Travel

In my post ‘The Red Centre’, I mentioned that I was intrigued by the geology of Uluru and Kata Tjuta and that I would write a post with some basic explanations about their similarities and differences and some more photographs. Well, here it is!

Having arrived back home on Friday, I have spent the intervening time unpacking and adjusting to the colder and wetter weather. There is still much to do including piles of washing and giving the trailer a good spring clean to try to remove the worst of the red dust. But first, I have the last few days of our trip to report on.

Although it seemed as if we had just arrived at the red centre, the time soon arrived for us to be heading south. We were bracing ourselves for the return to colder and more unsettled weather, but we were not prepared for two separate stormy nights, within the space of five nights.

It is now more than a week since we left the red centre, and even longer since we arrived at Kings Canyon. I have been a bit slack in preparing a post about our adventures there, although, in fairness to myself, we have also covered a few kilometres since then, leaving little time for writing and reviewing heaps of photographs.

On our way to four nights in each of the East and West MacDonnell Ranges, we had the luxury of two night in an Alice Springs hotel – the Mercure. Apart from the two hour wait for our room to be ready and the bizarre room light switching (which meant reading in bed with a head torch – just like camping), this time allowed us to wash clothes and restock our provisions.

Rather than the planned four nights at Litchfield, we only had three, meaning that we didn’t have time to cover all the possible walks and waterfalls. However, we managed to squeeze in as much as possible, starting with the afternoon we arrived.

Saturday 23 July and we have been camped at Mataranka for three nights so far, having arrived here on Wednesday after two long distance drives during the previous two days. We had made the decision to head for here, partly due the fact we enjoyed it so much last year and partly to get some warm weather. We have not been disappointed on either account.