A total eclipse of the sun...

Hours spent in a wonderful little café and the local bookshop had me in raptures and I had mentally moved to Yungaburra before lunchtime. It was a bit drizzly and cool which was a relief to our sun-beaten bodies but did not bode well for the next morning’s solar eclipse. Our mission for the afternoon was to find somewhere to camp from which we could view the eclipse. Word on the street was that although thousands of people had flocked to Cairns from around Australia and the world, the forecast was that the best viewing would be from inland. How nice for us. So we set up in a caravan park in Mareeba and made plans to drive up a nearby hill in the hope of a clear view. It was 5pm before we remembered that we needed special solar eclipse viewing glasses and although Bill and the kids made a mad dash into town while I set up the tent, everywhere was sold out. The organised people had bought up all the eclipse glasses! Happily Bill was able to locate a friendly eclipse fanatic biker dude in the caravan park who very kindly gave us his spare pair of glasses. So we we were set and getting excited about the next morning.

At 5am we dragged ourselves out of bed and popped the kids into the car in their PJs. We drove up to our designated hill but discovered it was surrounded by trees too tall for good viewing. So we quickly drove back down the hill and found a spot where quite a few people were waiting by the side of the road. We knew we had found a good location because we spotted the biker dude as well as a gang of Japanese men with incredibly fancy equipment – telescopes and special cameras and the like - pointing at the rising sun. So we settled ourselves on the bonnet of the car and wished for some coffee. At 5.45am it all began. Taking in turns to watch through the glasses we saw the moon gradually eating away at the sun until, sometime after 6pm it started getting darker and colder and then the sun was hidden completely. It was an awesome, beautiful and inspiring sight. The small crowd cheered and clapped in excitement - and around town that day everyone smiled at each other and compared eclipse viewing stories and generally revelled in total eclipse camaraderie... We were all thrilled and felt so grateful for the brilliant view, for the borrowed glasses and for the opportunity to wake up at the crack of dawn in lovely Mareeba for the total eclipse of the sun. 

Photos here 

Walking through lava tubes, running from bulls and turning 37 on top of a volcano...

Undarra offers all sorts of accommodation options – old railway sleeping cars, spaceship-like safari tents, fancy cabins and more. But we opted to set up our crusty dusty camper, pull out our cracked plastic boxes and shake out the stinky sleeping bags. Whilst whipping up our Japanese pancakes at the camp kitchen we met numerous Europeans who had come to this part of the word in order to see the upcoming solar eclipse. We had been considering making it to the coast in time to see it, but listening to these solar eclipse aficionados made us start to feel much more enthusiastic. It seems such a risk for them though - to travel all the way from the Netherlands to see an eclipse that might well be covered in clouds and unviewable.

In the morning I struck out on my own to explore some of the walking trails while the others worked on secret plans and birthday surprises… I took a track called ‘bush walk’ which led me through the lovely bush. I saw heaps of kangaroos, pretty faced wallabies, turkeys and other birds, including a beautiful pair of brolgas. I noticed some hoof-prints in the path and some fresh looking cow dung which made me feel slightly apprehensive about meeting wild bulls. But I walked on and only turned around when I spied a MASSIVE bull right next to the path. Very glad no-one witnessed my nervous retreat.

That afternoon we took a tour to the lava tubes. We listened to the guide with one ear each whilst monitoring the kids who were both in crazy moods and were busy hyping up a previously quiet pair of children belonging to another couple. Hence we both missed out on some vital parts of the explanation about how these incredible lava tunnels were formed. Needless to say there was lots of volcanoes a long time ago and somehow the lava formed into tubes. The roofs of some of the tubes collapsed and so now we can actually walk through some of the tunnels.  Although we struggled to understand the science behind the lava, we could appreciate the aesthetics - the rainforest surrounded the caves and big tropical butterflies flickered in and out of the sunlight. We laughed at the brush turkeys that wobbled over the path, pecking in the dirt for insects. Zara cornered the ever-patient guide and let fly a stream of questions – and as usual we danced the delicate dance of encouraging our children to be interested and ask questions whilst ensuring they don’t dominate the entire tour. When we thanked the guide at the end of the tour he explained that he actually liked interested friendly children but didn’t appreciate bickering and whinging children. Phew. We laughed when the children threw themselves on him when we said goodbye – great big bear hugs fuelled by the instant love that they develop for tolerant tour guides…

