Alice Springs

There has been no time for blabbing this year, we’ve had our hands full. We did manage to escape to the Outback for a bit though, so I thought it might be worth an update.

I returned to work in February, in order to hold onto my nursing registration which was about to lapse. We knew it would be a bit of a stretch. Caring for Frankie keeps me pretty busy, but we figured it was temporary pain, and we both felt it was worthwhile to keep that door open.

However, it coincided with the long-awaited arrival of Frankie’s Smart pup Hercules, whose training was to add to the workload, and require much more of us than we had anticipated. So we were overwhelmed for a while there. Jonathan and Evie needed to take on more responsibility around the house. I was furious most of the time. Nobody was happy.

Except for Frankie, he was perfect.

It was an exhausting time for everyone. Things did settle down with Herc, and I was able to cut back my hours. So we are all friends again, but by the end of it we were all in need of a break.

Fortunately, earlier in the year we had agreed to travel to Alice Springs and go camping in the beautiful MacDonnell Ranges. So, I thought rather than write about our domestic inequity, I would focus on the holiday. The circuit-breaker.

We wanted to experience the Australian Outback and travel with Frankie again, while he could still fly. Mindful that Frankie was getting harder to carry around, and that it was only going to get harder. I have made similar justifications here before but there was a relatively small window left for us to travel together.

There was a hell of a lot of planning involved. On my part anyway. Jonathan had managed to avoid any responsibility in the lead up, and pretty much packed his bag the night before we left. But we won’t dwell on that poor form, because he made up for it. His ability to carry heavy stuff was to come in real handy over the next two weeks.

There were also a few added logistics to deal with this time.

Frankie had grown.

Frankie is a bit of a bean-pole, and had outgrown the airline approved car seat that we had used to take him on the plane to Canada. He needed to be completely upright for take-off and landing, which is tricky with his poor head and neck control. There were no airline approved special needs options that would provide adequate support, so we would have to use his current car seat. We hoped it would be approved by the airline.

There was Herc.

Hercules the dog had arrived four months earlier and so it was still relatively early days. We were new to the dog handling business. We had to apply for permission from the airline to take an assistance dog on the plane. The only direct flight from Brisbane to Alice Springs was a Qantas flight, which took three and a half hours. Although he had never been on a plane before, we were pretty confident he would handle this relatively short flight.

So we managed to get ourselves booked on a flight to Alice in early July. A fair bit of paperwork later, and we had approval from the Qantas Special Handling Services to use Frankie’s car seat on the plane, and the thumbs-up for Herc to travel with us in the cabin.

It was highly likely that we would not survive an Outback adventure on our own.

Jonathan and I both liked the idea of camping, but we were not campers. The trip was only possible because we were going with family, who were seasoned campers. Jonathan’s brother Matt, Annabel and Xavier had travelled through the McDonnell Ranges the year before, and had fallen in love with it.

They had all the camping gear, and, despite all the extra effort that we guaranteed to bring along with us, they were willing to take us with them. So it sounded great. Annabel had a holiday folder. Matt had all the best camping kit to load into their 4WD camper trailer, and drive the long stretch of road from Darwin to meet us in Alice Springs.

The trailer was loaded up with Ugg boots, bedding, table, chairs, a fully equipped kitchen, solar panels, satellite phone, gas and room to store a serious amount of water etc. Everything we needed to feel we could take Frankie with us, without being completely irresponsible.

We just had to bring a biggish tent, which we borrowed from friends. Herc’s stuff – travel crate, posh dog food that couldn’t be bought in Alice, and all his assistance dog apparel. Frankie’s stuff – boxes of his nutricia feed, his feed pump and charger, giving sets, syringes, meds, sleep system and double bunk stretcher, postural supports few other bits. Few warm clothes for everyone, and a good attitude.

We arrived at the airport feeling pretty conspicuous, with Herc and all our over-sized gear. Once we had checked in our 140kg of luggage we could kind of relax, a bit. We were first on, and carried Frankie onto the plane in his car seat. The flight attendants were a bit dubious, but lovely. Herc had been given a complementary seat, and we had been allocated an entire row to ourselves toward the front of the plane. The flight went really well, with Herc seated at our feet. He was calm and a perfect pro for the entire trip.

