BarbaraTVan: 2015

Time to go back to where the dream began!

GM had trouble with his back during our Kimberley Adventure, so was unable to do any walking or climbing. We had a two week window to try and tick off those bucket list items of his and mine......

GM has always wanted to climb the rock, and I had been disappointed not to have done the Kings Canyon Rim walk.
It has been such a long, cold, and wet miserable winter here,

so a bit of warmth and sunshine was well overdue!!!

GM had caught the "red-eye" from Perth and I picked him up at the station at 8.11. I had already loaded Barbara and had her in shmicko form all ready to go.

I had GM's clothes ready for him to pack, so he only had time for a quick coffee before I dragged him out the door. We hit the road at 9.16am.....I was in a wee bit of a hurry to find the sun!!

It was quiet on the road, and we were heading toward Mildura, hoping to park up for the night 100-200kms south. I drove the first leg so that GM could catch up on a bit of sleep, but I think he was a bit too excited as well, as he only had a couple of power naps. We made good time and parked up 50km east of Mildura. It was very windy and cold, with the odd gusty shower. We set up camp using Barbara as a wind block, and managed to get a fairly decent fire happening.

We were up and out early the next morning and stopped at Maccas for breakfast. We managed to get through Mildura before the peak hour traffic hit.

It was a partly sunny day, but the wind was cold and gusty outside. We arrived at the South Australia border Quarantine Station.....This is a serious quarantine stop, and I had done my research before leaving home, so we were clear of all fruit and veg. They often go through every nook and cranny to make sure you're not bringing in anything. We must have made a good impression, as the officer was very jolly and friendly with us. He figured out we'd done this before as we had Barbara open before he even got to us

The Murray Basin just inside the SA/Vic Border

The drive through to the Spencer Gulf was pretty, and long.

We had a couple of stops along the way, and watched a massive rain band get closer and closer about 100km South of Port Augusta.

When it hit, it really hit!! There was a massive amount of water sitting along the roadside, so they'd had a lot of rain as well this winter. We drove through Renmark and Burra (pretty place) and stopped at Port Augusta for some Hungry Jacks. We were starving, and it was mid afternoon by this time. We found a supermarket and managed to stock up on our fruit and veg. Then off we went again. The moment we left Port August, the landscape changed. You go from green, lush fields of crops and grapes to desert, red soil, saltbush and the odd tree.

We were now on the Stuart Highway - Adelaide to Darwin.

There seemed to be a lot more traffic than the last time we came this way.

We saw lots and lots of emus but no skippys. We passed the campsite from our Kimberley trip and drove on. The Flinders Ranges were to our right, and brought back the urge to go back there.....might have to incorporate that with a Simpson Desert/Birdsville adventure.

It was getting late, and we were both tired, so we found a good campsite 60km south of Pimba. It was still very windy, but no rain, and the temperature was a little warmer.

Pimba is the intersection that takes you to Woomera, Roxby Downs, and Olympic Dam (a huge uranium mine) and then on to the Oodnadatta Track, right to Flinders Ranges, Maree, Broken Hill, etc. or left to William Creek, Oodnadatta, and back to Marla on the Stuart Highway, or turn off along the way to get into Coober Pedy the back way.

We stuck with the Stuart Highway and stopped at Coober Pedy for lunch.

The sun was shining and it was hot!! WOO HOO!!!!!!! We had leftovers and a beer at the park......before we saw the sign that said alcohol was strictly forbidden in public

. We took the obligatory tourist pics, then hit the road before we got arrested......we were getting close to the Northern Territory!!!

We got to the NT late in the afternoon.

Yep! it's definitely warmer there!! Thank goodness!!! We took a back road about 1km in and camped up for the night.

It might be warm through the day, but the moment that sun goes down, it gets quite cold.

The colours of the outback never cease to take my breath away!

Around 2 or 3 degrees, so GM made a lovely fire.

Spooky No.1 - We were discussing the wood that was burning. I thought it was native oak or something....couldn't quite remember the name, so I reminded GM of the Mala tour we did the last time we were at Uluru and how they told us about this tree and the Bloodwood. At that moment, Midnight Oil's "Beds are burning" came on the stereo, singing about the Bloodwood and the Desert Oak.......amazing!!! Ok, that was enough wine, time to go to bed

Note to anyone doing this trip.....don't wear thongs.......the bindi's are deadly and everywhere!! The spinifex is in seed at this time of the year, and those seeds will go out of their way to find a bit of skin to lodge in!!! and boy do they sting!!!

