WOW!!

So it was time to leave Alice Springs and, of course, the sun was shining. We drove out to the National Road Transport Hall of Fame. Also home to the Old Ghan Train Musuem. The road works at the turn off to the museum meant that the sign was missing and we missed the turn first time around, but we found it eventually.
We decided on the Ghan museuum first - probably a wise move as it turns out.
Sadly this is another tired museum with old dusty exhibits but there were a few interesting exhibits.

Michael paid the entry to this museum, $8.00 each so it was my turn to pay at the road museum - guess what - that was $12.00 each!

Now this was much better - a vibrant museum with active restoration projects as well as rooms showcasing different aspects of road transport or specific marques.

Unfortunately this mirror is not available in the gift shop - pity, it was a favourite for both of us.

After the indoor exhibits there was a huge area outside - with trucks in various stages of order and decay.

This is an extremely rare vehicle - an AEC road train from 1930s, there were only 4 made. The sets of trailers are steering and follow.

                              Altogether a great museum, a credit to the volunteer staff.

Then before we drove off we had lunch in the van and then headed south out of town along the Stuart Highway, towards the NT / SA border.

At 2.00pm we stopped for a cuppa at Finke River and were surprised to find some water in the river.
Then, feeling that it was a little too early to stop for the night, we continued on.

Not too much longer - at 2.57  to be precise - we hit the 50000kms milestone (should that be kilometrestone??) For anyone interested, CD is Triple J Hot 100 vol. 15, track 4 is On Call by Kings of Leon.

We pressed on until just after 4pm we reached Kulgera Roadhouse. Here we topped up the tank (thank goodness we didn't need a fill at 219c/l) and at $20 a powered site we checked into the caravan park at the back for the night.

It was a quiet night but a cold one, time to reach for the duvet again. Next morning we continued south crossing into South Australia, saying goodbye to these unique to the Northern Territory signs -

At the border there was no sign of any quarantine, not even a bin, until we arrived at Marla some kms south, and then it was only a notice and a bin - no officers.

As we approached Coober Pedy the landscape changed dramatically - resembling an old military camp, with the old conical tents!  What an amazing place.

We checked into a caravan park, as usual one in town within walking distance to most facilities. Then we settled in to enjoy 4 days in this amazing town.

And we booked another treat - a biggie - a flight over Lake Eyre!!
Lake Eyre with water in it - a rare treat!! It's only happened twice in the last 30years.
Tourism brochures older than a couple of years talk about 'walking out on to the Lake' at the moment you can't walk far before hitting water. Thanks to "La Nina"  there is water in the lake, the rain that falls in Queensland eventually flows into Lake Eyre, something that may not happen for another 10 years.

We booked on a flight on Saturday morning at 8.00am and tried to get a 'courtesy' car out to the airport, but they wanted to charge us $10 each, each way, out to the airport and back (about 5kms trip). So being averse to being ripped off we decided to pull in the awning, disconnect and drive out there ourselves.
So that's what we did, the alarm went off at 7.00am and we headed out to the airport. There were only 3 of us on the flight and our fellow passenger was out there waiting - and we had another "weird or what" moment - his surname was Mullaly!!

Anyway, Liam, our pilot was ready so we got on board, got settled, put on our headsets and we were off!!

The scenery from up there is amazing, astounding, I could go on but I'll let some of the photos speak...

We crossed the Davenport Range and THEN..... we got to Lake Eyre.......

The recent rain in Queensland is still flowing towards the lake, so it's still not as full as it can get.
Hence there is still a lot of salt on the lake and the algae in the lake is causing the most intense colour
                                                                          -  PINK.

                              This trip is definitely worth the expense. We'll never forget it.

Then we dropped into William Creek, to stretch our legs, grag a drink and oh! pay at the office.

The young girl, Caroline, that I'd booked through was there and I just had to ask her
"Where in Ireland are you from".
She came from Monaghan.
 and the second question was "Why are you working in William Creek?"
the answer to that was "I don't know but someone is going to pay!!"
It can't be too bad though because she's going back to Ireland soon, for a holiday, and then she'll be returning to William Creek. As she said, at least it's not Sydney, and it's not raining!!

We popped into the William Creek Hotel for a cold lemonade and spotted a familiar banner pinned to the wall. (The walls are covered with memorabilia, hats, cards, T-shirts etc.) This was a "Tracbar Dundee" banner from 2000. We had welcomed all the cars to Fremantle and helped some participants with the cars, hard to believe that it was 12 years ago.   So we added our card to the wall.
                                            (you can just make it out near bottom left of flag).

Then it was time to reboard and we took off, flying over Anna Creek Station (the largest station in the world).

