Cutlers Cruz Aus

Devils Marbles BY LEVI

As we were driving into the info bay at Devils Marbles, we saw a dingo lying on the dirt near the car park. We watched it for a little while and then a lady came out from behind a motor home and walked right up to it and through it a hand full of food. Mum was really angry because she hates people feeding wildlife and was going to call the rangers but she didn’t.

We chose our campsite and set up. Then we went for a walk around the rocks, I saw a girl at the top a big mountain of rocks so I decided to go and climb it as well. I made it to the top before Dad and Alizah. There was a clear little waterhole at the top and a really good view but Mum had the camera. When we climbed back down Dad and I found a cave and hid in it. When a group of other people walked past Dad made silly didgeridoo noises to scare them but they didn’t care. We walked towards a track and got lost so I led the family through a dry creek bed back to the road then back home. When we got home I still wanted to climb more rocks so I climbed to the top of the mountain in our back yard and watched the sun go down. I had to hurry back to the van because I didn’t want that dingo to find me. The next morning I kept on rock climbing until it was time to leave.

I think I’m pretty good at climbing rocks if I do say so myself.

long road ahead

Please don't feed the dingos

Penny Prado in front of the Marbles

I am the climbing champion

Rock Bull Riding

Push ups, harder than it looks

Rock lifting

view

hanging out

busted cuddling behind the rocks

better view

Levi's cave

Here he is again on top of the world

And again

Daly Waters BY JAMIE

We left Devils marbles around 8:30am headin for Daly Waters Hotel with a plan to pull into the devils pebbles and a lake near ??? but i missed the turn off. On the travels the land scape changed with more vibrant trees and signs of green grass with scattered termite mounds, some 1.8metres or higher. Some of the mounds seemed to look like fairy sand-castles and others resembled groups of people. We turned off the Stuart highway to enter the Daly Waters Hotel following a convey of vans and road trains. Sid raced in to book a spot as the park looked quite full even as early as 2pm. We waited for our escort in and up comes jim on his bicycle to show us the way. It’s getting flaming hot now so we were keen to go for a swim in the pool as soon as we set up the van. The kids and Sid enjoyed the cool dip while I got some ideas from a guy that’s done this trip to Darwin a few times before. We had booked the famous reef (wild caught barra) and beef meal for 7pm so we had a couple sharpys while the kids searched for the answers to complete their questionnaire to receive a free ice-block. The Pub walls and decor was littered with memorabilia of bras, undies, Jerseys, business cards, money and thirsty tourists. The pub was run by a load of Irish back-packers and one of them jumped on stage to belt out a few easy listening tunes while meals started from 6.30, and I’m a believer in practise makes perfection and this guy needs a little more practise. It is said the Daly Waters Hotel servers over 14000 Beef & Barra meals per season, not a bad money spinner at $27/ meal. After the meals the next entertainer was introduced “Chilli” an ex- Aussie stockman, what a character he put on a top show with a few insults, jokes, stories from his life experiences and songs .

First up in the morning on our way to Mataranka springs I wheeled into the Daly Waters Aviation Complex which is the oldest hanger in the Northern Territory, history relating to its early international airstrip and WWII and is still an active airstrip today .We have seen many signs on the way as they are scattered along the Stuart highway up to Darwin and thought we better check at least one out.

‘IM HUNGRY’ is a common cry about 15 minutes every time we leave to go anywhere so we slipped into Pink panther “Larrimah Hotel” for smoko and advertises a free zoo. There is a lot of history around this destination too, around WWII, not so much now. The name” Larrimah” means meeting place. The pub was the old mess during the WWII and now its a little outback pub where u can camp and wander through the zoo featuring birds, wallaby, emus crocs and snakes with a statue of Darwin stubby and the pink panther out the front and serves meals and cold beer/beverages.

Look another long road ahead

Cooling off

doing a bit of colouring in

The Bra bar

The souvenir shop

The Daly Water Hotel

The Servo

The Cap Section

The famous Barra & Beef Meal mmmmmm

Chilli, our entertainment for the evening

No Dress codes out here

old railway equipment

A photo of the longest road train in the NT -21trailers & 312m long & 402 tyres

Zara with the big beer

Mataranka Springs

Arriving in this area the threat of crocs in the water is pretty real, luckily it has some beautiful thermal pools. Bitter Springs has lovely clear water and was the temperature of a warm bath. Jamie was worried about infections we could get from there before anything else. After a bit of reading the amount of water 300L a second or something, we thought it would probably wash anything away.
I however have a very sensitive nose and the smell of all the algea on the outside edge and the sulphur coming out of the ground made me have a quick dip and then just relaxed in the sun. Alizah found quite a few turtles as she swam around, another reason I don’t really like swimming in creeks and things to many animals live there. So after a few hours and very wrinkly skin we decided to grab some lunch at the Brennans campsite before heading to the Mataranka thermal pool, this one has been concreted around the side so it was more like a pool. More swimming and feeling a little thirsty, we headed to the bar for happy hour and to listen to some live music. The JD’s were great, the music has not.