We took off about 7.30 that morning and turned onto the Lasseter Highway about 9am. Next stop Uluru!!! "The Folks" had come here a few days earlier, so we were hoping to get a campsite next to them.

Spooky No.2 - We were cruising along between the brilliant red sand dunes and the Desert Oak, when our Hema went totally spazzy!!!! it was all over the place, and at that very moment, David Bowies "Major Tom" came on the stereo

.......and we hadn't even had a drink!!!!!

We made the Yulara resort around 11.30 and managed to get a campsite right next to "The Folks". I think they were happy to see us....they had never even come close to travelling this far from home before with their campervan.

We set up camp and had lunch. That's when we discovered they had been here 3 days and not even gone out to the rock!!!

So we all piled into the Patrol (magnificent beast!!) and headed off to Uluru. It's still only $25 for a 3 day pass into Uluru (Ayres Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas).

I think they were a little awestruck at the sheer size of it, and "The Mother" was in love with the beauty of the Olgas. We went for a wander through the cultural centre, and then took them on the Mala walk.

It was very hot in the shelter of the rock, so back to camp we went where we settled in with a few wines

we headed back to the rock later for the sunset and had some champers and nibblies. The booze bus was at the pay station, so they were warning everyone to watch their drinking, as they would be there on the way out as well. So poor GM only had a couple

Another cold night, and GM went out to the rock early, hoping to climb it, but came back saying it was closed to climbers, and quite windy out there. He was very disappointed. We headed back in around midday to do a bike ride around the rock. As we got closer, I pointed out to GM that there were people climbing up it. He was so excited, so we dropped him at the base and went and got our bikes. $40 each.....a bit steep, considering you only need them for a couple of hours, but the camel rides were considerably more expensive.

I think I can, I think I can........

The half way point....a number of people thought they'd reached the top, so
turned around and went back down......

The Olga's from the top of Ayres Rock

GM made it!!! Woo Hoooooo!!!!

The ride around the rock was just beautiful,

but "The Mother" fell off a couple of times......she's a stubborn soul, and got back on.

She's a bit old in the tooth now and wobbly to boot but won't admit it! But we made it all the way around without too much pain or shame. GM was waiting at the cultural centre for us....such excitement!!!! We had an icecream in the shade, then headed off to the Olgas, where we sat and had a picnic lunch and wine at the viewing platform. It was very relaxing.

We headed into the Olgas where we went for the short walk only, but it was still more than the last time GM and I were there.

It is just stunning in there....I think more beautiful than the Rock. It was quite hot in the sun, and we had run out of water, so we headed back to camp to relax for the rest of the afternoon. A lovely evening drinking wine and playing Yahtzee....I lost!! then off to bed. We were heading out to Kings Canyon in the morning.

The trip to Kings Canyon went smoothly and we were there in time for lunch.

We found a lovely big old desert oak to set up camp under and give us a bit of shade, which was few and far between in the unpowered sites.

The park was pretty bare....not nearly as busy as Yulara!! A lazy afternoon having a few wines. I realised that my rings were missing

so, with a heavy heart, I went and made a phone call to the Yulara Resort, and amazing!!!! they had been handed in that morning....betcha it was that lovely young cleaner doing the ladies loos this morning.....what a wee gem!!!!

I was so relieved :-)

They arrived in the mail a week after we got home.

We went and had dinner at the Wild Dog Bar & Grill where you choose your cut of meat, and Pedro the chef (with the greatest smile!!!) cooks it for you. Help yourself to the salad bar, and enjoy the live entertainment they put on every night. Our entertainment for the night was provided by Rod Dowsett, who is an Aussie country singer.

Great voice, and pretty good music, so GM bought his CD to listen to on the trip. "The Mother" had a wee bit too much wine and tried to sexy dance to the music

- time to call it a night!!! I apologise to my children in advance if I do that to them when I'm that old....my only excuse is "it was the wine" ...............

The boys are just glowing.....don't know if it's from the sun or the beer though!!

The next morning, we sent the Folks off to do the Kings Creek walk.

