A leisurely get up. A solid breakfast. Systematic pack up. Onto Giles weather station, a short drive from Warakurna. We were to be disappointed. Sunday, closed to visitors. Appointment by internet had to be made. We hadn’t. The road was ‘pretty good’ even though corrugated in a few sections. Some sections were as smooth as a baby’s backside. We stopped to help 3 young Aboriginal men (all in their 20’s) who had ‘numerous’ problems with their vehicle. They had improvised extremely well (see photo and description). We lent them the tyre plugger for their front bald tyre which had already been plugged 3 times (thank you Widodo). The windscreen was smashed but hadn’t caved in (see photo). We shared good conversation and laughs. We shook hands, wished them well, waved goodbye and moved on. Burnt out ... read more

Today, it was totally KATA TJUKA. Located approximately 50km west of our accommodation at Yulara, Kata Tjuka means ‘many heads’ and is sacred to the local Aboriginal Anangu people. It forms an important focus of their spiritual life. The ochre-coloured shapes are an intriguing and mesmerising sight. We stopped at the dune viewing platform, still 25kms from Kata Tjuka, and viewed the large dome rock formations, of which there are 36, for an overall view. The highest dome of this sandstone monolith stands 546m above the surrounding plain. On arrival, we walked together to Karu, the first lookout on the Valley of the Winds trail, before fleet footed mountain goat Jane continued to the second lookout, Karingana, a grade 4 difficult walk. I returned to our starting point. We visited and walked a small section of ... read more

A leisurely drive from Kings Canyon to Yulara had us arrive relaxed. Along the way the scenery remained fairly constant with grassland and low scrub with spindly trees dominating after the turn off on Lasseter Highway towards Yulara. Mt Connor stood out to the south of us. Yulara came about due to the unstructured and unmonitored tourism in the early 1970’s. This was having detrimental effects on the environment surrounding both Uluru and Kata Tjuta. The town of Yulara was proclaimed a town on August 10, 1976. It is 14 km from Uluru. We are staying at the Desert Gardens Hotel for 3 nights. Tonight we ate in the restaurant and toasted our wonderful adventures.... read more

Most of the 190 km Mereenie Loop Road is hugely corrugated. A real bone and vehicle shaker. The dust was thick and hung in the air. We were relieved when we reached Kings Canyon campground. We did come across numerous wild brumbies on a number of occasions. On one occasion we witnessed, “I am king-of-the-herd” fight, with hooves being kicked swiftly backwards and the subsequent rising high on the hind legs to intimidate. No camels were sighted.... read more

A very, very cold night, however we were extra prepared for it and as a result slept comfortably. Two rangers checked our camping permit and we good to go! We laced up our hiking boots and walked the classed moderately difficult Mpaara trail which introduced us to the mythology of the Western Arrernte Aboriginal culture. We walked in a clockwise direction to follow the Mpaara dreaming story of the Tawny Frogmouth Man and the Pangkalanga Devil Man. The rocky track followed the base of the hills and then abruptly took us up a steep incline to the lookout where the views of the Finke River and Kalarranga area were superb. On the southern side of the lookout the track was very steep and uneven as it descended to the valley floor. We took extra care so ... read more