Day 12 - Wolfe Creek to The Bungle Caravan Park

0When we were in NT the sun wasn't coming up until after 7 o'clock. We have now crossed into WA and forgot about the time change. So last night we ate dinner at 4pm and when Ruby asked if she could wake up this morning, we said OK because it was starting to get light outside. We soon realised it was only 5.15am. So we were up, fed, packed up and on the road by 7.30. 

We had 134km to travel, from Wolfe Creek to the end of the Tanami. It was a pretty eneventful trip to the end apart from a few wedge tailed eagles feeding on fresh road kill.

Ptilotus, beautiful pink flowers along the side of the Tanami

At the end of the Tanami is a quarantine station where you have to offload fruit, veges and honey. We aired up the tyres and headed into Halls Creek. Halls Creek is a bustling little town, we restocked with food and fuelled up at a much more reasonable $1.89 per litre. 

Then we headed off on the 100km of tar highway to the Bungle Caravan Park. We are meeting up with Warren and Judy, Gills mum and dad here. They are also travelling through the Kimberley but are doing it in the opposite direction so us, but we will bump into them a few times. We will stay here the night before heading into the Bungle Bungles tomorrow.

We have seen our first boab trees, so I guess we qualify as having made the Kimberley!!

We got a call from Judy about 20min before we arrived at the Bungle Caravan Park saying they had just booked a helicopter flight over the Bungles and there was one seat spare. So 30min later Gill was taking off in a chopper for flight over the Bungles.

Apparently it was a pretty wild ride. No doors on the chopper and the pilot was banking hard over in the turns.

It's my turn 6.30 tomorrow morning, can't wait.

Day 11 - Tanami Track to Wolfe Creek Crater...

After a great sleep at our campsite along the Tanami we packed up and were on the road by about 9 o'clock.

The neighbours in the caravan that we camped with last night later told us that soon after we left a dingo strolled into camp to see what he could find. With only about 280km to get to Wolfe Creek we weren't in a big rush. 

The big change today apart from crossing into WA along with the border crossing the road conditions also seem to deteriorate. From the border to the aboriginal community of Billiluna about 160km west the corrugations were much more full on. However we could still maintain 70 - 80 km/h, we were just getting shaken around more. 

We didn't really need fuel but we pulled into Billiluna anyway for a top up. At $2.60/L I'm glad 23L was all I needed!! Billiluna is the northern end of the Canning Stock Route, so I'm sure we'll be back at some stage to buy their expensive fuel again.

We pulled into Wolfe Creek at bit after lunch and were the first into the campsite so we got the pick of the sites with a good view of the crater. No camp fires allowed here though.

Campsite with the edge of the crater in the background 

Wolfe Creek Crater from the top of the rim. The crater was formed about 300 000 years ago and measures 850m across.

The girls at the top

The view from the top looking back down at the campsite.

Dad and his girls.

Another good outback sunset at Wolfe Creek.

This is where we are.

Day 10 - Tilmouth to ?????

We left Tilmouth and headed for Yuendemu. Yuendemu community was bigger than we expected and we had full Telstra service for 10km either side of town . The general store stocked everything from car batteries to broccoli . The school was painted in beautiful bright colours and Rubes asked why everyone was wearing bare feet ??

The tanami road. ( rather than track) as it is now known was graded and we could drive approx 90km / hr. Rabbit Flat Roadhouse was closed so we were going to camp off the road about 12 km south but that dirt road turned into a wash out that was impassable. It was nearing happy hour and we passed another dirt track (59km past the old Rabbit flat roadhouse)which led us to a beautiful clearing that we shared with 2 other campers, surrounded by Acacias, sturt desert pea and Grevilleas. 500 m off the,emTanami and about 12km south of Tanami mine. Beautiful sunset and under a million clear stars !

Grevillea wickhamii was so plentiful

So far the Tanami road conditions have been great. The road train drivers have been very courteous and slowing down and provided us with some good info on the road ahead on the UHF.

A small road train but you can see their dust cloud approaching for kilometres before you even sight the truck.

The camp we found 500m off a dirt track from the Tanami. True bush free camp. We have logged the coordinates on Wiki camps. We shared this camp with 2 others, 1 of which was towing an Ultimate camper as well.

It was way too hot for a fire but it's just such a communal thing and the girls got to toast the marshmallows. It would only get cold at about 4am.

The Tanami was so lush and green and the scenery changed all the time. From plains of spinifex grasses to rocky granite boulders, from mountain ranges to large sections of thick woodland.Ptilotus, sturt desert  peas and Grevilleas all along the side of the road. Beautiful.

Huge expanses of termite nests as far as the eye could see. Olive asked " why did all those people have to die?". I guess to a 4yr old they do look like grave headstones.

Day - 9 Alice to Tilmouth Well (Tanami track)

We had a lazy pack up so the girls could jump on the pillow( last jumping pillow and playground for a while ) and pick up a few groceries before heading out on the Tanami . It hadn't rained for a month so all roads were opened. It was a beautiful start to the track (bitumen for the first 200km) with the Macdonell range  all around us. Tilmouth was a nice oasis where we all had a swim in their pool, bought a local indigenous canvas from the gallery and were treated to a lush green lawn where the girls could run around on and we could have a beer from their bar! Ring neck parrots were a good spot and ticked off in the bird book, as well as hearing the galahs having a good ol laugh. As the campfire crackled we could hear dingoes howling in the distance.

