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Zauners Lap of OzZauners Lap of Oz
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Zauners Lap of Oz

March - May 2024
An open-ended adventure by Zauners Read more
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  • TravelerZauners Lap of Oz
    212
    Day 57–58

    Kings Canyon, Watarrka National Park

    May 17 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 24 °C

    We had an eventful drive into Wattarka National Park, spotting not just brumbies on the side of the road this time, but also wild camels and dingoes!

    Despite a strong wind as we launched into the 6km Kings Canyon rim walk, the changing scenery along the track kept spirits and energy levels high. We hiked up a steep track and past rocky outcrops, then through bungle-bungle-like domes towards spectacular sheer cliff faces before dropping into the lush, green forest of the Garden of Eden within the canyon.

    After climbing back out to the other side, we all loved laying flat on our tummies to shuffle right to the edge of the canyon and peek down over the enormous sheer drop, recreating a photo taken of Timo and Andrea when they were here 21 years ago.    Read more

  • TravelerZauners Lap of Oz
    1
    11
    Day 55–57

    Tjiritja (West Macdonell Ranges)

    May 15 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    There is no shortage of beautiful gorges, walks and look out points to visit as you drive through Tjiritja, the West Macdonell Ranges which stretch 160km west of Alice Springs, and if you’re as lucky as we were, you also get to watch a big group of brumbies as they cross the road and trott off into the woodlands. The area makes up part of the famous Red Centre Way and we were surprised at the green scenery, not nearly as red as expected.

    We visited Simpsons Gap, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Ormiston Gorge and Redbank Gorge, all different and beautiful in their own right. Josh and Timo were the only ones to go swimming though, braving the cold gorge water. A walk to Ochre Pits was worthwhile to see large walls of white, yellow and red ochre, traditionally used by the Arrernte people to prepare medicines, for religious ceremony and for decoration. We also saw many hikers taking on the Larapinta Trail, ranked one of the world’s top 20 treks, which weaves through these and many more sights.

    Our woodland campground was great for afternoon fires in the cooler weather and Emily extended her baking repertoire to include campfire scones, scrumptious with butter and jam.    Read more

  • TravelerZauners Lap of Oz
    Day 53–55

    Alice Springs

    May 13 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Alice Springs was built in a scenic little spot, hidden in amongst the mountains of the Macdonnell Range. The town has had a bad rap of late, with unrest as well as travellers’ stories of theft, however we felt safe here and loved our short stay - and not just because of our pizza night out at Alice Springs Brewing Co or because of the giant, super speedy waterslide at our campground!

    The Desert Park was certainly a highlight. We learnt about the six desert habitats that we recognised from our travels, saw lots of animals that had so far alluded us (like thorny devils, malas, ghost bats, echidnas and dingoes) and increased our knowledge of bush medicine and bush tucker, ruby salt bush berries being a favourite. The bird show was incredible and Nina absolutely loved having the opportunity to hold a barn owl. We also visited the Tjanpi Desert Weavers, an Aboriginal community organisation in which women come together to collect grass to create fibre art, and also share stories, skills and experiences. In the evening, we followed a 4WD trail up Undoolya Hill to watch a stunning sunset over the West Macdonnell Ranges, the next stop on our trip.

    Last stop on our way out of Alice Springs was Emily Gap, obviously a must-see! Known as Anthwerrke to the Arrernte people, it is a scenic gap in the mountain range just east of town which is the site of rock paintings depicting the story of the three caterpillar ancestral beings for the Alice Springs area.    Read more

  • TravelerZauners Lap of Oz
    Day 52–53

    Karlu Karlu (Devil’s Marbles)

    May 12 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Karlu Karlu, translated as “place of many round boulders”, appears out of nowhere when you turn off the Stuart Highway with its endless flat plains and arrive to see huge rounded granite rocks laying around as if dropped in a messy heap by a giant.

