Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge)

 Our resident photographer hard at work

 Playing tourist

Our first encounter with a croc (only a 6' freshie!)

Central Oz heading north

Well, as you could see by the photos of Uluru that we posted last time we were part of the lucky 1% to see “rain on the rock.”  We were starting to feel a bit water logged so decided it was definitely time to head to Darwin.  Spent 1 night at Stuart’s Well – very nice pub there and another over nighter at Three Ways.  Passed through Alice Springs and Tennant Creek on the way north.  We stopped for photos at Wycliffe Wells “the UFO capital of Australia” as well as the Devil’s Marbles.  Once we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn the sun came out and the temperature rose.

We spent 2 fabulous nights at Daly Waters and sampled the Daly Waters hotel’s famous beef and barra dinner and enjoyed the free entertainment.  Chilli (Dave Chilcott) is the star of the show – a fair dinkum bush poet, singer and story teller.  He is a true entertainer with a story for all occasions – extremely funny and talented.  If you’re ever in the vicinity don’t pass up the opportunity to stay and see the show and enjoy the meal.

From Daly Waters to Mataranka – beautiful blue skies and sunshine and the temperature about 30 degrees – perfect!!!  The landscape is beautiful out here – red dirt and lots of green trees and bushes and hills - just amazing!  We have also seen a fair bit of road kill which means lots of eagles and hawks.  Unfortunately they won’t cooperate and pose for photos.  Mataranka is the capital of the Never Never and we visited the replica of the Elsey family homestead that was used in the film “We of the Never Never”.  The thermal Springs in the area are superb and we spent hours every day that we were there “taking the waters” – very civilised except for the spiders in the webs above the springs.  Elsey National Park is beautiful – the canopy is amazing.

We’re now in Katherine and will be here til Tuesday when we leave for Darwin.  Beautiful park here with lots of trees and a very nice pool and restaurant – we had grilled barramundi with mango salsa for dinner last night – yum!!

Enjoy the photos below and wait til you see the ones from Katherine Gorge.

 The awesome open road

 Now it's getting warmer . . .

 Drove through Area 51

 Col - outback poet and gentleman

 Dave 'Chilli' Chilcott - an outback legend!

 The flying Pink Panther

 My secret fishing spot . . . .

  . . . . knowing I was 'secure' with croc traps all around me . . .

 The Devil's been playing dibbles

 The long open road

 Spiders over the spring

Uluru (Ayres Rock)

Some photos from todays tour around the Rock

Kata Tjuta

Since our last update we have travelled from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy where we spent a very wet 3 days.  No visits to the Opal Mines as all the roads, other than the Stuart Highway, were closed.  We did have a look at some of the underground hotels, cafes and shops.  From there to Yulara via Kulgera which is a roadhouse and camping spot just over the NT border – it prides itself on being the first and last pub in the NT.

We arrived in Yulara yesterday and set up camp for probably 3 days – it was cool and overcast when we arrived.  The camping are of the resort is huge – over 200 powered sites and it looked pretty full to us – it has its own little shopping centre, even a post office!  Went to a lookout to see sunset over the rock last night but it was too overcast.  The rock is a bit surreal to me – looks like a painting!!!  We caught up with some people we had met on our previous stops around a campfire last night – first one of the trip so far.

We went to Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) today – how spectacular is that!!!  Again it looks too perfect to be real.  We went on a walk through the Walpa Gorge and stopped at various lookouts for photos.  Again it was overcast but the rain held off til we got back to camp.  We’re now hunkered down with a cuppa and playing with photos and keeping warm and dry.

We plan to go to Uluru tomorrow – we could be part of the 1% of visitors who get to see rain on the rock – lucky us!!!!

Some photos of the Olgas (Kata Tjuta)