The Red Centre

November 4th--We got up at 6:00 a.m. again this morning. The good thing this time was our stuff was already all packed up from the day before. We left the hotel around 7:00 and made the 10 minute drive to the airport. (I guess it was meant for us to be flying out of the Sydney airport at the same time as Britney Spears was arriving at the airport for her Australian tour.) We were able to get some food and drinks inside the Qantas lounge before our flight departed. Our flight left Sydney about 8:20 a.m. this morning and we were on the coolest looking plane. The outside of it was all painted in an Aboriginal style. The kids thought it was really cool. The flight to Adelaide was a little under 2 hours and we had about a 30 minute layover there. We then got right back on the same plane that headed to Alice Springs. This flight was about the same, a little under 2 hours. We arrived a little before noon and literally landed in the desert. All that was around us was a flat land of red dirt. Our luggage was the last to arrive out on the carousel so we were the last in line for a taxi. We decided that there were only about 4 taxis in the whole town of Alice Springs. :-) Once we finally did get into one though, we had him take us to Britz to pick up our RV (or Hummer Home as the kids call it). We watched a quick video on how everything on the RV worked and off we went in the Hummer Home. We stopped by McDonald's for a very late lunch. We were all so hungry at this point. Then, went by the grocery store and stocked up on food/drinks for the week. We got back in the RV and started towards the campground. On our way, Abby started screaming the door is open. Apparently, when we made a turn, the side door flew right open. We were laughing hysterically and quickly reminded to always lock the door. We arrived at the MacDonnell Douglas Holiday Park (campground) and found our spot. We started to get everything all set up and organized. Mike got everything connected outside except for the waste hose. When I say waste, I mean gray waste water not sewer waste. The sewer waste apparently goes into a holding tank that has to manually be emptied. So, we were advised by Mike that the bathroom in the RV is off limits. Anyway, he wasn't able to find the waste hose and a family pulled up right beside us so he decided to ask them. The guy came over to help Mike, but they quickly realized that Britz hadn't given us a hose and Britz was already closed for the day. So, we all got to talking to this family next to us. They are from Bern, Switzerland and had 2 boys (ages 5 and 2). The kids were instant friends and played the remainder of the evening. The kids played so hard that they were very dirty and needed to take a shower. I had used the restroom at the campground earlier and was surprised at how clean they actually were. So, I took both kids in there to shower off before bedtime. After putting the kids to bed, we sat outside pretty late talking with our new friends. It was really neat to be able to talk to them about Switzerland especially since we loved the country so much and the lady, Petra, has traveled all over the States. They are spending 3 months traveling all over Australia. While sitting outside with them, we actually saw a kangaroo come through the campsite. I tried to get a picture, but it was too dark and the kangaroo was too fast. We said our goodnights around midnight and settled into the RV. Mike and Austin slept in the bed above the driver seat while Abby and I slept in the bed "downstairs".


November 5th--We got up this morning and started getting the RV ready to travel. I had my first campground shower experience. I was actually okay with it...not too bad. We left around 10:00 and had to go by Britz to pick up a hose. After getting the hose, we headed out of Alice Springs. The minute we pulled out of the small town, we saw nothing but dessert. As far as we could see was red clay and flat land. We had no radio stations to listen to and nothing to look at. We passed only 2 gas stations along the 5 hour drive. There was a point in the drive where Mike and I ran out of things to say to each other. A little later, Mike said he was even bored with himself because he had run out of things to think about. We laughed just from being bored. The kids were really good though...they played their Leapsters and napped. We did stop halfway at a rest stop to eat lunch. Now rest stops here aren't like the ones you find in the States. They are basically just an area to pull over and literally rest. There are no bathrooms. We finally arrived at the Ayers Rock Resort around 4:30. So, it was about a 6 hour drive with an hour stop in between. We got the RV all hooked up and headed to the pool for a little while. After swimming, we grilled hamburgers for dinner. The kids watched a movie before bedtime. While they were watching the movie, Mike and I sat outside enjoying the pleasant evening. It's amazing how hot it gets here during the day and then how nice the evenings and mornings are.


November 6th--This morning we headed out to Uluru-Ayers Rock. It's about a 10 minute drive to the entrance of the park and then about another 10 minutes to arrive at the rock. We stopped off at the Culture Center first to pick up a map of the area. We decided to do a kid friendly walk on the base of the rock. The Mala Walk was about an hour long and parts were shaded. Ayers Rock is owned by Aboriginal people and is a very spiritual place. The funny part about this area is the flies are so bad. They land on your face and then try to go into your eyes, ears, mouth and nose. Yuck! So, we had bought fly nets to wear over our head and they were definitely needed. There were times when all you could see were flies on the net. The people that didn't have nets spent most of their time swatting at the flies. Anyway, at the halfway mark of the walk where we turned around, there was a gorge and it was really pleasant there. We actually stopped for a snack and some water before heading back. When we got back to the RV, we made lunch and enjoyed it in the RV at Ayers Rock. After lunch, we drove back to Ayers Rock Resort. (Oh, by the way, I use the word "resort" very loosely.) The resort does have a small shopping center that we stopped off at to look around some of the shops. Then, we returned back to camping spot and went swimming for the afternoon. The temperature is very strange here because it's hot, but very dry. The pool feels cold and when you get out of the water, the air feels cold too. Totally different than Texas hot. After swimming, we all took showers. I cooked dinner at the campsite before heading back to Ayers Rock. We headed to Ayers Rock to watch the sunset. Once we arrived at our spot, we ate dinner in the RV and then sat outside watching the rock change many colors as the sun set on it. It was a sight that is indescribable. After the sun set, we drove back to our campsite. We were surprised to have other people in our spot when we returned. So, it's dark by now and we are having a language barrier with them. We tried to explain to them that this was our spot, but they kept saying it was there. The thing is they had 4WD vehicles not campers so we knew they were in the wrong spot. I finally just walked back up to the reception office and asked for help. The lady told me they were from Italy and they were supposed to be on the lawn because they had tents to set up. Luckily, a guy that worked at the resort came to escort the Italians to their proper location. We quickly got back in our spot and got it all set up for bedtime. The kids went to bed pretty immediately after a busy day. The adults weren't far behind tonight.


