Gem Tree

We spent two days on the way back staying at Gemtree Caravan Park. This park, on the Plenty Highway is one of the closest to the Gem fields surrounding Alice Springs.

Garnet and Zircon are two of the gemstones you can find in this region and we decided to go fossicking for Garnets as they were easier to find :)

We went on a "Tour" where a guide took us out to the claim owned by the caravan park, showed us what to do and then let us. We were the only people out there all day.

The Kids had heaps of fun getting very, very dirty.

The basic process was;

1. Dig out a bucket of dirt from the spot you have decided to work.
2. Fill up a sieve with a quantity of dirt
3. Rotate the sieve back and forward whilst holding it horizontal. This eliminated all the loose dirt leaving stones and clumps of dirt
4. Work the clumps until you only have stones left. The stones are then sorted and the non-garnets are removed. These are clearly not gemstones
5. Place the sieve in the water to wash the remaining dirt away. Again, you can eliminate any that are clearly not garnet such as quartz and ironstone
6. When the stones are clean, you hold the sieve up to the light, and if you are lucky, you will see clear red stones amongst the normal rock. This is your garnet.

You repeat this process "ALL DAY"

Upon returning to the camp the owners will sort through your findings and determin what can be cut. We managed to find quite a few cutters allowing us to get 4 stones cut, up to 6mm, with another 4 stones being cut for a 6mm ring, a 5mm pendant and a pair of 4mm earrings. We also still have quite a few cutable stones left.

Back at camp the site was great. We had a camp fire going basically two days straight and all our meals were cooked on it. The only issue was the amount of flies during the day.

Kakadu - Darwin - Litchfield National Park

Hi, its time for another update, before we begin the long slow drive home.

Kakadu

We moved out from Katherine heading for Kakudu. We planned to stay at Cooinda for 2 nights as it seemed like a good place to make base. Unfortunately the mosquitoes moved in as soon as the sun started going down and made a real meal of all the kids, which included Elouise and Renee, cousins to Bianca and Caitlyn. Even now, 1 week later they are suffering the effects of their bites


Anyways, the park we stayed at was good, including the pool. As mentioned we used this as a base to explore the area so on our first day we traveled to Jabiru to have a look around. The kids went to a cultural center that discussed the history of the region and its flora, fauna and indigenous culture.

We then traveled back towards camp stopping at the Nourlangie rock art site. We climbed into the rocks to witness some great aboriginal rock art. The kids were really interested which made the walk (climb) worthwhile.



In the Afternoon some of us went on a tour of the yellow water lagoon, which was a water based tour out into the Kakadu wetlands. Wet season has passed and the water levels are dropping but there is still an amazing amount of water around here. There was heaps of fauna around and we were lucky to see Sea Eagles, Whistling Ducks, Whistling Kites, Bee eaters and King Fishers. There were Crocodiles and Wild Brumbies also around.

On the Second day we left the camp site, continuing our trip to Darwin. We stopped first however at the Ubirr rock art site and spent another couple of hours climbing rocks and admiring both rock art and scenery

Darwin
Not much happened in Darwin this time. We have been here before so had done all the touristy type things. We were joined here by Rebecca and Rachel and the rest of their children. A big family get away. The accommodation, Transit housing on the joint services base in Darwin, was nice and comfy and we had some long nights out under the stars whilst the kids slept.

We did do the Mindell Markets and the fish feeding at Doctors Gully, as wells as myself and Dad visiting the Aviation Museum. This museumm houses a full B52 bommer which is an amazingly large machine when you are standing under it.


Litchfield National Park

On the homeward leg we stopped at Batchelor using it as a gateway to Litchfield National Park. Mum and Dad stayed in town as we had family live here about 35 years ago and they wanted to look around. We went out to find some of the waterfalls and swimming holes that Litchfield has to offer.
As is shown in the photos, we managed to look at the Magnetic Termite mounds, which were not as large as we thought, however the Cathedral mounds were. We then stopped in at Florence Falls for a swim. The swimming hole was at the bottom of 135 steps. No probs with going down but coming up was a bit of a slog. Also here, Bianca opened a sore in here foot and was bleeding into the water when an Eel decided to have a taste testing and bit her :-)


We then continued on to Wangai Falls which is another great waterfall and swimming hole. All in all it was a great day and the kids loved it.

To top of the trip up this way the kids got to see some wild emus cross the road in front of the car on the way out of the park, and the following morning we found that some Tawny Frog mouthed Owls had camped out in the tree above the camper.

Uluru to Katherine

Day 7 – Uluru to Alice Springs

This update has been a bit late in being posted but we continue our trip, traveling from Uluru through to Alice Springs. This visit to Alice will only be overnight so no real items to post. We did however walk from our accommodations at the MacDonnell Range Holiday Park to the Alice springs show grounds to watch the Fireworks display for the end of the show. No photos but the fireworks were great, going for quite a long time. The kids loved it and it was if I planned our arrival just for this.