    It was here that we left the northern Australian heat behind us, packing up our fans and dusting off our sleeping bags, down jackets and fleece tracksuit pants, which came in very handy after our chilly morning walk to watch the sunrise amidst the Devil’s Marbles.

    On our drive in, we also had a quick morning stopover in the little town of Daly Waters with its quirky pub decorated in old clothes, signs and number plates, impressive collection of old timer planes, helicopters, trucks and cars, and saltwater croc named Kevin in a cage by the side of the road welcoming visitors.    Read more

  • TravelerZauners Lap of Oz
    Day 50–52

    Mataranka

    May 10 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Here in Mataranka, home to the Mangarayi and Yangman people and made famous by Jeannie Gunn’s 1908 novel “We of the Never Never”, we spent lots of time drifting along the wonderful warm waters of Mataranka Thermal Pools and Bitter Springs, where we dived down spotting turtles in amongst the lily pads and weeds. We also hung around at another amazing campground, Little Roper Stockcamp with its tagline “Pat ‘Em Feed ‘Em Eat ‘Em”! More reptiles were passed around, more cute animals fed (this time squirrel gliders), there was playground built out of giant hay balls and campers could enjoy a daily breakfast cook up of tasty Johnny Cakes as well as various evening meals, complete with Saturday night murder stories told after dark by campsite owner, Des.

    Mataranka is also famous for being home to Nathan “Whippy” Griggs, world record holding whip cracker! After hearing glowing reviews, we timed our stay to coincide with his opening performance for the season. A fun mix of incredible tricks, whip cracking to music and some great NT jokes, Whippy certainly didn’t disappoint.

    Our visit ended on Mother’s Day morning and Andrea felt very lucky to be treated to a bircher muesli breakfast and some beautiful gifts from our travels, and 7 hours spent together in the car travelling to our next stop 🥰    Read more

  • TravelerZauners Lap of Oz
    Day 47–50

    Katherine

    May 7 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    We farewelled Western Australia and crossed over into the Northern Territory on our way to Katherine, where we found ourselves a great little Farmstay, complete with not just classic farm animals (cows with a 2 week old calf, chickens, bunnies, a giant 260kg pig and 18 cute little piglets), but also saltwater and freshwater crocs, lizards, snakes, buffalos, emus and a gorgeous 4-month-old camel named Toey. In the afternoons, the kids loved wandering the farm with Mickie, the Farmstay owner, feeding and petting the animals, with Toey being the clear favourite.

    Despite being quite happy to hang at the campground, we did venture out to Nitmiluk National Park, on Jawoyn land, taking a cruise up Katherine Gorge, with its beautiful sandstone rock walls. We would have loved to canoe further up the gorge, but that wasn’t to be after a 4m saltwater croc had been found in the gorge just two weeks earlier.

    We also enjoyed soaking in the warm waters of the natural Katherine Springs, however the highlight of our stay was hiking out to and swimming at Leliyn (Edith Falls), where there was still so much water that we were able to float around and through the rocks in an exciting kind of whirlpool!

    On our way our of town, we stopped off for a tour of Cutta Cutta caves, taking in the beautiful glittering rock formations and learning about some of the Jawoyn and European history of the area.    Read more

  • TravelerZauners Lap of Oz
    12
    Day 45–47

    Gibb River Road from the East

    May 5 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    We continued through the Kimberley, enjoying the beautiful scenery along the Great Northern Highway, and passing Warmun Community where we had hoped to visit the art centre (recommended by Maartje), but found it unfortunately closed as it was Sunday. After dropping off our caravan at a beautiful bush campground run by the Wuggubun Aboriginal Community, it was then off to the Gibb River Road, along the scenic Cockburn Range, to see the Pentecost River crossing, the most famous on the Gibb. We would have loved to watch some cars as they crossed, but unfortunately the water was still too high after the late rains and the crossing was still closed.

