Blog 6  Opals and Missiles

On the 14^th   we left Uluru and travelled back to the Stuart Highway and camped again at Erldunda, then drove down over the border into South Australia,

to Marla, another road house/pub/caravan park. From there we made our way down to Coober Pedy. The country side is getting barer and barer, with less trees and more gibbers and sand.

Getting into Coober Pedy the first things you see are these piles of dirt,

The next thing is a warning sign

Set up camp at the local caravan park, but couldn’t find where to connect into the water, on asking I was told there are only 4 sites with water, “Did you want water?? So we shifted site to the last site with water. The two caravans next to us were travelling together, Percy and Michelle had come up from Adelaide to meet up with Barry and Glenda who are from Beaconsfield in Mackay, they had come across through Townsville and were going down to Adelaide. Got invited over for drinks that night and again next night.

Well Coober Pedy is certainly different, tidy town of 2012 its most definitely not, it is a very dry (water that is) town, so there is no grass anywhere, a lot of the houses are underground with just some sort of shed/entrance out the front, with 80% of the population living underground. There is heaps of old equipment lying around everywhere, the place looks like the local dump.

Coober Pedy is taken from the Aboriginal words “Kupa Piti” which means “whitefellow burrow”.

Did a trip out to the Breakaway Mountains, you are driving along till you get to this spot and all the sudden the ground falls away from you. You don’t realise how high you are till you get there, it’s quite spectacular.

We stayed in Coober Pedy a couple of days then packed up and moved south again to Woomera, home of the rockets etc, a different town, very neat and tidy, with hardly any activity, apparently the town with all its houses is kept well maintained for visiting people when they are doing their rocket stuff, you can only live there if you have a full time job. We visited the local museum, don’t ya just hate it when visiting a museum and you see gear that you used to work on and understand it.

Not that I ever worked on rockets, but some of the stuff inside I knew.

From here we moved south again down to Port Augusta, at the tip of the Spencer Gulf the beginning of the Southern Ocean. It was great to see the sea again; we have now travelled from the north of Oz (Darwin) down to the south of Oz.

On the way down some interesting road signs promoting safer driving:

Port Augusta caravan park was nice we had a site on the “beach” front, had a 6 foot fence with barbed wire between us and the beach, Again met up with the mob from Coober Pedy, Glenda and Barry from Mackay and Percy and Michelle from Adelaide, walked down to the local footy ( AFL) club that night and had dinner, good meal, had a good night, few drinks and lots of laughs.

Went for a drive down to Whyalla, the steel town on the other side of the gulf, came across another one of those South Australian road signs

After Port Augusta we moved on, heading towards Adelaide

Blog 5 The Big Rock

After leaving Alice we moved south to the turn off to Uluru at Erldunda only a distance of 200klms and camped there for the night, went into the bar and had a beer, but there was no atmosphere so we went back to the caravan and went for our usual nightly stroll, drink in hand. Ran into a friendly couple there and had a drink with them, Sandie and Jeff. Jeff was in the Skippy Squadron in Vietnam.

There was a great sunset there that night.

The next day we moved on to Yulara, the resort/camping area outside the national park for Uluru. On the drive in I was becoming a bit cynical about the rock, thinking we have seen so many mountains, gaps and gorges and I was wondering if all this was going to be worth the drive in. On arriving and queuing up to get into the park, my mood was getting worse, then into the park to set up, someone called it the Afghanistan caravan park, it is all red sand, with a small concrete block, all the facilities are good.

That night we went up to a small hill within the park to watch the sunset on the rock which you can see in the distance, hmmmmm that was interesting????.

However the next day we decided to reserve our judgement and went out to Uluru, well I have changed my mind and I take back my cynical remarks of the day before, it was spectacular.

 The size of the bloody thing, we decided to do the walk around, its 10.6 klms, but all flat. Packing the water bottles and lunch we set of, it was huuuuge; we did a side track of 800 metres into one of the waterholes.

I found the mens cave, this is where the all the guys got together and made inma (ceremony/party)

The women also had a cave Kulpi Minymaku

We didn’t try to climb the rock as the local indigenous people who are the owners ask you not to climb, and not to photo certain areas. Having said that I don’t think even if I was asked by these people to climb, I wouldn’t any way; it would kill us, besides the height would have had me frozen anyway.

Please don’t climb Uluru

“That’s a really important thing you are climbing. You shouldn’t climb. Its not the real thing about this place. The real thing is listening to everthing. We are obliged by Tjukurpa (traditional law) to teach people what behaviour is appropriate.

