Motley Desert Adventure

[Rumpig]

Last week i posted up a trip report in this section of the forum from our latest big trip away, at the time i mentioned i'd post up a few older trip reports i have completed over the years aswell, and this is one of them. The trip was done in the middle of the year 2010, it seems strange writing that, as it doesn't seem that long ago......once again i hope you enjoy the read


The Motley Crew 4wd club had the Simpson Desert as it's big trip away this year, i was taking my family (2 adults and 2 kids) along for the ride aswell as another mate taking his family (2 adults and 3 kids), and then another 4 vehicles comprising of just husbands and wives and one final vehicle comprising of 2 mates who were lucky enough to leave their partners behind for 3 weeks :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol: so all up it was 7 vehicles making our 3 week trip away from Brisbane out West, then back home again.

Day 1 :-

7.30 a.m was the meet up time at The Calamvale Hotel carpark for everyone, we arrived on time but didn't have quite the same action packed trip there as one of our other crew did. Rule #1... make sure your roof pod is securely locked shut :wink: Rick and Bronny found this out the hard way and lost their sleeping tent aswell as their shower / toilet tent off of the roof whilst travelling at 100 kph down the freeway on the way to the carpark meet up The tent was found but some poles were missing, and after much frantic searching along the side of the freeway they had to give up looking. After everyone had met at the pub carpark it was time to head off to Toowoomba where Rick and Bronny had a date with a camping store to buy a new tent. Tuning the car radio into Toowoomba's local station as we entered town, i heard them say it was a chilly 5 degrees about the area, which on exiting my vehicle at the camping store carpark i agreed with fully, abit nippy for a born and bred Brisbane boy...lol...Oh well it was just a taste of the cold temps to be expected out west along the way. Leaving Toowoomba we headed off to Oakey for our morning tea point which was the Aviation Museum at the Oakey Army Base. Whilst it doesn't look all that big from the outside, it was quite surprising how many planes and helicopters they had on display in there, well worth a look. From here it was on to Moonie via Dalby for a quick lunch stop, before making our way to St. George for our 1st nights stop over. Our camp site would be down on the banks of the river, a great free camp spot about 300 - 400 mtrs downstream from the weir wall. Be sure to get atleast this far downstream away from the weir wall, as the clanging of vehicles crossing over it gets quite loud at night, even when your as far down stream as we were. I pity the guy camped just below the wall in his caravan, it would have been a very noisey nights sleep for him for sure.

YOU LOST WHAT?.....lol

ONE OF MANY PLANES ON DISPLAY AT OAKEY

Day 2:-

We were up early and greeted with a spectacular sunrise over the weir wall

We packed up camp and headed into town to wait for those who forgot to fuel up the arvo previous.
It was here we saw something we don't get to see back home, a roo shooter returning from his night out hunting.

SPEAK TO ME SKIP!!

From St George we headed off towards Thargomindah where our next nights stop over would be, along the way stopping at Cunnamulla for lunch. A lovely female police officer just out of town made half our crew stop and do random breath tests and license checks. This would be twice in 2 days for Glen having to do a RBT as he was also checked the previous night in St. George...lol.. i seriously can't remember when i last had to do a RBT back home in Brisbane it had been so long.

MY KIDS WITH THE CUNNAMULLA FELLA

SAW HEAPS OF THESE IN 3 WEEKS OUT WEST

JUST EAST OF THARGOMINDAH (i'm sure plenty of you have seen it without water, how many have seen it with water?)

 

[Rumpig]

Day 3:-

Today we were headed for Cameron Corner where the states of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia all meet up. Our first stop for the day was at the Noccundra Hotel, a fantastic looking stone building which i had visited atleast 10 years ago previously, but could never remember where it was, i could always picture the building, but never remembered where it was that i visited it

AHH THAT'S THE PUB!!!

Todays lunch stop was a creek in the middle of nowhere we found that still had some water in it, it truely was great seeing how green everything was out West aswell as all the water still that was about.

LUNCH STOP BETWEEN NOCCUNDRA AND CAMERON CNR SOMEWHERE

Between Noccundra and Cameron Corner we encounted several detours around water that was blocking the road, the first wasn't really signed at all, but the next couple were, the signs definately helped take the guess work out...lol

DO WE GO THROUGH THAT OR LOOK FOR ANOTHER TRACK? (we found a detour which wasn't signed)

THE FAMILY AT CAMERON CORNER

PRETTY MUCH ALL THERE IS AT CAMERON CORNER (diesel fuel $2.00 / ltr here)

Day 4:-

Today we were headed for Lyndhurst, though if i had my time again i'd have made it a stop over at Farina instead, oh well you live and learn.

ALL ROADS OPEN

It wasn't long and the kids were able to stretch their legs at our first stop for the day

ALL ABOARD!!

BEWARE THOSE WOMEN DRIVERS!!

As i said earlier, it was great seeing all the water about, everywhere we drove there was still some to be seen

JUST UP THE ROAD FROM THE BUS

We made good time this morning and had an early lunch at the Monte Collina Bore due to a short cut the publican at Cameron Cnr told us about. The instructions we were given was to look out for the red mudguard hanging off a tree, this ended up belonging to a motorbike and could easily have been missed, i think it cut something like 40 odd klms off of our trip to Monte Collina. The short cut track was like all roads we had travelled so far, in very good condition and made for easy going.

