ready for the next day.

Brekky at Cadney park was lovely and we found out what IWCYODDTRFDSTFOWTM (or something like that) means. Its over the bar at the roadhouse…let me know if you figure it out.

Onto Alice with the kids :)

To Whyalla

So, we left Kalkarindji and headed towards Whyalla to visit mum and the rest of the family.

We were intending to stay the night at Maree (on the Stuart Hwy) and pulled in there at about 8pm that evening after a big day of driving. But fortunately we were politely informed that there was no accomodation there at all, we were too late.

After a brief chat with the kind lady at the service station we got a number for a roadhouse at Cadney Park - 80kms down the road. We called them and had a room arranged, we would head straight there.

The room was nice enough, they have a hotel, some lawn for tents and caravans and some cabins. All very nice. The owner is trying to drum up business a bit as most people tend to head for Maree. Well, DONT! Next time you are heading up the Stuart Hwy to or from Alice Springs, consider stopping at Cadney Park as the accomodation is great, reasonably priced and the food from the roadhouse is lovely.

We made a point of stopping there again on our way back to Alice, but Ill get to that later.

All up, we made it to Whyalla no problems :)

More to follow…