It has been this way since the beginning.”

 Went back to the car park to watch the sunset, unfortunately there was too much cloud cover and there was no show of the colours.

Although on the way back to Yulara we came across the sun setting through the clouds.

Next day we did Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), these are a bit further out but again well worth the trip, we did a small walk only 2.2klm return with a slight incline up to the lookout in the Valley of the winds.

Kata Tjuta means many heads in the local language. This area is sacred under Tjukurpa and Anangu men’s law

At one lookout you can see the Olgas, but on turning around you can see Uluru in the distance, it certainly stands out in the desert.

On the way back we came across a group of camels going for a stroll through the land.

Last day at the Yulara camping ground was spent resting reading and writing and getting ready for the next stage. Moved on on the morning of the 14th and went back to the Stuart highway at Erldunda, and again camped there for the night.

Blog 4 A Town like Alice

After Tennent creek we decided to drive straight thru to the Alice, setting up camp there at the MacDonnell Caravan Park on the 28^th June. On the way down we stopped at Barrow Creek one of the old Overland Telegraph Stations, first used in 1872, the buildings are still there and maintained. It was here we saw the memorial to Tom Roberts; I used to work with his son Bill Roberts in Townsville in Telstra. Tom was one of the last linesmen to work on the line and lived there from 1952 till his passing in 1988 as a caretaker.

Next day we had a set up and rest day and planned the visit to the Alice area, it was our intention to make camp here for a while and do overnight trips to Yulara, Kings Canyon etc, however the cold weather soon put a stop to that, so the plans changed to doing day trips around here and then taking the van to Yulara.

On the Friday we set out to the east MacDonnell’s travelling out to Ross River Resort and then back into Trephine Gorge. This gorge gave us a bit of a hike ( more bloddy climbing) but it was worth it, up around the rim of the gorge and then back down to follow the creek back to the car park.

On the way back we stopped at Corroborea rock and did a stroll around it. ( No we did not dance around it)

Couple of days later we went back to Jessie’s and Emily’s Gap, there are a few gaps in this high range the one that the Todd river runs thru is Alice itself is interesting, the river and the rail line as well as the main highway all pass thru this gap.

We decided to do the West MacDonnells next driving to the end of the bitumen at Tylers Pass lookout. Here we were approached by a German tourist, his car had broken down, he had his wife and 16 yr old daughter with him and they were driving to Kings Canyon via the West MacDonnell’s.  If you have a look at the map from there it’s another 135 klm of dirt road to the Canyon that way, all right I suppose if you have the right vehicle they had a “Wicked Van”. We all know how reliable they are, we took the wife back to Glen Helen Resort so she could call the company, leaving her there after we were sure arrangements were made with the company for them to come out and replace the vehicle.

We then went and did some more gapping and gorging through Ormiston and Serpentine Gorges.

Ormiston Gorge

Serpentine Gorge

We also had a look at the “Ochre Pits” where the Aboriginals got their ochre for the paints. You can see where they got all the colours from, wern't allowed to pinch any though, which is fair enough.

 

In town apart from the usual shopping for food and grog we also visited the Museum (ours is better) and art centre, and went and had a look at Flynn’s grave.

We are just about gapped and gorged here at the moment I think we will spend the next couple of days blugging out until we hit the road again on Monday.
Overall Alice has been great we have had some relaxation as well as some climbing, walking and sightseeing.

Blog 3 The trip back home

We spent Wednesday packing our stuff away, and cleaning the van etc, Thursday we “buged out’, and made the long trip across the road, it’s amazing it takes as much work whether you are moving across the road or across the state. We then settled into a unit for the night.

Thursday night saw dinner at the bistro with the remaining group, followed by drinks and more drinks beside the pool.

Friday morning saw us jump on a plane back to Townsville to see our son off to the RAAF.

The next couple of weeks were hectic with a party for Lucas on the 9^th, Nicole and Dan and Tyson came up for the weekend, so we had a great family get together.

The pit fire in the back yard burnt from Friday night until Tuesday morning. The party was on the Saturday night and the weekend was finished with David doing a Kup Murri in the remnants of the fire on the Sunday night.

Managed a couple of days into the Army Museum of North Queensland to catch up and get myself more work for the road.

Caught up with very dear friends Lyn and Paul for a arvo session on Sunday 16th.