MONTE COLLINA BORE

MORE EMUS ALONG THE WAY

NOT ALOT OUT HERE

ROADSIDE TRIBUTE TO TRUCKERS WHO DIED WORKING THE COOPER BASIN

We had lunch and pushed on for Lyndhurst, it was an uneventful run to there and we arrived with plenty of time to set up camp in the daylight. Tonight was our turn to cook dinner for everyone We had made a plan before the trip where by every couple only had to cook dinner twice on the entire trip, the only thing was you had to do it for everyone. The unfortunate thing for us was that this was probably the best sunset we saw on the entire trip, and we couldn't go to a better location to photograph it as we were busy cooking dinner for everyone, oh well atleast it meant we only had one more dinner to cook.

SUNSET FROM LYNDHURST HOTEL CAMPSITE

 

[Rumpig]

Day 5:-

Today we were headed for Halligan Bay on the shoreline of Lake Eyre, the big question we were all wondering was..... just how much if any water would we be able to see? Leaving Lyndhurst and only a few minutes out of town we spot some horses roaming free off to the side of the road. Add these to list of other animals spotted so far (ie:- lots of emus and wild goats aswell as the very occassional roo) and the kids were loving it.

HORSES OUTSIDE OF LYNDHURST

Not much further up the road and we stopped at The Lyndhurst Ochre Quarry, a site of significance to the local aboriginal people of the area. The colours in the ground were spectacular, and it wasn't hard to realise why the aboriginal people had chosen to use this site to collect ochre from.

LYNDHURST OCHRE QUARRY

Back on the road and we were headed for the Farina ruins, like i wrote previously, had we of known what was here before our trip, we would have made this our overnight stop rather then Lyndhurst. Farina isn't just a single building standing in the middle of nowhere going to ruins, it's a whole township complete with cemetery aswell. Farina has a campsite to stay at which has flushing toilets aswell as a shower that has hot water available through the use of a "Donkey". Tours are available to be done here and there is even old shearers quarters you can stay at, we will definately be back here one day for a couple of nights stop over.

FARINA

TAKE NOTE OF WHEN IT OPERATED UNTIL.... 1989 !!! not that long back i thought considering the state of decay

By now we were quite a few hours behind our planned schedule as we had only allowed for a short stop at Farina thinking there wasn't much here, instead we were there for a few hours...lol. Back on the road and next stop was a quick one at Marree where we grabbed some supplies from the shop and made our way towards Lake Eyre South lookout for our days intended lunch stop.

OLD GHAN LINE JUST OUT OF MARREE

PLANE HENGE ON WAY TO LAKE EYRE

About 10 - 15 klms South of the lookout we had our first sight of water and it was everywhere, little were we to know this was a much better veiw point to stop and have lunch at then our destination abit further up the road. We continued on and had lunch at the lookout, whilst we could still see the water from here, the previous location earlier was a much much better view, water to be seen everywhere and fairly close by versus water to be seen to the right of us and abit of a distance away.

LAKE EYRE SOUTH LOOKOUT

After lunch we were back on the road and headed for our nights campspot at Halligan Bay, tonight was game 2 of State of Origin (football best of 3 game series) and our original plan was to watch the game via a satellite dish that was bought along and view it on a laptop, only problem was someone forgot to bring a vital lead required to do the viewing :evil: so that wasn't going to happen. Along the way we stopped at Curdimurka Railway siding for a look around, it's in great condition and well worth the stop for a look and see.

CURDIMURKA RAILWAY SIDING

We arrived at Halligan Bay just before 5.00 P.M and it was blowing a gale, we also weren't real impressed with the campsites, not alot of flat ground to erect tents on for any large groups. Whilst there was alot of effort put in by Nat. Parks with day use shelters and toilets etc, they really need to flatten the ground out here for peoples camping with tents, camper trailers and the like would be fine though as you can level them up.

HALLIGAN BAY / LAKE EYRE (so much water here it was like being at the beach)

It was at this time Rick noticed his vehicle had developed a leak in his brand new longrange fuel tank, the road into Halligan Bay was badly corrogated for the last 10 - 15 klms and we believe this did the damage. A quick look under the vehicle and we realised the fuel tank would need to be removed for us to gain access to where the leak was coming from. Not wanting to remove the tank at such a late stage in the evening, a quick vote was taken and we decided we weren't all that happy with the wind and uneven campsites, so we made a late dash back to William Creek to camp for the night, atleast here fuel was available in the morning and we'd get to watch the Origin game on the pubs tv 8) . Camp was made, dinner was had and we made it across the road in time to have only missed the first 45 seconds of the game, it was glorious being in the company of a few NSW supporters as Qld went on to smash the roaches into a 5th straight series win 8) 8) 8) 8) . Whilst we were having dinner earlier, it was decided Coober Pedy would be the best place to fix the leaking fuel tank, Ricks tank was drained of all but about 20ltrs of fuel and stored in jerry cans so he could top his vehicle up along the way as need be.

