and then there were photos...

Now that I have figured out how to use our new and exciting wee eepc in combination with our camera,  I can show you a few pics of the journey so far...
(be warned I am yet to master the art of the two working well together and a few choice words have been said at volume in putting this post together. I am going for communication over quality!)

It started at home in the Adelaide hills where we dressed like this with our beautiful house sitting friends...
Hmm, that looks warm!

Then we celebrated the arrival of winter and said goodbye to friends, who, oddly were dressed quite similarly...

Hmm, still looking warm!

and then we hopped in the car and headed north...

( let that sentance hide a MULTITUDE of sins and give thanks to M, M, S & K for their AMAZING help at all hours to allow us to get in the car)

We stayed overnight in Coober Pedy and of course to please our 'gold' (translate all things rocklike shiney or not so shiney) loving son, we visited an  opal mine.

There were lots of, ahem, models in the mine showing how it was done all those years ago and to be honest I think it freaked W out quite a bit, and if it wasn't for the lure of treasure he would have be out of there!

Does that beard look shifty or is it shifting?

The had a mullock heap out the front for noodling in (do you like my lingo??).

Let me translate...

There was a pile of off cast rock and rubble from mining that you could look through to find any missed pieces of opal.

Oh, now you can imagine W's face. And yes, we had to have a bag limit or the car wouldn't move!

From there we headed out to our first bush camp.

Fondly named 'the prickle camp'.

This is a totally washed out photo which in no way captures either how beautiful it was nor how prickly it was.
Sadly both the children were dressed from head to foot in prickle attracting clothes and I have a bag full of clothes waiting to be de-prickled. Hmm, can't imagine why I haven't got around to that.
Would send the lot to the bin but again sadly they are quite sentimental clothes. Like the shorts I made for W JUST before I left!

Anyway, the prickle camp was somewhere off the Victory Downs Road on the Northern side of Marla - within sniffing distance of our old favourite the central desert. Good to be back on the red dirt. Good to be sat by a fire. Good to see the horizon - all the way around.

The kids loved it and the tent worked well and so did all the new gear. We felt very odd unwrapping some of the camping gear from its wrappers in the middle of nowhere. Hmm, I don't think you are supposed to do it like that! 

Then we went on to that big ol' rock.

Since K was born, for some reason I have been fantasizing about getting back here. Don't really know why, I do have a soft spot for this landscape but with a swimming pool at the end of the day. It was still too cool to swim but we did some amazing rides and walks.

We camped three nights at Yulara and unloaded the bikes to W's great delight.

We rode around the base of Uluru which was over 11 km all up. Wimitja just loved it and riding on hard packed dirt and stopping to eat or to read dreaming stories (a bit too brutal at times) was great. W loved looking for the marks from the stories in the rock.
He also noted the much less known central desert platypus represented in the rock. Hmm, haven't come across that story before...

We also giggled at all the 'minga tjuta'. Anangu (the Aboriginal people who live in the area) call tourists 'minga tjuta' which translates to 'lots of little black ants'. When you watch tourists - the name makes total sense. Except you don't see too many little black ants with knee high socks!

I must say the changing colours of the rock have always been special.

It is one totally talked up thing that does not disappoint.

Mind you, Kata Tjuta really has my heart...

W walked the over 17 km Valley of the Winds walk and was amazing.

It is so good to take the kids back to

 the country where their names come from. Or close anyway.

We went on to Alice Springs which was not all we remembered but what is. Towns change, especially towns like Alice. Everyone we once knew has gone. Or so we thought until we bumped into someone we knew riding to Simpson's Gap!

We did more riding through the beautiful ranges, but ultimately it was the predator bird show at the Desert Park and the slime at Simpsons Gap that were the main event.

Oh slime.

Why don't you come in more travelling locations?

Why is it that 5 year olds can spend entire days playing with slime.

Aah, slime. You just need to work on your adult appeal...

We stayed a night in a hotel at Tennant Creek to break up a big drive.

I was talking about the trip a few days ago with W as he has been doing drawings of all the things he has done and seen.

I said to him. What haven't you drawn yet? 'Um,' he replied, 'oh yeah, the screaming hotel'. What? 'you know, the hotel where I screamed for ages and ages because I couldn't lie on the same mattress as you.'

oh yeah, that one.

That was about the high point for Tennant Creek! Should let the hotel know their new name!

We went on to Mattaranka Hot Springs.

We also went on to realise that if the first swimming your children do for their trip is in a hot spring - you should let them know very clearly that the temperature of the water is unusual and that Mother Nature should not feel obliged to 'make all the water hot everywhere'.

We spent hours in the hotspring and enjoyed doing not very much for the rest of the time.

Not very much is a grand thing to do.

T, having enjoyed an amazing cup of coffee made by a friend the day before we left home, decided that the perfect cup of coffee should be recorded as comparison...

W has got good at not waiting to have a turn offered to him as he has missed out on a few things by waiting to be offered a turn at mass community events and then being destraut when he didn't get to have a turn.

We went to the Barramundi feeding show and four kids had a turn at feeding them.

W jumped in the water - up well over his shorts - and did a grand job of feeding a hungry barra!

Fishing is right up there with gold!

We went on to camp at Edith Falls which was great. Despite W's best attempt at explaining that really the waterfalls were great but couldn't Mother Nature make water falls AND warm water - we settled down to a great time loads of walks and swimming.

The country is so different.

Different plant, creatures...

I have never said so many times to W - I don't know!

And on to Darwin.

We have been here a week and have just had it confirmed that we can stay in the apartment next to the Botanical Gardens for the two months while T works here.

Aaah.

Singlets, fans, markets, bikes....

I have so missed riding bikes since we moved to the Adelaide hills. I think I have been on the bike every day since I have been here and love it.  

Life is good.

Biggest love to all and I hope that whatever the weather is where you are that you are weathering it well.

What are you all up to???

.