It was the one I did the last time I was here. It's a beautiful walk and "The Mother" should be ok with that one. GM and I went and did the rim walk........WOW!!!!! It is stunning. I only needed a couple of breaks on the climb up (the only hard part of the walk)

Even GM said it was better than climbing the Rock. It was quite hot up there with a welcoming breeze and you could see forever!!!

The Garden of Eden

It took us about 3 hours and was fantastic......so glad we came back.

At the end of the walk there was a water tap for us thirsty hikers. There were lots and lots of Zebra Finches playing around the water....so cute!!

Back to camp for the afternoon, where we lazed about camp and caught up with much needed laundry.

While sitting at the table reading a magazine, a dingo wandered directly between me and the car, about 2 feet away.

It had absolutely no fear. It's strictly forbidden to feed them, but I reckon they get fed each night up at the bar and grill, as that's where they head to every evening, and all the other dingos I've come across have been extremely timid of people. We went and had a couple of wines at the sunset viewing platform, then spent a lazy evening around camp enjoying more food and wine!! Seems to be a bit of a habit.........

That was the end of the Centre for us. The next morning we packed up camp. "The Folks" were heading back for a couple of days in Coober Pedy, and then onto Broken Hill. We decided to take the Earnest Giles Road down to the Stuart Highway. 100km of dirt road and the first 30km were brain rattling. We had lowered the pressure in the tyres, but it was still almost as bad as the road into wolf creek on our Kimberley Adventure!! We finally hit fairly smooth road, that still would have destroyed a car or caravan, and even saw a small car heading the other way.....glad I wasn't the owner of that one!!

About 10km before the Stuart Highway, we discovered a turn off to the Henby Meteorite Site. Never heard of it!!! So we went for a look, down a 5km stretch of pretty rough track, we came to an extremely clean camp site. The whole place looked pretty bare......hard earth with the odd little bush and spinifex. We followed the path and discovered the craters. Quite fascinating when you read the info on them. The craters themselves were full of greenery and life. Probably nothing that would excite you anywhere else, but seeing it hidden in a sparse landscape that goes forever is amazing. Definitely worth a look-see.

We had decided to become explorers again......we were going to head home via the Oodnadatta Track!

We fueled up at Erldunda (the intersection of the Lasseter & Stuart Highways). There was an old Astin Martins rally pulled up. One of them had hit an emu just outside of Port Augusta....poor car!! it was held together with tie-downs. Made you want to cry just looking at the damage.

We stocked up at Marla, and had a bit of a joke with the women in the store. Then off on the Oodnadatta Track!!!

It was in pretty good nick!! The roads were open all the way.

We drove for a couple of hours before finally finding somewhere worth pulling up. We needed to camp up early as we were doing a camp oven roast, so we found an ideal spot along the Coongra Creek.

We hadn't passed a single vehicle since we'd hit the track, but had seen a couple of homesteads off in the distance and a couple of iguanas popping their heads up in the middle of the track. (so well camouflaged, hope we didn't hit any!!). There's really not much out here at all, but you do see the odd head of cattle. Very little ground feed, so they need massive expanses of land to feed them. So far, we had seen no sign of a roo on the whole trip!! Seemed unusual.......

We watched the most glorious sunset, but there were big mozzies here!!

It was a lovely warm night, so we probably stayed up a little longer than we normally would. We were up in time to watch an equally glorious sunrise

I woke to a missing filling....I lost a filling on the Oodnadatta Track!! Sounds like a song title, but I reckon the Earnest Giles Road rattled it loose. Yes, it was to cost me quite a bit when I got home.

A vehicle went by while we were packing up, so it had been 17 hours since we'd seen any other signs of life.

The track was non-eventful, very few vehicles, and no change to the scenery, even the cows all looked the same.

We finally made it to Oodnadatta and the pink roadhouse. They had pink canoes out the front - for hire??? Maybe it floods heavily there??? Everything was pink!! Even the toilet brush!!

Quite a bit of tongue in cheek humour here.....well worth the read :-)

Canoe Hire anyone????

We bought a post card, and posted it to ourselves from the post office. It arrived 3 days after we got home.

We hit the road again. The old Ghan railway line runs from Oodnadatta to Pimba,

so there were a lot of old station house ruins along the way.

