Nearly to the Top

We are resting for a couple of days in Mataranka which is a fantastic, little, swampy, mossie infested place about 4-500ks south of Darwin. It's actually very beautiful and we sure enjoyed the swim at Bitter Springs this afternoon (although we were all a bit nervous about the crocs we didn't encounter!)

Left is a picture of the girls out walking on Lake Hart, a salt lake just north of Pimba. The emus in the background were a delightful surprise. This was early in the trip and seems an age away now. We enjoyed a night in Coober Pedy and some kite flying at the Breakaways (below) before a stop at Marla at the funky and inexpensive roadhouse caravan park. Then we headed out to Yulara and the awesome Uluru and Kata Juta.

We stayed there for two nights and then at Mt Connor lookout coming back east where I picked up a hitch hiker (of the rodent variety!).
Finally we arrived at my dear friend Linda and husband Ron's home where some of us promptly fell ill with a nasty but, thankfully short lived tummy virus. Not before we had a chance to catch up with the Hughes and some other excellent friends including Georgina's son, Emil on his birthday. Vaguely recovered and half expecting the rest of our crew to succumb, we left Alice and all of her complexities behind (and the rat thanks to Linda!).

We arrived at the Devil's marbles on the eve of my 48th birthday and I was happy to be waking at sparrow's fart to this exquisite landscape in time to witness a glorious sunrise (below) which I drank in through my lenses; new and old.

My gorgeous traveling companions showered me with gifts and a delicious breakfast of brie and ham croissants and pancakes.

We attempted to counteract the calorific side effects with a bit more of a climb over and around the boulders apparently said to be serpent eggs in aboriginal stories.

I wrenched my left arm rather badly and thought I may have dislocated something but it seems to be improving without any medical intervention; just a couple of massages and some menthol cream.

We were headed for a little waterhole just out of Elliot but were unable to find the turn off before dark. It took us a bit of deliberating regarding plan B as Peter was keen to try the following day to catch up with some of the girls he and Willemina had cared for in Darwin. With no place nearby opening up to us, this was postponed and Dunmarra was our next overnight stay with some welcome hot showers which we gladly shared with the frogs!

We left there relatively early in the morning (10 o'clock) and with a little extra time up our sleeves and not so much distance to cover we took a slight detour out to Daly Waters.

The pub (left) looked very welcoming and we have earmarked it as a possible overnight stay on the way back down.

We are all relatively well and sane but I'm pretty sure we were all nothing more before we embarked on this journey!

We have had the odd tension arise to test us and we have certainly had our fair share of problems to solve but I'm pretty sure I can confidently say that we are, each of us, happy to be on this adventure and, all feelings of homesickness acknowledged we wouldn't want to be anywhere other than where we are at this time.

It is 11:30pm and I can hear the various breathings and snorings of the campers in close proximity as I wrap up and anticipate a mossie free sleep with my new mossie net!

Aurora and Zoe are having a sleepover in my little caravan which is the Christening of it!

I haven't spoken to my fella for two days as there is no Optus coverage here.