Daly Waters Pub

Daly Waters Pub is 274 km South of Katherine. This place is one of the most famous pubs in Aus.

And i can see why - its miles from anywhere and it's HOT here. And for that matter probably the aussiest place i've ever been visited.

We got out of the car and setup the van and i can bloddy well tell you i fairdinkum was sweatier than 100 camel drivers armpits.


Character dripping from the ceilings - bras, hats, cards, graffiti you name it - you'll see it plastered on any vertical surface.

So we settled down for a few well deserved drinks and a plate of tucker and took in the entertainment. This bloke had the crowd buckled over for hours - a hilarous set of outback aussie bloke gags and songs - including 20 reasons why a dog is better than a sheila. Not sure if it was the delivery or what but some of them i stopped and thought to myself 'hangon that's a bloody good point!'.

After dinner we went to the watering hole connected to the pub and jesse took some hangers with a footy in the pool.

Ahh rippa of a night. Walked out with a warm glow of all things Aus.

A story of super human strength

When we were at devils marbles a truly unusual event unfolded.

We just arrived right and Jesse setup the whole van by himself, including the really awkward door apparatus that really is a bad design. I digress.

Zon was off doing a photoshoot for a her new book titled ‘How to rock without a guitar’

In the meantime Grace saved a nearby town from being squashed by a massive bolder (It was that alien town Wyecliff Well - which is a shame cause you know how I feel about that place)

Anyway scosha was running past a huge bolder and tripped and fell under it. Sure she looks happy but that’s how she often comes across when she is terrified. Mixed message I know. Anyway she’s terrified – be creative.

Super incredoman sees this situation unfold and pushes the 120 tonne bolder out of harms way with his super strength and good looks. Oh yeah….it then rolled down and took out Wyecliff Well.

Devils marbles

According to aboriginal mythology the Devils Marbles are Rainbow Serpent eggs.

In a historic ceremony held on the 27th October 2008 ownership of the Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve was officially given back to the site’s Traditional Owners. The Reserve will now be leased back the Territory Government under a 99 year lease agreement.

390 km north of Alice. These granite rocks are completely freakish. Precariously balanced one on top of the other behind a big sky and nothing for miles - this place has a magic to it.

Camping right in the middle of these massive granite boulders made the drive justifiable in its own right. The stench from the drop dunny tried to convince us otherwise, but the boulders won out.

That morning Scosha added an extra weet-bix to her standard 2. She will be handy should we get a flat.

Jesse watched the sunset from the top of the biggest boulder.

I know i have overdone the rock drama shots but its just so hard to resist. I blame my dad who took a photo of me holding up the leaning tower of Pisa when i was a kid.

Alien town

Wycliffe Well 380 kms north of Alice.

Some towns have so little going for them they need to be creative when establishing a town icon. Big bananas, big worms, big prawns etc. at least have a vague connection with the truth . This place claiming to be the 5th largest UFO sighting location in the world I believe is for those who have lots of spare hard drive capacity in their heads.

Its an evidence thing. There is none of this to support green people. Clever though - it did make us stop and buy a bottle of water and use their toilet.

This aside – Jesse took the aliens on. It was a fight for the truth.

But alas he lost out – they spat alien slime on him and he is now one of them.

Alice Springs

At Alice Springs we stayed at a great caravan park with a big jumping cushion. We stayed there for four nights because we had been driving lots and it was time for a rest, plus I love jumping cushions. Every morning when I woke up I would go straight to the cushion to meet my friends. One morning we went for a walk to get pancakes but the queue was too long so we went back to the van and on the way all my friends waved and mum and Sophie realised how many friends I had. I love making friends at each new place but I don’t like having to say goodbye.
Jesse
Sweet sunset pretty much every night.

We went west down the Macdonnel ranges and checked out a bunch of gorges. This one at Serpentine gorge we went for a climb until mum freaked out and we had to come down.

Alice Springs Beanie Festival
We were lucky enough to arrive in Alice on the weekend of the annual ‘Beanie Festival’. So that night we all went and had a great time with all the singing and dancing . They also had a presentation which they modelled the beanies made with entries all around the world and announced the winners. There were amazing designs. Here we were thinking it was a nice warm night and the locals were wearing jumpers and eating soup and casseroles thinking this is the start of winter .
By Sophie

This is Ormiston gorge. Here we watched a dingo pull a fish out of the water. Dad was too slow with the camera.

I also had a camel ride which was so much fun.

Kings Canyon

Whilst having dinner dingoes would come within 2 meters of us and this was simply amazing. They are such beautiful dogs and so similar to domestic dogs.
Dad and I walked through beautiful canyons the next day and we were speechless after what we had seen. For our last night at Kings Canyon we watched the sun go down over the beautiful canyons.

Kings canyon was our favourite place so far, we loved it!
By Grace.

Kings Canyon

About 3 hours from Uluru we found Kings canyon.
We planned to stay one night but soon we were amazed by the beautiful surroundings and we just had to stay longer. At kings canyon there were many awesome sights to see and things to do, so we pretty much did all of these things from walking around canyons and getting within 2 meters of dingoes.

Jesse, Sophie and I were brave enough to swim in the pools there which were surprisingly warm but freezing when we got out.

By Grace

Kata Tjuta (the Olga’s)

The next day we all took a 1k walk through the Olgas whitch was absolutely amazing by the shape of the rock . We thought it was more breath taking than Uluru. If you spoke loudly it would echo, we all loved it.
By Sophie.

Uluru (Ayres rock)

For the next two nights we stayed in Uluru it was bigger than we all imagined and as the sun set it changed the mood of the rock and the different colours. Dad, grace and I ran around the rock, well sort of ran. We jogged most of the way and had a great time viewing the gorgeous features of the rock. We were exhausted by the end.

By Sophie.

Coober Pedy

Its so hot in coober pedy people live under the ground in caves. Its much cooler down there.

The golf course said keep off the grass but there was no grass because its in the middle of the dessert.

Harry was my new friend. He was really into opals.

Jesse

Coober Pedy

So we moved thru Adelaide and Port augusta and landed in Coober Pedy for a couple of nights.

Coober Pedy was very cool. We went noodling and i found 6 opals. This is where you dig around in the dirt looking for opals.

I pretended to hold up a dirt sucker machine.

Jesse

North of Port Augusta

Getting past port augusta was good for 2 reasons.

We were no longer in port augusta
We had our first real glimpse of genuine desert Up the road a bit we stopped off at Glendambo and saw a cool wall that gave us an insight into the history of this place famous for a cool wall.

Our first night

Our first night was in stawell (which was far from perfect). We stayed in a small caravan park that was next to a highway ,so sleeping that night wasnt exactly easy its even harder when you can hear you dad throwing up (which actally occoured at 2:00 in the morning).
The next day was much better as we entered South Australia.
by Grace

The departure

OK things didn't exactly work to plan with our departure. The cable thing that makes the roof go up was jammed like a jar of cottees conserve. Fear not - Greedy Greg rescued the mission by pulling apart half the van and launching the road trip.

Greedy greg thankyou for preparing our travel machinery and for being so patient when you explained the ins and outs of the 3 way fridge! I would have given up after the first way.