Day 6:-

A bit of a lazy start to the day today which made a pleasent change, Rick and Bronny were headed off to Coober Pedy early to get their fuel tank fixed, whilst Wombat and Neil accompanied them to make sure they got there safely, and the rest of us waited around at William Creek till after lunch as 2 couples were having a scenic flight over Lake Eyre in an aeroplane. Lunchtime came and we had a meal at the pub, it tasted great and i'd reccomend them anytime to anyone.

NO IT'S NOT MY CRUISER (feral ute camped at William Creek also)

A walk over to the place where the flight was leaving from found our 2 couples were still waiting for their flight, their plane had developed problems and a new plane was being brought in to now do the flight :roll: :evil: They told us to head off to Coober Pedy and would join us later, which we didn't see a problem with as they weren't alone and would be travelling together. The trip to Coober Pedy wasn't as uneventful as we'd have hoped for, just past the turn off to Anna Creek Station (the world's largest working cattle station) our youngest threw up all over herself in the back seat....i thought she'd drunk to much apple juice back at William Creek and it appears i was right :roll: Oh well it wasn't to bad and a quick roadside change of clothes had us on our way again. Before long we were in Coober Pedy and catching up with Rick and the rest of the crew who'd left us earlier in the day to see how the repair was going. Good and bad news here.... they'd found someone to fix the tank, but they couldn't do it until tomorrow, other places were booked up for a couple of days, so there was no choice but to wait and get it done Friday. Luckily we had planned half of tomorrow to look around Coober Pedy anyway. We made our way to our campground for the night, it was to be underground camping at Riba's. We checked in and took our matresses and sleeping bags underground, we didn't bother with the tent as we didn't need it and i couldn't be bothered setting it up.

OUR UNDERGROUND CAMPSITE

By now the other 2 missing couples had joined us and we decided to go explore Coober Pedy a little. Hitting the bitumin of Coober Pedy and turning right i thought i heard a funny noise coming from the vehicle, but continuing on straight down the road i heard nothing. Driving further around town i turned right and heard the noise again, what can it be i was thinking? Continuing on through the centre of town i went around the roundabout and heard the noise again and saw a guy on the footpath look at my vehicle as if to say..****** was that noise coming from your vehicle?. I radioed the others and said i have a problem, i think it's a stone in the brakes or maybe a wheel bearing, i was hoping it wasn't the later. Pulling into the carpark of the Campus in the main street we started to investigate, we jacked the vehicle up and removed the wheel. We found a tiny rock in the brakes but i was sure it wasn't big enough to make the noise i'd heard, another turn of the hub and sure enough the wheel bearing looked like it was the problem. By now we had removed the axle and i was on the phone to a mechanics shop... ME........"mate i need a rear wheel bearing kit for a 105 series cruiser, have you got any?"... HIM......"i'll just look.....yep i've got 6"... ME....."what time do you close?"..it was 5.05 P.M by now... HIM....."minus 5 minutes ago"... ME...."can i come down and grab one from you now?"... HIM...."yeah if your quick, and you may aswell bring the hub (or what ever he called it, i forget) aswell".... sweet, i was down there as quick as could be. The mechanic knocked everything out, cleaned it all up and pressed the new bits in, including packing the bearings with grease etc, all we had to do was refit it back in the vehicle at the campus carpark 8) 8) This is where i'll give a big thumbs up to the Coober Pedy mechanics..... my vehicle was fixed by buying 2 wheel bearing kits (one spare just incase the other side went) and the half hour or so the guy stayed back, for under $150 8) 8) Ricks car would be ready the next day from a different mechanic for under $200, both jobs we expected to cost alot more then they did to fix due to the remoteness of where we were, and the mechanics went out of their ways to help us. By the time we had my fourby fixed it was nearly 7.00 P.M, we were seeing the less desirable side of Coober Pedy with drunken locals fighting just up the street from us, and unfortunately we'd see abit worse later in the night with a late night dash to the hospital.

WAS DARK BY THE TIME WE FIXED IT

Getting back to camp at Riba's and dinner was just about ready, the couple who were doing dinner tonight had left us earlier to make sure we'd all get fed. It's times like this the dinner cooking idea worked better then we'd hoped for. Dinner was had and time for a hot shower and a couple of drinks before bed. Our youngest by now was quite sick with a flu (so we thought), and we were expecting a broken nights sleep, what we didn't expect was for her to be coughing so much she threw up in bed....luckily we managed to contain most in our hands and her pj's. Half asleep i didn't notice the lady who had walked over to our sleeping area, she had a stethescope (sp?) and said she was a doctor. Earlier in the evening she'd noticed our daughter was sick whilst in the communal kitchen area, and she now checked her over before suggesting we take her straight to hospital. In the weeks leading up to our trip away our daughter had been sick, now she was at her worst and the lady who claimed to be a doctor thought she may have phenomia. Leaving our other daughter with our friends we took the drive into town to the hospital, our youngest given a check over and some medicine to reduce the 40 degree fever she had, and we were told to come back in the morning (the one doctor in town on call, only comes into the hospital at night for life threatening emergencies only). Whilst waiting for the Panadol to do it's thing in the hospital ward, a women was bought in by ambulance and put in the bed next to us, she had been bashed by her partner over cigarettes :roll: This was not the side of Coober Pedy i was hoping to experience on my holiday. The time was now about 1.00 A.M and we were headed back to camp and hopefully time to get some sleep.