We landed in Alice Springs after lunch. It took a while to bring the mobile lift over to allow us off the plane, and so when we walked across the tarmac a fair bit after everyone else had disembarked there was pretty much no-one around. It felt very relaxed. We waited around a while for a maxi-taxi to take us into town to our hotel to meet up with Matt and Annabel.

Xavier and Evie share their birthday, and they had turned 12 that day. We had planned to celebrate that night, but everyone was so exhausted from the big day of travel. They both looked tired and happy, so we had an early night.

The next couple of days were spent loading up on groceries, in preparation for 10 days of camping. The Alice Springs Show was wrapping up, and the annual Camel Races were on the following weekend. So, the place was buzzing with tourists and locals making the most of the good weather and peak season.

We were busy with our preparations and, other than Woolworths, we didn’t see that much of Alice Springs. So I don’t feel I can comment much on the place, other than to say that I really liked it. Maybe it was my holiday attitude, but I had some really lovely Frankie related interactions with the general public in that Woolworths.

I find when I’m out with Herc and Frankie that I tend to have my head down, preoccupied with keeping Herc under control. I’m usually trying to not look too stressed-out at being so conspicuous. I’m only just getting used to the fact that we can attract a fair bit of often unwanted attention. People who mostly mean well, but who want to pat the dog, bail you up and ask inappropriate questions. All of which makes going into public places much harder.

So I was not sure what to expect when we hit Alice. I thought the locals might be a bit loose, and so was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was downtown. People were interested and friendly, but respectful.

Anyway, we hung out, ate out, enjoyed the amenities at the hotel and started to relax. Herc took a while to settle in to his new environment. It did feel very different. Just being so far from the ocean was kind of strange. He finally relieved himself after 24 hours. We were very relieved. I think he ended up resigning himself to the fact that he was not going home to his patch. After a couple of days he seemed to get that we were on holiday, and was quite happy to adapt to the different places we took him. Even the long car trips didn’t seem to bother him. He was most fond of the carpet in the hotel rooms though.

Jonathan picked up the 4WD we had hired from a local operator for the duration of our stay. It was perfect for Frankie’s car seat, as it had a recline allowing him to be strapped in without the need for support of a neck collar. I wasn’t quite sure how this was going to pan out, so this was a relief. It meant more comfort for him and less work for us when the terrain got bumpy.

Evie had made herself comfortable with Xav in the back of Matt and Annabel’s 4WD. Theirs was more like a Business Class set-up for the long NT drives, with screens and heated leather seats. So we didn’t see much of her when we were on the road. We were happy with Frankie and Herc. There were no complaints coming from Economy.

After loading everything up and topping up on fuel and water supplies we headed east out of Alice, to stay a couple of nights in the East MacDonnell Ranges.

This was in the opposite direction to the popular Uluru route to the west, and so there weren’t many people on the road. It was a relatively short drive 100KM to N’Dhala via Trephina Gorge area which was filled with beautiful dry river beds and ghost gums. We collected firewood by the side of the road before we reached the national park as it wasn’t permitted inside the parks.

We stopped in to check out the campsite at Ross River Resort. It had a pub and we didn’t think it looked too inviting as we wanted to avoid other dogs and campers, where possible. Unlike pet dogs, Herc had access to the National Parks if we kept him on lead.

We were told by a local at Ross River that there was a small bush camping area in the N’Dhala Gorge National Park, which was near the entrance to the gorge walk. He also advised Annabel and I that it was a good spot to get bitten on the arse by a red back. So, we ignored that guy and drove the 10km down the 4WD track from Ross river to N’Dhala.

It was exactly what we were after, a simple and beautiful spot. There was a drop toilet and a fire pit, surrounded by red rock formations. There were a few visitors during the day, and we had it to ourselves at night. Our first night under the stars was pretty spectacular.

The first tent set-up took a bit out of us. Matt had to step in and help with the bunk stretcher in particular, which was a nightmare to assemble. There was so much stuff, and we didn’t quite know what to do with ourselves.

Frankie was so relaxed, and never complains, but the day in the car, and then being so busy getting set-up meant he wasn’t getting much attention. We hadn’t worked out how to best manage his needs, with handling and positioning, and deal with his feeds and meds regimen. Hygiene was also a challenge camping, and it stressed me out a bit at first. We didn’t need Frankie’s syringes to be sterile, but there was a lot of dog slobber to deal with. The camper had hot and cold water taps though. There was hand sanitizer. It was a great set-up, and it didn’t take us long to adapt. Annabel’s cups of tea helped.

