Pretty much home - final post of this road trip

 After a couple of huge days driving we arrived in Maleny on Wednesday evening to spend the last 5 nights of our trip hanging out at Dunk's folks house. It's quite luxurious having a bed, flushing toilet, showers, indoor facilities, not having to set up the tent and a washing machine. We already smell so much better. Pretty strange going back to wearing masks even tho we did get a brief taste of this in a couple of places in SA. Bracing for a lockdown in Brisbane. Will be some shock from travelling freely and with huge space and isolation to a very different small space and lockdown at home but fingers crossed we avoid that. 

Right I better explain how we ended up staying at Maleny, and how we went from Noccundra (which is almost 1200km from Brisbane) 3 nights ago to 150km from home last night!! The previous post updated you on Noccundra and then we drove the 130km to Thargomindah and made the decision to met up with Dunk's family in Mitchell, which was a 600km drive via Cunnamulla and Charleville.  A huge day driving especially as we didn't leave Thargomindah until 11.30. Stopped briefly at Cunnamulla for a very quick lunch of pies and chocolate milk. Lovely drive and we did reconsider our decision as we passed the entrances to Currawinya, but really we didn't have the energy to do it justice and the weather threat was just too great especially as the skies were very threatening. Saw heaps of emus on the road to Charleville and there's a really nice looking camping spot at Wyandra if anyone is ever going that way. Charleville looked so much better and greener than the last few times we have been there in the last 3 years. It was green even! From there straight onto Mitchell which we reached at sundown with ominous drops of water, heavy skies, rumbling thunder and lightning. We did briefly stop at a little bridge before Morven to go back and take a tortoise off the middle of the road and save the poor little bugger from the road trains. He literally missed a squashing by 40 seconds. Hopefully he went under the bridge next time. Was great catching up with Dunk's family until a big storm came in and a deluge followed. The shovel was out digging trenches around some of the tents and it's the only storm we have ever been in with that tent, where the water splashed up under the fly so much. Still everyone managed to keep bedding  and clothes dry. Next day was a very wet packup in between showers. Headed off around 9 with showers all the way to Chinchilla. There is a great little park there so stopped for lunch then took the scenic non highway route to Maleny via Yarraman and skirting around the north of the Bunya mountains. Arrived in around 5.30 after a very long day in the car, the kids were so good but I think we need to stay out of the car for awhile now (it also stinks to high hell so noone wants to be in for long!).

Today we took a trip over to Marycairn Cross reserve which is a rainforest area overlooking the Glasshouse mountains. Always a special place, it was amazing to be back in such a damp, humid, dark, green, full of life place. Saw pademelons (small wallaby type marsupial) all over the place, gigantic fig trees, a noisy pitta (a very colourful, reclusive bird), catbirds, whipbirds, robins, fantails, etc but no snakes. The plan for the next few days is more chilling out, coffees, maybe a trip to the beach and more rainforest around here, eating fresh veg and fruit straight from the garden (if ever proof was needed that absence makes the heart fonder then the kids delight at fresh fruit and veg is it!!) and hiding out from the big storms passing thru. We had some small hail today so have now put the ute in the shed cos we really don't want hail dings and there is a gigantic hail warning out (BOM actually issued this warning for a vast part of SE QLD this afternoon).

