Alice Springs and the Western McDonell Range

We stopped in Alice Springs for a couple of days after our 2 long days of driving to get to the ' red center' of Oz. It was hot, hot, hot once again. We spent the first day getting acclimated to the area and spent sunset at a nice overlook of the valley Alice sits in.

The second day was spent on the go. We went to the Desert Museum very early and enjoyed it very much, especially the birds of prey exhibition/demonstration. One type of vulture instinctively knew how to use a small rock to crack open emu eggs. That was great fun to watch. We learned more than we thought possible about termites and loved watching the Thorny Devils lap up the ants. From there we went to Standley Chasm and hiked way up the gorge and took tons of photos (surprise, surprise...) and then we found this great

waterhole with amazingly cold water, which was nice, considering it was 38 degrees once again.

We found out about this place that had these little rock wallabies who would come down out of the bush every night at sunset to feed. Jake and Mariah particularly enjoyed feeding them. From there we hit the road the Uluru which was still 475 kilometers south and west. The speed limit in the Northern Territory is 130 kph which is cruising along pretty good (almost 80 miles per hour). We'd typically go between 130 and 140. Up until 5 years ago they had no limit. It reminded us of Eastern Washington in places and of Southern Utah in others. The colors were pretty vibrant, especially if you were out and about at sunrise and sunset, which we were. If you ever get out this way bring big hats, bug nets, your swimmers, some good hiking boots and your camera.

The kids were good troopers for the most part. Jake got pretty tired and grumpy at times due to the lack of much sleep (up at sunrise day after day and still awake late at night because we would be sweating in our tents laying on top of our bags without shirts.) We just kept dragging them around on forced march after forced march. They're pretty experienced hikers by now. They've all summited Mt. St. Helens and now Uluru! Pretty different climbs, those. (as Aussies would say)

They love to say things like,"She's smart as..." or " He's fast as..." I always want to ask, "Fast as what? They'd just say, "Oh, I can't be bothered finishing a sentence." Of course, they probably call sentence 'sentos' or something of that sort. Everyone's names have an 'o' or 'y' added. I'm Steeno or Steeny. They throw 'brekky on the 'barby' in the 'arvo'. Everything is in code. Nearly everything is shortened like 'rellies' for relatives, or 'arvo' for afternoon, but sometimes they strangely lengthen terms. A bike is called a 'push bike'. Don't ask me why. I can't be bothered to explain any more......I'm sure that our kids,especially, will sound different to all of you when we return. I hear it in their intonation and pronunciation all the time. I don't hear it in myself, but I suppose it's there, too. We all look forward to coming home. We love it here, but love it at home as well. We have to come home so we can attempt to pay off our debt. I think it's currently close to the U.S.'s debt. Nearing a trillion dollars, I believe...

Kyle Rolling with the Devil's Marbles

The Devils Marbles

While spending the night in Tenant Creek we heard of a guy that goes by the name of the 'Bush Tucker Man'. We went to a show he put on that taught us all about how to survive and get food in the outback. He taught us to get natural sugar from the gum trees to getting meat off the tail of a dead kangaroo and cooking it on an open fire. None of us thought it would taste any good, but we all had to admit the kangaroo tasted delicious. The white flakes on the "platter" is sugar from the gum trees. The small green fruit is from the mistletoe and the curly tan stuff is ginger from a bush. He also showed us how to make soap from a native grass. The man had never gone to school and could hardly write but he sure did know his stuff about the outback. He had even made up poems about his travels from when he lived in the outback and when he was a miner during the gold rush.