We thought that Lake Eyre was spectacular - the Painted Hills astonished us!!
We have seen "The Painted Desert" in Arizona and they are tiny compared to the vast area the Painted Hills covers. This is worth a flight alone, let alone seeing Lake Eyre.

The hills are completely on Anna Creek Station and the station does not allow road access, so flying over is the only chance to see them. The station used to do 4WD tours but the damage done by the vehicles is really noticeable from the air. From up there you can really see all the other tracks across the terrain.

                          Then we landed back at Coober Pedy, very, very happy little vegemites!!

We drove back to the caravan park and set up in our old spot.
We enjoyed a little afternoon nap before walking into town for a pizza!

Coober Pedy is a strange little town and at the moment it's really, really quiet - there are hardly any tourists around.  Of the 20 or so shops in town, 80% are selling opals. I like opals, enjoy the variety of colours, some of which are stunning, but maybe it's being spoilt for choice but nothing has jumped out at me and said - "Buy me." (nothing under $1,000 that is).

We have an update on our 'lost rellie' search - the friend who we had done some searching for in Victoria and Tasmania, very kindly offered to do a quick search for us on 'ancestry.com' - can you believe that the very same cousin that we were hunting had posted a message - looking for relatives!!!
We got in touch by email and then by a further stranger twist when we got to Coober Pedy we got an email from another cousin. She lives in Alice Springs!!
What a bummer that we're 2 days drive, 400kms south of Alice Springs.
One day, somewhere, hopefully soon we ARE going to get together.

In the meantime, we have another day here in Coober Pedy before driving south to Woomera.
 Rockets, Space and Atomic Tests.....
           

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

Sunday was definitely a day of rest in Alice Springs - it was raining!
 We read and relaxed all day with the exception of the excitement of refitting the spare wheel under the van. It took the two of us but now we know how to do it we'll probably never have to do it again (fingers crossed). Although we are going to look at another way to carry the spare.

The rain settled in for the day and by 3pm we had our jumpers on, turns out today's maximum temp was a mere 18 degrees.  The forecast for Monday was much the same - would we see Ayers Rock in sunset or rain??  The answer later.

The alarm went off at 5.20am - that brought back memories of early shifts for both of us!!! ugh!!
 We were outside waiting, in the rain, for our 5.50am pickup - 6.05am the bus arrived. We did a tour of Alice Springs picking up passengers and then transferred to the big blue emu bus and were underway.

It's at least a 2 1/2 hour drive south to Erldunda and our first coffee and toilet stop, then another 2 1/2 hours to Yulara (Ayers Rock resort).

We stopped to look out to Mt Connor, once mistaken for Uluru, and were amazed by these 'procession caterpillar' sacs in the shrubs. (Apparently they should be avoided as they can cause a skin irritation).

On the way we had glimpses of both Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and Uluru (Ayers Rock).
We saw lots of interesting flora but the only fauna was a small herd (about 5) camels.

When we were planning this whole trip I thought that it would be rather special to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary at 'Sails in the Desert' resort at Ayers Rock. Well I made it!!!

We had a toilet stop at the resort and the glory days of this resort are over. At its' heyday it was charging over $900 a night - it was operated by 'Voyager' corporation. They sold out to the government and they have now sold it on to Accor group - the prices may not have dropped much but the resort has definitely seen better days. (I wondered why the toilet cubicle door wouldn't close - I had to pull it out at the top to get it to close. The reason was that the bottom right door post was crumbling away - there was a little pile of wood on the floor! The termites have moved in!!)

Anyway we were touring to see the rocks not the hotels so after a brief stop we went out to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)

                                       and we had a walk through Walpa Gorge.

                  Then we moved on to the main reason for our day trip - Uluru - The Rock.

We drove around the base, with our guides pointing out every feature, they were very informative.

        Then we stopped and went on a couple of walks to view caves, rock art and a waterfall.

The 'climb' was closed due to the rain. The Aboriginal owners do actually request that you don't climb on the rock but some folks do, but neither of us was actually considering it!

All too soon it was time to head to the 'sunset viewing area' so we had another quick toilet stop and headed out there. I enjoyed a glass of champagne..

          There was no sun, there hadn't been all day, but no rain either so no amazing photos!
           Apparently 90% of people do see spectacular sunsets - just our luck to be different.

The BBQ provided was very good - and the red wine, champagne or orange juice flowed freely and we all enjoyed the whole event.

                                                            The sun set at 6.28pm
 and within 10 minutes we were heading back along the highway to Erldunda and then Alice Springs.



