Aussie Outback Adventures

Yes, I’ll be the first one to admit that its been a long time since I got around to posting one of these. It has really been a combination of a lack of internet connections, a busy lifestyle, and too many nights around the fire with new friends that has prohibited this. It has been a busy three weeks, with birthdays, lots of driving, and many repairs, consisting of copious amounts of duct tape and cable ties…… I’ll get to them a little later on.

But let me take you back, way back, to three weeks ago when we were holed up in a unit in Port Lincoln, waiting for the foul weather to pass. Pass it did not, but it was time to get back into the camper anyway, and so off we headed. First, we spent a morning battling with Centrelink in Port Lincoln, a frustrating, but ultimately useful experience, then we battled the roughest road of the trip (up to that point… more to come on that one) to get to Memorial Cove, on the South East tip of the Eyre, then battling with the worlds tightest entrance to a camp site (until the guys next door showed up and moved their car which made it a little more manageable) and then battling the rain, in the dark, to set up the camper. We were stuffed by the end of it, and rewarded the kids with brinner (which basically means we had breakfast for dinner… cereal).

The next day it rained on and off, actually it did that for the next three days, but we did get some fine weather in there as well. Despite that, the place was really nice. It was quiet, peaceful, and the cove itself was spectacular. There was nothing else there and that was actually quite good for us at the time. It forced us to slow down, play some games with the kids, read some books.

But 3 days is all you were allowed there, so it was back into Port Lincoln for round 2 with Centrelink, a refuel, and a food shop and then back out onto the road to the other side of the Eyre, this time to Coffin Bay National Park. This was also rather peaceful, and our time there kind of uneventful. We did a bit of fishing (unsuccessful), and a bit of 4WDriving (rather more successful). It was on this drive that we actually met our first ‘other family’ on a long trip, after nearly 4 months of traveling. They too were Christians, traveling with their daughter, and it was nice to chat, share stories and share advice on where and where not to go for a couple of hours.

It was after our stay in Coffin Bay that we turned the corner, stopped heading West (we believe there is nothing worth seeing further than that any way… lol), and started to head north. We did a big day leaving Coffin Bay and drove all the way up to Port Augusta, which has several caravan parks (one with cheap on site cabins), a McDonalds for the kids, and a very nice Indian restaurant for Mum and Dad. The next day we stocked up on supplies, quite extensively, because we were about to head into the outback and were not sure when our next Woolworths would be. From there we headed a couple of hours north, into the Flinders Ranges – Wilpena Pound. By this stage we had hit the Outback, flat, sparsely populated and sparsely covered land. The Flinders Ranges are really quite spectacular, a steep arid range rising up out of the desert. We explored several of the gorges by car.

This was also where we celebrated Tane’s 5th birthday. Tracy did a great job in putting together a little party in the morning, complete with birthday (cup)cakes, balloons and lots of sugary treats. He loved his party, and his presents, which included a new 2 wheel scooter. Kezia also enjoys this gift because she inherited Tane’s old one, which she loves to drag around the campground, and leave lying in the middle of the road. Actually she does know how to use it, and will be as good as Ky in no time at all. After spending some time talking to the grandparents in the afternoon, we went out for dinner at the resort restaurant. The food was quite good, the place a little posh, and the kids rather feral (refer to sugary treats above), which made for an interesting and not so relaxing evening out.

However, the next night, our last in Wilpena, our ‘neighbors’ who were from Geelong, offered to sit outside our camper when the kids went to bed so we could go our on our own, which we did, and it was nice.

Wilpena was where it started to get cold, especially at night. Our neighbors (on the other side, and also from Geelong) said it got down to 5 degrees in the caravan one night. Not the kind of weather Brisbane dwellers are really comfortable with.

From Wilpena we continued north, moving onto Maree and the start of the Oodnadatta track, which goes around the south west end of lake Eyre and then north towards the Simpson desert. Our night in Maree was our first real outback experience. We were there on a Saturday night, when they had a movie on for the kids at the youth centre. Apparently one of the ch9 ‘makeover’ shows wanted to do something for a nurse in the community who has been there for a long time, and she wanted a youth centre with a cinema. The result is quite cool, a 16 seat movie theatre, complete with seats and free popcorn. The movie was “Snowbuddies” which is really terrible, but the kids loved it. That night there was also a communal BBQ at the camp ground, meat and salads for $8, how can you go wrong. It was a good chance to meet some people, including 2 families from Melbourne who are doing what we are doing in 8 months… in 5 weeks. They had run into a few problems on the dirt roads with stone damage… something we were about the begin experiencing ourselves.

That night was the first of our 1 night stops. We rearranged things so we could do a minimal set up, this included sleeping Kezia in our bed… which is kind of cute… for the first 5 minutes. Actually it went pretty well. She was dead set against it the first night, but last night, when she had her first night back in the cot, she wanted “Mummy’s bed.” Accompanied by some more tears.

The next day we started the Oodnadatta track, with a short 120km stretch to Coward Springs. On the way we stopped off at a outback “Sculpture Park” where the artist has used large objects (like broken small planes) to create desert art. Here we ran into a documentary crew (by crew I mean 1 guy with a camera and 1 with a microphone) who were making a documentary about bush art in Australia. They interviewed the kids (“It’s a plane”) and also us (“I guess you could call it art”) who I am sure provided them with much valuable footage of qualified art critique. Next stop was alongside lake Eyre south, which has no water in it, despite the water in lake Eyre north. It is massive, you can’t see the other side of it, and just stark white.