Broke the monotony of the scenery a little. We pulled up at William Creek for a lunch of fish and chips and beer......not bad at all!!!! Left our mark on the wall.......

you pay a donation to the Royal Flying Doctors to do this.......had a good read of who's been there, and then hit the road again. We stopped at Lake Ayre and wandered down to it. There was no water, but I think we were 12m below see level.

It was just a great big white glary lake that went forever. It was very windy, and had been all day along the track. We found a floodway to park up in for the night that was sheltered from the wind. We didn't think there would be any rain, and the trees growing in it were rather huge, so it looked as though it had been quite a while since there'd been a flood.

There were also quite a few old campfires around as well. Another camp oven roast and a fantastic shower to clear the dust out of all the nooks and crannies!!!

We were camped about 10km from the turn off to Pimba, so it didn't take us long to reach Olympic Dam and Roxby Downs. There was miles and miles of nothing but spinifex and the odd water bore. But we were back on sealed road and didn't need the stereo up quite as loud anymore!

Roxby Downs wasn't what I'd pictured in my mind. It was quite a nice place and much larger than I'd envisioned. We stopped for fuel and coffee, then on to Woomera. WOW!!!! This place is right out of the twilight zone. We wandered around looking at all the missiles and planes, then checked out a museum full of stuff from the 1950's.

There was an indigenous woman taking gold coin donations, and no other people, but when we were leaving, a little blonde girl was there. We have no idea where she came from, but she said good-bye to us in the screechiest most evil voice......reminded me of Chucky in the horror movies!

We said our good-byes and got out of there fast!!!

It was a weekday, and there were cars parked in driveways and out on the street, but not a sign or sound from a single person. Even the school seemed deserted. We saw a couple of people in the tourist information place, but they were very hushed........

We skedaddled out of there and headed down the road again. We made it to Port August mid afternoon and met up with "The Folks" for a coffee. Had a quick shop and then off our separate ways we all went. We found a nice little camping spot not far from Port Pirie, where we met an older couple who had just bought themselves a Tvan. He was having a grand old time with it, but I'm not too sure about her :-) They purchased it 2nd hand and had it shipped over from Perth. He was telling us about how hard it was to find a second hand one. So maybe we won't have too much trouble selling Barbara, one day, when we're ready to move on. That time wasn't quite close yet!!!!

We had breakfast in Port Pirie the next morning.....quite a bustling place!! Then made our way down to Adelaide, where we had lunch with No.1 Son and his partner. Then hit the road again, hoping to find a nice spot along the Murray River for the night. The weather was rather glorious, so we were pretty lucky, but it was much cooler than the outback.

We turned off at Murray Bridge and followed the river for a while hoping to find somewhere to camp. We spotted a dirt track called "Honeymoon Lane" and thought it might be promising, but the river banks were all closed off due to unstable ground.......so much for "Honeymoon Lane"!!!!!!

We kept going, and found ourselves in a place called Mannum - home place of the Aussie paddle steamer. There was a picnic area with fire pits, toilets, and nice green grass. And for a small fee, you could camp there for a maximum of three nights. There were a couple of other campers set up, so we joined them. There were a bunch from Adelaide away for the weekend, fishing and relaxing. I had a wonderful time feeding the ducks, coots and water hens.

My new friends!

It was still quite windy. The next morning we went for a wander to the ferry crossing, and decided to go home that way. The ferry took us across to the most gorgeous little old town. There were lovely old buildings, and a massive marina full of houseboats. Definitely a nice place for a holiday!!!

We headed back through Murray Bridge and onto the Western Highway, heading for Victoria. Such a familiar drive now. We passed the Little Desert and Grampians turnoffs and made our way to the Mount Buangor State Forest just outside of Beaufort.

We drove for a few km's and found a great camping spot that I imagine would be packed during the nice weather. It was cold now, but we finally saw lots and lots of Roos and Wallabies.

It was very foggy the next morning, so we bought breakfast in Beaufort and headed for home, with a detour to favourite Daughter's in Preston for Coffee.

We arrived home early afternoon on the Sunday,

which would give GM time to wash Barbara before he headed back west to work.

The two weeks went way too fast, and we travelled nearly 6000km's. Not a hiccup from the Patrol, and we're both sporting lovely healthy suntans. The weather at home was actually lovely and sunny for once this winter, so it wasn't too painful coming home.

We got the fire pit going and had a couple of drinks......we weren't quite ready to get back to reality!