Day 3 - Flinders Ranges and beyond

We woke this morning to find it lot colder than Broken Hill. But that didn't last long. Just behind where we were camping was a hill we decided to walk up while we ate our breakfast.

When we reached the top we were greated with a very impressive Flinders Ranges sunrise.

Wilpena Pound with morning sun.

Our campsite.

We were on the road again at 8am, we headed north out of Wilpena and into Bunyeroo Gorge and Brachina Gorge. 

We hit the tar again just south of Parachilna and started to head north. We must have both had our eyes closed as we went past Parachilna as we completely missed it, so we didn't get a photo of the the famous Prarie Hotel.

We fuelled up at Lyndhurst before hitting the dirt again before stopping at the old Farina Ruins. 

Unbelievably a restoration group has started up the old bakery again so we were able to buy a couple of sausage rolls for lunch before hitting the road again.

This is the doorway that leads to the underground bakery that is in use today. 

We continued onto Maree but only stopped to air the tyres down and take a few quick photos.

Out of nowhere along the track you suddenly come to a bit of 'bush art'. I don't know much about it but I think someone has been living in the outback for too long...

A bit further along the Oodnadatta Track you come to a point where you can see South Lake Eyre from the roadway. We weren't expecting to see water in the lake but we later found out that North Lake Eyre is completely dry, but South Lake Eyre holds local rainfall for quite some time. 

And then not much further again you come to Coward Springs. Coward Springs is an outback day spa, perfectly positioned along the track for a refreshing dip. We only stopped long enough for a quick dip but we came out feeling brand new.

Nice romantic spa for two.

We headed on for William creek and saw this dingo on a little rise.

 We had the headlights on as we pulled into town but we had just enough light to setup camp.

We camped the night near this big rig. It is a 4wd truck with a caravan on the back, it is towing the landcruiser which has got a quad bike and a motorbike on the back and the tinny goes on the roof...

William Creek is a part of Anna Creek station which is the biggest cattle station in the world, nearly 6 million acres.

This is where we are, the little blue arrow head is us. 'No service out here'

Day 2 - Into South Australia

After yesterday's early start there was no time limits/no alarms on today's driving. We were on the road at about 8am, a quick detour back into Broken Hill for fuel and bread and we were off. We had a few drops of rain soon after but not enough for the wipers.

We soon crossed the SA border and were then heading for Yunta SA on the Barrier Hwy. 

Yunta was where we hit the dirt for the first time and this would take us the back way into the Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound.

Roads were open, always a good sign!

Dicko airing down the tyres.

About 45km after leaving Yunta we came across the Waukaringa Ruins. Waukaringa was a gold mine between approximately 1870 and 1970. At one stage it had a population of about 600 people. 

Waukaringa Hotel ruins

The view through the old pub windows. 

The ruins again.

We eventually made Wilpena Pound. 

And setup camp #2.

No OH&S here...

We have got Little Miss Sunshine guiding us along the way.

We saw this big fella just as we were coming into Wilpena Pound.

Departure day finally arrives!!!

Well finally May 19, our departure day has rolled around. The alarm went off 2.30am! Way too early to roll out of bed but roll out we did and pulled out of the driveway at 3.05. We had a couple of issues with the trailer brakes not working early on but with that fixed we continued on and pulled into Dubbo for breakfast at about 8am. 

It was a pretty uneventful day, km after km of western NSW. We had a close call with a kangaroo near Molong, saw a few emus, and saw an endless number of goats milling beside the road west of Cobar. Thankfully goats seem to have a much higher intelligence than kangaroos and head away from the road when you approach rather than toward the road!

Anyway we have now rolled into Broken Hill at 4.50pm. Nearly 14 hours driving and 1093km later happy hour has arrived...

Quick stop along the way. 

First setup at Broken Hill Caravan Park. 

Ruby's Camper Trailer Tour

Hey, check out Ruby's tour of our camper trailer. This was taken at Point Plomer about a month ago.

http://youtu.be/dXwdJ3dcmKM

Intro

Michael and I have always dreamt about taking a year out and travelling Australia in 2017 but when Michaels work (Qantas) told all employees that they had to take their long service to reduce redundancies we thought it was good timing to do a Kimberley trip.
Our little girls are 6 ( Ruby) and Olive is 4 years old. Ruby is in year one at school and Olive is yet to start school. Rubes loves to read but gets car sick so we will be trialling some travel sickness bands.
We intend to take 10 weeks to really navigate around The Kimberley and spend most of our time up there.
We will be driving in a 2008 Troop Carrier ( ex Ambulance so it has a third door) and towing a 2010 Ultimate  Xtrek.
Michael will drive to Alice Springs with his brother on May 19th and I will fly out with the girls a week later.
Our rough itinerary will be to drive north west along the Tanami Track to Halls Creek. Then up to the Bungle Bungles, then backtracking along The Great Northern Highway to Broome. We have booked on the Horizontal Falls tour to fly out from Broome. Then head up to Dampier Peninsula staying at Quondong and James Price Point, Middle Lagoon and then finishing at Cape Leveque. Hopefully we will get some word of mouth along the way and where is best to stay on the east side of  Dampier. Then spend 3 weeks along the Gibb River Road . We are still unsure as to our route home from there but we will drive the Savannah Way through to Queensland and then home!
We are in countdown mode now....

First Aid kit

Our Remote area first aid kit arrived and when unravelled it's about 1m long. We also purchased a snake and spider kit. Hoping we never have to use it!!!