The Roaming 5: Oct 18 - 21 (Day 261 -264) - Alice to Finke River, Kings Canyon and back to Alice

Sunday 18 October

We had a fairly late night last night for the boys birthday so we are all feeling a bit tired today. We had a slowish start and made plans for the next few days. Originally we were going to be heading out to the West MacDonnells for a week, but we have spent quite a bit of time in and around Alice already so decided we would basically just zap out to Kings Canyon (which we've never seen before), come back into Alice and top-up whatever food we need, and then head out east towards the Birdsville track. You have to drive through the West MacDonnell Ranges anyway to get to Kings Canyon which is why we were originally going to do it all together.

Close to a hundred planes in storage at Alice Springs airport -
Cathay Pacific, Turkish, Scoot, Singapore and others

From the caravan park we headed briefly down to the airport and saw where some of the planes that aren't in use at the moment because of Covid, including Singapore Airlines' Airbus A380's. It was quite an amazing sight as they are normally all in the sky and only a few on the ground at a time.

I needed to get some shopping done before going anywhere else so that was the next stop and to get another gas bottle. While we were in town we bumped into Nathaniel Cole. Originally from Adelaide but now lives and works up here. We organised to visit him once we have been out to Kings Canyon.

After what seemed like forever shopping and restocking cupboards we had lunch and made our way out into the West Mac's. We've been out this way a few times now but the ranges are still just as impressive each time.

At the start of our journey out here it was blue skies and a few clouds but as we drove on we could see the rain coming and a thunderstorm brewing and then we gradually had more and more rain and drove through quite a few large amounts of water which was going across the road. Nothing too high but still quite a lot of water.

We dropped into Ellery Creek briefly and saw where we had camped last time and then continued on our way out to Finke River. We did our morning readings and chatted about Solomon and the Queen of Sheba and the importance of being wise with money and advice. We then listened to a few Just Williams. The kids (particularly Jude) love these stories as they are all about a boy who gets up to a lot of mischief (like Jude needs any encouragement...!). Some of the chapters are particularly humorous and roars of laughter fills the car.

We arrived at Finke River at around 3.30pm and set up. Once set up we sat and enjoyed our surroundings for the afternoon. Greg and I went for a wander to take some photos and just chat while the boys dug some holes for there cars and Bek did some school work. On our walk we saw so many beautiful rocks. There were so many diverse colours and patterns and we picked up a few to remember our time there.

A bit of 'us' time!

Monday 19 October

Another early morning! Our alarm roused us at 5am because we wanted to be down at Kings Canyon in plenty of time before the day got hot. We quickly had breakfast, packed up the site and headed off. Although as we drove we started to realise that our concerns about the day getting too hot were going to be rather unfounded, as the clouds rolled over and the rain started to fall.

Our track took us to the end of Larapinta Drive where we took a right turn onto Namatjira Drive down towards Kings Canyon (and where a left turn would take you back to Alice Springs via the old German settlement of Hermannsburg). One of our unanswered questions about Kings Canyon had been the road condition – we’d heard horror stories about the condition of the road, one of which being that the vibrations were so bad it wore open the ends of some baked bean tin containers, but others said the road was sealed. Well at this point we found out the road was definitely NOT sealed, and as we travelled it was obvious the former story was quite believable, so we stopped and dropped the tyre pressures! This was one of the worst roads we’ve encountered, including considering our rough rides on Bamaga Road on Cape York Peninsula, and the Savannah Way between Dunbar Station and Karumba. Those were pretty bad, but it’s possible this road was worse, because its condition changed so much. There were regular patches of corrugations, there was soft sand on the side of the road, but there was also a very hard dirt road bed with lots of large rocks embedded in it. Coupled with the rain we’d had last night and the rain we were still experiencing, it was far from a comfortable ride!

We stopped for a quick break along this road and found the Anderson plug on the caravan had come unplugged from the car, and no doubt came to its doom against some rock, as all we had left was the red and black wires and the bare metal pins flapping around in the breeze – the plastic connector was gone! I taped these up out of the way and we continued on until finally we got to Kings Canyon Resort fuel station. We got some morning tea and an update on the road conditions for the rest of our trip (all sealed roads thankfully!). Diesel was $1.95/L here so we emptied the two 20L jerry cans into the fuel tank and pumped the tyres back up, but also put about 100km’s worth of diesel in from the pumps just to be on the safe side This done we drove on to Kings Canyon, and still the rain came down!