So that's pretty much it for this road trip. We've covered nearly 21000kms (or will have by the time we get home). This week alone was an epic distance where we drove 460km from Grindell's hut in Vulkathunha-Gammons NP in SA to Innamincka on unsealed roads, then Monday was a meer 300km to Noccundra in QLD, Tuesday 750km to Mitchell, then Wednesday 600km to Maleny (so over 2000km in 4 days). We left the West Coast (at Carnarvon) on Wednesday 8 Sept and 5000kms, 20 days later on Tues 21st Sept reached Grindell's hut campground, about 4000km of that on unsealed roads including the Great Central Highway, Oodnadatta and Strezlecki Tracks with visits to Kennedy Ranges, Mt Augustus, Lake Ballard, Uluru-Katajuta, Painted desert and northern Flinders Ranges plus passing thru the Strzelecki, Great Victoria and Gibson deserts just to name a few. Other highlights prior to that have been Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range, Karijini, Milstream Chicester, Cape Leveque and Pender Bay, Mornington and Charnely on the Gibb River Road, Purnululu, Keep River, Kakadu, Darwin, Limmen, Lorella Springs and Lawn Hill. We've passed thru 4 states  (QLD, NT, WA and SA) dodging before, between and after Covid lockdowns and border restrictions. We only spent 9 days in SA but it's a real standout for us, 46 days in WA which was just an incredible adventure of gorges, spinifex, beaches, swimming and packed campgrounds, 24 days in the NT which was a food delight and mini holiday with Bonnie & Dan in Darwin plus wilderness and massive scenery on a scale that has to be seen to believed and then first and last a wrap with QLD with the amazing Lawn Hill and then just epic outback pub and scenery to bring us home to comfort, great food and peace at Maleny. We will have been away from home 100 nights, 89 of those in the trusty tent and ONLY one night of rain with a brief storm at Uluru which barely wet the tent. The tent is still usable, we didn't break any poles despite carrying a full spare set thou we have had zip problems to work around and on the second last night got a puncture from a bullhead which has holed the tent and one of the sleeping mats. No car troubles aside from the poxy roof rack AND no punctures yet which is pretty incredible considering we expected many and carried 2 spare tyres. Saying that the car is well overdue a service and we did change the air filter half ways thru plus it stinks and is filthy inside and out. Might take me a week to clean it I think! 

We've had an incredible adventure together as a family, explored the most beautiful, wild and amazing places, managed to eat well, avoid illness and any serious injury (spinifex and bullhead spikes aside!), done huge drives, read lots of books, played heaps of card games, been too hot (kakadu!), too cold (hancock gorge), hungry (every 2 hours), smelly, sweaty, gone without showers and washing machines for too many days to admit, hiked all over the place, and by the time we finished are a super efficient team at setting up and down our camping space, able to get the kids to help decide routes and destinations and be much more capable little people. We've learnt lots about rocks, flowers, birds, trees, etc, seen incredible skies and shooting stars, took a ridiculous number of photos, fill in border passes and navigate back roads wherever we went.

Would we change anything? we chatted about this on the long way home and aside from a couple of awful campsites, the roof rack, more drop scones (these are so versatile from stew mop to remote birthday cinnamon, sugar treat) and better hiking socks we decided that we were very happy and content with what we did, what we experienced, our gear (or lackof since folks in a tent are probably only about 5% of the travellers on the road), where we explored and also what we didn't do. We discovered that often for us, the experience of wild, remote and isolated was often much better then the bigger bucket list, packed places.

It's strange to finish as time has flown by but we're also ready to finish as it's hard work being on the road all the time, constantly looking for a place to stay, where to find water, food, good campsites, juggle costs, etc. We feel very privileged and lucky to have been able to do this trip together especially with the current border issues and restrictions and it's something we'll treasure for a long time. 

That's it for now. We're already half planning trips back to Lorella Springs, Darwin and Litchfield, Flinders Ranges, Currawinya, and more!! Thanks for reading along!

Noccundra

Spent our first night back on Qld camping on the creek near the Noccundra hotel. Thanks for the recommendation Paula S!! Spotless clean and quiet plus hot showers and toilets near the hotel all for free. Mind you we spent all our dollar bucks on dinner and beers in the pub instead! Very friendly couple running the place on their own, some great characters traveling thru there so very entertaining evening.. Basic food but heaps better then what's left in our food larder by now!! Beautiful sunrise from the tent this morning and we also found some more burrowing native bees which are intriguing. Not the best sleep thou as a couple with 6 month old twins were camped near us and one of the kids was screaming half the night. Poor kid was wide eyed and wired with exhaustion when we left the pub at 7.30 so not surprising. Hope they packed up and went home today rather then continue such a difficult road trip with such small kids. 

Drove to Thargomindah after packup and showed our border passes to the local policeman who does the rounds of the huge locality every day checking everyone is doing the right thing. Some very sparse lands to start with but got better as we got near town with heaps of flowering wattles and bloodwoods.