We got back into Alice Springs around 11.30pm and had a night time tour around dropping passengers off at their hotels. There were a lot of people, adults and children, walking around the streets. We were dropped off just around midnight.
It was a really long day but we saw and learnt more than we ever would have if we'd just taken off by ourselves.
It started to rain as we got off the bus, and we went straight to bed.
Did I mention the toilet stops we had?
The next morning - which didn't start until after 9.00am - we were feeling energetic so we tackled a slice of tourism with a walk around Alice Springs.

The rain appears to have gone for a while at least, but the clouds are lingering and it's quite cool. Tomorrow we head south towards Coober Pedy in South Australia where I'm sure it will be warmer.
On our way out of town we'll visit a couple of museums and will overnight wherever we are, when it's time to stop.
I've managed to get rid of all the fresh fruit and veg - giving away the last 2 onions to a young family next to us here in the caravan park (they're heading north). South Australia has to protect its fruit industry by pretending to need quarantine. But supermarket trucks cross the country everyday (and the quality of SA fruit and veg isn't that good anyway!!!) The scenery is spectacular though.

Underground in Mt Isa and flat out on the Stuart Highway

More noise from the neighbours during the night but we prepared for this by running the a/c fan all night - this really did cut out any external noise. Next morning we were off to finish our sight seeing around Mt Isa. First stop was the lookout over the city (and mine).

Then we went to the Underground Hospital.
In 1942 Darwin Hospital was bombed by the Japanese, Mt Isa feared that they would be the next target so the Community, with help from the mine, built an underground hospital.
 In 1994 the local community decided to restore and showcase this underground hospital.

                                           Obviously waiting times were just as bad then!

A very interesting museum, at the time of its' use there were only about 30 patients in the town hospital and if a raid was imminent these were transferred to the underground site. Out patient clinics also operated from the underground site. No births or operations were performed at the underground site.

Then we filled with fuel (at Liberty  - at 152.9cents/litre less 4c a litre with discount voucher- we've used them all over Australia, with and without discount vouchers.).
Rumour has it that it's 240.6cents/litre out at Camooweal!

                        Then it was out into the outback and onto the Northern Territory.

The scenery out beyond Mt Isa makes the Nullarbor look interesting - ( incidentally we think the Nullarbor is interesting!) Unexpectedly we passed 2 cyclists plodding along - WHY!

We stopped at good rest areas for lunch and then again for afternoon tea but as it was around 30 degrees we were keen to press on to Barkly Homestead and plug in to power for the a/c.

We got to the Homestead at 5.45pm and were pleasantly surprised to find that local time was only 5.15! We set up and then went to the bar for a 'coldie' before returning to sit outside the the sunset.                                      

Absolutely beautiful.

We woke to see the sunrise the next morning - looked out of the window and then went back to sleep for an hour. When we did get up and go to the showers at 8.30am - we were the last van in the park!!

We opted not to fill up at 199.7cents/litre and drove on towards Tennant Creek, 165 kms away!
The van's trip computer calculated that the fuel range was 165kms, we were sure that it was reading a lot higher yesterday. After 10 minutes we checked the calculator again  -  range now 163kms,  hmm should make it. We should make it to Three Ways anyway, just 25kms before Tennant Creek.
A little further along the highway the fuel warning light came on - computer range said 151kms and
it's 140kms to Three Ways.
 Then the 'low fuel' warning beeper sounded!
We had 40kms to Three Ways, I thought that the beeper sounded when we had 5litres of fuel left so we were still going to be okay. We checked the 'range' on the computer and got --- (3 lines).
There was no conversation in the cab after it was decided that I was the one hitching to the road house to phone the RAC as we would need a mechanic to get the vehicle restarted!!
We made it to Three Ways!! We slowed and cruised over the Give Way sign, thankfully nothing coming as we didn't want to stop and risk stalling and restarting.
We took on 83.6 litres (fuel tank holds 90 litres). We then agreed that we will never ever do anything like that again - fancy us trusting a computer over common sense and all "outback rules".
We were so relieved that we celebrated with lunch at the roadhouse - burgers (and chips for MM).
We can recommend the burgers and obviously they have kiwis working in the kitchen as there was beetroot in the burger!
We then completed the day's run with the last 25kms south to Tennant Creek.
We did the usual 'recce' of the town and then booked in to the caravan park, with a discount. The pool looked inviting but as we sat out writing and reading the clouds came over and the breeze came in - it was just so nice lazing around.  The caravan park was cheap and cheerful but it was another night to run the fan all night to drown out the neighbourhood sounds, and the trucks from the 24hour fuel stop.
Next morning we were off south and the first stop was The Devil's Marbles.
                                                              Absolutely amazing!!!

We expected something like Murphys Haystacks in South Australia but these were individually smaller and there were many more of them, spread over a much larger area.

For future reference there is a camp ground here too.