The next morning was an early one. We left at 5 am attempting to beat the sun the the Devil's marbles. Well, we did beat the sun and when it did come up the lighting on the marbles was magnificent. They lit up in such bright shades of red and orange we were amazed by the beauty. They stretched for miles and miles and then they came to an abrupt stop and it was right back to the flat, red and barren outback. The geographical explanation for the marbles being there is from erosion. But the Aboriginals had another explanation. They believed the great serpent of the outback had layed her eggs here. We spent all morning climbing up, down, around and all over the marbles. Mariah, Jake and I would use teamwork while climbing to the top of some of the taller chunks of rocks. For 3 hours we climbed around until it was too hot. Then we found a nice shady spot for a snack and hopped back in the car and set off for Alice Springs. It was 9:30 when we left and the marbles and the temperature was 35 degrees (about 95 degrees). By the end of the day it had reached 42 (or about 108). Now that's hot! There's not much more to say about the Devils Marbles but I believe the pictures all tell their own stories so I'll make sure to add a bunch.

We miss you all "heaps" as the Aussies would say and we look forward to seeing you all again.

~~kyle~~

Australia Rocks! (by Karen)

When we first came to Australia, I didn't think we would make it to the Red Center of the country. It was so far away and so expensive to fly. But a 9 week casual job for me helped make it possible. We stayed 4 nights in the 'town' called Yulara, which is right next to the national park. Uluru is the preferred Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock. It is a sacred dreaming place for them.

We would get up at 5:00 am so we could be at the "The Rock" for sunrise. When the first light of day hits this giant monolith, it would light up to a brilliant orange/red color. It was more beautiful than I had imagined. I think the size (this is the world's largest monolith) along with the color and the contrast of the blue sky, takes your breath away.

The first day we climbed to the 348 meter summit. It is so steep, that there is a chain to assist you in the beginning. 35 people have died from climbing this big rock. The view from the top is worth the difficult climb: a great red plain stretching to the horizon. We would have to be done hiking by 9:00 or it was too hot. The trail to the summit was closed by 10:00 because of the heat.

We also hiked around Uluru. We saw lots of Aboriginal rock paintings. We even tried adding some of our own rock art (see picture with our Shadow). Many spots you were not allowed to photograph as they were sacred places. Archaeological work suggests that Aboriginal people have lived in the area for at least 22,000 years. At the cultural center, we learned more about Tjukurpa (law) of the Anangu people.

The next day, we bushwalked around the Olgas. The Olgas, or Kata Tjuta to the Aboriginals, are 36 massive dome rocks. Kata Tjuta means 'many heads'.

I've included a picture with our fly nets on. The black flies were every where. The good thing is, they didn't bite, they are just a nuisance. We also included a picture without fly nets on and we are swatting the flies.

As they say "Australia Rocks" and we were happy to see them.

Katherine (By:Mariah)

I will try to keep this blog a little shorter than most of my huge ones : )


Heading further south of Kakadu, we came across a fairly large town, compared to the rest of the Northern Territory; Katherine. We spent a total of 3 nights there. It was really different from anywhere else I have ever been, due to the people that lived there; Aborigonals. It appeared that there are so many of them there because most of them are on the streets, and many were in 'tough situations' (that's my Dad's politically correct statement). I was scared at times. That stopped me from doing some of my running training in Katherine : )


The best and most memorable event that we did in Katherine was a kayak/canoe through the Katherine Gorge. It was very hot that day and we all got badly sunburnt because of the sun reflecting on the water. There are 5 Gorges in the Katherine Gorge, and we did the first 2. The only way you could get to the rest, was to stay over night and kayak all day long for 2 days. We were hoping to do that at first untill we found out about the low water level, and having to carry your boat for 800 meters. So we ended up doing a full day one. The first gorge was 3600 meters long, and the second, 2800- .


We had three kayaks for the day, 2 doubles and a single. I was with mum, dad with Jake, leaving Kyle lonered.





The gorge was just gorgeous, except one thing, well animal, CROCODILES! It was Croc nesting season. Most of the nice swimming areas were closed due to a nest there. There was only really 3 areas that we came across to swim at. At the end of both gorges and in the middle of the 2nd one. We had lunch and spent a fair bit of time at the beachy spot in the middle of the 2nd gorge. We ate lunch there, climbed on some rocks, swam in the perfect temperatured water, and thankfully didnt get eaten by any crocs. There was always the thought in the back of our minds (well front of my mind) of crocs when we were out and about in the water.





