Monday 3rd - Stayed at a road side stop last night called Finke River Rest Area. Nice and quiet with plenty of room. Arrived in Alice Springs mid morning and set up camp at the McDonnell Range Big 4. Stocked up on groceries and had a mechanic look at the Hilux's gearbox as it seems to be playing up a little. Could be the gearbox, could be the clutch - we are going to see how it goes - touch wood nothing will happen!

Tuesday 4th - We went to Alice Springs Desert Park today. Saw a great bird show and lots of other wildlife. We really liked the Whistling Kite and the Brown Falcon but Gracie's favourite was the Sone Bush Curlew which she did for her school journal. We even saw a joey hopping into his mother's pouch. He was quite big and we didn't think he would fit but he squeezed in with just his feet poking out!

Wednesday 5th - We had planned to leave the caravan and take the tent through the Gorges and around a dirt road to Palm Valley today and tonight. We saw all the Gorges except Redbank Gorge as there was a fire behind it which had been lit on purpose. The gorges are all beautiful and slightly different. Simpson's Gap is easy to get to and there are short eared rock wallabies but we didn't see any.

We stopped at Standley Chasm for lunch and then at Ellery Creek Big Hole. By the time we got the Ellery, the smoke was making the sky hazy. We didn't have a swim as we thought we would swim at Ormistion Gorge and stay there the night but by the time we got to Ormistion, had a quick look around, the smoke had gotten worse and the Rangers were moving everyone out of all the Gorges - so we ended up not camping.

Thursday 6th - had a quiet day at teh caravan park today as we weren't able to camp out last night.