 

[Rumpig]

Day 7:-

Morning dawned and we had gotten some sleep, the panadol seemed to do it's thing and i had to ring the hospital to make an appointment. 10.30 A.M and we were back to the hospital once again, the doctor saw her this time (lastnight he was on call but said it wasn't an emergency, so come back tomorrow) and said she had some infections but no phenomia, which was a relief. A trip to the chemist and we were $94 poorer after buying antibiotics and ventilin (sp?), but the important thing is over the next few days she got alot lot better with that medicine.

COOBER PEDY HOSPITAL

Everyone else this morning was doing their own things, Rick getting his fuel tank fixed and the rest are sight seeing and buying groceries. We had time to grab some groceries and a very very quick sight see before everyone met at the Coober Pedy sign for a group pic at 12.30 P.M., from here it was on to Oodnadatta for the night.

SIGHT SEEING

GROUP PIC

The pic taken and we were on the road again, though we didn't get far out of town before another vehicle had problems. Pete and Esther's 3.0 ltr Patrol was making a very strange clunking noise in the engine, it didn't sound good. A quick call to the mechanic who fixed Ricks tank earlier that day and 2 vehicles were soon headed back to Coober Pedy, whilst the rest of us headed for Oodnadatta. On arriving back at the mechanics, the guy stopped what he was doing and looked over the Patrol, i don't remember exactly what the part was, but something like a idler tensioning bearing had gone and the mechanic bodgied another one up to fix the problem, as he didn't have the right part needed. Within about 30 minutes they were back on the road and heading to meet us at Oodnadatta. Leading the way i got to see a few animals others didn't, but up in the middle of the road ahead i could see something that looked out of the ordinary, so i slowed right down. Getting closer i could now make out what it was i could see from a distance, 3 wedge tail eagles were fighting over some road kill they were eating. As i slowly got closer i radioed back to the others what was up ahead, but as i got within picture taking distance one eagle flew away. Stopping my fourby and getting out another eagle flew away with the 3rd one looking as he would also do the same thing. The last eagle jumped back and flapped his wings a few times, before deciding he was hungry and going nowhere. For the next 5-10 minutes the eagle stood there feeding whilst we took pics and some video footage, it was awesome to watch.

DINNER TIME

Back in the vehicles and we were soon in Oodnadatta, not the prettiest of towns, but it meant we had about 200 less klms to do tomorrow to get to Curtain Springs, which is why we choose to stay here. Checking into the campsite we noticed they had cabins and rooms for rent, as our youngest was still crook we rented the last room available which was tiny with a double bed, the kids slept on the floor on their matresses, abit tight but atleast it was warm.

Day 8:-

A quick group pic outside the Pink Roadhouse of Oodnadatta and we were on our way to Curtin Springs. Not alot happened today and not alot to see really, it was all about clocking up 650 odd klms and getting to where we wanted to be, luckily the dvd player kept the kids entertained. Along the way we spotted quite a few more wedge tailed eagles, a couple were massive in size, by the end of the day i would have seen atleast a dozen, more then i'd seen previously in my life, they were everywhere. Morning tea was at the Marla Roadhouse where we rejoined the Stuart Highway and fueled up. Back on the road and we stopped for lunch at the Northern Territory / South Australia border before heading to our next 2 nights camp location of Curtin Springs.

GROUP PIC

MORE EAGLES (though were camera shy)

OUT OF THE WAY...COMING THROUGH!!! (Stuart Hwy)

LUNCH STOP...LEAVING S.A

QUICK AROUND THE OTHER SIDE...IN THE N.T

Pushing on from lunch and turning left off of the Stuart Hwy, it was supposed to be an uneventful run into Curtin Springs where we'd make camp for 2 nights. About halfway there i heard a loud screaching noise coming from under the bonnet and could smell a burning rubber / plastic type smell. Radioing to the rest of the crew i had a problem i pulled over and quickly checked the water temp and oil pressure gauges (which read fine) before shutting down the engine as a cloud of smoke billowed out from under the bonnet. Wombat pulled up behind me and commented on the smoke he could see aswell, i was hoping it wasn't something terminal. Lifting the bonnet we started the vehicle up again and the problem was diagnosed almost immediately, smoke was pouring off of the air con belt due to it melting as the compressor had seized up, a quick push of the buttom to turn the air con off inside the vehicle and the problem was solved, now i just need to fix it before sumer comes around...lol...atleast the heater still worked.

SUNSET OVER MT. CONNOR VIEWED FROM CURTIN SPRINGS no it's not Ayres Rock as many people think it is

 

[Rumpig]

will try and add the rest tomorrow night...time for bed now.

 

[zeroland]

Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to share. Did you keep a GPS tracklog?

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Great pics!

 

[Rumpig]

Great pics!

Cheers...still plenty more of them to come yet also
I will try and add more to this report later tonight when i get a chance

 

[Rumpig]

Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to share. Did you keep a GPS tracklog?

