The Painted Hills were a mix of earthy colours, layered on top of each other and it looked simply beautiful in the early morning light but it was time for the main event and we flew towards Lake Eyre.

The kids had fun going up and down on the ‘electric swing’ which in fact was a bucket hoist, jack hammering for opal and the adults tried their hand with the divining rods.

The dreamtime stories on this walk were some of the scariest of the trip, it was like reading a horror story and we were in suspense until we hit the next chapter (signpost).

The impressive red rock, protruding from the flat, desolate landscape is a sight hard to describe as Uluru is such a special place that it leaves you spellbound no matter how many times you see it.

The art galleries are amazing and it was interesting to see the x-ray paintings and the detail which went into the pictorial stories.

We made our way past masses of termite mounds and through several river crossings as we continued to Surprise Creek Falls.

The track ends at a gorgeous swimming hole, surrounded by a high red curved wall which is covered in ferns. Warm thermal water drips from above and also runs into the pool from small streams and water falls.

The fishing was incredible, not a shark in sight and the boys kept hauling one fish in after another. We soon had more than enough for a couple of feeds so we left with the fish still biting and the kids wanting more.

You could hear and see the bandicoots rustling in the grass and we even had a quoll sitting on our camper.

The waterfall was still running and the large swimming hole was superb, it had nice clean and cool water with awesome ledges to leap off. The boys had all sorts of height to start from, plunging of the cliffs into the deep water below. Austin, as usual made his way to the highest point and leapt off.