Back in Range for a few days so this is what we have been up to, I'm still having trouble posting photos but I won't give up
3rd July
Woke up to a beautiful morning and looking forward to the remoteness we are about to take on. After a cold shower in the showers in the
camp ground we heading for a few photos of the
Rawlinna town site then up the Connie Sue Highway. The road wasn’t to bad, a bit boney for the first 60km so slow and steady, then the rocks subsided and the bony patches got further apart. Then about 50km up the road it was like highway one,
well not quite but a very good road with sturt desert peas growing along the side. The bush changes all the time and is really quiet beautiful, the grass and trees look like silk when the wind blows behind them. We set up
camp about 5km north of the
water tank slightly off the track. Another beautiful evening and a great fire, spag bog for tea a few beverages and early to bed for the kids, no school work today. Bring on tomorrow!
4th July
Woke this morning to a small frost so it was hard to get out of bed. Headed off towards the Neale Breakaway’s thinking that it would be a good spot to stop reasonably early for a
camp oven dinner but we made it there by lunch time. We saw camels and a lone
dingo on our way there. The different vegetation along the way is amazing, from oaks to gum trees, not really what we were expecting.
The breakaways were interesting had great colours and pure salt seeping out of them, so don't taste it. We left there and headed to
Neale Junction, the road is still in very good condition and we haven't even looked like putting the troopy in 4wd yet. We would have had an average speed of 50km all the way, a couple of deceiving bends with mild corrugations on them though. We made it to
the junction in plenty of time for
our camp oven roast and we saw other people for the first time since
Rawlinna. We camped just up the
Anne Beadell Highway in the
camping area.
5th July
Another great day on the Connie Sue. We continued north towards
Warburton after a good breakfast and school work. The track today was a bit more of what we were expecting with a few sand hills and washouts but there are tracks around the worst sections. The corrugations weren’t as bad as we have experienced but they were up there. We climbed to the top of Ryan’s
Bluff and had a really good view of the beautiful nothingness that is out here. There are a few flowers starting and plenty budding up. Saw another lone
dingo and 4 more camels who didn’t seem very frightened of us. Set up
camp just north of
Hanns Tabletop Hill and another great fire and dinner to match. Have been hearing what we think is bat’s flying over our heads . Hope to stop into some of the gorges tomorrow on our way through to
Warburton.
6th July
Today was our last day on the Connie Sue as we left
our camp and headed for
Warburton. The track was pretty good, a few corrugated spots and the last 50km looked as though it had been graded not that long ago. The bush thinned out a fair bit. We made good time so we decided to head for
Warakurna Roadhouse (Giles) along the Grand Central Road. Time flew by as we lost a hour and a half as they are on the same time as the Northern Territory and South Australia so that made for a late evening, but it was very nice to have a hot shower and do some washing.
7th July
After a slow start to the day (when the suns not up at 7am it doesn’t feel that late) we finally got packed up around 10. After fueling up at the roadhouse ($2.40lt Diesel) we headed up to the weather station for a look. There was a lot of Len Beadell information and the
grader which done all the 6000 kms of roads he pushed through, which was very interesting. The weather station doesn’t do tours anymore so that was a little disappointing. We left here around midday and headed for the Northern Territory. The country side is beautiful, ranges on both sides of the road and beautiful red dirt. Once we crossed the border the road turned rough with corrugations. We called into
Lasseters Cave then continued up the road for about 80km and set up
camp in another good location.Another great fire and a couple of cold bevies to boot. Heading for the Olgas tomorrow.
8th July
What a great day we’ve had! Started with the usual trouble of getting Kacie out of bed! Then we headed for the Olgas (
Kata Tjuta). Was nice to pass the
grader then hit some smooth road. We went for a walk into Walpa
Gorge then headed for the picnic spot for some lunch. We then went for a look at Windy Valley, and windy it was! What was going to be a short walk ended up being the big walk around one of the domes, they really are spectacular and strange mountains that just appear out of the ground. We then headed just out of the National Park and made another
great camp had a few more drinks, after our big effort today we were thirsty, kids to bed early, they were a bit worn out, hopefully tomorrow we will be able to climb to the top of Uluru and we will all be buggered then!
9th July
Well what can we say about Uluru, it really does speak for itself, its somewhere that we have always wanted to see and it truely is amazing. We didn’t climb it as it was to windy and after reading about it, it wouldn’t be the right thing to do anyway. We had a good look around the base and saw all the sights, you can’t help but walk around it, look up, and just say wow!
We left there about 4pm after a few selfies and headed for Curtain Springs, got there and kept driving, nice spot but a little to crowded for us so we ended up camping just off the Mulga Park Road and we weren’t the only one’s with the same idea. Once again nice spot with plenty of firewood and a couple of quiet bevies and take it all in.
10th July
Rather a quiet day today, after a little sleep in we packed up and headed for Kings Canyon Station via a climpse of
Mount Conner which was another impressive sight.
11th July
What a big walk walk we had today, we did the
rim walk of Kings Canyon(6km), taking in the
lookout and
the Garden of Eden walk.(3km), another picturess location with some lovely peacefull settings. We had a bite to eat at the bottom of
the Garden of Eden and that was beautifull. Headed back to
Kings Creek Station via Kathleen Spring. Had a luke warm shower shower and a lovely roast lamb Dinner topped off with a few cold ones.
12th July
Today we headed for
Boggy Hole, sun was shining but a few clouds moving in. After letting the tyres down we made it across the first dry
river crossing with no problem. Found a nice little spot on the
Finke River with a lone palm tree and had some lunch. The water really cold so definatly no swimming. Headed on our way only about 2km and found a beautiful little oasis, that’s what it seemed like anyway, so we decided to set up
camp for the night on a lovely little sand bank on th edge of the water, just beautiful. Not what we were expecting to find out here.
13th July
Woke up this morning to a bit of rain so staying in bed was on the cards. Once we got out of bed, 2 hours later the rain had set in, not too heavy but wet, wondering what it was doing up river, staying on th edge of the water may not have been a smart move. We decided to move to higher ground. We didnt pack the trailer up just moved it up the
hill 50 metres or so and we spent most of the day under cover doing schoolwork.
14th July
Still the light sound of rain on the roof so we decided to stay put and hope that things dried out a little, which they did. Only a few light showers passed over during the day, So we spent the day doing more school work and drying things out.
15th July
Well what a beautiful morning to wake up to, clouds all gone and the birds are singing. So we packed up and headed for
Hermannsburg. And what a beautiful drive up the
Finke River we had, it is really
well worth the trip. We had a our first
river crossing (not a very big one) but the kids loved it. They wondered when mum would get a drive and Dad replied “She can, on the highway” ha ha!
We had a quick visit through the town and the Hermannsberg Mission, that was interesting but we were a little pushed for time. We headed for
Palm Valley and camped just outside the national park in yet another great location on the
Finke River.
16th July
Woke this morning to a little low cloud and a very damp morning so we decided to unhitch the trailer and let it dry out while we went into
Palm Valley for a look. Another beautiful location, a true oasis in the desert., it is like another world in there We did the little walk and sat and listened and watch the birds for a while, very relaxing. Once we had packed up we headed for Albert Namijirus house, pumped up our tyres and air bags and headed for
Glen Helen (we are out of beers and bourbon) Stopped in at Redback
Gorge then off for some cold beer and bourbon at
Glen Helen. We booked a site, had a hot shower and a night off cooking. A lovely meal at the resort and a few bevies then off to bed and hopefully to Alice tomorrow after visiting the gorges along the way.