No i didn't keep a GPS tracklog, but that was because i didn't own a GPS back then. I did the trip using paper maps instead, and a couple of the other vehicles on the trip were running GPS 's in their 4wd's, though i don't recall if they did a tracklog or not sorry to say. i do own a GPS now though, so future trips i should be able to do that.

 

[Rumpig]

Day 9:-

A bit of a lazy start to the day this morning for those who had families on the trip, whilst the others were up fairly early and off on the drive from Curtin Springs to The Rock. A few couples were having flights over the Rock and Olgas so were away early to go explore the areas on foot before their flight later in the day, we on the other hand planned to not do so much walking with our young kids, so left camp a few hours later. Once we finally left camp the 85klm trip out to The Rock was pretty uneventful, we kept our eyes peeled for camels but didn't see a single one. Arriving at the entrance gates to the park, we paid our $25 per Adult entry fee for our 3 day pass, and headed off towards the Olgas first up. We would leave Ayres Rock itself until last to explore today, and then stay to watch the sunset before heading back to Curtin Springs where dinner would be waiting for us. Rick and Bronny were cooking tonight and had decided to not bother watching the sunset and be back at camp early to prepare everyones meal. Turning right off the main road we were now heading for The Olgas, not to far along the road Glen radioed to us he had seen a camel just off to the left, we pulled over and turned around to go take some pics. As we pulled up on the side of the road the camel decided he didn't want his pic taken and disappeared over top of the sand dune he was standing on. Not wanting to miss a photo opportunity, both Glen and myself jumped out of our vehicles and gave pursuit of him on foot. Reaching the top of the sand dune our camel was nowhere to be seen, "where the hell did he go?" we said, inbetween gasping for air as we realised our severe lack of fitness, from running in soft sand uphill :lol: :lol: Plenty of shrubs and grass gave the camel somewhere to hide, our guess was he was sitting down somewhere hiding not far from us, but we were buggered if we could find him, we nicknamed him Houdini (sp?) for his effort...lol. Looking around we then realised what a great viewpoint we had of both Ayres Rock and then looking behind us, also of The Olgas.

AYRES ROCK VIEWED FROM THE SAND DUNE

TURNING AROUND AND IT'S THE OLGAS VIEWED FROM THE SAME SPOT

Pics taken we walked down the dune, jumped back in the fourbies and were on our way again heading for The Olgas. We had a quick look around and a bite to eat here before heading back to go explore The Rock. Before reaching Ayres rock we stopped in at The Cultural Centre, our oldest (7 yrs old) had been studying about Aboriginal people at school, and was keen to go learn some more in the cultural centre. With our youngest now asleep in the back i decided to remain in the vehicle listening to the radio, whilst my wife and our oldest daughter went and explored the centre. After quite some time they returned back to the carpark, and with the other family still looking around the centre we made tracks for Ayres Rock itself on our own. Arriving at the base of where you climb the rock, we saw the climb was closed "due to high winds", not that it mattered to us, as we had no intention of climbing it with 2 young kids to worry about. We spent time wandering around parts of the base of the rock taking pics, whilst i had considered walking around the whole rock pre trip, i changed my mind when i realised i'd probably end up carrying a small child for half of that trip atleast...lol. Returning back to the vehicle i noticed a herd / mob (or what ever you call lots of camels) of camels in the bush across the road from the carpark. So as not to scare them off, we slowly walked over and took some pics.

LOTS OF CAMELS

WHAT YOU LOOKING AT?

By now it was about 5.00 P.M and it was time to head to the sunset viewing carpark, we headed clockwise around the rock to make sure we'd done the full lap in our vehicle atleast. About half way around the rock we approached a car parked on the righthand side of the road with the driver waving his arms trying to get us to stop. Not wanting to miss out on a prime position in the sunset viewing area i quickly sped up, looked away and drove straight past him :wink: :lol: :lol: No i didn't, i stopped to see what was up, finding out his battery was dead in his car and that he needed a jump start. Pulling out the jumper leads from underneath my drivers seat and hooking them up to both our vehicles, his car soon roared to life and we were both on our way. Finishing our lap around the rock we soon pulled into the sunset viewing carpark and took up position for some happy snapping of pics.

FAMILY PIC AT AYRES ROCK

SUNSET SHOT OF AYRES ROCK

Once the sun had set it was time to head back to our campsite at Curtin Springs, a quick side trip was made into the resort area to get fuel, as i had been told earlier it was about 30 cents a litre cheaper here then at Curtin Springs, which turned out to be true. The drive back to camp was uneventful except for the last few kilometres, still doing 100klm/hr we zoomed past some dark shapes standing just off to the side of the road, it took a second to register what they were, but we quickly realised black cattle were everywhere about. Slowing right down we pulled into camp just as dinner was about ready, it was perfect timing. Dinner was had along with a few drinks and we were off to bed to get some sleep before our drive to Alice Springs tomorrow.

Day 10:-

Today we were headed for Alice Springs, it would be a black top run all the way, as we all decided to bypass The Kings Canyon road, we couldn't be bothered and would leave that area for a completely seperate trip in the future so as to have enough time to do the place justice. Not much happened along the way to Alice other then us stopping at the Mt. Connor lookout on the way back to the Stuart Hwy, and also us stopping to inspect The Cannon Ball Run Monument. Rick who was on the trip with us lost a mate in that tragic accident (Keith Pritchard), so we all stopped and let him have a good look at what there was there, and remember a friend lost in a tragic circumstance.