 

I was ordered to go to bed really early and laughed to myself at the rustling going on in the tent. The sounds of balloons bursting was followed by mad giggling and shushing. A few party poppers went off and a string of streamers landed next to my head. Needless to say I awoke next morning to a beautifully decorated tent. Zara was bursting out of her skin to give me a present – a pair of earrings that we selected together at the Katherine market some time ago (which amazingly she hadn’t lost)! Then we all went across to a ‘bush breakfast’ where we cooked our toast over the fire and ate baked beans, eggs, bacon etc from tin plates. It was actually pretty similar to our breakfasts most mornings this year but still fun to have someone else cook it! After breakfast we went back to the tent where I was duly served with homemade lemonade and lemon slice – yum – and a couple of social affairs/politics type magazines to keep me busy in the wee hours of the morning! After the last party popper was popped, we packed up and drove to Kalkani volcano for a walk around the rim. It was of course quite thrilling to walk around the top of a volcano despite it having been dormant for many thousands of years – you never know do you?

On we travelled towards the coast and suddenly the landscape morphed into lush rolling hills, misty mountains and green paddocks of fat cows. We were reaching the tablelands – a beautiful, tropical area of waterfalls, dairy farms and cafes. It was strange to see so many curves and so much green after so long in flat, rocky desert country. We drove through drizzle but felt refreshed. We visited Miilla Miilla Falls – supposedly the most photographed waterfalls in Australia. A windy rainforest walk took us along a little stream and although we only ventured down it a few hundred metres it was enough to allow two fat leeches to attach firmly to my feet. Bill bravely flicked off the most tenacious of the two while I screeched like an idiot. Yuk.

The rain kept falling and again we treated ourselves to a lovely overnighter called The Gables in a charming little town called Yungaburra. It was incredibly cheap (only slightly more than your average campsite!) and very comfy. Yungaburra has a number of well-known restaurants and after a bit of umming and ahhing we settled on a place called the Vienna Inn – a strange find in a little rural Queensland town. But the meal was great – authentic and delicious Austrian food with big servings and good Austrian beer to wash it all down with. We even had strudel for dessert. A very memorable birthday.

Floods and time-travel in Hughenden and discovering the Yeti in Porcupine Gorge

We drove a short distance to Cloncurry and set up camp in the drizzle. Next morning, the kids played with the ugliest dog in the world and we chatted to its friendly owner – a well-travelled woman who was heading up to one of the isolated stations to act as a live-in tutor for the kids who were doing school of the air. As most dog owners (and indeed parents) seem to be, she appeared quite convinced that her weird, toothy dog was very charming and kindly allowed Zara to drag it around the caravan park on a lead. The kids even accompanied them up and down the street so that the dog could poo before they hit the road. Exciting.

We drove on east, stopping for lunch at Julia Creek – home of an extinct and then re-discovered (near Julia Creek) Bettong. When we reached Hughenden the rain was bucketing down and so yet again we were forced into a hotel room. Actually we were lucky to get anything because every other traveller had the same idea and the hotels and cabins were all booked out. The hotel we stayed at was half-flooded and we had to jump over a massive channel of water just to get into our room. We had no cooking facilities in our room and so debated having peanut butter sandwiches until we realised we had no bread, and so headed to the local Chinese restaurant. The food wasn’t too bad, and the décor reminded me of dining in China, which added a bit to the authenticity.  Next day, we realised that the whole town is stuck in another era – including coffee shops with carpet and lace at the windows (serving instant coffee and home-made cakes) and clothing shops with fashions from yesteryear. It was kind of a nice place.