Beautiful lush green lawn.

Refreshing pool to cool us down.

Beautiful ring neck parrots.

Day 8 - Alice Springs

Today was a busy day of prepping the family to arrive. Sweep the floors, clean the carpet make the bed... Then the girls arrived at about 12.30. 

Olive was asleep within minutes as we drove from the airport. The girls rode their bikes/scooters, went on the jumping pillow and then to the Gillen club for schnitzel night! Early to bed as everyone was exhausted after a much anticipated arrival!!!! 

Alice is spectacular from every angle, whether from the caravan park with Macdonnell range behind or the drive back into town with rocky outcrops either side.  Now enjoying a drink together as the girls sleep!!

Day 7 - Alice Springs

Not much happened today. A day of washing, stocking up at the shops and most importantly I installed a new set of speakers in the troopy. As on the dirt roads it was pretty much impossible to hear the old ones. The result is a much better sound. I fitted a set of Fusion 6" splits. It took a while but I only had limited tools.

The troopy now with door speakers. 

And tweeters on the pillar. 

Day 6 - Rainbow Vallley to Alice Springs

We had a slow pack up today, as we only had a a short drive into Alice. We even treated ourselves to bacon eggs! 

We took the short drive back out to the highway then soon after we were checking into Macdonald Range Big 4 Alice Springs. We weren't used to this setting up between the lines and so close to other neighbours. But still it is in town and I'm here for three days so the nice amenities will be appreciated.

The road out from Rainbow Valley.

After setting up we visited the Road Transport Hall of Fame.

Quite a few years ago there was a man named Don Evans from East Gosford who had restored his Dad's old truck. When Don passed away his family wanted to donate the truck to the Road Transport Hall of Fame, so they asked my dad and one of his mates if they would take it from Gosford to Alice. So they turned it into a project, they built a trailer themselves to carry the truck and made the journey out. So we went to have a look at it. It is the very first truck you come across as you enter the hall of fame. The truck is still in working order and was last registered in 2005.

After visiting the hall of fame we just cruised around town for a while, then visited Simpsons Gap just west of town.

The Heavytree Gap Tavern was just a short walk from the Big 4, so that was us for dinner. A couple of beers and a game of pool...

Day 4 - William Creek to Painted Desert

We packed up and left William Creek soon after breakfast, and then just a little way after leaving we came across a few camels roaming around.

We then continued on along the Oodnadatta track until arriving at Algebuckina Bridge. The Algebuckina Bridge was built in the 1880's to allow the Old Ghan Railway to span the Neales Rivers south of Oodnadatta. It is still the largest single bridge in South Australia.

This is the remains of a car that tried to drive across the rail bridge when the river was in flood. The car got halfway across when the train came along. It got pushed backwards and ended up in the water. Apparently the driver survived but his dog didn't fair too well.

We got another good photo of this wedge tailed eagle. We had to back up for this one and were expecting him to fly off.

Soon after we rolled into Oodnadatta.

Not much to see or do here. We tried to have a look at the railway museum but it was all locked up. The main draw card in town is the pink roadhouse. It is pretty similar to most other roadhouses except everything is pink...

The original plan was from Oodnadatta to follow the Old Ghan railway on the dirt all the way into Alice Springs. But we were starting to think we may be pushing it for time for Rick to fly home Sunday morning. So we changed our plans and back tracked a little from Oodnadatta and headed out to the Painted Desert. 

It was overcast and a very grey sky as we were driving the track. We even got some rain but only really enough to keep the dust down. 

We weren't able to camp at the painted desert but there was camping 12km further on at Arckaringa Homestead. We set up here for the night and watched a big storm do a big arc around us. We only got a small amount of rain but we did get a good lightning show!

This is where we camped.

Day 5 - Painted Desert to Rainbow Valley NT

Because it was so overcast yesterday the pictures of the painted desert were not that great. So we had planned to get up early and head back for sunrise. We heard the group of 'grey nomads' leave the camping area at 5.30am, so we thought it must be time to head out there. So we got up and dressed and headed back for sunrise at the painted desert. Over an hour later we still standing around in the dark waiting for the sun to come up. We boiled the billy and had a coffee while we waited. 

But when the sun came up we were treated to this.

We headed back to camp, had breakfast, packed up and drove the last 80 odd km back to the highway. We fuelled up and pumped the tyres up at Cadney Homestead then followed the Stuart Hwy North to Alice. The trip north was pretty eneventful, the main thing was the massive road trains with three and four trailers, rather than the two that we are used to in NSW.

We toyed with the idea of pushing straight on into Alice a day early but we ended up turning off the highway about 90km short of Alice and headed into Rainbow Valley Conservation Reserve. The camping was 22km off the highway and was well worth the effort. It was a rock formation very similar to the painted desert but this time we were able to camp right in front of it which made a pretty impressive sunset. There were clear skies that night which gave us our best outback star show yet!! However I couldn't get the stars to show up in any pictures. The clear skies also meant it was our coldest night we had had, which also left a heavy dew in the morning.

The boys and the big rig that has got us half way across the country.

Our last campsite in the bush before hitting the big smoke.