Four Wheel Driving in the Red Centre

4 WD drive trip July – August 2012 with Ike, Sandy, Roger, Margaret, Geoff, Jenny, Malcolm, Pam (and Eddy and Ellen who left early)

Saturday 14/7 Kokatha Tanks (Odo reading 199845)

Set up bush camp just before Kingoonya, our first set up went well despite there being rain as we started setting up.  Had our first rehydrated meal, dodgy, but OK, all well, campfire for age, much discussion about lack of microwave and also about establishing time for setting off in the morning. Everyone decided that we would set off at ‘half past’!  And almost forgot to mention, had the first tyre blow out of the trip, Ike trying to tow wood to our fire!!  Early night, freezing, sleeping with thermals and 2 sleeping bags.  Ice covered everything.  Heading towards Kingony, where everything was locked up,  no petrol, no pub, just Kingonya hall and some scrappy houses.  Pub looking for new owner.  It does have a rather attractive public toilet where we had smoko.  Drove along airstrip/road down the length of Kingonya, heading towards Cooper Pedy about 140kms away.  Celebrations at 12.35pm on the 15^th of July, our Suzie turned 200,000, we sang Happy Birthday in the middle of Whoop Whoop

Sunday 15/7 Cadney Park Homestead (OR 200310)

Stayed at official campsite, a small altercation with a fellow travellers about morning sun, but now all sorted!  Marla for petrol at 200394, $45.00 on petrol, even had post office.  Everyone had food except Colman wasn’t allowed to have any, Not Happy.  Stopped at NT border for lunch and lots of pictures and now heading on towards Erldunda, not stopping Kuldara for petrol because to get petrol there you need to go into petrol station, give them your credit card, go back out, pump your petrol, go back in and collect your credit card and pay for the petrol!!  I got tired just thinking about it, never mind what might happen to your credit card in your absence!!  Saw lots of Procession caterpillar cocoons on trees, and lots of bright red flowers – Hops apparently. Stopped at Pines Road House, everyone compared petrol and everyone used about 37 litres and we used only 26 litres.  Heading off towards Curtain Springs for night.

Monday 16/7 near Curtain Springs (OR 200789)

After lots of driving we stopped just outside of Curtain Springs at an overnight camp area, 

Tuesdsay 17/7 (2 nights) Yulara Resort, Ayers Rock (OR200982)

Arrived at Yulara resort and another little todo about who camps where, we took someone’s spot!!  Resort has grown hugely since we were there in 1989.  Had a great shower after a couple of dodgy days, and as the days were lovely and warm the shower was just wonderful. Great night had by all, some of the crowd did not join us, but everyone else joined in a BBQ.  When we first checked into the resort all of us were given Ike’s surname, so we had all suddenly become “Andrews” so we decided we must all be related, Ike and I decided we were brother and sister!!  A young German couple came and sat with us and joined in our conversation, so eventually we established that Ellen is my mother, Helen (the young German girl) was my daughter and Patrick (her partner) was the SIL, with assorted grandparents and grandchildren.  You needed to be there!

Wednesday 18/7 Yulara Resort, Ayers Rock

Slept well and late, beacon & eggs for breakfast.  Got year pass to Uluru, wandered around the campground, sorted ourselves out, did some washing  and chilled out.  Drove out to the Rock and Colman climbed up a little of the way, I only went up about 100 steps, enough for this time!  We then walked around the base to Kantju gorge, in Mala walk, very interesting.  Returned to campsite and checked out the coach camping before having another wander around the resort facilities. Good night with campfire and lots of chat.

Thursday 19/7 40kms this side of Docker River (OR 200981)

Packing up and heading off towards Docker River, Eddy and Ellen are leaving today as they were having too many problems with their camper, oh and a complete lack of microwave on the road!!  Got petrol and then head off.

Friday 20/7 Sandy Blight Junction (by quarry) (OR 201158)

80-90 kms outside of Docker river camped by the Shore River (not a creek!) heading towards Docker River.  Slept in because Ellen & Eddy weren’t there to make a racket, had toast over the left over fire.  C and I went for long walk along river bed, heard dingos and there was supposedly an Aboriginal settlement nearby.  Had to drink our port out of coffee cups as there is a $5000 fine for brining alcohol into aboriginal communities.Stopped at Lasseter’s Cave & plaque which was not signposted at all, lucky we found it.  A cavern where Lasseter supposedly came and spent 25 days in the cave back in the 18??, he had supposedly found a gold reef somewhere and was coming back to find it again.  He returned and couldn’t find the reef, his camels bolted, and he tried to walk it out with 1.5 litres of water with some friendly aboriginals but he died before he found his relief party.  His relatives are still looking for the gold now.

