Our remainder of time at Uluru was fantastic, and really loved the close up wandering around the base. So many stories (Tjukurpa) and more intrigue.

Did I mention about the price of Coopers beer at Uluru? ... after a hot walk in the afternoon, I thought I would really enjoy a cold beer. I searched the car and trailer there was none to be found. So I made a quick visit to the bottle shop, and to my surprise a 6-pack of Coopers was $57, I scanned my eyes down the price list thinking perhaps a beer of less quality .... the cheapest was a light beer at $38 for a 6-pack. Water suddenly was a lot more appetising and thirst quenching.

Back to Alice and a bit more car maintenance etc, and simply re-organising, re-stocking, washing so forth. Also a quick dash around for more vege oil. I went straight to the places I knew that have provided to others in the past. Two of the restaurants "threw out" their oil the day before !! (one place threw out over 100 litres), the next two said they now give their oil to the boys from "The Grease Monkeys". The Grease Monkeys I assume are a new local group onto the idea of using waste vege oil as fuel - they do not collect any fat/lard/palm oil. HMMMMmmmm 80Litres of vege oil is all we have and we were about to head through the Tanami. One day out from collection.

Tanami
Strong head winds showed up once again at the beginning of a long stretch. This means going through a more fuel. We headed off through another ever changing desert, flowers, green shrubs and trees, much spinifex was in seed and looking great. All this green was set against a variety of brown, red, orange and quartz rich soil and rocks. The terrain changed from hilly to rocky and flat. We drove and drove and drove.... stopping for lunch and dinner. After dinner at a reasonably comfortable road stop, we decided to drive in the remaining light of the day and camp at the next rest stop. Well, that never really came, once darkness feel, we drove for hours never really seeing any where to pull over with enough flat space for our camper. Onwards we when past the turn off for Rabbit Flat and coming close to a camel on the side of the road - not something I would really like to run into at 80km/h !!. Then wearily we were in reach of Wolfe Creek.

Wolfe Creek it was, we were getting very low of fuel, the vege oil tank was empty, and the diesel tank was on the last of our jerry cans. We did have 60 litres of unfiltered vege oil in the back of the car - it was just a matter of filtering oil in the morning the next day.

We turned off the road to Wolfe Creek Crater, suddenly the road became really rough, rougher than any thing we had experienced so far (other than some slow low range off roading with out the trailer)... 20km more to go. While I had not seen the movie Wolfe Creek, it's nature was in the back of my mind. Along the way the car start loosing power.... oh no ... we are running out of fuel, not now !! I switched tanks to use up what might be left in the vege oil tank .... there was only a few km's left before the camp ground. Then like a b-grade horror film our car came to a stop and we were unable to re-start the car. We came to a stop at the last gate in the middle of the road, 1 km from the camp ground. So here it was to be, we flipped out the camper and fell asleep.

The next morning I set about filtering oil and we arrived soon after at Wolfe Creek Crater. Wow - what a place to wake up at. This was amazing 800m wide - wow.

The rest of the Tanami Road was interesting - rocky and windy. Halls Creek was a welcomed stop to re-fuel and change the fuel filters. Our diesel tank somehow has had a lot of junk in it - I have been using generic clear plastic filters @ $1 each to capture the dirty bits in place of blocking the expensive original fuel filter. I had collected a few of these. unfortunately, did not find any in Halls Creek.

Purnululu

Driving along the rough road to Purnululu our last fuel filter became blocked ! We came to a halt on a corner on a windy section of road... I then changed to an original filter I had spare. In the middle of the change I could hear a car hurtling along at an incomprehensible speed. I ran up the road to catch sight waving my hands wildly to suggest slowing down. He showed no signs of slowing and I thought there was no way he was going to stop without hitting our car or Nicole and kids. ARRRRRrrrghghhhh !!! .... Thankfully, he was able to make a quick stop to the side of the road. He thought something desperately was wrong.

Away we went again, 10km on, we came to a halt again? .... Nicole was becoming anxious about being stuck on this trail. I put some diesel in the vege oil tank and away we went again. I am wondering about how so much dirt is getting into the diesel tank? ..... there has to be a leak somewhere? It has been happening on dusty roads each time, and there is no problems with dirt getting into the vege oil system.

On we went, 2 hours on a 50km stretch of road. It varied from deep bull dust, heavy corrugations, mud, sand, creek crossings, wheel rutts, rocks, sharp dips and crests. The veg and geology were just as interesting. We got to the registration office right on closing time. Along the way, we realised that the vege oil tank was leaking .... argghhhh, these rough roads are really shaking things apart ! ....

I spent the next morning pulling the rear end of the car apart. The filler hose had come loose from the vege oil tank, I was covered in dust and oil in searing heat. A handful cable ties and gaff tape it was all back together .... Midday - we were ready to go to catherdral gorge for a walk. We stopped at the visitor centre to get some bearings on the day and Nicole noticed vege oil dripping from the back of the car .... oh no ... there was now a new split in the filler hose and no shops around here to get a new one.

On the way to the walk we decided to see if we could neg a deal on a helicopter over Purnululu. Kaiden was asleep in the car. A quick chat with the pilots I managed to get Kaiden aboard for free (normally he would be $250). When Kaiden woke up he was so surprised to be at the heli pad as he was thinking we were on our way to a walk. Then he spotted a tractor and hoped we could go for a ride on that too.

The flight was stunning, deep gorges and canyons, palms and water holes, a labyrinthic oasis. Kaiden and Nicole were a little uncomfortable with the doors off the helicopter, and Kaiden (sitting in the front with me) would only look out the front window. They both loved their first heli ride and Jamala as tired as she was was looking at the scenery wide eyed and happy. The final part of the flight took us over the famous "Bungle Bungle" rock formations, a real treat for the eyes.

The walks into Cathedral gorge and Echidna chasm were full of inspiring rock formations and a welcomed break from the blazing sun.

Kunanurra

We arrived late into Kunnurra to wash the layers of dirt away and give our selves time to do those domestic things with ease. This place was nothing as I imagined, it seems to have a real chilled out vibe. Exploring the town I was elated to find posters featuring workshops ran by Jo Field (a non-violent communication facilitator who has a passion for enabling parents with non-coercive ways of raising children). If you are reading this Jo, we are looking forward to catching up during our travels - we are getting closer - well at least in the same state.

Disappointingly we discovered Mitchell falls is a mere trickle and the swimming hole not much to write home about for the time being. We will not be making the mammoth effort to drive there, but look forward to the numerous gorges and swimming holes along the Gibb River Road.

Some car fixing is in order before we can leave, and looking forward to escaping the caravan park with tiny allotments, and the noise of caravan air conditioners blasting away all day and night. The up side has been at least there are barking owls in the trees above and Kaiden and I found a 1.5 metre freshie on the banks of the waterway last night on a crocodile hunt. Kaiden was over the moon as we sat within 2 metres by the shore, as soon as the croc made a move kaiden jumped on my back holding on tight.... he still loved every minute being eye to eye. He had been looking forward to crocodile country for a long while.

more photos coming....