Alan Benson and his lovely wife Lyn along with Lyn’s brother and wife arrived on Monday in their vans for a couple of nights stay, so our yard is now a temporary caravan park, seems strange to have other vans here but not ours

Tuesday we saw Lucas off, first, was the swearing in ceremony, then out to the airport to see him off.

His sister (Michelle) took great pleasure in giving him short back and sides the night before.

Now we have to again pack and get back to Darwin to continue the trip.



Because Lucas will be marching out in 10 weeks we have decided to change our plans. We are now going to go south through Alice springs, doing Yulara and the McDonald ranges, then through to Adelaide, stay there for a while and then work our way across to Wagga Wagga for Lucas’s march out parade.

The following Friday we jumped on a plane back to Darwin, followed by a Taxi ride to the U store it place where our car and van was only to find the car battery flat, got AANT out, who got us started and we moved back across to the Free Spirit caravan park where we set up again for a couple of nights. Put the battery on trickle charge for the night. We ran into BJ and Helen who are of course still there, but also ran into Rob in his A van, he didn’t leave, liked the place so much he stayed on.

We stocked up on groceries and drinks and on Sunday we moved south, stopped at Adelaide River and paid our respects at the War Cemetery there.

Then we moved south again into the Shady Lane park at Katherine. We had two nights at Katherine, first night we got our drinks to do our usual afternoon walk, only got as far as the van next door and ended up staying for happy hour with them, Ann and Andy. Andy is a vet, ex 3Cav reg. speaking to him the next morning I suggested if he was ever in Townsville, to visit the Army museum, explaining I did volunteer work there, turns out he is a volunteer at the AHU museum at Bandiana.

 The next night who turns up but Rob, beginning to suspect he is stalking usJ

Drove south to Daley Waters (Bob Followed us) for another barra meal, was a bit disappointed this time with the meal but the entertainment was great.

We are now in Tennent Creek for the night so tomorrow another adventure begins as we move into unchartered territory. Bob is packed two vans away, but tomorrow he is heading East into glorious Queensland.

Blog 2 The story of the Free Spirits from the 24^th May

Thursday 24^thMay, we are still in Darwin at the Free Spirit caravan Park, did a trip down to Berry Springs, beautiful spot, the water is crystal clear and warm as it is fed from a spring close by, the problem is that its only about 500 meters down steam when the water turns brackish and then salty. They caught a 3.4 metre croc about 1500 meters upstream last week, but we are assured its safe as they have tree traps in the area.

That night we joined the crowd at the bar for schnitzel chicken, a few drinks, and to watch the footy, great to see once again Queensland up, although the New South Welshmen weren’t happy with what was a brilliant legitimate try.

The next night we all decided to go out for tea at the Darwin Sail Boat club, we hired a maxi taxi in and back, and were all able to have a great evening. The sunset was great, food great and company great.

In the taxi, hadn't had a drink yet

Sunset again

And the following night we all meet down at the back pool for a bbq and a “few” drinks.

The boyz behaving

The boyz playing up?

The Girls behaving

Kiss this baby

The girls misbehaving

Saturday we meet up with Mark our nephew, who is in the Army here with 5RAR, he was on exercise at Shoalwater Bay and we thought we had missed him, be they were given 2 weeks leave, and he had to come back here and do some paper work before he went to his family, so we went and had lunch down at the jetty.

The rest of the weekend was quiet just resting and relaxing, bit off shopping, reading, etc.

Monday we visited the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery, not allowed to take any photo’s there. The Museum’s goals were pretty broad with a mixture of themes and displays.  They had Sweetheart the 5.1 meter croc that was caught on the Finnis River in 1979. Other exhibits include a large selection of Aboriginal art and culture material, a large collection of boats of the Southeast Asian and Oceanic area, the history of the Territory and its natural sciences.

Tuesday we joined Phil and Bev for another trip to Berry Springs for lunch and a swim, took some goggles this time, lots of small fish in the pools, no crocs though.

Tuesday night saw the beginning of the end of the Free Spirits, Rod and Vicki had left on Sunday to go house sitting in Darwin, but they came back for another bbq down at the back pool, we played celebrity heads, much alcohol fuelled laughter and frivolity.

The breakup continued this morning with (Wednesday) with Dave and Sandi leaving heading west trail blazing for the rest of us, we are packing today as tomorrow we put the car and van into storage, stay the night in a unit here and fly back to Townsville for 3 weeks to see Lucas off. Gary and Michele are (hopefully) flying to Bali on Friday, if they can get their tickets sorted, Phil and Bev are here for a little longer then they also are putting their car and van into storage and flying home for a while