Stopped in Docker River, the place was an amazing mess, there weren’t too many aboriginals and the reason was that they had all headed off to the funeral of a woman who had died 5 weeks ago.  One stories as to why it took 5 weeks to bury here was that they were trying to raise money for her funeral, another story was that they were fighting with the Areyonga crowed as to where she should be buried!!  The couple who ran the store had been in Oz for 8 months travelling around WA when they got bored (!!?)  and so they decided to take the job at the DR shop.  The shop has no windows, all the doors had steel doors, mesh and were able to be bolted shut, although it did sell fresh fruit & vegies but they were outrageously expensive.  The petrol pumps were housed in a little concrete bunker with steel reinforced doors, Petrol was $2.06 for both petrol and diesel..  The place was filthy and there were (at this point) more dogs then humans!  Part of the conditions for entry was that you could not take photos of any aboriginals, so I had to be very careful.  And we all had the compulsory ice-cream which we now are also subscribing too.  Can’t break a tradition! Just after we left DR, about 5kms out we got pulled up by an Ab who was perched on the wing of the bonnet of his car, (the actual bonnet was missing), waiting for someone to pass by and give him a hand starting his car, so he could continue to the funeral which had started an hour earlier.  We have since discovered the reason for the missing bonnet.  When the Abs put up signs to announce a gathering of any type, they use car bonnets for signs by standing them upright with a direction arrow painted on them, explaining why most of their cars don’t have bonnets!  Just before that we passed a bicyclist who was cycling off to god knows where, no helmet, just shorts & a tee-shirt.  After our 4 cars passed he must be chocking on the dust we kicked up – poor thing!

Saturday 21/7 this side of Kintore (2 nights)  (OR 2013500

Bush camp between DR and Kintore, compact little camp behind a quarry.  Great night with huge campfire, all well, Geoff still not well after hurting his back in Yulara.  Stopped to let down tyres, had smoko with coffee and some of Sandy’s fruitcake, as we stood there looking a little bedraggled we were passed by 3 you beaut 4wd cars with self-inflating tyres, as well as a couple of female passengers with hair coiffed earlier this morning by some unknown outback hairdresser.  Hmm, we all felt a bit scraggy!

Sunday 22/7 this side of Kintore (2 nights)

Camp made about 120kms, this side of Kintore on the Sandy Blight Junction road.  A rather small and intimate campsite nestled in amongst the sand dunes.  All got together and made a communal dinner with roast beef, lamb, vegetables, baked potatoes and dessert; we called it The Long Table of Sandy Blight Junction Road, a mouthful I know, but it was great!  Big fire, lots of chat, decided to spend 2 nights here as tomorrow was Sunday and nothing would be open in Kintore.  Sent my mother a text message from the satellite phone.  Did a few walks the following day, spent about 2 hours with C and Jenny and did a huge walk, while some others back at “home” got concerned about our long absence, I guess we could have ended up anywhere!  We then had a lovely shower and just organised ourselves.  Had a few good chats, some quiet time, BBQ for dinner. 

Monday 23/7 87kms other side of Kintore (OR 201437)

Ike had flat tyre on trailer so we fixed that, heading towards Kintore at the usual time of 9.30.  Overnighted almost exactly on the Tropic of Capricorn, very flat campsite and not much vegetation and what there was prickly and pokey and pointy.  As we drove in we found a hug hole in the ground, kind of like a mini canyon and if you or your car fell into it you would know all about it and not get back out in one piece.  It is a registered bore but was not marked at all, just hidden amongst the low scrub.  It was Sandy & Ike's turn to join the crew for dinner so Colman and I had a lovely dinner under the stars and his specially erected chandelier under a huge tree.  After all that we had a big fire, Roger carried half a tree about 200 meters to feed the fire, very enthusiastic.  Then Geoff got a big lecture about what he should and shouldn’t be doing with his back.  We left them to it!

Tuesday 24/7 near Mt Liebig community (201572)

