Nyngan

 
 

We had another long drive today but were very happy to set up camp on the river and start collecting fire wood for roasting marshmallows tonight. We collected a lot of wood and then got the fire going. We enjoyed just sitting around, watching the fire and looking at the stars in the sky. We even saw a couple of satellites go by.

Tomorrow we are planning on going canoeing. They have a shed with a few canoes and paddles, so hopefully we can have a paddle on the river in the morning.

DAY 2:
The canoe cost nothing to hire today, so we walked 20 m from our van, put on our life jackets, found some paddles and off we went. We had a great time paddling down the river. I went with Dad and sand as he paddled

After a quick shop to get some more food in the afternoon, we started the fire again. Amazingly, it was still hot enough from last night and all we had to do was throw in a piece of paper and the coals caught alight!

We started the fire at about 2:45 and sat around it until dinner. For dinner we roasted potatoes in the hot coals of the fire – they tasted yummy! We ate dinner inside, but then had our ice creams that we had bought from the shop, back out at the fire.

Broken Hill - back in NSW !!!

 
 

This morning we left to go to Broken Hill. On the way we stopped at Petersborough and James and I got a finger bun while Dad and Mum got a coffee. The information centre we went to was actually an old train carriage. It had beds in it. After this we drove for a long time.

We arrived at Broken Hill and had lunch. As soon as we set up we went to the park (opposite our caravan site) . It had swings, round-a-bouts and springy toys. I also went for a run around the caravan park with Dad.

DAY 2:
This morning we went to the Information centre and got a key to go to the Desert Sculptures. As drove in and out of the Desert Park, we saw rock wallabies and kangaroos – I took some pictures of them with my camera. I also took lots of pictures of the Desert Sculptures. It was freezing out at the Sculptures because the wind was very strong.

At the Silver City Mint Museum we saw lots of paintings, but the biggest painting was 12 m x 100m. It was huge and felt like it was coming out at you. There was also a chocolate factory and they had lolly dummies, chocolate and fudge. I bought some strawberry fudge.

We then went to the Pro Hart gallery. Outside the gallery was a Rolls Royce car which Pro Hart had painted. Inside the gallery there were huge paintings of Australian outback scenes (gold diggers, bush rangers, mining life) as well as a dragon fly. It was interesting how with one painting he used a cannon to shoot Christmas baubles full of paint onto the canvas.

This afternoon we went to the Soda Factory where they make sodas like they did in the 1950’s. Since I don’t really like ice cream, I had a cherry ripe chocolate instead.

Port Augusta

 
 

Another day in the car, but we stopped for lunch at Woomera where rockets were launched. One of the sad stories was that Germany bombed England with missiles. So, Britain and Australia decided to build their own rockets during World War 2 and used Woomera to do this. We walked around the museum and saw lots of rockets and missiles – a few of the names were Black Arrow and Black Knight.

We stopped at Port Augusta (instead of Quorn) and it was cold and rainy. Today we to the movies and saw Ice Age 3 while I ate chicken chips.

Tomorrow we are driving to Broken Hill (NSW).

Coober Pedy

 
 
 

We travelled a lot today. We spent 9 ½ hours in the car and watched Star Wars and Shrek the Third. We also listened to ½ of the Nimbin, an audio book (thanks Mr and Mrs Blake!)

Everywhere you look there are little hills of sand where the people have mined. The main street which we drove through today (and will look at tomorrow) has many Opal stores for buying souvenirs and learning about the history of Opal mining.

Off to bed now because I am so tired from the long drive.

Day 2
This morning we went to the Old Timer’s Mine and we found heaps of opals “noodling” in the pit at the entrance. In the mine we saw dummies dressed up as miners to show us how they mined for opals, tools that they used and the underground homes. They were only small rooms and were lived in up until 1988. Did you know Coober Pedy is the opal capital of the world ?

After that we spent some time walking the main street looking in many opal shops – there was plenty of jewellery. We had lunch at John’s Pizza (Uncle Simon would love this place). I had some wedges with sweet chilli sauce. James, Mum and Dad had pizza.

We had a restful afternoon playing games.

BIG ULURU

 
 
 
 

On the way to Ayers Rock we saw another big rock called Mount Connor. I wondered why it was called Mount Connor – I will have to look it up sometime, because I still don’t know!

On to Yulara (the town where Uluru is). When we got there, we were put on a site with no power, but Daddy sweet talked the lady into giving us a powered site. Then we set up and put on our sunscreen and hat in order to go and climb Ayres Rock.