Other than those crocodiles the Katherine Gorge was just spectacular.













Cheers and see you soon,

~Mariah~

PS to Aunty Liz...Yes, my folks are feeding me!

Crikey! She's a Beauty! (by Jake)

As part of our 2 week tour we went to Kakadu and took a Crocodile Tour. It was on the Adelaide River. The water was really muddy and dirty which helps them sneak up on prey. The boat was a 2 decker.

On top you could look down and see the crocodiles or you could go to the lower level and look at them through the window. There was a lady who put pieces of meat on a pole with string and when the crocs came she would pull the string up so they had to 'jump' for it. The female saltwater crocs were about 2 1/2 to 3 meters long. The male was about 4 1/2 meters long. The male could have about 70 girlfriends at once. There was a female about every 100 meters of the bank. That's a lot of crocs. CRIKEY!
Saltwater crocodiles can live in both fresh and salt water. This river is near the coast and is both kinds of water. We saw about 7 females and only 1 male. The male looked way bigger than the females. A lot of the crocs had been in many fights and had lost some of their legs. On the way back to the dock the lady threw small bits of meat into the air and birds came over and caught them in their mouths. It was cool to watch because there was about 30 big birds of prey circling us on top. The birds would come down one at a time and catch it and swoop up again. A couple days later when we went kayaking we saw signs saying "DO NOT ENTER: CROCODILE NESTING AREA" and we saw a freshwater crocodile swimming across the river. It was about 2 meters long.
Every time we swam in the fresh water we always thought of the freshwater crocodiles. Everybody in the family thought about it just a little bit.

Take my advice: Read the signs, do not swim, crocs could be anywhere in the water. If you try to go swimming you could be eaten alive...

I thought that this tour was totally wicked!

Written by Jake, typed by dad...

Darwin and Kakadu (By Mike)

We left for our third and final two-week school holiday on Saturday the 29th of September. We drove to Sydney, hopped on a plane to Brisbane and on another to Darwin. We finally arrived at about 1:30 in the morning. When we walked off the plane, down onto the tarmac, it felt like we were walking into a warm shower. It was 32 degrees (about 90 F.) at that time...We found out early in the trip that we had to do everything early in the day and then hit the pool for the hours between 11:00 am and 5:00 pm. We were sapped by the heat and the humidity on most days. It reached 42 degrees in Kakadu National Park on one of our camping days. That's about 108 degrees.
We didn't stay in Darwin long as we like to get out to the parks and do some hiking. We did stay long enough to watch the Rugby League Grand Final in an outdoor pub (with the kids) with a bunch of Aussie fans. Melbourne crushed Manly if you were interested. It was a very fun night.

From there we headed to Kakadu National Park. I'll save the crocodile stories for the kids and a later blog. We cruised around to estuaries, aboriginal art sites, and some waterfalls and natural pools in which to swim. We saw what it would have been like to live in the tropics out in the bush. November to April is called 'The Wet' and May to October is 'The Dry'. We were there at the end of the dry and as a result most of the waterfalls were trickle falls. We found some that were serviceable for a nice swim. We hiked to the top of one in 40 degree heat and enjoyed a cool dip for our efforts. The kids found trees to climb and jump from. We learned the distinction between saltwater and freshwater crocs. The important difference is that the saltwater ones can and will eat you while the freshwater ones would only 'nip at your toes if you get too near their nests'. We were very safe and only saw one that wasnt' part of our 'croc tour'.

One interesting part of the Kakadu landscape was the millions of termite mounds, some up to 3 or 4 meters high. We couldn't believe how many there were. They are wind, water and fire proof. We saw many small bushfires while we were there and in the remains were these bright red dirt mounds in the midst of the black charred ground as if nothing had happened at all. We definitely wouldn't want to build a wood house anywhere near Kakadu...

Jake is going to explain how the croc tour went next.

From there we were headed southwest to Katherine where we used kayaks to explore the gorge there. I'll go figure out who is going to write that part!