Up earlyish and off to Kintore, about 30 kms away.  About 500-800 people in Kintore and the same amount of dogs looking very hungry.  The petrol station housed in its little bunker is open every hour on the half hour and we were lucky enough to get there just at 25 minutes past, couldn’t have timed it better as no one knew this was the case.  We put petrol in the car and the petrol was $2.15pl.  Shop is being refurbished, everything is mesh and security again, and the place has rubbish from pillar to breakfast table - ughh. Saw the funniest sight when a girl who looked no more than 18 heaved her top up and shoved her little black baby up to her boob, the grab this little one made for the boob made you think she hadn’t been fed in days, very strange place. Left and heading for Alice Spring, we will have a couple of stops on the way but I think the crew is heading straight back following discussions last night! They headed off and we puddle after them, we stopped at Sandy Blight junction for lunch and turned down the SBJ road, set up camp just outside of Mt Liebig community.  We stopped at (I think) the last Len Bedell tree for this trip where we found a business card left for us from the Crew, so they had stopped there also.  A great little camp with the others, all had tea together, drank the last of Ike’s port, as well as the last of the port we gave him.  The boys went for a walk to investigate derelict aboriginal house the saw in the distance complete with solar panels, hot water system all still in working order.  The usual story is that someone died in the house so they just up and leave it, after the taxpayers forked out the money for all the mod cons!! And since then I have been corrected, the house was actually a “Holiday Home” (paid for by the Tax payers), for Ab who find the stress of living in the community overwhelming and need to get away from it all, I want one too!!  All had showers last night, very civilized until I accidently tipped the dirty shower water on Colman’s feet, took a glass of wine to make him get over it!! 

Wednesday 25/7 Glen Helen Resort  (201805)

Everyone was happy and relaxed in the morning with Ike yelling for everyone to get up; he was forgiven once he made me my morning cuppa, breakfast and on the road as usual by 9.30.  Headed to Glen Helen gorge for overnight stay.  120kms, west of Alice Springs.  On the way we visited, but did not go into Redbank Gorge which we decided we would come back to as we were running a little late.  Arrived at Glen Helen about 4.30, more of a campsite, not sure where they got the idea that it was a resort!!  Got set up after a little todo about the size of the camp spots.  Great shower, when I turned the water on and it started to run over me it was pink, realised it wasn’t the water but me that was turning it pink!!  Then off to restaurant for dinner, a little pricey but you were quiet remote.  We had – Me: a tasting platter with crocodile tail with garlic aioli, buffalo medallion with wild lime chutney and goat patties with something else.  Colman had kangaroo with kumara mash and beetroot, very well cooked and very tasty.  Had helicopter flights for $55 for quarter of an hour, or you could a four wheel drive tour for a day for $280pp, which we didn’t do either.  Had a couple of port with Ike & co around his trailer, bed about 10.30.

Thursday 26/7 Alice Springs  (202030)

We all went of a walk into the gorge, had a coffee when we got back and head off about 10.30 for Alice Springs.  . Stopped a quiet a few scenic spots along the way.  Ochre pits, Serpentine gorge which we climbed to the top of the hill and was spectacular, we then clambered down into the gorge and the water hole which was equally pretty.  We headed off to Alice to meet up with the rest. 

Friday 27/7 Alice Springs

Spent all day at campsite and did lots of organising and washing etc.  We had dinner with Ike and Sandy while Roger & Margaret headed off for dinner with friends.  We went for a little wander around, found a great bookshop (Red Kangaroo), found a quilt shop where I bought some fabric and Colman spoke with Michael on Skype.  Alice wasn’t as bad as everyone said; we had lunch in the Todd Street mall, and a great coffee down the road at an Italian cafe

Saturday 28/7 Alice Springs (202190)

Long drive with Geoff, Jenny Margaret & Roger out to Arlunga gold fossicking area, Arlunga historic reserve, looked at a couple of different mines.  Climbed down one, where three of us could fit in and still get claustrophobic but in the hey days 6-8 people worked down this mine, pass!  Arlunga itself still had a number of ruins including a government complex which included the people that weighted and graded the gold.  Headed of at 9.30am and only came back at 6.30pm, so a long but very interesting day on the road.  On way out we stopped to Emily gap which was spectacular.  On the way back we missed Trephine gorge (too late but we will revisit) but we stopped at Corooboree rock where Roger & Colman proceeded to climb through a hole in the rock, which considering it was sacred was a bit like climbing through the alter in a church – boys!!  When we got back to Alice there was still confusion about what everyone was doing as the head gasket fix was taking longer then expected.  We decided we would head off towards Areyonga on Sunday and meet them all on Monday at Kings Canyon.

Sunday 29/7

Left Alice and heading into Simpsons Gap, ended up catching up with the others there, and said our Goodbyes again. Then headed off via Hermannsburg which is another Ab community run by some church, expensive petrol, lots of rubbish but full phone reception, interesting!  Spent night at Palm Valley, road was dodgy but found a great campsite. They only had communal fire pits, one had a chair next to it so we found an empty one and set up our tent next to that one.  As we passed the occupied one on the way to the toilet the guy sitting there said we could have joined him at his fire and we could share the timber.  I didn’t really feel like it, Colman thought it would be a great idea and we said we would head down after dinner.  We relaxed, set up the tent and organised dinner.  Colman ended up cooking dinner down at the other fire pit.  That is how we met Hardy, he had been on the road for 4 months in a 4wd kombi van, and he was a lovely guy, German background.  His wife passed away about 2 years ago and this was the trip that the 2 of them were going to do together, I’m thinking the ashes of his wife were travelling with him based on the way he spoke.  He lives on a communal property down in the Dandenong’s with 90 others, not all living there but they had all bought into it.  Another couple turned up, Alex and Ben that were from Kiama; he was a wharfie and she a solicitor.  A lovely night followed, they left about 10pm and then Hardy brought out a bottle of wine he had made and we share this and then Colman brought out a bottle of port and we stayed talking till after midnight.  We spoke with Hardy about the track into Palm Valley and Cycad gorge and in his opinion it was very rough but he had walked it in just under 1 hour so we decided that we would do this.  There was also a park ranger doing a guided walk on the following morning and we decided we would do this walk.  Off to bed.