MT.CONNOR FROM THE LOOKOUT

FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT THE MONUMENT IS ABOUT... (copied from a Geocache forum)

The Northern Territory Cannonball Run was held from 22 May to the 27 in 1994 on the Stuart Highway from Darwin to Alice Springs and return, a distance of nearly 1600 kms, and attracted 118 racing enthusiasts from all over the world with their expensive machines. The race contained three distinct driving phases within the one event. These were the "flying miles", the timed sectors and, covering by far the greatest distance, normal, everyday driving during which there was no competitive element. The "flying miles" were a test of a car's acceleration with cars cross the starting line at 60 km/h and 1600 m later their speed was recorded by radar, with points awarded accordingly. The timed sections of the run were approximately 100 km stretches to which set times was applied. Cannonballers lost points on these sections by arriving either too late or too early by more than three minutes. While these sections of the run were happening, the road was open to regular traffic, although police swept the road ahead, side roads were manned and the travelling public and commercial vehicles were warned. During these sections, as throughout the run, Cannonball drivers were subject to the same laws as anyone else. It is to be pointed out, though, that in the Northern Territory doesn't exist a specified speed limit on the open road. On 24 May, during one of the timed sections near Alice Springs, a Ferrari F40 crashed into a checkpost killing its occupants, the Japanese duo Akihiro Kabe and codriver Okano (first name unknown) and two track officials, Tim Linklater and Keith Pritchard. An inquest found that the direct cause of the accident was driver error on the part of the Japanese team which entered the checkpoint at an excessive speed.

...........................................................................................................

Back on the road and it wasn't long before we were in Alice Springs, now the fun part...finding accommodation. Glen had previously emailed several places before we left Brisbane and didn't have much luck with getting answers from them, so now we'd try in person :? First place we tried had a tiny section of grass (and i mean tiny) which may have fitted us all in, but we weren't real happy with this option and would leave it as a last resort place to camp. A couple of quick phone calls and we were told the Big 4 park had enough sites for us, having taken our caravan to Big 4 parks previously i thought we'd be onto a good thing, and i wasn't disappointed. The Caravan Park was fantastic, especially if you were a kid, if you've stayed at a Big 4 park you'll know what i mean. If you have a young family and haven't already, then i suggest you look into staying at one of them one day. We set up the tent, had lunch and then it was time to do some shopping and restock the food and drink supplies for our next week or so's adventure out to and across The Simpson Desert. Back at camp we relaxed for the arvo whilst all the kids ran a muck in the playground, we had dinner and a few drinks before heading off to bed.

Day 11:-

Today was a day for everyone to go their seperate ways and explore what ever they wanted to in Alice Springs, we decided to keep it simple and visit ANZAC Hill aswell as The Telegraph Station, others went to a Wildlife Park and some also visited The Transport Museum. ANZAC Hill is basically near the middle of town and is great spot to get a birds eye view of the town, there's a few plaques explaining how it got it's name and also the hills relevance to the local aboriginal peoples.

ANZAC HILL

From here we hopped back in the fourby and had a short drive 3klms out of town to the Old Telegraph Station. This telegrah station formed part of The Overland Line which ran from Port Augusta Adelaide to Palmerston (now Darwin) in The Northern Territory. On arrival at the Old Telegraph Station, we paid our entrance fee and were informed that we could send a real telegraph message to anyone we wanted to, as a volunteer telegraph group was in town for 2 weeks, and sending messages to Adelaide, which would then be forwared via mail to where ever we wanted. With this information in mind we headed to the building we needed to and the kids sent a message to their grand parents aswell as our oldest sending one to her school class, both messages explaining the fun holiday they were having. After watching the volunteer man send the message, we continued on to explore rest of the buildings and outside property area.

OLD TELEGRAPH BUILDING (where the messages were sent from)

OLD WAGON

Now finished looking around the buildings we ventured out the back gate to go look at some water, and stumbled across a plaque explaining how Alice Springs got it's name, it was quite an unexpected find.

ALICE.....WHO THE F#$K IS ALICE? (not sure if people overseas will get that joke or not...lol)

From here it was back to the campground where along the way, we fueled up the fourby and spare jerry can in preperation for tomorrows drive to Chambers Pillar via Boggy Hole. Some chours needed doing late in the arvo...ie: clothes were washed and we decided what was for dinner tonight. Dinner tonight was a look after yourself job, and we decided to grab pizza from the local restuarant around the corner from where we were staying, i was buggered if i was going to cook...lol. Dinner and drinks had, it was off to bed to get some sleep before tomorrows big drive, and we at this point had no idea what a long day it would be :shock:

 

[Rumpig]

Day:- 11

An early rise today as we had a lot of ground to cover, today we would be going West out of Alice Springs to Boggy Hole in the Finke Gorge Nat. Park before then heading East and ending up at Chambers Pillar for the night...atleast that was the plan. Heading West along Larapinta drive towards Hermannsburg it was about an hour or so drive on the bitumin before we turned left off the road for Boggy Hole. There was no signage to be seen indicating we were at the right track, just a look at the map showing the turnoff was near a creek (which it was) and the knowledge we were about 12 klms from Hermannsburg which was also looking about right on the map, oh well fingers crossed...lol

TURN OFF WITH NO SIGNAGE TO BE SEEN

Stopping briefly to deflate our tyres we were soon on our way down the track, still no signs to be seen we guessed which tracks to take next with the use of 2 GPS units, luckily not taking a wrong turn and before long we knew we were on more of a defined road and pretty confident we were going the right way. Going past a few houses we were soon driving down a sandy creek bed which had massive red rock walls towering up either side of us, not somewhere you'd want to be should a big storm hit i assume.