November 7th--Being that we had spent plenty of time at Ayers Rock, we were ready to depart the resort by 9:00 a.m. this morning. We left out on another desert drive to King's Canyon this morning. Mike and I got smart about the drive this time and figured that we could listen to our ipods while driving. So, we shared an ipod and put only a headset in one of our ears. It seemed to help with the boring drive. Today though we managed to find ways to be entertained by the dead kangaroos all over the road. The other day, we were amazed and disgusted by them. Not today though, we started to analyze how long we thought they had been there (hey...it's really a boring drive). We arrived in King's Canyon right at noon. We had known that we were going to cross paths with the Switzerland family again. So, when we went to find a campsite we pulled in right next to them. We were all thrilled to see each other. After lunch, their oldest boy, Jonah, came to our camper to watch a movie while their youngest one, Enea, took a nap. After nap time, we all went to the pool for a couple of hours. After swimming, we got dressed for dinner. We had all decided to go eat at Outback BBQ which was located on the resort. Before going to dinner though, we went to one of the sunset platforms to see the Canyon. It was a great view! At the Outback BBQ, we kind of felt like we were back in Texas. There were long picnic benches, live music and Australian BBQ. Mike and I had our first taste of emu, kangaroo, and crocodile. The emu and kangaroo were made into sausages. The crocodile was on a skewer and tasted similar to chicken. They were all surprisingly good. After dinner, the live band invited the kids up on stage to join them for a couple of songs. They also got to entertain the crowd up on the stage. Abby and Austin both had their first solo performance. Abby sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" while Austin busted out with "The Boys are Back" from High School Musical. They were very cute. Mike and I also had our turn up on the stage. So, the whole family was involved in the entertainment. We got back to our campsite around 9:00 and all put the kids to sleep. Then, we set outside talking with Petra and Pascal until late. We had a great night of conversation with our new friends. While sitting outside, we saw several dingoes which is an Australian wild dog and can be very dangerous if approached. If you leave them alone, they leave you alone. Right before going to bed though, we looked right up on the canyon and saw a bright light. At first, we thought it might be a fire, but quickly realized that it was the moon coming up over the canyon. It was a beautiful sight. Also, the skies are so clear around here at night as there is almost no light pollution. The skies are just full of stars.


November 8th--We were up early and said our goodbye's to the Oegerli family. Before leaving though, Mike and the kids were filling the RV up with water. This had always been a successful experience up until today when the hose flew out and sprayed everybody. It had a lot of pressure so it was flying around spraying water as Mike tried to catch it. It was very funny. After leaving the campsite, we stopped at the gas station to fill up. When we started pulling out of the station, we heard a horn honking. We kept trying to figure out who was honking at us. After the horn kept honking every time we moved, we finally figured out that was the RV's way of telling us the emergency brake was on. There have been many moments we have felt like Chevy Chase in a version of Vacation! So, after releasing the brake, we headed to King's Canyon and arrived around 8:30. We decided to do an hour long walk along the dry creek bed at the base of the canyon. It was hot this morning. By the time we got back to the RV at 9:30, it was already 33 degrees Celsius. We drank a lot of water before heading out on the road again. We headed out for our drive back to Alice Springs. We stopped about halfway for lunch and the temperature had gotten up to 40 degrees Celsius by then. We just watched the temperature rise as we drove back to Alice Springs. We even saw a dirt tornado along the road. We arrived back at Alice Springs a little after 3:00. Mike took the kids swimming while I did laundry. Doing laundry at a campground was a fun experience. The best was there is this big drying area where you can line dry all your clothes. Well, with the heat and the little bit of breeze, the clothes are dry in no time. In fact as I was hanging all the clothes out, a guy came by and said "By the time you get done putting all that up, the first ones are going to be dry". He was close to being right. It didn't take long at all. In the meantime, the kids had finished swimming and were bouncing at the Jumping Pillow. By the time they were done, it was dinner time. We made spaghetti again and then started cleaning up the RV. We spent some time trying to get our stuff organized and packed up before going to bed.


November 9th--We got up this morning and enjoyed our last morning of eating breakfast outside. Mike made us all pancakes this morning. After breakfast, we finished packing up before pulling out of the campground around 10:00. We drove into town to shop at the Todd Mall. Our guidebook says that Alice Springs is the best place to look at/buy Aboriginal art and crafts. After looking around for a while, we went to eat lunch at KFC (Abby's choice). After lunch, we did some more shopping before turning our RV back in. We got to Britz around 2:00 and checked in the RV. It was at this time that we found out that we had driven 1341 kilometers which converts to about 833 miles. It was an easy process to check it back in and get in a taxi to the airport. We arrived at the Alice Springs airport with plenty of time before our flight. Our flight left at 4:15 and arrived in Cairns (pronounced Cans) about 6:30. It just continues to amaze us that on such a short flight we were served a meal. Upon arriving in Cairns, we retrieved our luggage and got on the Sun Palm shuttle bus to Port Douglas. It was about an hour long drive to our hotel. Unfortunately, it was dark out otherwise it would have been a really pretty drive along the coastline. Austin actually fell asleep on the drive and never woke up until the next morning. I carried him inside and put him in bed. Abby and I went to find something to eat before heading to bed.