Monday 30/7 Areyonga (202590)

Up early, said our goodbyes to Hardy and headed off to the gorge, we were about half way up when we thought we should have exchanged emails with Hardy and if he was still there when we got back we would do so.  Shortly after that a tour group passed us in a long wheel Troupie, going slightly faster than us walking, after that the ranger drove passed and asked us if we wanted a lift to which we agreed.  The gorges were lovely, we saw some Stick Rat nests which were shiny black fossilised stuff/poo nest perched in the cliff face.  There was Red Cotton palms sitting in amongst the Ghost Gums and the look was lovely, this is one of the oldest rock formations in the world.  The palms are native to Mataranka and came down to Palm Valley a couple of hundred years ago in a flood, the only place in the world that these particular palms can be found.  There were also Black Footed rock wallabies whose favourite food was the spear bush.  The reason this is called Spear bush because when the fronds are heated they become stiff and the Ab’s use them as spears.  You can tell the presence of a wallaby as it will eat the bush up to its own high, and everything is lush above it.  There was still water but it was low, I think the water can rise to well over 2 meters based on marks on the surrounding rocks.  There was another group on the tour (the ones who overtook us); it was an art tour from Canberra, spoke with them a little.  Ranger was fairly useless, but she did give us a spin back to the campsite.  Hardy was still there and as I was heading to write down our details he handed us his.  Another hug and then he left.  We stayed for lunch and then had a great long hot shower, SA could learn something from these NT National Park camp sites.  We then headed off to Areyonga.  Went via Hermannsburg, it was a Lutheran mission from the 1860, it was a little cleaner than some of the other places, petrol was $2.15pl, we didn’t go into the cultural centre it was $10 pp. and looked dodgy.  Visited the cemetery instead.  Headed off, saw lots of wild donkeys on way in, grey & brown.  We had called Cheryl on the way in but never really did get directions and when we got there got the royal run around, up to the white house, down to the blue house and all sorts of other wrong directions from the locals.  Then we saw Rob driving a loader, turns out we were sitting just outside Cheryl’s office.  Back to their place, BBQ in back yard, lots of chat, lots of drinks in coffee cups, lots of laughs.  By about 11 Cheryl and I headed towards bed, Colman stayed up chatting with Rob until all hours of the night.  It was great sleeping in a soft warm bed.

Tuesday 31/7 Kings Canyon (2 days) (202670)

Up by 7am to head off with Rob at eight for the royal tour and to check all the things he need to check first thing in the morning.  Saw more donkeys, no camels.  We did not get to the Azurite mine as it was too far (13kmof rough road which takes about 2 hours), it is an experimental mineral (not sure what that means) and is a beautiful bright blue colour.  Checked water, generators, sewerage treatment plant, and also the cemetery.  He also digs the graves and he told us the story of the woman who had died and whose body was in Alice.  After much ado they picked a date for the funeral, but sadly forgot to tell the undertaker in Alice to bring the body down, so they postponed the funeral till the following week.  Rob checked the grave on the morning of the funeral to discover that a donkey had fallen into it, it was still alive and not happy about being hauled out by a front end loader.  In the end they got the thing out, (alive) just as the first people arrived for the funeral; I guess it’s all about timing.  Now Rob puts timber on top of the graves, just in case.  Another story was of the coffin that was just too big for the hole.  But not to worry, after dropping it into the grave and it getting stuck 1 meter down a couple of the Ab’s jumped in on top of the coffin and tried to jump it down into the grave, unsuccessfully!  They took the coffin back out, dug the grave a bit bigger and repeated the process, after trying this about three times they got the coffin down to a respectable 2 meters, then the lid gave way and so the left it at that and just covered it with soil.  There was also the story of the bureaucratic nightmare about fences and camels, horses and donkeys.  It appears that some white folks are unaware of the fact that camels are big and will mow down a 2 strand wire fence, that horses can climb up trees and that donkeys don’t read road signs.  Sadly these are some of the council members around here!   Some bits of Rob information, the root of the spinifex grows 120 meters down to look for water.  They removed 1300 burnt out cars from Docker river when they did big clean up, they brought up a road train, squashed the cars and filled up all 3 trailers of the road train.  Went back to R&C’s place for lunch and then headed off towards Kings Canyon to meet up with the rest of the gang. 