We were debating what to do once we’d gotten ourselves ready, this time with extra water supplies! I guess we were hoping the rain would stop and we could get on our way, and while it was lightening it was still wet. So we set off, most of us with jumpers, and headed to the information booth where they had free wifi so we could check the BOM weather radar – fortunately this showed the rain was almost over! After watching the information video on walking safely and the rules around cliff edges, we eventually agreed to take the longest walk, the 6km Rim Walk.

By the way, I should say for those who haven’t been here that Kings Canyon is a series of enormous sandstone-type hills supposedly formed by ancient sandhills which were compressed into rock. There are a number of these and they poke out very prominently from what is otherwise a pretty flat landscape. Between some of these hills is a large gorge through which a freshwater, spring-fed stream runs through the middle of these hills.

There were some pretty spectacular sights along the 6km / 3hr Rim Walk, and we took so many photos and videos we ended up making this slideshow for all the photos and videos. But keep reading below once you're done watching!

After we left Kings Canyon we travelled south east down towards Ernest Giles Road.

However along the way we spotted a Thorny Devil on the road so stopped for a closer inspection. Despite its thorny appearance, it wasn't particularly spikey and didn't seem too bothered about being picked up. The kids naturally wanted to keep it, but we decided to hang onto it for the evening, camp nearby, and let it go in its own surrounds the next morning.

Hmph. Not impressed.

So we popped it in a large flat bucket, found a dirt track nearby to drive along for a bit, and set up camp for the night.

This guy is an escape artist!

Despite our lovely surroundings and custom-made home for him, he had a bit of a propensity to push his tail down and use that as a jack to wiggle himself a surprising distance up the wall of the bucket, so he was put into a larger bucket.

Something really surprising was that he changed colour! Check his colouring in this photo compared to the earlier ones! Apparently Thorny Devils must be able to change their colour to suit their surroundings!

Since he seemed such a part of the family, he (or she) needed a name. I suggested Thelma (the thorny devil). Bek immediately insisted the name didn't have to rhyme with the type of animal, and in any case the kids felt sure it was a boy, so I suggested Thomas, but to humour Bek I pronounced the 'Th' as it's spelt, so instead of 'Tommus', I pronounced it 'Thommus'. Cries of indignation, horror and objection rang out, but as no-one has any better suggestion the name 'Thomas' (strictly pronounced 'Thommus'), stuck, much to the irritation of Bek in particular! Later we thought of Thaddeus or Theodore which would have been great names, but by that time 'Thommus' was well and truly named.

Thomas spent the evening with us, wandering around our bed and exploring what his new surrounds had to offer, and having a cuddle with most of us, before he evidently decided it was sleep time.

A tired Thomas!

A beautiful evening!

So Thomas spent the night in a bucket inside Jude's jacket inside the van with us. We were a bit concerned about him getting out overnight but we checked carefully before getting up at night and he was sleeping soundly.

Tuesday 20 October - Back to Alice

Thomas on our bed in the morning sun

Thomas, naturally, was the first thing everyone was interested in next morning. He was still sleeping and looked so cozy and cute. He also looked a bit cold so we put him into the sun to warm him up a bit and make sure he was still alive. Thankfully after getting warming he certainly woke up.

Thomas joining us for breakfast

Thomas sunning himself on the caravan fly screen

Thomas still sunning himself, and perhaps wishing for freedom!

Our camp spot

With some sadness, we put Thomas back on the side of the road next to where we'd found him and he scurried into the bushes away from the road thankfully! We then got back on our way.

Ernest Giles Road is a dirt road shortcut which knocks about 140km off the journey back to Alice Springs compared to driving down to the Lasseter Highway out to Ayers Rock.

Thomas was not the only reptile we saw on the journey. This sand goanna wandered across our path, but wasn't hanging around to be caught! A very quick mover!

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, and we got back into Alice Springs a little after lunchtime.

The car was looking like this by the time we got back into Alice, so while Mim did some shopping Jude and I got to work on turning it back into a respectable vehicle!

Unfortunately in my haste to move the car forward so we could wash the van, I whacked the car door into my forehead and opened it up, so had to drop into Alice Springs Hospital to get it tidied up. This is my second hospital visit for steri-strips this trip, the last one being my toe at Boyne River, near Gladstone, Qld!

Once I was back in business, we drove around to Nat Cole's place, who lives in Alice Springs now. It was lovely to see him and his family again!

Wednesday 21 October

Today we enjoyed breakfast together with all the Cole's. Nat said he was able to take the children out of school for the day so that we could all go and visit some spot on in the West MacDonnell Ranges together. Sounds like a lovely plan. I got some work done first, then we had a yummy bacon and eggs and got all our things together and made our way out to Simpsons Gap as the first stop.