Thargomindah looked much bigger today then this time last year when we spent a night there after escaping the mud in Currawinya. Amazing how perspective changes. Cunnamulla felt huge a couple of hours later!

Sat in the park for an hour figuring out options for the next few days. The forecast for East and South of us is hot with possible severe storms and 90% chance of more then 5mm rain. Last year we got stuck in the mud/clay in Currawinya for a few days after a similar amount of rain so didn't really have the appetite to face that again. Plus we'd have to stock up on a week of food and risk being unable to drive out for a week which wouldn't be the best start back to work and school. Also thought about heading further north but that would add another 600-1000km to the trip and we're running out of steam after doing nearly 20000km over the last 3 months. Also thought about into Girraween or Mt Moffat but it's school holidays and a long weekend so everything within 6 his of Brisbane is fully booked out. We finally decided to call it a day and head for home .... Well kind of. We're going to intersect with dunks folks at Mitchell tonight, get their house key and stay at their house in Maleny for the last few days. Bit of a luxurious, gentle break in to busy East coast life again. 

So we're currently driving the 600km to Mitchell then camping with dunks family at Mitchell and driving 700km to Maleny tomorrow. But as anyone who has read any of our plans to now knows, by this time tomorrow that could have all changed again ha ha. 

Seen heaps of emu and lizards today plus good to be back in big tree land. Outback QLD is very beautiful, big black clouds fading behind us and blue skies ahead. 

PS we FINALLY saw a herd of camels today. We've driven thru 1000s of KMs of camel friendly desert and saw one dead one and today we saw about 30 in a group. Phew ice cream bet off!!

Strzelecki track

We left Vulkathunha-Gammons National Park on a beautiful morning with fantastic views. Drove it to Balcanoona and then headed 150km north to Mt hopeless intersection with the Strzelecki track. Road runs parallel to the Flinders ranges for quite awhile so very scenic drive. Road was tough thou with corrugations and horrible rocky sections so slow going. Had morning break at the intersection of one of the oil pipeline maintenance roads. The pipeline runs 800km from innamincka to Adelaide. The landscape was very flat, dry and barren North of where the ranges flattened out. Just red rock gibber country for miles and miles. 

The Strzelecki runs between Innamincka and Lyndhurst and we joined it about half way heading north. Just after the junction the desert (Strzelecki) changes to white sand which is clumped around nitris bushes so makes this crazy looking dimpled bumpy vista. Stopped at Monticellino bore for lunch which was white, sandy and exposed. Road much busier with mostly tourists and in really good condition so didn't need to be in 4wd mode even. Plenty water holes around too and saw a few emus. 

We had planned to do the Merty Merty track to Cameron's corner but it was closed due to covid which really annoyed us as there is nothing about this online. Instead had to continue north to Innamincka which was not really that different really just more people. Huge gas/oil processing plant at Moomba. The desert charged to red sand dunes as well so very beautiful and before Innamincka it changed back to gibber (small rocks rather then sand and very very sparse). 

Innamincka is tiny historic town on the Cooper creek with a pub, fuel and shop. Camped at the town commons (if your thinking lush green grass and mowed order and strawberry mimosas you'd be very wrong!!) which was pleasant, clean with shady trees and no toilet paper. Some people think that if the bear shits in the desert, wipes with toilet paper and let's it there it'll be magically cleaned up without a sound. Lazy bear is very wrong especially when there are spotless clean toilets and showers within 200m. 

The pub is an iconic Aussie destination so for our last night in SA we felt obliged to drink some beers and eat some very good burgers and steak sandwiches. 

Today we've crossed the border on the road to Thargomindah (thou might spend the night at another iconic outback pub called the Noccundra). Before we left Innamincka, checked out the really good visitor Centre which used to be the old nurses hospital. They were some tough women! For a fascinating history, look up Australia Inland Missions and John Flynn who set up the Royal Flying Doctors. Also visited and read some of the history of Burke and Wills ill fated expedition which albeit a success in that they were the first to traverse Australia from South to North, was a woeful story of poor leadership, stupidity, desperate timing and ultimately death by starvation which only one man survived. That fella was King and he actually lived with the local Aboriginals for 77 days until he was " rescued". Also worth reading more about on de internet.