Wednesday /8 Kings Canyon (2 days)

Picked our sites, set up camp and went up to pub for a glass of bubbly and a bottle of beer and waited for the others to arrive while watching all the coming and goings around us, wandered around, oh – despite Telstra supplying 97% of the people with phone reception, obviously we have been traveling in the other 3%, cause once again - no phone reception.  The others arrived, we all had our dinner separately and then we sat with I&S, then bed.

Up early and off to Kings Canyon, did Kings Canyon Ridge top walk which was 6 kilometres, this included a 600 meter to a look out as well a 600 meter walk into the Garden of Eden.  This was part of the inland sea; some of the rocks here are actually compressed sea & dune sand with a red layer of sandstone over the top.  There was also lots of rock with the rippled sea pattern which was fascinating considering we were almost in the centre of Australia.  It took us about 6 hours to do the walk because we stopped, caught up with the others, chatted and explored all the way around.  Everyone did the walk and we all caught up at different times along the track.  Came back and organised ourselves for setting off the following day then headed up to the tavern for dinner and to see the local ’Act’, called The Roadies, a male female duet, bush band.  Food was relatively nice, I had Barramundi and Colman had a camel burger.  We had the cheapest bottle of wine which was$30, the average being about $50-$60 for relatively ordinary wine.  Ike ended up on stage miming along to ‘Give me a home among the Gumtree’s with a very fetching little pink punk wig.  Spent some time talking to a “musical” family who had participated in the sing-song, mother, father and 3 kids, they are going to Areyonga today and she spent 9 month studying in Linz.  They were one of those strange little groups, father played the ucalaly, mother the clarinet, son played acoustic base guitar, other son played something else and the daughter a cello (I think). A bit like the Partridge family but weirder!

Thursday 2/8 Henbury Meteorite Crater(202870)

Did a bit of shopping before we headed off again, $17.90 was spent on 1L OJ, 2L milk and a loaf of bread!!  Supposed to leave at 9.30 as always and everyone is running late as always!! Malcolm & co are heading back up to Alice to find out about the car and we will meet them in a couple of days.  Heading off to Henbury over Rogers Pass!!!  The Henbury meteorite crater was formed 4000 years ago when a meteorite hit this area.  A bit of trivia, the difference between a meteor and a meteorite is that the latter hits the ground, so it comes into the atmosphere as a meteor and when/if it hits the ground it becomes known as a meteorite, that must have been a male scientist thought that one up!!  Anyway this meteorite broke into several pieces (4) and struck in a few different spots around the area, the biggest being here.  This piece was about the size of a 45 gallon drum and caused a crater about 100meters round by about 20 meters deep now.  I can imagine this would have been quite a bit deeper when it first struck.  The other fragments landed in Goss Bluff, Altunga (gold mining town), not sure about piece number 4!  Walking into the crater where the temperature dropped dramatically and the vegetation was quite different.  Coming out it was full moon and we messed around and took some photos, we were spotted by another couple who had arrived earlier and they came over to have a go to and we got talking to them.  Hmmmm!!!!  They were Greenies, professional protesters and she had not heard of female razors, waxing or any other form of hair removal (enough said!) His name was Michael and her Metree (or some such strange thing), they joined us – somewhat ‘un-invitedly’ around the campfire and then proceeded to piss everyone off with their ‘lectures’.  I did learn something however which surprised me no end and will also fascinate everyone reading this blog – the definition of a Paediatrician is – uranium mining cause/effect/nuclear energy expert, and here I thought it had to do with kids,(for anyone interested this was about Helen Caldecott).  Anyway they told us they had just finished protesting at Roxby/Olympic Dam (where we were heading to look for work next!!) and were heading off (with their company car!!) to do the next protest at Muketty station.  I could tell by the look in R face that he would either speak his mind or head to bed, so he decided on the latter followed closely by Margaret and then us.  Enough dribbled for a day! Oh this is also where Colman decided he would investigate the old Japanese art of wood under fingernail torture and managed to get a couple of nice size splinters stuck under his little fingernail, he does always go just that one step too far.  Anyway, he got a piece out after S&M had a little go prodding and poking but there is still a piece in there and apparently it hurts, which I can imagine.

