Term 2 Journey
After twelve days on the road and 4000+ km’s (one way), we made it back to safely to Ingham. We had a great vacation. We rented a campervan and drove from Cairns, Northern Queensland (NQ) all the way to Uluru, the Red Center in the Northern Territory (NT). Our drive was the same for 4 days; camp, get up and keep driving. We had a few pit stops which were fun and interesting. The speed limits in NT were 130 km/h. There was “heaps” of road kill and the price of petrol (gas) crept up to $1.85 per litre. We even went to a Drive-in theatre with our campervan. Fun!

Day 1 – Cairns to Charters Towers – Drive-in Theatre.
Day 2 – Charters Towers to Mt. Isa.
Day 3 – Mt. Isa to Wycliff Well

We stopped to visit the Devil’s Marbles. This was about 400km’s outside of Alice Springs. The Devil’s Marbles is a conservation reserve that has a large collection of spherical, red, granite boulders, scattered across a valley. Very cool place to visit. We stayed in a dodgy campground in Wycliff Well, also known as the UFO Capital of Australia. Fortunately for us, we were not abducted.

Day 4 – Wycliff Well to Alice Springs.
We arrived in Alice Springs, we had the day to enjoy the city and met up with friends Dominica and Lucas, we met them in the Whitsunday and are sad to see them finishing off their journey in Australia. We will miss them and hope to see them in Canada!! Germany forever Dom!! Feeding the Rock Wallabies was another highlight of our day.

Day 5 – Alice Springs to King’s Canyon & Ayers Rock.
Finally, we were off to the RED CENTRE!!! On our way we did a detour to King’s Canyon. It was amazing and worth the 300 km detour. We did the 6km hike and enjoyed every moment of it, stunning views!!

Day 6 – 8 Uluru & Kata Tjuta
We were up very early. J.C had a master plan and was determined to see the SUNRISE over Uluru (Ayers Rock). We arrived at the lookout just after 6 am. I was still dusting my eyes trying to wake up and J.C and the busloads of tourists were getting their cameras ready. The viewing area was packed. This was our first time seeing the rock and was well worth waking up early.
Uluru, the Red Rock, is one of Australia’s most recognizable symbols. It is a huge, red monolith rising above the flat desert landscape. Uluru is one of the world’s natural wonders along with Kata Tjuta, the Olgas. We also went to see the Olgas. We were encouraged not to climb Uluru as it is considered a sacred place to the aboriginals. Instead of climbing Uluru, we walked 11km around it. We encountered camels in the wild on our journey. Amazing!!!

After watching the sunrise we then went on a camel tour in the desert. During this entire ride I was thinking of Catherine, she would have loved this and would have laughed the entire time. We rode on Trevor, our camel. Even more of a reason Cat would have loved it. Miss ya girl!!!

Nights in the desert are very chilly at this time of year. Temperatures dropped to near 0 degrees Celsius. We woke up to frost on the windshield!!!

We drove back to Alice Springs and flew back to Cairns. Our flight to Cairns took us back to Ayers Rock for a bird’s eye view of Uluru and the Olgas. Wow!
We arrived in Cairns and checked into the hotel for a night before camping in the Rainforest. Yes, that is right.....from the Outback to the Rainforest.

Day 9-12 - Cairns, Kuranda, Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation and the Tablelands.
During our 4 days in Northern Queensland we took the scenic train up to Kuranda to visit the Markets. Kuranda is a village in the Atherton Tablelands, a hippie spot back in the day. We then took the skyrail gondola down. It was like we were floating above the rainforest canopy.

Port Douglas was our next stop. Very posh town, cool shops and a great Sunday market. I loved Port Douglas. JC purchased his didgeridoo, a perfect Aussie souvenir. From Port Douglas to Cape Tribulation. Cape Trib is where the Rainforest meets the Sea....amazing. Here we did a few hikes and walks along the beach. Lots of backpacker’s love Cape Trib. JC was on a mission for Cassowaries (large bird) and platypus, and found none.

We are only about 2 ½ hours away from all these hot spots. We will definitely return. The markets are already calling my name. Back to reality on Monday, July 12th then on Wed we head back to Charter’s Towers on the year 9 camp.
Our “winter” break has come to an end!!
Until next time....
Mel & J.C=