The Northern Territory & Uluru – Jacks Blog

Hi guys sorry it took a while to get this post up. We’ve had no service for a fair while being in outback Northern Territory, and I’m a little bit behind. Mum and Dad say that I need to catch up, so you should see some more blogs from me in the next few days….. 🙂

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After we left Coober Pedy, we headed north, and stopped to take a picture of us at the NT border. We headed down to a place called Kulgera and got told that it might flood, so we went to Alice Springs and stayed at the Desert Palms Motel. When we got there it was a little bit dark and just in time to watch the Crows playing footy!

The next day was Mothers Day. We woke up, made toast for Mum and after that we went to the Reptile Centre. I got to hold a python, a blue tongue lizard and a bearded dragon. I saw a massive goanna, every brown snake, frogs, a freshwater croc and a big saltwater croc. When we got back to the motel, it was getting warm so we went down to the pool, which was a little bit cold. After our swim, we watched the footy and all went to bed.

The day after Mothers Day we went to Curtin Springs for an overnight stop on our way to Uluru.

Uluru (Ayers Rock) 

On Tuesday 9^th May, we went to Uluru and stayed in the overflow campground, which was pretty cool, because we had heaps of space. After we setup, we chilled out for the afternoon, then when it was getting dark we had a BBQ at the Sunset Lookout.

The next day it was my Dads birthday. His present was a wallet and a pack of UNO cards. At 10:30am, Mum and Dad picked up their hire bikes, and we all rode around the base of Uluru. It was 14 km all up so a big ride, it took around 3 hours. When we got back home, we were teaching Lachie how to ride a bike. He slowly got the hang of it after a couple of days (now we can’t get him off the bike!) For dinner, we went to the Pioneer Outback Hotel. It had a games room so Lachie, Madi and I went and had a few games. For dinner, we had emu sausage, kangaroo steak skewer, crocodile skewer, steak (cow), prawn skewer, pizza, and sausage, and heaps of salad. For dessert, we had fruit crumble. After that, we went home and hopped into bed.

Thursday 11^th at 10:00am we did a guided tour, and learnt all about Ayers Rock. We were actually very lucky because Dad knew the tour guide – they were mates at school! So, after the tour, we stayed back to have a chat to him, and got some cool one-on-one time with him. Did you know that Uluru is turned on its side, and it actually goes down about 5 or 6 kms underground? When we got back home, we had a swim at the Pioneer Hotel, and while we were there we saw a drop tail lizard! Look out for my next blog post here for my project on Uluru, and some more in-depth information!

The next day we packed up and left Uluru. We drove for ages, and then stayed at a roadside stop in between Hermansberg and Alice Springs. After that, we went to the Big Ellery Waterhole, and set up our camp, then went down to the waterhole for a swim. The water was freezing cold but I got used to it. We also saw fish down there, but there is no fishing allowed. When it was getting dark, we had a fire and roasted marshmallows then we all slowly went to bed.

Sunday the 14^th we had breakfast and went for a 3km walk. It was a little bit hard, because it was really hot. After we got back to camp, we went straight to the waterhole and took some picnic food. We fed the fish some bread and tried to catch them with my hands. Later that day we had double cooked stew for dinner, Dad is the best at making stews!!! An hour later Madi and I watched a movie called Wreck it Ralph and went to bed.

The next day we went to Alice Springs and did some shopping, then we went to Gemtree, setup camp and had a fire. Our first day there we went fossicking for gems called garnets, which are red, and found lots. Afterwards, we went for a drive where you find fake diamonds, at a place called the Mad Russians Mine and Zircon Fields.

We got back home and put all of the gems in a bottle with water and dish washing liquid. After that, Lachie and I did some school work, later that day we had a fire and watched a movie.

Jacko 🙂