East Macdonnell Ranges

There is so much to do around Alice we decided to stay for longer. We did a trip out to the East Macdonnell Ranges and visited Emily's Gap, Trephina Gorge and Arltunga, a deserted gold town. We got to see our first cave paintings, and the kids kept asking if they could come back with Maddi & Jack... so much to explore!

Alice Springs

We got our tourist on in Alice and visited the reptile park as well as the desert park. The kids loved them both. They couldn't wait to hold the olive python (sorry grandad snake warning) and loved the bird show. We also went to watch The Ghan leave for Adelaide, an impressive 27+ carriages.

Mt Isa & beyond

What can I say, Mt Isa is hot, dry & not very pretty. It certainly made us appreciate Bulli even more than we already did! We had a quick look around, stocked up & made a few minor repairs. On our way to the NT border we stopped to check out a big sink hole at Camooweal. Before long we were in the NT & pretty excited! We made a stop at Barkly Station and Karlu Karlu (Devils Marbles) before heading south to Alice Springs. We scampered around the Devil's Marbles for an hour in 40˚C, we were all amazed at their size, colour and formations... beautiful!!

Winton

We weren't overly impressed with Longreach so didn't stay too long. We were all looking forward to Winton & the dinosaurs! The day we arrived it was 40ºC and although we had a little shade at the caravan park it wasn't enough. The fridge & freezer were both struggling to keep things cool in heat like that & Tim & I were craving something cold... so we bought a case. It was a hilarious set up, I had one beer, Tim had a few more & in the heat they went to our heads pretty quickly. The kids were unimpressed and completely zoned out while we giggled & carried on, it took over an hour longer to set up than normal. The dinosaur stampede was great as well as the museum & lab & we all LOVED the musical fence with its junkyard instruments & the road trains. It's such a small little town and like stepping in a time warp, but we all loved it.

Longreach

We headed north to Longreach and were all pretty excited to be in 'The Outback'! We stopped off at Barcaldine along the way to see the Tree of Knowledge and have a drink in an outback pub. Lola made friends with the locals very quickly!
Once in Longreach we visited the QANTAS Museum & Stockman Hall of Fame and stopped at the river on our way out of town for a fish.

On the road

The distance between stops is now getting bigger so the car trips are getting longer. The landscape has really changed and it is beautiful. Lots of rugged landscapes, big skies, shimmering heat haze and road trains! At times though the kids are otherwise occupied.

Emerald

The drive north from Lake Boondoomah to Emerald was a long one, and thanks to lots of road works was even longer than it needed to be. We ended up doing a one night stop over in Injune, which was completely unmentionable. Once we arrived in Emerald, we decided to stay 20kms south at Lake Maraboon and was nice to have the lake to cool down in and gave Tim another opportunity to chase red claw. At last he was successful and he ended up with 6, one was the size of a small lobster.
We did a day trip up to Sapphire and Rubyvale to try our luck fossicking. After an underground mine tour (including bats... yuk) we bought a bag of wash, it was way too hot to do our own digging. Lola found a beautiful green sapphire that was gem quality, a nice size and definitely worth cutting, while Rex and I also found a few smaller ones worth cutting. Tim got the bug and hasn't found a gem quality one yet, but we still have a bag of wash to sift through!
Both Sapphire and Rubyvale were like shanty towns almost. There are tin shacks, caravans and make-do homes because the claims aren't aloud to have permanent dwellings on them. The machinery they use to sift the wash looks like a collection of bits from the last 150 years and the surrounding landscape looks as though every inch has been dug up at some stage with uneven mounds of dirt everywhere. Not exactly beautiful, but an interesting way of life.