Jamie woke with a tummy bug, whether it was the JD or the water we are not sure , so we had a quiet day. Playing Frisbee in the park and exploring the camp site we found a small waterfall/ rockpool area that the kids could just sit in and cool down. The kids were having an awesome time as the water was very clear the only problem was there was big, long green moss all around the outside of the waters edge. Levi wanted to slide down the waterfall but thought it safer staying in the shallows near the rest of us. As I mentioned earlier I really have to force myself to get into creeks and things as I always feel things on my feet and freak out. I thought I was pretty good even with the occasional long moss weed wrapping along my leg and I assured the kids it’s safe here, no crocs to worry about, the caretaker even said it was lovely.. Well was I wrong. No crocs, but sitting down I felt what I thought was more moss around my leg only the find when looking down a bloody big brown snake wrapped around my ankle and being swept down the waterfall. I don’t know if he was trying to find a way out but I was not waiting around to find out. You have never hurt so much screaming or seen people move so fast out of the water. Mind you I was the closest to the shore and all the kids jumped over me or pushed me out of the way to save themselves, even with me holding Kaine. Next thing I look up Alizah is running like she is trying out for the Olmpics and left us all on the side of the bank. So trying to calm the others and myself we start walking back up the tract to see Jamie coming the other way. He heard the screams and as sick as a dog he came to see what the commotion was all about. So Zara & Kaine have said they are not swimming in there again and I totally agree. I told the caretaker and she said that’s it for her too, she won’t be going back in there.

plane decending in the sunset

Kids love the fire for marshmellows

termite moulds

Levi feeding the Barramundi

Kaine past out from all the swimming

Bitter Springs

The water has such a beautiful colour

Thermal Pools- you start looking like this then end up like .......

THIS. Very young

Kaine enjoying the water

Family Shot

Local peacock

Enjoying wonderful company and cold drinks

more marshmellows

This is how you go in the bush

The site of the snake attack

The long green moss

The exact site the snake came through

Travelling from Kings Canyon we thought we would try the dirt road shortcut. The Ernst Giles Road was only 100km saving us another 200km following the highway. We had heard a couple of stories that the road was rough but we thought we would give it a go. How bad could it be? Famous last words... Well the moment we turned off the highway the corrugations started, we drove on each side of the road, off the road in the grass to try and stop the car shaking uncontrollably. Travelling at 20km/hr we were overtaken by by a guy who was probably going about 100km we thought he was mad but then Jamie said maybe we wont feel the bumps if we go faster. So off we went, up to about 70/ 80 km/hr and it did feel at lot better until we came across a crest and and all four wheels on the car and the van were off the ground. The kids thought it was awesome except when Levi's head hitting the roof. At the end of the road was a meteorite crater site which wasn't the most amazing thing we have seen on our travels but it was nice to have a break to stop our teeth from rattling. We made the most of the stop checking that we all made it out alive and what we thought was uninjured. Arriving in Alice Springs we found out the car had blown a couple of bulbs and the tap on our water tank had snapped off the van and all our water was gone, but it was easily fixed. The caravan park had all the water we needed.

Alice Springs has a very bad reputation for crime, Jamie & I actually thought it was a lot better than 15 years ago. Locals didn't line the banks of the Todd river like they once did, but they do still go on huge walks everyday meeting around the river, I'm still not real sure what exactly they are doing but it's probably none of my business.

We stayed in Alice for 10days and filled our days with lots of sites.

Visiting the West MacDonnell Ranges, which included Glen Helen Gorge, Orminsten Gorge, Ellery Creek Big Hole, The Ochre pits where the aboriginals found their paints, Simpsons Gap and Flynns Grave.

Another corrugated road took us out to Rainbow Valley which had beautiful coloured sandstone. A beautiful back drop to do some more of my burpees for the Goalpower challenge. Thank God I got a few extra in as on the drive out I injured my back while trying to get food for the kids. It was very painful and I thought I broke it, I could barely move for a couple days. But Jamie still had another dirt road trip up his sleeve, checking out Redbank campground on a river. But my tears told him to shorten the drive and head back into Alice. He did cook dinner and wash up which had the caravan park talking about what a great guy he was.

The East MacDonnell Ranges had Emily &Jesse Gap, Corroboree Rock, Trephina Gorge and another 4WD trip through a rocky creek bed to John Hayes Rockponds.

Penny Prado needed a service so we booked it in with Kmart Tyre & Auto only to find they don't really know what day it is and wrote us down on the wrong day, so we took advantage to take in another fantastic attraction. School of the Air was first founded in Alice Springs and now there are many more Australia wide. We had a great experience talking to one of the teachers who came in on her holidays while other staff were away sick. She showed us behind the scenes of the classrooms and told us some of her trade secrets. We saw a film of one of the students who was interviewed by Sunrise, he was 8 years old at the time and could drive a car and weld. He is now 10 and is driving trucks on his families property. Pretty cool stuff our kids walked out wanting to go to this school.

I had forgotten to get Zara her 4yr old immunisation needles so that was something we had to get out of the way so she could head to school if we pulled up anywhere for a length of time. She was excited as we told her she could have any prise she liked ( within limits) and I must say was the bravest little girl I have ever seen and her prize was a packet of pink musk sticks. That's my girl thinking of food just like her mum.

But the highlight for me was the reason we stayed for so long, it was the Camel Races. The funniest thing I had ever seen. The jockeys were mostly backpackers or young guys and girls looking for a new career maybe. The most amusing was an old guy who had no idea how to ride and every time he got on he held on for his life, bouncing all over the place. It really was a" had to be there moment." The first couple of races where crazy, camels running in the wrong direction, a couple of guys were thrown to the ground and some of the camels weren't going to run even if their life depended on it. The main race was held at the same time as Melbourne Cup, the atmosphere was pumping, with guesses to who would win the cup. Unfortunately there is no betting but at least I saved my money as the winner was a young lady who ha won with her camel for the last 3 years running.

Got to love the Northern Territory.