Friday 3/8 North of Maryvale over Finke race track (203027)

Still fire left in morning so we had toast over open coals, ready to head off when the “Protesters” came over to say goodbye (not sure why but maybe I’m being nasty here!!), they gave us a present of a sticker, an aboriginal flag with something about caring, or unity or equality or healing, people who know me well will know how much that meant to me!  Anyway we were all in cars, engine revving when they collared Ike, Colman and Sandy, an hour later I had almost convinced everyone to drive off so that they get the hint but at this point they had obviously used up all their hot protest air talking and headed off.  You should have seen the scramble to get into the car; all we left was a cloud of dust.  Had lunch in the Hugh River where Colman went for a little wander and ended up slipping and sliding down the side of a rocky embankment, he limped back looking a bit the worse for wear and moaning, again the two ‘Florence’s’ tended to him while I lectured.  I’m getting a bit of a bad rep here, the boys were offering to polish my broom and handed me little heart shaped rocks, hmm wonder why!! We then travelled parallel to the Fink race track which is a huge outback off-road race in the Northern Territory. It crosses the Finke River, supposedly the oldest river in the world, several times and with the corrugations I noticed not something I would like to try.  Made camp just inside Maryvale station, there was a ‘No trespassing’ sign, but apparently this doesn’t apply if you pull in far enough off the road!  Prickles everywhere, had to put up our little shower tent for Colman and his ablutions and I did all the set-up which was interesting and all worked out. 

Saturday 4/8 Chambers Pillar (203092)

Set off at usual time even though I had to do most of the packing up, Colman’s knee is still sore, as is his finger, and hopefully all will go well. We were a little worried because the airbeds were very flat when we got out and we thought that maybe we had punctured them with all the little thorns and prickles everywhere, let’s hope not!!   Heading off towards Chambers Pillar, not Pillars as I had thought so all this way for one scrawny pillar – this better be impressive!  We will be meeting up with Malcolm & co there.  First stop is Maryvale where we got some supplies, arrived in Chambers Pillar about lunchtime and spent a very relaxing afternoon doing very little.  Malcolm & co turned about 4pm, G&J and us then went up to and around The Pillar for a walk.  Some very interesting ‘graffiti’ carved into the pillar dating back to the1870 including travellers John Ross and Alfred Gile.  When we came back the ranger was there and told us there would be another one of those “Chat around the campfire” nights which will be good, and hopefully a bit more informative then the one at Palm Valley.  Some interesting stories he told included the legend around Chambers Pillar.  There is another rock formation called Castle Rock on the other side facing the pillar.  The story goes that a young aboriginal guy defied the local tradition by not marrying the girl chosen for him by the tribe, the tribe knows there is no family link with this girls thereby ensuring that there is no intermarriage within a family.  So this guy headed off to another tribe where he collected himself 2 wives, mother and daughter and married them both.  When his tribe realised what he had done they cast him out and he turned to stone, which is now known as Chambers Pillar.  The rock formation on the other side, Castle Rock, is the upturned faces of the two women screaming, looking at the sky into two different directions.  Another bit of info was about the culling of feral cats in the area, the ranger said there were about 1 million feral cats in the state, they caught about 30 of them and after an investigation of their stomach contents found about 8 native animals in total.  So imagine the damage 1 million of theses creatures can do! He brought some bush tucker food, couldn’t find much on his way in which made me a little sceptical about his food gathering skills, but he did bring some native parsnip.  This plant has a fluffy white ball on top and we had seen on the way and the root is this parsnip stuff, he put it over the fire and Colman ate one, I thought it just tasted like stringy tough chewy stuff!!  The ranger was very interesting and also very well educated; he admitted that it takes effort to get to this as you do need to remove yourself from your tribe because the “what’s yours is mine” mentality prevails strongly still. He also told a story which will qualify for the Idiot Award for the year.  In the early 1960’s they stopped people carving their names into the pillar as it had become a historical site, the fine for doing so was $5000.  The rangers come and check every morning to ensure that nothing has been vandalised, one morning they arrived to find a brand new etching of a name in the pillar.  They wandered down to the visitors book, found the matching name and the guys address (all entered by him) and he ended up with a nice little fine, the half-wit was also South Australian! Sad!  Sandy went off and made some damper and at 10pm we sat around and ate damper, jam and cream.  This was followed by a quick rendition of ‘The Scene’ in Lady Chatterley’s lovers by Colman, using the top of our lantern box and a couple of wet ones, not really as exciting as the original!!

