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.
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