We drove north, up the Kennedy Development Road. We had been warned about the condition of the road, especially after rain and so drove cautiously to Porcupine Gorge where we stopped for lunch and a walk down into the gorge. It was yet another amazing place – volcanic looking with big holes in the rocks and some weird formations. Not for the first time we wished we knew a bit more about geology. We decided that next time we do a trip like this, we’ll learn more about rocks and minerals before we leave. The rocks and stuff always look really interesting and we get the feeling that geologists would be drooling with excitement about some of these places. But the geological secrets remain locked to us and we end up using descriptors such as ‘holey rocks’ and ‘shiny stuff’… We did however find a hole in the rock that looked like a giant footprint, so we are pretty confident that some sort of yeti-type creature roamed this gorge thousands of years ago…

On we drove in a north-easterly direction and eventually arrived at the Undarra Experience – a private enterprise set up next to the Undarra National Park which provides an ‘authentic bush experience’ for the hordes but more importantly offers access to the park’s lava tubes – cool.

Bob Kattah, Alan Jones and the ever-present smokestack in 'The Isa'

We pressed on the next day, making our way out of the national park and skidding into Mt Isa on an empty tank. Mt Isa is big, dusty and totally dominated by the huge mine in the middle of town. What Sash excitedly pointed out as ‘the lighthouse’, was actually a smokestack which seemed to be able to be seen out of every window in town. We visited the 'Isa Experience' – a museum detailing the town’s history, which was mainly about mining. It should have been interesting but without a passion for mining we found it a bit hard to get excited. Nonetheless we dutifully watched a video of various Alan Jones lookalikes talking about growing up in ‘The Isa’. 

Next we drove through the town and doffed out not-oversized hats at Bob Kattah’s office before checking in at the local, caravan park. We were feeling a bit hot and dusty and tired by now and so splashed out on a little cabin, which felt like fabulous luxury. In the morning we went to the local library for school and books, whilst gazing out at the ever-present smokestack. While I shopped up a grocery storm, Bill took the kids to the local park which turned out to be the ‘best playground ever’ – another example of outback communities getting massive grants from the local government to build amazing and free amusements for local kids. It was so good that B and the kids picked me up from the supermarket and we all returned for hours of fun. Complete with water park and all sorts of swinging, sliding and zipping things that we had never even seen before, this park could almost have held us in Mt Isa for another day. But not quite…

We were, however, keen to visit the local fossil centre before leaving town – a place where the kids dug excitedly for fossils in a sandpit whilst we read about the amazing discoveries made between Mt Isa and Lawn Hill. Turns out this site was where most of what is known about Australia’s megafauna and other pre-human mammals was learnt (and most of that was discovered within about an hour sometime in the 1980s). We all found it more interesting than the mining history, but we had people and solar eclipses to see on the coast and so needed to move on – although only very slightly because we had spent most of the day mucking around in ‘The Isa’.

Finding paradise in the Queensland outback

People complain about the dull drive from Darwin to Alice along the Stuart Highway. But we chose to drive it twice because we backtracked all the way past Tennant Creek to take the Barkly Highway east. Still, with air-con fixed, the Harry Potter audio books and contact lenses back in, the drive wasn’t so bad and we arrived at dusk at a place called The Pebbles, just out of Tennant Creek. The Pebbles are like a mini Devils Marbles – and just as culturally significant to the local Aboriginal people. Some whitefella fools decided to pinch one of the pebbles and chuck it in a park in Tennant Creek to amuse the tourists – a move that was of course highly offensive considering the sacred nature of the place. Then when the local people next came to the site, they discovered mining equipment had been left there ready for imminent work. The people stepped up and voiced their anger by organising sit-ins and media coverage. They won and now the area is nominally protected for their use. The traditional owners have set up a free camp spot there, which was nice for us.

