Uluru to Mataranka

Although we were sad to leave the beautiful views of Uluru, we continued on to Kings Canyon where we climbed hundreds of steps to give us a great view from the rim of the canyon - the walk was about 6.5km, Isabelle and Lucy walked the whole way which was another great effort, while Juliet hitched her usual ride on Sheree's back in the carrier.
The flies have been bad for this time of year, so we have needed to use fly nets over our hats to keep them away.

We enjoyed another night of toasting marshmallows on the fire at a free camp near the Red Centre sign on Luritja Rd.
The following morning we stopped at Erlunda Roadhouse where we came across an Emu Farm. As the girls fed a few lucky emus, we fueled up and were ready to drive north towards Alice Springs.

The Central Australian Transport Heritage Museum was our camp for two nights, and it had a little playground the girls made good use of on the first day we arrived.
We explored the town of Alice Springs, and visited the Megafauna Central museum and art gallery.

Kings Canyon

There were several cool skeletons including a crocodile, extinct dromornis stirtoni (a massive bird), and diprotodon (large wombat-type marsupial). Lucy loved using the microscope to magnify different bones to see them in greater detail.
After a big grocery shop, we passed some clay camels and our time in Alice Springs was over.

We made it to Karlu Karlu (devil's marbles) after lunch and explored the amazing boulders along Mayijangu, Karlu Karlu, Yakkula walks, with good views from Nyanjiki Lookout - about 3km of walking altogether.
It was the first night in two weeks that we didn't use the diesel heater in the caravan overnight-a good sign we are heading into warmer days and warmer nights which is a relief from the cold winter back in Albury.

Daly Waters Pub provided us with fantastic evening entertainment which included The Pitts Family Circus and a live band, so we camped next to the pub for the night.

Mataranka was definitely a place we looked forward to spending a couple of nights. We are staying at Bitter Springs caravan park, only a 1km walk away from the beautiful creek which has clear warm water and has been the perfect spot