480 miles today - longest trip in one day so far. Majority of it was flat red desert and apart from the eagles feeding on the day's roadkills no other life. Although we were quite surprised at the number of cars/caravans going north; southerners escaping the cold winter (19deg) for the warmer north (30deg)! Our highlight was finding an abandoned dog in a rest area when we stopped to make tea. It looked like a bull mastiff and was under a table keeping out of the...

Kings Canyon is referred to as Australia's Grand Canyon. Not quite how we would describe it, even the size doesn't compare. However, we enjoyed our time there walking along the canyon bottom. We decided against the canyon rim walk as the climb was a bit steep for our level of fitness!! Although there were plenty of trees and wildlife everything was so dry compared with the canyons and gorges in the far north of the northern territory. It's hard to believe it ...

Well we got it wrong with the surrounding scenery. We expected just red desert with Uluru standing in the middle of it all. In fact there were plenty of trees and shrubs -mainly desert oaks which were more like a weeping fir tree but pretty. The road was quite hilly and bendy so we were like little kids in anticipation waiting to see the big red mound. We had been told to look for the 'second rock on the right' which we thought was a joke but sure enough it was....

Alice Springs (population 28000+) and the red centre - we have left the crocs behind and now all the warnings are about deadly snakes. Bring back the crocs as never did like a snake in the grass! The journey was 750 miles of bushland, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn for the second time and 12 hours of driving (poor Ray). We have passed through Mataranka, Larrimah, Daly Waters, Elliott, Renner Springs, Tennant Creek, Wycliffe Well (UFO territory) Ti Tree and A...

Back to Katherine again where there are several natural attractions and the area is the crossroads of the outback. We particularly wanted to see Katherine Gorge in Nitmiluk National Park. The park consists of a string of 13 gorges along the Katherine River which have been carved out by the summer monsoon rains over millions of years. The best way to see the gorges is by canoe, so they say. A bit adventurous for us as probably not a pretty sight to see us tryi...