Sunday 5/8 Geographical Centre of Australia (203306)

This morning we are heading back to Maryvale where we stopped for petrol and water.  Then off to the geographical centre of Oz, which is at latitude 25, 36.3,4S and longitude of 134,21.7,3E.  We arrived late in the day after following the Fink racetrack for miles, then into Fink for the compulsory ice-cream and stock up and onwards.  Colman, Rodger & Ike decided that racing into The Centre was a good thing, there were several different tracks leading in so they were all weaving and turning down the various tracks to see who could get there first.  Luckily there was no one coming out at the same time!!!  There was a bit of commotion about who would set up where and tempers flared, C&I kept a low profile and got out a glass of wine.  Instructions were given about how to face the light, the tent, the car so that the perfect photo could be achieved by the professionals, we didn’t do much just kept sipping the wine and letting them get on with it!  We then all gathered for the ceremonial taking of a picture right in the ‘middle’ of it all.  Apparently there are 3 different geographical centres all in and around this area taken with various methods over the last years.  We celebrated the event with some Apricot schnapps and after a quiet night all went to bed.

Monday 6/8 Dalhousie Springs (3 nights) (203532)

Had another group photo, back to Fink and then onto Dalhousie Springs.  We stopped in Fink for a loaf of bread and 1L of OJ which came to the grand total of $11.50.  Arrived at Dalhouse, set up camp and headed straight down to the spring, no shower in 3 days – ughhh! Lots of people here, we had BBQ and sat around fire for the night.  As of next year there will be no fires allowed here so that will change the atmosphere of the place dramatically as that really is a focal point and there is not much else to do.

Tuesday 7/8 Dalhousie Springs (3 nights)

The spring is basically an upside down shower rose and gets its water from the Great Artesian basin through about 80 holes.  There are at least 3 fish species and 6 water snail species as well as crustaceans, yabbies & frogs living in the springs.  The main pool is about 38degrees centigrade and up to 40 meters deep and flows at a rate of 160 litres per second coming out at 43 degrees.  There are lots of interesting things in it but the most interesting (and least liked by me) are the Dalhouse goby which grows up to 3cm in length and they (I think) are the same things that you pay for in Thailand so they can nibble your feet.  I paid in Thailand and didn’t like it then and I certainly don’t like it now, although others think it’s great.  Got up and went for a swim first thing, it was cold outside but the water was like a bathtub.  Had a nice chat with a couple (Jenna & Josh) who had spent 3 months doing every desert road in every state/territory of Oz (apart from Tassie), told us to go to the Tunnel Creek road which is somewhere between the Gibb River road and Western Highway.  Spent day doing very little, did have a walk around the spring and then back in for another swim as not a soul was in the spring.  Soon J&G turned up as well as others.  The facilities here are good and clean, but the smell of the drop toilet is woeful, and the showers are cold water only.

Wednesday 8/8 Dalhousie Springs (3 nights)

We went with R&M in their car and the others out to Purni bore, on the way out we had to cross water which came almost up to the bonnet, not sure if our Suzi would have made it.  We also encounter a Dingo who was out chasing cars and attacking tyres… been hanging around the local dogs a bit too long I say!  Purni was created as a result of some drilling done by the French Petroleum Co in 1953 who wanted to explore the rock strata and found water at 14 hundred meters, the bore was drilled to 18 hundred meters and water flowed at 18L per second.  The bore was eventually cut as it was affecting the flow into Dalhousie which is about 70 kms away. The water coming out here is 85 degrees Celsius and is heated 3-5 km beneath the surface.  Headed back and found someone stuck at the water crossing and helped them out, that was after talking to a few guys who had pulled another 2 cars out earlier.  Came back to Dalhouse to find a sandstorm had hit, our car awning was down and the car/tent/everything was absolutely covered in sand, everything was fine though.  To make up for it all we headed back down to the spring and had a long soak, when we got out we talked a little to a lady called Pam who I had seen cleaning the toilets here.  Apparently she does this instead of paying the site fees, she uses cheap Avon perfume to make the place smell better, hmm each to their own.  Anyway her and her husband Malcolm, were down in the pool and he had just come out of the pool when he fainted.  Colman helped straighten him up because he had fallen funny, C made sure he was ok and when he woke up Colman helped him to his feet.  He noticed that when he had fallen he had ripped one of his toenails so this maniac then bent down and ripped it off, at this point I was ready to faint, but he beat me to it.  Out cold again, this time C and a couple of others helped carry him over to a bench where C tried to work out if anything serious was wrong.  Colman thought at one point he wasn’t breathing so when he bent over to check Malcolm opened one eye and said “you’re not going to give me a kiss are you??”  Anyway he was a character and kept joking around, “I’ve had a stroke and didn’t like it” and so on, his wife just fluffed and when we tried to work out what medications he was on got very little sense out of either.  Next thing a couple turned up who turned out to be doctors and they happily took over, they were very impressed with Colman’s professionalism!!  (So proud of him I am!!!bubs – sorry joke for those in the know).  We saw Malcolm sometime later wandering around barefoot and happy!!!