It cooled down quite quickly at night and so we always had the fire going early. Everyone was an expert on the fire. Annabel cooked an awesome meal of laab and rice, the kids roasted marshmallows. We were to go through a lot of marshmallows over the next 10 days camping.

N’Dhala Gorge is a culturally significant and beautiful area with 6,000 individual petroglyphs, or rock carvings, found along the main gorge and in a side gorge. The first engraving occurred around 10,000 years ago and the second started about 3,000 years ago. There was hardly anyone around and you just followed the marked path looked around for the carvings. It was very peaceful.

It didn’t take long for the Evie and Xav to get into camping mode. They spent their time in their tent, talking, playing card games, balancing on their log and kicking a soccer ball around. We got them working occasionally but they were happy mucking around.

Frankie seemed pretty content being close to everyone around the campsite, either in a sleeping bag in his stroller, or on the stretcher. As long as he was rugged up and wasn’t getting smoked out by the camp-fire. He looked like he was taking in his new environment, with all the different sounds and smells. Other than the sound of the little birds it was very quiet.

There was a lot of talking, cups of tea and delegating of jobs going on. Jonathan challenged the kids to a race to the top of the adjacent gorge ridge to watch the sunset. The rest of us were pretty dubious, as they were in their Ugg boots, but they made it and they went on about that for ages.

Matt would bring out the red wine most nights. We didn’t get much sleep in our tent on the first night, with Frankie and Herc making a racket. Thankfully this was to improve. We spent 2 nights hanging around, going for walks through the gorge and taking it all in, before packing up we heading about 230KM back through Alice and out to the West MacDonnell Ranges.

We camped at 2 Mile which was another bush camping site, and a permanent waterhole along the Upper Finke River.

It was only a short distance off the main road, and although you needed 4wd access to get there, there were quite a few other campers spread out along the river bank. The waterhole was full of water-birds and birds of prey trying to take them out. There were migratory birds, with black swans and even a pelican passing through.

It was a sandy spot and we were happy hanging out, watching the birds, and other campers. Matt spotted another Mitchell trailer and had a bit of a chat.

A major preoccupation was the collection of firewood, which the kids got pretty good at. It was so cold at night that you couldn’t stray too far from the fire, and so we spent a lot of time together sitting around it. It was nice to catch up and spend time talking to the kids. There were plenty of negotiations, Dad jokes, and more delegating going on. We cooked some delicious meals. Red wine came out again.

We spent a couple of the coldest nights here, it was below zero. The water in the kettle outside had frozen solid, and even a water bottle inside our tent had frozen on the coldest night. So we went to bed with hot water bottles, gloves, beanies, and Herc to keep us warm. We had to bring Frankie down from his stretcher to keep him warm in our tent. When the sun came up it warmed up considerably, and for a few hours in the middle of the day the flies were a bit annoying here. Frankie needed a net to keep them off.

Ormiston Gorge

Most people were based at 2 Mile in order to check out the surrounding area, which took in the Larapinta trail and the nearby Ormiston and Glen Helen Gorges. So it emptied out during the day. We checked out the surrounding sites, which were impressive, but I think my favourite part was wandering along the trails around the camp-site with Annabel. It was very still, and so beautiful at dusk.

Again, I felt I could have spent more time here, but we had stayed 3 nights and had to move on. We tried to head off as early as we could manage as we had a big day of 4WD track to cover.

We drove the 120KM to Hermannsburg. Annabel and I were keen to see where Albert Namatjira had lived and worked, and to see some of the Namatjira family paintings, while the others filled up with fuel and water. The Gallery was set inside the old Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission, which is now an historical precinct. We had a look for the Hermannsburg Potters but they were taking a break over the weekend.

It was a fascinating place. It had been the site of so much exploitation and hardship, and yet such remarkable art had emerged from this area. I felt a bit out of my depth, finding myself very interested in what had happened here, and amazed at how little I knew about the Namatjira legacy. We didn’t have much time though. We got rounded up by Matt as we had a big drive ahead of us. I would continue my Namatjira education via SBS and a documentary on the topic, of course.