    We kicked off the next day with a walk through rainforest-like Livistona Palms to get to Zebedee Springs, a series of warm rock pools connected by small waterfalls and fed by a thermal spring. We could easily have soaked in the warm water all day, but begrudgingly forced ourselves out to explore Amalia Gorge, where the water was colder, but the rock pool had an exciting rock jump that Timo and Josh had loved.

    The much anticipated Emma Gorge was our last hike (rock scramble) of the day, where we admired the sheer cliffs and had a great time being absolutely hammered by water as we swam under the 35m high waterfall in the cold gorge pool! It was also exciting to discover a warmer part of the pool, where a some hot spring water flowed through a crack in the gorge wall. All in all, quite the adventure for our last full day in Western Australia.    Read more

  • TravelerZauners Lap of Oz
    Day 43–45

    Purnululu NP and the Bungle Bungles

    May 3 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    We arrived at our Spring Creek camp with an afternoon to spare, so Timo, Emily and Nina whipped up some damper dough while Josh and Andrea set about making a fire and we spent the afternoon munching on damper, roasting marshmallows and enjoying some much needed R&R.

    The following morning we were up early to take on the 53km 4WD track into Purnululu National Park, our most adventurous 4WDing to date, including 54 river and creek crossings - 108 if you count both directions! The 1.5 bumpy hours were well worth it, for the beautiful scenery en route and because Purnululu really is special place.

    Once in, our first stop was the Bungle Bungle Range down the southern end of the park, made up of incredible orange and black striped domes, some reaching 200m above sea level. The sandstone domes are actually white, but get their orange colour from iron oxide and black colour from cyanobacterium coverings. After doing the walk into Cathedral Gorge, a huge cave nestled within the domes, we jumped back into the car to explore the northern end of the park. We were surprised at the stark difference in landscape in this area, with its palm trees and impressive Echinda Chasm, a narrow walkway through a cleft with rock walls on either side reaching 180m directly upwards.    Read more

  • TravelerZauners Lap of Oz
    Day 42–43

    Mueller Ranges stopover

    May 2 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    With sections of the Gibb River Road not yet opened for the dry season and also a reluctance on our part to submit our Jayco caravan to the full perils of the bumpy 4WD road, we detoured south via the Great Northern Highway. This meant we got to drive past and stop over near the Mueller Ranges, a perfect place to think about all our Mueller family members ❤️Read more

  • TravelerZauners Lap of Oz
    Day 40–42

    Gibb River Road from the West

    April 30 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    On our way towards the Gibb River Road, we stopped off near Derby at the Prison Tree, a giant boab tree that was used as an overnight lockup for Aboriginal prisoners as they were led to the Derby Gaol.

    From there, we headed into what many call the true Kimberley, rough and rugged with its bumpy unsealed roads, river crossings, rocky outcrops and ranges, varied bird and animal life and signature boab trees. We were especially lucky to be here thanks to an early road opening for this year’s dry season.

    From our campground we marvelled the 90m high rocky cliffs of the Windjana Gorge, known for its freshwater crocodiles, which we we were excited to spot when we ventured into the gorge, swimming in the water and lazing in the sun on the banks opposite us. We also saw beautiful brolgas and groups of agile wallabies hopping by.

    We day tripped further into the Gibb, visiting the stunning Bell Gorge where we swam right up to the waterfall, and Leonard River Gorge, also beautiful, but much less exciting for the kids due to the long, hot walk in and no swimming.

    Our last stop before heading back out to the highway was Tunnel Creek, the most exciting of our gorge visits yet, which involved walking along and swimming through a creek in a completely dark cave, using headlights to find our way. Not sure whether it was the cold, deep water, the guide book that wrote of potential freshwater crocs in the cave pools or the fact that we were all alone in the cave, but we were certainly all pretty happy to make it out into the sunshine at the end!

    Tunnel Creek also has a more sinister story reminding us again of our history. It was the location that, in 1897, Aboriginal freedom fighter (or outlaw as described by white settlers), Jandamarra, was captured and killed.    Read more

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