Then we carried on through Wauchope ( a road house and a few houses), through Wycliffe Well
"UFO, capitol of Australia" - more sightings than anywhere else in Australia!!
Why?! well there isn't anything else out here!!!

Our lunch stop was a little rest area unfortunately with no shade, so after a quick break we continued on to a possible overnighter at Barrow Creek.
We were not enamoured of the roadhouse/pub/caravan park and the roadworks right outside was a real put off. But the old Telegraph Station next door was worth a look around.

We pressed on to the next option - the caravan park at the Ti Tree roadhouse.

It looked clean and quiet with 8 vans already setup so we filled with fuel (lesson learnt!) and checked out the price - $20.00 - SOLD.
We set up and then enjoyed the cooler evening air, chatting to neighbours from NSW and watching the peacocks parading around.

As we arrived in Ti Tree we had had a moments panic seeing signs to "Eat Fruit Now"  "Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone" but we realised that these are for people travelling at 130kph as they would be at the SA border in a couple of hours. We have about 5 days to eat the fruit and veg we are carrying.

After a good sleep, with just a bit of 'local' noise, we were showered, packed up and off.
We drove south through Aerilon (no explanation of how it got its name) towards Alice Springs.

Miles from anywhere - actually about 115 kms from Alice Springs we suddenly heard an ominous sound - either a helicopter has landed on the roof of the van or we have a flat tyre!!!!
We stopped and I got out - yep it's a flat tyre!!

It was about 10.30am, there's no mobile phone coverage and it's getting hotter.
We started to tackle the job ourselves but although Michael was able to lower the spare wheel (carried under the vehicle) he couldn't release it fully. After 3 attempts we went to plan B - flag down a passing motorist and ask him to call the RAC on our behalf (giving him our membership details etc.). Whilst we were waiting 3 people did stop and each one tried to release the wheel for us, scrambling under the back of the vehicle. One was a French tourist and he tried really hard - merci beaucoup monsieur!
Just after we'd had lunch a guy in a ute stopped to let us know that our message had got through and that someone was coming out to us.
 Then at 2.00pm  Outback Recovery pulled up - our saviour's name was Brad. It took him a while and some lateral thinking but he managed to release the spare wheel and then changed it for us.

(He had a rental camper on the tray of his recovery truck. It was rented by 2 girls from Melbourne, they had spent the night with us at Ti Tree, before they left home they had been told constantly not to let the vehicle run out of oil, so they had topped it up, putting in 10 litres!! They had broken down just after heading north from Ti Tree at 9.30am, misunderstanding the person on the phone they at first thought that the repair would cost $40,000 in shock they adjourned to the Ti Tree bar and asked if it was too early to get a drink, they were told 'not if you're buying it here' so they had a gin and tonic!! They were feeling very happy when we met them).

By 2.45pm we were rolling again, on our way to Alice Springs.

It was getting late in the afternoon, on a Friday, when we arrived in town and began our hunt for a tyre to replace our spare. In the whole of town there didn't seem to be one in stock - "we can get you one, it should be here in 10 days!"
We were forced to try a Bridgestone store - he had one! A Firestone - it was 4.30pm on a Friday, (they were not open on Saturday) - so we said yes and waited while they fitted it. We'll sort out getting it into the carrier under the van later, we're just happy to have a tyre.
We drove into the caravan park and it shows how tired I was, I didn't haggle for a discount.
We booked in for 2 nights and settled in to relax; the sites are a really decent size and as we unwound we looked over the tourist info and tours available.
For $199 we can get a full day tour down to Ayers Rock and the Olgas, including 3 meals, dinner being a BBQ overlooking the Rock at sunset.
We decided to go for it and do it on Monday - our 35th Wedding Anniversary.
We also decided on 5 nights in Alice Springs, a real holiday break.

Saturday we just totally relaxed, not even walking into town for a newspaper. I went to the office to book the tour and the extra nights - what chaos! the girl was obviously out of her depth booking sites.
The manager came to help and then it got really complicated when the couple who were booked to move onto our site on Monday (we were going to have to move for our extra nights) arrived early, insisting that they had phoned and changed the dates! I left the manager to sort it out and went back later. By then he'd placated the couple (found them a new site for their whole stay) and booked us on the tour, so I said in that case we don't have to move, we can stay in the same site - he said that he could do with me on his side of the desk, did I want a job as I obviously had a good grasp how things worked.?!!  All those years of shuffling patients' appointments has paid off!!  I declined the offer.

So we have another day just lazing around and then a full day as a tourist, Ayers Rock tour - we're being picked up at 5.50am and will get back at midnight, that's why we have another day to recover before we hit the road again.
Details on the day trip soon.