Anyways, soon we pulled into Coward Springs. It was then that I noticed a mass of wires at the connection to the camper where a trailer plug used to be… first stone damage. Then we noticed that several chucks of plastic had been taken out of our “leg treads”… second stone damage. I asked around the place if anyone had a spare plug to sell, the closest I got was a guy who had done the same thing.

The spring itself was really awesome. It is a 2m x 2m wooden ‘pool’ where warm spring water comes out of the ground, and then flows off into the wet lands. Quite amazing for an arid region. We took a dip with the kids, along with some back packers who had pulled in for a quick stop.

The next day we moved on out (without a trailer plug – no lights and no brakes on the camper) 75 kms up the road to William Creek, population 12. Its from here that you can do scenic flights over Lake Eyre North, and by then we had decided to treat ourselves to such a flight. But this wasn’t booked in until the next morning, and we were set up by 11am, with a whole afternoon to kill in William Creek, which has… ummm… let me think, 1 pub… and nothing else. So we decided to take a 180km each way, dirt road side trip to Coober Pedy. Originally we had planned to go through there, but the Oodnadatta was taking us around it, so it seemed like a good idea. We could also try and get a trailer plug and stock up on a bit of food. Well, the food stock up went OK, but visiting about 5 garages and mechanics failed to produce a single 7 pin round small trailer plug. Plenty of large ones (made specially for south Australians who obviously lack to dexterity or mental capacity to handle anything smaller), but nothing for us. So it was back to William creek empty handed, and into the pub for a drink and dinner.

The next morning we got up really early. This was partially because we had a flight over lake Eyre at 8am, and also because it was Tracy’s birthday and she couldn’t wait to open her presents. So we got that out of the way, and we headed off for our flight. It was for 1 hour, in a 6 seater plane, and was really quite enjoyable. You get a great perspective of the size of the lake, and the massive amounts of water that have flowed down, some 1700 kms from north Queensland. And there it stops, 12 meters below sea level, and slowly evaporates.

The flight done, it was time to pack up the camper and head further north. The first stretch was 200kms to Oodnadatta, with the road getting worse as we went. It was on this stretch that we completely lost one of our leg treads, and also our Anderson plug, which powers the fridge and charges the battery in the jayco, as we drive. Crap. Well… they didn’t have an Anderson plug at Oodnadatta, but they did have the trailer plug we were after. I didn’t have time to rewire, put managed to reconnect the loose wires to the Anderson plug at the back of the car with 2 sticks, some electrical tape, duct tape, and a cable tie. Worked a treat.

The original plan was to stay a night at Oodnadatta and then check out track conditions for the road to Witjera National Park – Dalhousie Springs, on the edge of the Simpson desert, about 200 kms further north. But there was nothing attractive about Oodnadatta, so we didn’t really feel much like staying, and decided to have a quick late lunch, and then hit the road north again. It was just as we were about to leave that we noticed that we had left the top hatch of the camper partially open, which meant that we had done the last 200kms of dirt road with it open. Yeah… you can imagine the inside of the camper… Well, nothing we could do at that point except shut it, and get back on the road.

We left at 3pm, which was a little later than we had hoped for, and worked our way north. The first hour and half were fine, a little dusty and bumpy… but nothing compared to what was coming. The last 35kms into Dalhousie Springs were shocking, and took over an hour, and we just made it in at dusk. Actually, the next day we met a family who were camping at the springs, who had tried to bring a Jayco in 2 days earlier. Their Jayco (an on road version mind you) had snapped some D bolts, and shot the wheel and axel through the camper, and was being repaired by the nearest mechanic, which was fortunately was only 75 kms further north.

So… happy birthday Trace… what a great day. Good news was, my bodgy rewiring job had held for that trip.

We decided to stay 2 nights, and the next day we had a little party for Tracy’s birthday, including a cake. Fortunately all of the photographic evidence has been destroyed so I can describe my efforts as fantastic. But it was quite edible (thanks Mr Greens) it just looked like a dingo’s breakfast. We also got to enjoy our first taste of the springs. This small lake is about 34-38 degrees and rather nice. It comes out in the middle of the desert and has little fish which nibble at your skin… quite unique. Our second night there we sat round the campfire with some of the others there, including a young couple, Al and Steph, who we are loosely traveling with for the meantime. They are also a Christian couple, from south Gippsland.

The extra day also gave me the opportunity to rewire my trailer plug… another skill learnt, after 2 nights, and a final dip in the springs, it was time to head off again. We originally had planned to make it all the way to Uluru in 1 day, about 650kms, but knowing the road conditions decided to break it up into 2 days. It still left us with 320kms of dirt to do that day, and the roads were still decidedly bad at that point. However, at Mt Dare (which is all of, a pub, and a mechanic) I actually managed to get hold of a new set of Anderson plugs, which I rewired in the dirt out the front, and then covered in duct tape. From there we crossed the border, and entered into the Northern Territory.

That night we set up camp again at a road house at Kulgera, on the Stuart Highway, the main Adelaide to Darwin road. Back on the sealed roads again. Al and Steph were there too. Finally, the next day (yesterday) we made our way to Uluru. Yes… for those who have made the trip here before, we did get sucked in and think that Mt Conner was Uluru, but soon realized our mistake. We made it, and to reward ourselves, last night we enjoyed the best Buffet meal we have ever had, complete with Crocodile curry, smoked Kangaroo and Emu sausages. Yum.

Today we a bit of a catch up day. 3 loads of washing, a a trip to the supermarket here. In the afternoon we drove around the rock (its big and its red… what more can you say) and stood around at sunset waiting for the spectacular effect its meant to bring. Except it didn’t, because it is heavily overcast (and quite cold too I might add). We are hoping for better weather tomorrow, when we will try again, and also take a trip out to the Olgas.

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