Next day, Kate’s eye was hurting again and so poor Bill had to do all the driving. Shame for him because it turned out to be one of the longest hauls we have done on the trip so far. We celebrated crossing the border into Queensland with a big cheer and then decided to detour North into Budjamulla National Park, famous for Lawn Hill Gorge and raved about by many fellow travellers. We had heard so many good things about the place that it was just impossible to drive past the turn-off and onto Mt Isa. So we calculated fuel amounts and distances and decided to just do it. But we must have misread the map because we just seemed to drive on and on and on. Bill was exhausted by the time we arrived in the dark – and we were all very happy to get out of the car and to know that the next day was drive-free. The next morning we noticed that we were the only people in the campground – clearly not a popular time of the year due to the intense heat. The campground was nice enough although not spectacular and it was insanely hot. But just as we were beginning to wonder whether we had done the right thing, we wandered down a path towards the gorge and found ourselves gazing down onto paradise. Lawn Hill is often described as an oasis in the middle of the Queensland outback – warm emerald water, waterfalls, palms – but neither words nor pictures will ever do this place justice. Needless to say we spent the day swimming, swimming and swimming. Each time we got out and wandered back to the tent, we were ready to go back in before a few minutes passed. The friendly ranger brought us a bucket full of green tree frogs that make a nightly pilgrimage to the toilets – and let us hold them and put them on our shoulders. We watched in anticipation for huge olive pythons that hunt in the gorge – but sadly saw none. I gather that in the cooler months the place is buzzing with tourists. We liked it just the way it was.  If you are ever driving past that turn-off, please take it.  

Half-blindness, bobbing dragons and life-envy in Alice Springs

It was stinking hot again as we headed back to Alice Springs. We still didn’t have air-conditioning in the car so the windows were down as we sped along the highway. This is a minor point of difference within the family – I like to have windows down with the wind creating crazy hairstyles for all of us, whereas Bill prefers the coolness of air-con with windows sealed. But we both agree that air-con rules when driving slowly around towns in 40+ degree weather or waiting in the car while the other runs errands… So we were heading back to Alice to get the air-con fixed - and for doctors appointments and to catch up with old friends who live there. We arrived early enough to check into the fancy pants Big 4 caravan park - complete with sparkling kitchen and jumping pillow. 

Next morning, I awoke with a seriously sore eye that did not allow for contact lens use – and so spent the morning half-blind and uncoordinated. So we visited the Alice Springs hospital (not for the first time but that is another story for a different day) and then a local optometrist who prescribed antibiotic drops every half an hour and a rest from lenses for 4 days. Fortunately the drops seemed to clear up the infection but made me super sensitive to the sun for a few days... Still, we managed to check out the town’s reptile park where I watched one-eyed as the kids draped pythons around themselves and posed for the cameras. Zara was intensely taken with the bearded dragons with their bobbing heads and grinning faces. The rest of our day – and indeed the next one – was spent half-blind and waiting for boring things like the car to be fixed and the washing to be done. All sorts of sightseeing plans were put off due to the hot weather and eye problems – we were disappointed that we didn’t make it to the Desert Park which is supposed to be very cool, or to the School of the Air which would be interesting for us.

Still, we did manage to have a meal with old friends Sasha and Mike, who moved to Alice 7 years ago and have since produced two extremely cute red-haired and cheeky faced boys, Pasco and Mishka. They have recently bought a house on a huge block and we gazed enviously as the kids hooned around their amazing backyard space – filled with chickens, trees to climb and even a home-made pirate ship tree-house. We were interested and tempted by their descriptions of life in Alice – where their kids enjoy a type of running-around-outside-all-day-every-day and camping-every-weekend freedom that ours could only dream of and where Sash and Mike can both work part-time in interesting and challenging jobs. Mike works in a program that implements sustainable energy in developing communities around the world, whilst Sasha works for an Aboriginal women’s group. The kids got along like a house on fire whilst we chatted. What shame we only had the one evening – we could have talked to them all night, but the kids had to go to bed and we moved on the next day.