TOWERING ROCK WALLS

I'll say now that Boggy Hole turned out to be the highlight of our entire trip IMHO, we only allowed a couple of hours to drive through this area, it ended up taking about 6 hrs and we actually wished we had allowed a night to camp at Boggy Waterhole itself, but with only 3 weeks holidays we just didn't have time to allow to do this

A FEW PICS OF THE DRIVE

Morning tea was had beside the creek and we all commented on just how spectacular the massive rock walls were, nobody expected this place to be as beautiful as it was and the water left over from recent rains was certainly helping add to the attraction. On the road again and we soon found ourselves at Boggy Hole itself, we followed the main track only to have it come to an end, taking another option we soon found this track was a no go aswell. Looking across the creek i could see wheel tracks on the other bank and told Peter and Esther to search back behind us for another track, within minutes they had found a route over to the other side and we were on our way again. Leaving Boggy Hole behind us we were trying to keep on the track which at times was disappearing and had us guessing where to go, but a couple of hundred metres ahead it would reappear and make you feel better about the direction you were driving. Leading the way i radioed back that the sand was very soft ahead and to give it abit and not back off, but alas my advice was not followed and Peter and Esther soon found themselves bogged. Glen reversed back to snatch their vehicle out and i was concerned that maybe the soft sand he was now in would bog him also, this proved to be correct and in hindsight it really needed 2 straps joined together, so now we had 2 vehicles bogged...lol

WHOOPS, SHOULD HAVE USED 2 STRAPS

Reversing my fourby back i soon had the both of them out and we were on our way again. The sandy track had by now started to get abit rocky and before long had changed to mostly rocks, it was here we had our first puncture of the trip. Barney had blown the side out of a tyre and whilst it was changed, we called lunch and had abit of fun with the kids

TEACHING THE KIDS TO SKIP ROCKS ACROSS THE WATER

Tyre changed and lunch had we made our way out of the Nat. Park to the Ernest Giles Road, we were now atleast 4hrs behind time schedule and knew we would be later then expexted getting into Chambers Pillars today. Heading East on Ernest Giles Road we then turned left onto the Stuart Hwy heading back towards Alice Springs for about 30klms before turning right off of the highway towards our nights destination. As the sunset we still had quite some klms to drive, the wind had disappeared and the dust was not disappearing at all from the vehicles infront of each other, which had has driving at walking pace in some places. Turning right at Maryvale it was now almost 7.00 p.m and we only had about 50 klms until we were where we wanted to be. During the day this would be about an hours drive, but tonight the visibility was zero due to the dust, and most vehicles were lucky to be doing 20 kph, at times i would stop on the side of the road waiting for the dust to clear, but no matter how long i waited it still just hung there, refusing to clear. With about 20 klms to go Wombat had developed a problem in his vehicle, a strange noise was occurring and he thought it was due to a loose wheel bearing. With the vehicles spread out over about 10 klms and Wombat as tail end Charlie, we turned around to go back and help him out. Barney was cooking dinner tonight so it was decided that he would go ahead and set up camp and get dinner going whilst we repaired Wombats fourby, good in theory until Barney got his second flat tyre of the day. Now for the rest of the vehicles on the trip this would be no big deal, but for Barney it was, as he was only carrying the one spare tyre, and that one was already on his fourby after completely destroying the other one earlier in the day. Removing the wheel we found the hole and set about plugging it up, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 plugs in the hole and it was still leaking, so we pulled them out and started again. 1,2,3,4,5,6 plugs and it's slowing down but still leaking...7 plugs and it's nearly stopped...8 plugs, just one more maybe...9 plugs, it's just about stopped....10 plugs in and we seemed to have stopped the air from escaping.

LET THE FUN BEGIN

By the time we had fixed the tyre Wombat had fixed his fourby aswell, the wheel bearing had come loose and just needed to be tightened. It was now after 9.00 p.m and we decided the 20 klms we needed to cover was going to take way to long, that and Barneys no spare wheel caused some issues aswell. A few klms back down the road was a large open area, so we headed back there to make camp for the night. Barney quickly had the gas bbq going and it was steak sandwiches for dinner whilst half the people set up tents, and others like ourselves decided we'd just sleep in the fourby tonight, it was just to late to bother setting up camp....2 adults and 2 kids sleeping in the vehicle was never going to be comfortable, but i was way past caring by now. Dinner had and a quick couple of cans of Bundy and it was time to recline the drivers seat....night John Boy :wink:

Day 12:-

After a fairly ordinary nights sleep we dragged ourselves out of the fourby (which was nice and warm inside) just in time to farewell Barney and Carl, who had decided lastnight to head back to Alice Springs in their 2 vehicles to get some new tyres for Barneys fourby. Barney was running fairly new Kelly branded tyres, but would this be the case when they met up with again either later this arvo or possibly tomorrow morning, only time would tell. After having breakfast, those who needed to, packed up camp and we continued back along the road we were on to finish our drive into Chambers Pillar. The drive was easy going, though the road did become quite corrugated as we neared the campground itself.