The drive to the Rock is about 17 km and we had to pay to enter the park. We parked at the bottom of the Rock and started to walk up. I was a bit scared because I didn’t want to hurt myself. The first bit of the climb was very steep – about 30 metres with just rocks on the side to cling to, and then another 30 metres of very steep, slippery rock without any chains. That’s where I slipped and cried!

Mum climbed up first and then waited for each of us to get to the beginning of the chains. The chains were quite low, even for me! I was still scared, so Mum suggested that we go 10 chains at a time and then have a rest. We did that for a while and got up about ¾ of the way. We didn’t go all the way in case one of us got hurt.

It was a long way down… it was much easier going down as we turned around backwards and used our arms on the chains. We saw lots of people struggling with the climb, especially older people. Thirty five people have died on the Rock and our Prado friend Barb, broke her wrist and is having it operated on today to have a plate and screws put in!

We spent some time in the afternoon walking around the cultural centre looking for gifts and souvenirs. An ice block was a cool treat after a big day.

DAY 2:
We had a quiet day and planned what to do on our extra day. We had brunch with our Prado friends and then in the afternoon we had a big photo taken with all the Prado people and then another photo of just the cars in a row.

That evening we had dinner at a restaurant, named the Outback Pioneer. The kids had chips, nuggets and pizza. For dessert we had an icy pole. Then we went outside and played with our friends for the last time  .

DAY 3:
In the morning we went to the Olgas. From a distance they look like balls, but up close they are big smooth rocks. We went on the Walpa Gorge self guided tour and hear lots of birds calling to each other – their noise echoed in the gorge. There was a little creek which we got to touch – it was freezing. There are some animals living in the gorge because we saw Kangaroo poo.

We went back to the van for a quick lunch and then Mum and I went back to the Cultural centre to do Dot Painting.

An Aboriginal lady had an interpreter. An interpreter is someone who explains what people are saying who speak a different language. They sat down on the ground and smoothed out the sand. The lady didn’t have any shoes. She showed us some symbols and told us the stories of what they meant. The interpreted told us what she said and we then could ask questions.

After this, we were given a piece of canvas and we started to dot paint. I did my background red, but when I finished my first one I accidently dropped it in the sand. My second attempt rolled up because I painted on the wrong side of the canvas, but my third was great. I painted a snake in white and black dots and gave the snake gold and brown stripes. On either side of the snake I painted a water hole. In the sky I painted a sun and a bush and grass on the ground. I enjoyed this experience as it was fun to paint with Mum and learn from the Aboriginal lady.

Kings Canyon

 
 
 

In the morning we went in the first group of 5 cars to travel to Kings Canyon from Glen Helen. Our first stop was Gosse Bluff where a crater was formed when a meteorite hit the earth 142 million years ago. It was a big crater.

Then we continued our journey to Kings Canyon. It was a bumpy ride because it was a 4wd track. When we were still 45 minutes from our destination, Mum and I really needed to go to the toilet. We managed to hold on and we made it !!! Once we had setup the caravan, we sat outside and worked out what we would do today. We decided we would go out to Kings Canyon and do the big, big, big rim walk.

At first, we climbed a steep section and we were puffing and puffing. Finally, we stopped at a bit that had benches and we could put our bag which had our drink bottles down and we had a drink. On the walk we saw pretty rocks and ochre which was orange, white and yellow.

It was a long walk – 6.5km in total, but we did it in 2 hours!!!

At the end I decided to give my family awards. Dad got the Encourager Award because he encouraged me all the way, James got the Good Climber Award and Mum got the Helping in many Different Ways. James gave me a Perseverance Award and that made me very happy.

GLEN HELEN GORGE

 
 
 
 

After a quick trip we got to Glen Helen Gorge – we were the first of the Pradopoint group to arrive, so we set up our caravan and worked out which gorges we were going to visit.

First, we went to Big Ellery Creek Hole where we found a water hole. We wanted to go in for a swim, but it was a bit cold and a bit dirty.

We then decided to go to a place called ‘Standley Chasm’. We climbed over big boulders and under trees. It was hard work and very steep. Coming down was much harder than going up! I really liked walking through the Chasm because there were rocks around me on each side. Lots of people encouraged me to keep going because they could see that I was only little.

We then went to the Ochre pits – I fell asleep in the car after such a bog climb, so James and Dad ran down to the pit and took a photo. They use Ochre to make face paint. The boys said that the rocks were very colourful.

I woke up and we travelled to Ormiston Gorge. It had a water hole, but we didn’t see any animals around. We climbed up a few rocks (James loves to climb) and then got in the car to go back home.

We had dinner at the lodge – sausages, salad and bread. We went back to the van and had some white chocolate for dessert – Mum is very sorry she introduced us to the chocolate she likes!