Jonathan was about to take control in the Patrol. He had spent a lot of time securing all the gear on the roof, we were loaded up with snacks, and he was looking pretty happy to be behind the wheel.

We headed south from Hermannsburg along the Finke River Gorge National Park 4WD track at about 1pm. Once we hit the track it was very slow driving, through some beautiful countryside. Very rocky and sandy and we got bogged four times.

Fortunately, every time we got bogged Matt would appear with another contraption. He had all the gear, and so we were able to dig, jack and tow our way out every time.

The kids managed to get excited every time too, and Herc got to stretch his legs, but it was pretty slow going. Frankie tolerated the long drive really well, getting quite vocal and laughing over the really bumpy bits.

We were able to hook him up to his feeds in the car every few hours. So when we went off track and got bogged in the dark we didn’t panic too much. He was fed and relaxed, Herc was cool, we were ok. Worst case scenario was that we set up for the night where we were bogged, and start again the next morning.

We were pretty lost when we pulled Matt’s car out for the last time and consensus was to keep going. Thankfully we managed to find our way back onto the 4wd track and pushed on in the dark until we made it through the National Park and reached Silver Sands. We finally arrived at about 8pm, so by the time we finished setting up camp it was a late night.

We woke up beside a beautiful shady river bed at Silver Sands, just off the 4WD track. Matt and Annabel had camped there the year before and we spent four nights here, taking in the surrounding area. We only saw a handful of people pass through on the track while we were here so it was very quiet.
It was relaxing, but we always seemed to have something going on. The kids wanted to play a card game or we needed to prepare a meal. We cooked some more great meals here. We climbed the nearby hill and up onto a ridge for some spectacular views back over our camp-site, and of the surrounding countryside. Frankie had to stay at home for this one.

We visited the more permanent waterhole at Running Waters, which was not far from us, to have a swim as we hadn’t been near a shower in a week. It was mandatory for everyone except Frankie, as it was freezing cold. It felt amazing. Annabel and I made our way back to the camp-site along the dry riverbed, which was lined with beautiful gum trees.

We drove back along the 4WD track that we had come through in the dark to have a look, and visited Boggy Hole. It was a beautiful drive but we got bogged on the way home and were all a bit over the driving by the end of it, including Herc.

There was more time spent just hanging around, enjoying the place. Evie cooked pancakes.

Then after our last night in the tent it was time to pack up and head for Kings Canyon. So we headed south along a mostly dirt road for about four hours to get to Kings Canyon Resort.

We went upmarket at Kings Canyon Resort and checked into our rooms, which both had a spa bath overlooking the bush. The first thing Herc did was roll around on the carpet in appreciation. It felt very good to have a shower after 10 days, and so we got cleaned up and went out to dinner. Next day we did the beautiful Kings Canyon rim walk, which involved a hell of a lot of steps, and took us about three hours.

So after two nights of living it up at Kings Canyon we drove around 300KM back to Alice Springs to stay a night at the Crown Plaza, before we flew out the next afternoon.

Matt and Annabel were planning on heading off early that morning on their ridiculously long drive back to Darwin, but woke up to find a rock had been thrown through their car window overnight. So that wasn’t very nice, but apparently, in the hotel carpark on a Saturday night it was not that uncommon. Thankfully they were patched up and on the road by the time we left for the airport at midday.

We had a good flight home. They forgot to let us board first, so we had to awkwardly load Frankie onto the plane along with all the other passengers. It was a bit of a hassle, but fortunately we were seated close to the front of the plane.

I have probably detailed our travels enough now. I’m sorry, it has been a bit of a blab-a-thon.

I think this trip provided us with some room to breathe, and did turn out to be the circuit-breaker we needed. I’m not sure whether I would be able to convince Jonathan to go on another camping trip in the near future. He looked pretty exhausted when we unloaded the maxi-taxi for the last time. But we were glad that we did it, and that despite the hard work it involved, that we had all had an awesome time.

Mostly we were happy that we had been able to take our boy with us. So massive thanks to Matt, Annabel and Xavier for being such brilliant travel companions. We couldn’t have done it without the Mitchell, and their amazing generosity and warmth.

And to Herc, for being such a good dog.