Kate was dreaming of a life in Alice Springs – freedom, warmth, swimming in Big Ellery Rockhole, a big back yard, hanging out with Sash and Mike, camping every weekend, interesting work… Bobbing bearded dragons in the backyard would have clinched it for Zara. Bill, of course, had already lived in Alice as a kid and so we drove past his old house and school and the kids tried hard to imagine a cheeky-faced 10 year old Bill hooning around the streets on his BMX… 

Eating noodles at Ayres Wok

We were following a crazy route - from the Top End to the Centre then towards the North of Queensland. We had avoided doing many very long drives up until now but certainly covered some kms down the Stuart Highway to Alice. We knew it wasn't sensible but we particularly wanted to show the kids Uluru and Alice Springs and to spend some time in the glorious central Australian desert.

So now we were actually getting to Uluru and we all felt pretty excited. The kids even looked up from their books and wordsearches to get momentarily excited at the first view of 'The Rock' - although of course it was actually Mt Conner, the trick-rock that gets most first-time visitors. Shameful really that on my 4th visit to Uluru I should briefly make the same mistake... But when the real rock loomed in the distance it was just as magic as ever. Funny thing about Uluru - you can never actually get enough of it. It's just the colours, the light, the angles and the sheer immensity of it. However it is easy to tire of the tourist madness at the Ayres Rock Resort. It was one of the quietest time of the year so it wasn't so much the crowds as the packaged-up feeling of the whole experience. The resort is kind of like a pretend city - with lots of Aboriginal culture on display for the tourists, but apparently no Aboriginal people working there. We did, however, hear about a scheme to get Aboriginal people from all around Australia to come there for training in all aspects of the resort. Hard to tell whether the traditional owners get much from the hoards.

There are polite but passionae requests everywhere from the traditional owners for visitors not to climb the rock, but apparently 30% of people still do. Seems incredible that people can be so disrespectful. The local people have put up with ridiculous self-righteous white tourists scurrying like ants all over their sacred space for 30 years now, but the fact that people are going to the toilet and dropping rubbish on the top of the rock and all the sewage is running down the rock and polluting the group around it is the last straw for them. Supposedly Tourism Australia (who are on the Board of Management for Uluru) are reluctant to close the climb altogether, however it looks like they may agree to close the climb once it has been proven that only 20% or less of visitors actually want to 'master the rock'. I remember climbing it twice as a teenager and it was pretty cool - but really we need to learn that we can't always do exactly what we want. Anyway the base hike gives visitors an excellent view of the rock from all angles and really good information about the cultural significance of the rock to its traditional owners. The climb was closed when we were there due to heat and wind. Good thing because Bill made me promise not to yell at the climbers but I'm not sure whether I would have been able to control myself...

We hauled ourselves out of bed at 5.20am in order to go and see the sunrise. Of course, we should have left a bit earlier but enjoyed the best of the light from the car as we drove into the park. It was just lovely to be out there so early. Zara and I had set off on the 10km base walk by 6.30am while Bill and Sash grabbed a coffee before joining a ranger-guided tour around one of the more culturally significant parts of the rock. 

I am ashamed to say that we ate noodles at the 'Ayres Wok' restaurant... Not bad noodles but the worst name ever for any eating establishment! On the last morning, the kids and I did a dot painting workshop run by one of the Aboriginal art studios. We worked with a local artist, Rebecca, who showed us the various symbols and techniques. A friendly girl called Karri gave us all the paints and canvases and talked us about local art. It was great fun - especially the dots which were addictive to do. The kids got right into it and created masterpieces. Of course they ended up finger-painting and putting sand on the canvas etc. Fair enough really - dot painting is possibly a bit disciplined for young kids... Karri and Rebecca were kind enough to give us some of the paints and a symbol sheet to take away with us so we can keep dotting away wherever we are.

We watched a couple of sunsets over the rock but the conditions weren't perfect so we couldn't see that really stark colour change that we remember from previous visits. Still, it is a beautiful time of the day to sit on the bonnet of the car and watch the light on the rock.

We drove out to Kata Tjuta one afternoon but it was so hot that the Valley of the Winds walk was closed. So we wandered the short walk into Walpa Gorge which was hot and exposed but still very beautiful. Then we drove around the domes and admired them from all angles.

A special part of the world, and despite the tourist craziness I am sure we will be back.