Day 8 – Alice Springs to Wycliffe Wells

The next day saw the kids go to the weekly pancake cook-up at the caravan park, whilst we were left to pack the camp up. Today’s drive, again quite uneventful, took us to Wycliffe Wells. This town consisted of only a petrol station and caravan park. That’s It. Once we arrived and set up the kids went on a Train ride around the park and the driver explained the history surrounding the town and the region from pre-war days up till now.


The park is listed as the UFO capital of Australia, and is decorated with murals and figurines of Aliens and action figures, quite a hit with the kids. They also had an extensive bird collection.


Day 9 - Wycliffe Wells to Banka Banka Station

After packing up the camper we headed down the road to the regions tourist draw card, the Devils Marbles. This outcrop of rock boulders was heaps of fun to walk and climb through, with all of us enjoying ourselves for an hour or so. The scenery from the top of the rocks was great.

The end of our day was spent at Banka Banka cattle station, where we had the first real rest of the trip. We arrived just on lunch and set up under the shade of a great tree. We then proceeded to have afternoon naps and rest before we tackled bush walk to the top of a hill behind the station for some views. The station is an oasis in the region with nothing either side of it for about an hour each way. The sites were unpowered but if I were to rank the places we have stayed so far I would say this is the best park we have been at.


Day 10 - Banka Banka Station to Tindell (Rachels House)

The next day we sped along the highway with one destination in mind, Rachel’s. We had a few stops along the way as the first of our sickies too hold. Caitlyn came down sick first. We arrived at Rachel’s house in the early afternoon. We spent about 1 week in Katherine before we begun the journey to Darwin

Coober Pedy to Uluru

Day 4 – Coober Pedy continued

We spent the first half of our day in Coober Pedy walking around the town and inspecting all the Opal in the shops. There is some very nice Jewelry here. After lunch we went on the Redeka Coober Pedy Tour that takes you out onto the opal mines and to some local tourist spots. Our first stop was the Underground Church and town cemetery. We also stopped at the local Golf course, no grass to be seen.

We then went out onto the Opal Fields for a talk on the various ways in which Opal is mined. The methods used included digging shafts, of which there are millions amongst the various fields, and then tunneling underground following any seams of opal you might find, and another method is the open cut, where a digger is used to dig out massive amounts of the ground, which is then fed through a noodling machine, equips with a UV light which fluoresces the opal making it easy for the operator to find.

Our next stop was the “Break Aways”, which is the remains of an ancient coast line.

The last stop for the day before a return trip along the Oodnadatta track was the Dog Fence. The dog fence is a fence installed to keep dingos out of fertile lands and extends over 5000km.

Day 5 – Coober Pedy to Uluru

This was one of our longest drives, however the view at the end of the day was well worth it. We stayed at the Uluru camp grounds in Yulara and if we climbed the hill behind the camp we could see both the Olgas and Uluru.

We went straight out that night to view the Uluru sunset, along with hundreds of others.

Day 6 – Uluru and the Olgas

Today we went out to “climb” the rock, not fully appreciating what this was to mean. We arrived to the base of Uluru to be shocked fist at the number of people actually climbing it, and secondly how hard this climb was going to be.

We decided to walk around the base first, and spent about an hour doing this. Each corner held a new vista and something to discover.

We did decide to do some of the climb but only went as far as the start of the chain. Coming down was more of a challenge than going up.

Melbourne to Coober Pedy

Day 1 – Melbourne to Adelaide.

This leg of the trip was quite un-eventful with the only highlight for the kids being the very thick Fog outside Ballarat. We spent the night in Adelaide at the Highway one caravan park which provided a very nice location for our camper for the night.

Day 2 – Adelaide to Port Augusta

We had Caitlyn with us on this leg of the trip. Bianca was with mum and dad, whom we met up with in Adelaide. One of the highlights for Caitlyn was a series of metal sculptures outside Adelaide, with a Martin, a giant bug and Ned Kelly being some of them. This leg of the trip was only 4 hrs so not much to see.

Day 3 – Port Augusta to Coober Pedy

This was a 5 hrs leg that saw the girls swap cars and we had Bianca with us. One of the real trip highlights was a massive dust storm. We saw it on the horizon, and due to the extreme winds we were experiencing from Port Augusta, it travelled right towards us at high speed. We managed to find a great spot to stop and observe the storm approaching, however we really did not appreciate the speed it was traveling and I believe the storm front was really only 500m or so from us when we got back in the cars to continue the journey. When the storm did hit visibility dropped and it was like driving through a thick fog in Melbourne, with the fog being orange.

We had planned to stop in at Woomera but with the wind and rain we were experiencing, we have postponed this for the return trip. The rest of the trip was quiet except for a large section of road works entering Coober Pedy, which managed to get the camper dirty for the first time this trip.