Our run into Adelaide went well and the rush hour traffic going into the city was not too bad. We flew at 1045hrs so we were at the airport for 0830hrs. A very relaxed affair it was too with arrivals and departures using the same halls. Flight left on time and we were in “the Alice” before noon. After retrieving our bags and picking up our second Hyundai Getz we headed into town for some shopping.
Lovely big signage welcoming you into town, splendid “red” landscape, dry and starved of water. We found the supermarket in the middle of town and had our first sightings of aborigines in vast numbers. The Alice had an almost an uncomfortable feel to it and we were pretty glad we weren’t staying there. Maybe we didn’t give it enough time and it could have been better but we were glad to be off.
We had 300 miles to drive to get to Kings Creek Station near Kings Canyon and it was hell hot!! With our little car fuelled up off we went…….
The landscape was so different to anything we had seen up to press it was like being in real Australia if that makes any sense. It was wild, dry and miles of bush and bush roads. We were hoping to get to our digs before dark so we had little time to stop. Not that there was much different to see which warranted stopping anyway. We did stop to fuel up as you never know where the next gas station will be out here on these roads. Out here they have road trains, huge trucks with trailers up to 30 metres long, some load. Still the roads are very long and straight so no problem really.
We arrived at the station at 1700hrs. Kings Creek Station is a huge camel ranch. It also has accommodation to serve nearby Kings Canyon. We were booked into a fabric sided cabin – a tent in reality but it was OK. Beds, a light and fly nets everywhere. These more than proved their usefulness as soon as the sun went down. Red Central turned into bug central! Never seen so many bugs in varying shapes and sizes.
We were BBQing outside and there were giant moths, stick insects as big as your hand, praying mantis’ all over the place and no end of other unidentifiable beetles and bugs grovelling around. Some sadly ended up being BBQd. (Not eaten tho’.) After a beer and some grub and a poor attempt at bug identifying we retired to our tent.
Now remember the famous sandflies in NZ?? Ohh yess, what a nuisance they were. Well here we have what appears to be the humble housefly, only hundreds of them trying to get up your nose, in your mouth and all over your face!! Mmmmm lovely, the only thing is that they don’t bite they are just a massive tiring nuisance as your are constantly waving your hands about trying to get rid of them. These annoying little sh*ts are the day time problem in Red Central.
Back to Kings Creek Station, this is the place where we were supposed to be doing a camel ride at sunrise but sadly all the big camels were out being herded somewhere and it was cancelled. There were a few camels knocking around but these were only 5 months old and not big enough to carry anyone. Very cute though. The cancellation was met with some relief from Mrs D who was not too keen I think and was reliving her uneasy memories of riding George in Glenorchy!!
Breakfast here was included with the deal so we headed off to the kitchen for our bushmans brekkie which was bacon, egg, toast and plenty of tea. It was a huge kitchen as they also did breakfast for passing tour buses on their way to Kings Canyon from Ayers Rock. Nice little earner they have going there.
The following day it was a hot, sunny, dry and the flies were on top form. After breakfast we drove down to Kings Canyon and did a superb rim walk around the top of the canyon. The rock colours and formations were excellent. We got back to the car exhausted with the heat. We then went to a sacred aboriginal spring, another short walk on the way back to the ranch. On our way back from the spring we saw a huge lizard stood on the path in front of us. Funny, you see signs warning you of all the wildlife you may encounter so you spend all day staring into the bush looking for it and then it appears on the path in front of you!! Anyway he was quite a big guy must have been 2 feet long. Needless to say we hung around and watched ‘til he cleared off we didn’t want to disturb him you know.
In the evening after another BBQ we got chatting to 2 Irish guys – Derek & Charlie. Derek lived and worked on an Aboriginal reservation near Ayers Rock and had been in Oz since 1975. Charlie lived and worked in Goa in India and was over to see his brother as they had not seen each other for twenty years!! Mrs D asked the obvious question “what was the first thing you said when you saw your brother after 20 years?” In true Irish style the reply was “lets go for a beer!!” We had a very jolly evening chatting with them and even shared a quick star gaze before we retired to bed. The skies were superb as there was zero light pollution out there.