ROAD INTO CHAMBERS PILLAR

CHAMBERS PILLAR

Before long we were in the carpark of the campground and preparing for the short walk to the Pillar itself. Once at the Pillar you walk around to the left side of it, then all the way around to the back of the pillar (not a very long distance), where you'll find a very steep set of rock / stone steps that you climb to view the surrounding country side, just as the early explorers would have done 140 years ago, though they would have done so without the stairs :wink: . Reaching the viewing platform there are numerous engravings in the rock pillar itself, some of the more fascinating ones being those of early explorer John Ross's expedition party, who visited the pillar in 1870. These men were travelling in advance of the Overland Telegraph Line construction crews, searching for food, water and telegraph pole timber.

NAMES CARVED INTO THE PILLAR

Our visit finished here, we were back in the vehicles and headed for Mt. Dare via Finke, along The Old Ghan Train Line. Returning along the road to Maryvale hat we came into Chambers Pillar on, we mistakenly turned right instead of left and took in the scenic sights that Maryvale has to offer, i'd probably be inclined to give this tour a miss if you visit the area :wink: Turning around and heading back out of Maryvale we soon found the Old Ghan Line and set off on one of the most corrugated roads i've ever driven on, then chuck in the old railway spikes you need to avoid littering the road, and i'll say it's not exactly a relaxing drive. About 15klms along the track Wombat radioed he had a flat tyre, we were hoping this wasn't a sign of things to come. Turning around and heading back to Wombat, i wondered how big the hole would be and if it was caused by an old spike. With the tyre soon removed from the vehicle and being reinflated, we found only a small hole, and quickly had it repaired using just the one plug this time...yeh....lol. Back on the road and trying to find a suitable speed to make the corrugations feel not so bad (90 - 95 kph worked well), we were all making comment about the race track that runs along side The Old Ghan Line, the jumps involved in driving that track were just crazy, and it would be great viewing to actually be there and see the race one year i imagine. For those of you that don't know, once a year they hold an offroad race that leaves Alice Springs and overnights in Finke, before returning back in the opposite direction the next day and ends up back in Alice Springs. Along the way we stopped for the odd photo at an old railway siding, and then in the middle of nowhere had a quick stop on the roadside for lunch, but our main aim was to make sure we made Mt. Dare at a reasonable hour this arvo.

RAILWAY SIDING

The rest of the afternoons drive turned out uneventful thankfully, we made good time, crossed back into South Australia and found ourselves at Mt. Dare at about 4.30 p.m. Checking in, there was a message awaiting us saying Carl and Barney would here about 6.00 p.m tonight, it was good to know they had made it back to Alice Springs ok, and were on their way to meet back up with us. After such an ordinary nights sleep the night before, we all decided to splash out and get ourselves cabins to sleep in for the night, tonight was also a pub meal night, so nobody had to worry about cooking dinner either. Before long we were showered and sitting down at the bar enjoying a refreshing beverage or 2, and just on 6.00 p.m Carl and Barney and their partners arrived as they said they would. A quick inspection of Barneys fourby showed new Mickey Thompson MTZ tyres on all 4 corners aswell as the spare, he also had a couple of the other Kelly tyres as back ups if need be. Dinner was had and a few more drinks aswell, and before long we were all off to bed, the long day and late night yesterday had taken it's toll on us all, so it was time to catch up on some sleep.

N.T / SOUTH AUSTRALIA BORDER

MT. DARE

 

[4x4x4doors]

Day 5:-


Back on the road and we were headed for the Farina ruins, like i wrote previously, had we of known what was here before our trip, we would have made this our overnight stop rather then Lyndhurst. Farina isn't just a single building standing in the middle of nowhere going to ruins, it's a whole township complete with cemetery aswell. Farina has a campsite to stay at which has flushing toilets aswell as a shower that has hot water available through the use of a "Donkey".

Enjoying the read and the pictures. Also enjoyed "WTH is Alice?" We get a lot of that sort of thing over here as well. Anyway, I don't understand the Donkey reference. Is this a colloquialism for something or is actually a four-legged animal hauling water tanks?

 

[steve c]

Thanks for the great right up.

I have been following along on google maps when you name locations. Really fun!

Subscribing for more.

 

[eurosonic]

awesome report. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Rumpig]

..........Anyway, I don't understand the Donkey reference. Is this a colloquialism for something or is actually a four-legged animal hauling water tanks?

hey mate....gald you're enjoying the read. the donkey is basically a wood fired hot water heater, picture a 44 gallon drum on it's side with 4 legs and a wood fire underneath it. i'm not really sure of the name origin though, it does sort of look like a donkey some could say the way they are built.