Up and into NT

What a breeze driving on a sealed road (Stuart Highway) up into NT, could fly along! A short detour off the beaten track to the community of Iwantja where there is an Art Centre that welcomes visitors. This was the kids (and Cems) first experience of an aboriginal community and I think, for even the more hardened souls, they can be a bit confronting, especially as we couldn't immediately locate the Centre and had to make a few turns, and transversed a few streets a few times. Eventually someone signalled the right direction for us. It was great to see the work in progress, a busy studio situation, managed by Beth, one of 20 non-aboriginal people who live in Iwantja (the rest being mainly medicos and teachers).

Then onto our interesting camping location for the evening: The border. Literally. There are rest stops along the Stuart that permit '24 hour overnight camping'. Well, this one is obviously a popular one and I felt like I was at some caravan expo. We were lucky to get a position, pulling in late afternoon when obviously most others were already well settled. There was a white line across the road (see photo below) behind the last van, looking a bit like one of those lines at a corner or a driveway that indicated you cannot park beyond. It worried Cem and he wanted to move somewhere else. I reasoned that there was no 'no-parking' sign and I couldn't imagine the traffic inspectors coming here, and there wasn't anywhere else anyway. He reluctantly agreed. After looking around a bit, we eventually realised that it was actually the border painted across the road, a shame I hadn't parked the car a metre further forward then the car would have been in NT and the van in SA.

The next day, with great anticipation, we eventually arrived at Yulara Camping Ground and set ourselves up for a 4 night stay. Over the next 4 days we had the whole range of tourist experiences: rock at sunrise, rock at sunset, climbed the rock (tut tut), walked/cycled around the rock, Olgas, Olgas at sunset, camel ride, walks, talks, visitors centre. The Lot! At the sunrise talk I don't remember the last time I was so cold. The car registered -2 degrees that morning! Here at Yulara we crossed paths with the Inglis family from Warrawee Public School. This was planned. Fabulous to catch up with them, learn of their adventures and get some good tips for our road ahead. Walking around the rock we also coincidently bumped into Giselle Lees and family also known from WPS...

Leaving Uluru, we are heading around the back way via Kings Canyon and the West Macdonnell Ranges and into Alice. This is a rough old road, the worst of all the unsealed roads we have been on, but at the same time, so nice to be out bush again and to have the landscape to yourself, and escaping the circus of areas like Yulara! Here is Kings Canyon, 2 weeks previously a woman had fallen and died here. Could see how this could quite easily happen.