The following day we exchanged a few words with them before we set off to Ayers Rock or Uluru and they headed up to the Alice.
An excellent time was had at Kings Creek Station and we were unsure that our digs at the rock would be as good, we will see.
Lovely big signage welcoming you into town, splendid “red” landscape, dry and starved of water. We found the supermarket in the middle of town and had our first sightings of aborigines in vast numbers. The Alice had an almost an uncomfortable feel to it and we were pretty glad we weren’t staying there. Maybe we didn’t give it enough time and it could have been better but we were glad to be off.
We had 300 miles to drive to get to Kings Creek Station near Kings Canyon and it was hell hot!! With our little car fuelled up off we went…….
The landscape was so different to anything we had seen up to press it was like being in real Australia if that makes any sense. It was wild, dry and miles of bush and bush roads. We were hoping to get to our digs before dark so we had little time to stop. Not that there was much different to see which warranted stopping anyway. We did stop to fuel up as you never know where the next gas station will be out here on these roads. Out here they have road trains, huge trucks with trailers up to 30 metres long, some load. Still the roads are very long and straight so no problem really.
We arrived at the station at 1700hrs. Kings Creek Station is a huge camel ranch. It also has accommodation to serve nearby Kings Canyon. We were booked into a fabric sided cabin – a tent in reality but it was OK. Beds, a light and fly nets everywhere. These more than proved their usefulness as soon as the sun went down. Red Central turned into bug central! Never seen so many bugs in varying shapes and sizes.
We were BBQing outside and there were giant moths, stick insects as big as your hand, praying mantis’ all over the place and no end of other unidentifiable beetles and bugs grovelling around. Some sadly ended up being BBQd. (Not eaten tho’.) After a beer and some grub and a poor attempt at bug identifying we retired to our tent.
Now remember the famous sandflies in NZ?? Ohh yess, what a nuisance they were. Well here we have what appears to be the humble housefly, only hundreds of them trying to get up your nose, in your mouth and all over your face!! Mmmmm lovely, the only thing is that they don’t bite they are just a massive tiring nuisance as your are constantly waving your hands about trying to get rid of them. These annoying little sh*ts are the day time problem in Red Central.
Back to Kings Creek Station, this is the place where we were supposed to be doing a camel ride at sunrise but sadly all the big camels were out being herded somewhere and it was cancelled. There were a few camels knocking around but these were only 5 months old and not big enough to carry anyone. Very cute though. The cancellation was met with some relief from Mrs D who was not too keen I think and was reliving her uneasy memories of riding George in Glenorchy!!
Breakfast here was included with the deal so we headed off to the kitchen for our bushmans brekkie which was bacon, egg, toast and plenty of tea. It was a huge kitchen as they also did breakfast for passing tour buses on their way to Kings Canyon from Ayers Rock. Nice little earner they have going there.
The following day it was a hot, sunny, dry and the flies were on top form. After breakfast we drove down to Kings Canyon and did a superb rim walk around the top of the canyon. The rock colours and formations were excellent. We got back to the car exhausted with the heat. We then went to a sacred aboriginal spring, another short walk on the way back to the ranch. On our way back from the spring we saw a huge lizard stood on the path in front of us. Funny, you see signs warning you of all the wildlife you may encounter so you spend all day staring into the bush looking for it and then it appears on the path in front of you!! Anyway he was quite a big guy must have been 2 feet long. Needless to say we hung around and watched ‘til he cleared off we didn’t want to disturb him you know.
In the evening after another BBQ we got chatting to 2 Irish guys – Derek & Charlie. Derek lived and worked on an Aboriginal reservation near Ayers Rock and had been in Oz since 1975. Charlie lived and worked in Goa in India and was over to see his brother as they had not seen each other for twenty years!! Mrs D asked the obvious question “what was the first thing you said when you saw your brother after 20 years?” In true Irish style the reply was “lets go for a beer!!” We had a very jolly evening chatting with them and even shared a quick star gaze before we retired to bed. The skies were superb as there was zero light pollution out there.
The following day we exchanged a few words with them before we set off to Ayers Rock or Uluru and they headed up to the Alice.
An excellent time was had at Kings Creek Station and we were unsure that our digs at the rock would be as good, we will see.
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