Karen's Craft Odyssey

The internet connection at Ayers Rock Resort was poor — I’ve gone back and added pictures to Wednesday’s post. Thursday night we were at Kings Canyon Resort, with no internet or mobile phone coverage — I survived.

This will have to be a quick post. I’ve put some pictures up on Flickr, but probably won’t have time to put many in the post itself.  Only 30 minutes of internet left tonight.

So, Thursday morning started with sunrise at Uluru.  It was cold and brisk, with a gorgeous sunrise behind us and a bit of sunlight on Uluru.

From there we moved on to the base of the rock.  Climbing to the top was ruled out by the rangers because of high winds at the summit.  I don’t think I’d have chosen to climb anyway.

Instead, we walked the 9+ km around the base.  It was cold, but a lovely walk.  I highly recommend it.  Halfway ’round we ran into some unlikely fellow hikers.

At the end of the walk, it was back on the bus to Kings Canyon Resort.

This morning we had another early start — to climb up the Kings Canyon Rim Trail in time for sunrise on the canyon.  Another 6+kms to walk, with lots of steep stairs and uneven rocks.  But well worth the effort.  We got to the canyon before 6:30 and were walking until around 10:30.  I think my feet may eventually forgive me, but not until next week.

We finished off our time at Kings Canyon with a 15 minute helicopter ride.  The perspective is so different from the air.

Well, we are now back in Alice Springs and will fly back to Brisbane tomorrow.  It has been a lovely break, but the real world beckons.

Did you notice that there was no blog post yesterday? With my VERY sporadic posting, probably no Tuesday’s itinerary had us trekking to Palm Valley early in the morning. Alas, the weather conspired to prevent that trip. Winter rain in Alice Springs is rare, and enough rain for the Todd River to flow is even rarer. But, that’s what we had. So, Tuesday’s tour was cancelled and we relaxed inside where it was dry.

Today (Wednesday) we were up bright and early for our trip to Uluru. The bus left Alice Springs at 7am and we arrived at Ayers Rock Resort at 1pm. There were several stops along the way. First off, Frank took advantage of the opportunity to try a camel ride.

From there we stopped at Mt Ebenezer Road House for a light meal. Last stop before the resort was a view point where we saw Mt. Connor and Lake Amadeus.

We have a nice room at the Desert Gardens Inn — with a view of Uluru out the back window, but didn’t have much time to enjoy the room. After just an hour to get settled and have lunch, we were off on a tour to see the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) and sunset on Uluru. The Olgas were gorgeous.

And we had time for a one hour walk up Walpa Gorge.

Then back to Uluru for the sunset with the rest of the crowd.

It’s been a great day — and the skies have been washed clear by the rain, so the views are fantastic. Tomorrow morning is another early start — 6am to catch sunrise at Uluru.

PS — the wi-fi here is just about useless.  I’m trying to upload pictures, but I don’t think they’ll make it.  I’ll come back in a few days and add the pictures once I have access to real internet.

Edited to add pictures (and fix spelling)!

Yes, I’m actually writing a blog post.

Yesterday morning we left Brisbane bright and early to catch a direct flight to Alice Springs.  We were looking forward to crisp blue skies and cool winter days in the desert.  Reality is a bit different.

Sunday afternoon wasn’t bad.  We had a half-day tour of the city.  It was cold, but dry as we viewed the city from Anzac Hill.

At the School of the Air we saw a movie about how the school has changed in the internet age.

The old Telegraph Station and the Alice “Spring” (really a waterhole) provided a useful history lesson.  The telegraph was completed in 1872, making communication with the outside world possible.  When it ceased operation in the 1930s, the site became a home for half-caste children until WWII when the military took over.  While we were touring the barracks, an older man was telling us what the place was like when he lived there as a child in the 1930s.

Next stop was the Royal Flying Doctor Service where we saw a short film about the history of the flying doctors and viewed the museum.  This plane is a model of the type first purchased by the Flying Doctor Service in Alice Springs.

Last stop for the day was a visit with reptiles.

Monday was a bit colder (high of 12C) and much wetter!  It rained or drizzled all day.  But we didn’t let that stop us (much).  Starting with the Flynn Memorial, we trekked up muddy trails and tried to keep warm.

At Simpson’s Gap it was only drizzling.  We had to laugh at the “No Swimming” signs — it was way too cold for swimming!

A little higher on the range, at Standley Chasm, the rain was coming down steadily.  After 45 minutes hiking the narrow, rocky trail to the chasm and back, we were damp and cold.  Hot coffee and a sandwich in front of a warm fire made for a welcome break back at the trail head.

The last stop of the day was the Alice Springs Desert Park.  Now, I think of deserts as hot and dry — but today the park was cold and muddy!  Due to the rain, the bird show was cancelled.  We walked around the park and caught a tour of the Nocturnal Animals building.  It was a lovely park, and would have been a great day trip on a drier day.  We listened to the audio guide and learned quite a bit about desert habitats.

Over the past several weeks I’ve been having fun with this thread over on Ravelry.  In it we’re discussing all sorts of combinations of different hand painted fiber into a single yarn.  I took three different hand painted rovings:

Coloured Stone from EGMTK:

Falkland from FeltStudioUK:

and Coral Sea from Spindlefrog (Corriedale top):

spun them into singles:

Then plied them on my jumbo electric spinner:

The result? About 350 grams of 11wpi (about 8-ply, or DK weight) yarn:

Well, it wasn’t really broken.  But, we have been speed-limited for almost 2 weeks now.  So I’ve been spending my time at my spinning wheel instead of the computer.  I have several skeins of yarn to show for it.  Tonight I finished plying these two bobbins:

And these two as well:

I had fun with the second set — they were originally these batts from Wooldancer:

and came with some cut threads and ribbon, which I placed in between the strands while plying.  Can’t wait to see what the washed skein looks like.

Last week I finished this skein from some batts I bought in the UK:

I spun each batt onto a separate bobbin, and tried to keep the colors in the same order on each bobbin.  The resulting skein goes from rust to yellow to green.

Of course, it hasn’t been all spinning.  Last Saturday we melted at the QSWFA Christmas Fair.  It must have been almost 35C, and no aircon.  It’s hard to get people to buy woolly things in that type of heat.  Sunday was a warm one too, so we spent most of the day out at the mall, where the aircon worked pretty well.  In the afternoon there was a massive thunderstorm, but it had all blown over by the time we finished shopping.

Meanwhile, Alan has left for his semester in Oslo.  He’s started his own travel blog at http://alan.imagin-itis.net — go over and say hi.  It appears that he is settling in to the cold weather and the different choice of computer games at the Oslo office.