Thursday 9/8 somewhere between Oodnadatta and Cober Pedy (203777)

Leaving Dalhousie towards Oodnadatta and we travelled on a ‘public access’ road which is a road that leads through private property but the public have access to it, with lots of gates to be opened and closed, ensuring you get your exercise for the day!  This particular road is called the Bypass track – no prices for originality!!  We have done almost 4000kms.  After leaving we called into the Dalhousie homestead and a number of different old Ghan railway sidings which have now all been abandoned.  Stopped at the Ood and the Pink Roadhouse which is currently for sale, Jenny suggested we buy it as it had great potential but not really too sure, although we did spend a while discussing possibilities!  One of the main features of the hotel is the canoe hire, they do have 2 canoes available for hire but as Colman pointed out the concern would be at the size of the water tank required to get full use out of the things.  Quite civilized place, the aboriginals were used to the interaction between them and the white community and they did look at you and greet you which really was a first.  Colman and I headed off to the local pub for our Shandy.  We kept going and tried to get as far as the Painted Dessert but it was just too far so we had a bush camp about 45 kms out of the painted dessert, in a river bed, well off the road and much to the dismay of some.  Had a nice campfire as we realised it was our last night together.

Friday 10/8 Coward Springs (204214)

Had been a very cold night, we had coffee around the fire and then packed up and headed off for the last time as a group on this trip.  Off to the Painted Dessert which sits between the Ood and Coober Pedy, we travelled down Lollipop Lane which is what connects the two places.  In CP we had lunch and said our good byes and headed off with Margaret & Roger towards Coward Springs.  Had a quick stop at Williams Creek, there is a rocket to be seen which was the second last to be launched from Woomera, the last one still being in orbit.  There were also assorted graves and tombstones one of which was from the women who died while trying to find help for the stuck car and died on the way.  Her husband who remained with the car survived and turns out all that was required to get the car unstuck was to engage the 4 wheel drive hubs!!!   Got a lovely long email from Hardy!  On the way in we picked up some railways sleepers for a fire and drove a little way along the Ghan track, a bit dangerous for the tires with timber and nails sticking up everywhere, so we gave it up after a few meters.  Sat up camp by about 5.30 and we all had dinner together and sat up late talking. 

Saturday 11/8 Coward Springs

Noisy place full of cockatoos.  Colman stoked the donkey for me and I had a great hot shower, facilities here are lovely.  R&M left and it was sad again.  The Coward Springs Hotel was licenced from 1897 to 1953 when it was run as a store till 1962 when it was demolished, there are also Date Palms here which were planted by the Afghan Cameleers.  The bore was drilled in 1887 and a new bore drilled in 1992 and the water flow was then reduced to what it is now.  We went to the hot springs for a swim, the water temperature was about 26 degrees which was positively cold after Dalhouse and it was tiny also, all 6 square meters of muddy murky waters left me very unimpressed.  Colman staid in for a bit but I couldn’t take to it at all, very icky!  A couple turned up with two kids who they apologised for being noisy, in fact they should have apologised for the adults that joined them later in the day.  We were also joined at our fire well after 9pm by ‘Mudy’,  Ike’s buddy and owner of a 4x4 with 15inch set of mud tyres that Ike loved.  He told us he had managed to do 120kms most of the way including almost landing in the water pool across the road leading out to Purni Bore.  Apparently he just managed to grind to a halt before the trailer hit the pool, he then backed out and did it slowly, which would have caused that part of the track to be churned up.  He then thought he would try to get out of it in 2 wheel drive, but guess what he couldn’t so had to change back into 4WD, making this track all but impassable!!!  We then head off to see some of the ‘waters’ around here fed by the Great Artesian Basin.  A bit of information about the Basin, it’s 3000 meters deep and contains about 65 thousand giga-liters of pressurised water which is about 130 thousand Sydney harbours and can reach up to 100 degrees celsius.  Rivers that flow into Lake Eyre are the Cooper Creek, the Gorgina/Diamanina systems, the Warburton, the Neils and the Mekumba river, all which feed and are fed by the GAB.  On the way out we went to Blanchet’s Cup and the Bubbler which are mound springs, a small hill with a little lake on top.  We then headed down to Kurdamuka which is one of the few existing railway sidings of the Ghan that still has all the facilities and has been well restored and is also home to the Kurdamurka Ball every year.  It also has the second largest railway bridge of the Ghan track, which we missed, we then drove past Lake Eyre South and down to Roxby via Andamooka.

Sunday 12/8 Roxby Downs

Roxby was a pretty nice place and we decided to spend a couple of nights here, we had checked out  Andamooka and had definitely decided against staying there. The campsite in Roxby was nice even though we ended up tenting on the lawned area outside the amenities block, paying ordinary price of course. Had some great coffee in town as well as a good meal, a lovely end to a wonderful month. Now back to Kimba.