The road is now sealed (Dunk is soooo disappointed) all the way to Thargomindah but still really interesting. Gas and oil drills everywhere but very scenic intermix of red sand dunes, gibber and Cooper creek flood plain country (massive areas flood). It's even green cos it rained here about 3 weeks ago. Well they got 20mm! 

No idea what we're going to do on the way home. Storms and hot weather forecast which might close some roads so we'll have to play it by ear.

Vulkathunha-Gammons National Park

This national park is situated in the northern Flinders ranges and we'd never even heard of it till about a week ago when we decided to head into South Australia. We knew that it has some camping and hikes but not a lot more as we didn't have time to figure it out. We had heard of Arkaroola Wildlife Sanctuary so had some notion it would be interesting. Decided to camp in the national park for a couple of nights then move to Arkaroola. 

Stocked up at Leigh creek which is a purpose built town that was moved out of an area that being mined. It's a bit strange cos Copley is literally 5kms away so not sure why they didn't just upgrade that place. Copley has a great little cafe that sells really good quandong (native bush plum) pies and sausage rolls. 

The drive in from Copley to Balcanoona was really interesting as the landscape changed from flat desert scape to much more undulating and then steeper and steeper hills and mountains with plateaus and gorges in between. Huge vistas again and loads of very very large river gums. Camped at Grindels Hut campground which is accessed via a single lane 4wd track which was in good condition but very slow as it was very twisty, steep, narrow and plenty rocks to avoid. The campground is set in the Wortupo pound valley and is very beautiful, nestled down under some gigantic gum trees on the creek. No-one around so we had the choice of places to camp. Fantastic! There's also a 2 bed little hiking hut and a much nicer, more recently built stone walled cottage that you can stay at. Both have immense views. We met the couple staying at the cottage and they gave us some fire wood which was really great as we didn't have room to bring any with us. 

Was very cold the first couple of nights so we even had the thermals on plus all our jackets. It's really dry here thou and someone said that it hasn't rained here properly in 5 years. There are many areas with whole hillsides of dead mulga, coolibahs and pines. We don't know if this is a climate change or just the way things work in here. 

First day we walked down the Weetootla creek and gorge which has a heap of geological and mining information and very scenic. We saw some yellow footed rock wallabies which are endangered plus an emu with his 7 chicks foraging down the creek. We've since seen the same family 3-4 times around the creek and campground. The wallabies are just the prettiest macropod ever, such a beautiful creature and unbelievably agile. It literally bounces around the steep and craggy slopes and mountains.. There are also wild goats which can't be doing anything good for the area. Very sparse amounts of water along the creek. Joined up to the Monarch Mine trail on the way back which passes the Weetootla spring. This was a brilliant walk up and around the ridges looking down over huge views. The hills vary in colour from yellow (magnesite), red, brown and even occasional black bits. There are also heaps of flowering wattles but very sparse vegetation in between creeks really. 

Combined the 2 walks were nearly 16km so next day was an easier one where we just went back down a bit of the creek. Me and dunk climbed up the hill behind the campground for expansive 360 views. Incredible. The SA walking and trail system is really fantastic and it seems like a lot of it is volunteer run. There are markers every 200m telling you exactly how far you've gone and got to go, plus local information signs and paper brochures with very comprehensive information. We didn't bother moving camp that evening as it's such a great location.

Next day we decided we'd better head up to Arkaroola to get some internet to do QLD border passes. Reckoned we couldn't get a better campsite so just booked in another couple of nights at the national park which proved wise as it's much nicer camping then in the village. Arkaroola is set up like a kind of mini alpine chalet with a series of huts/motel style accommodation plus a very bleak looking caravan park. The bar is lovely thou, and they are super helpful. It's also set in a beautiful location so hopefully we'll get back and stay some time in the future but I wouldn't camp here. Did the Mawson-Spriggina hike which was 8kms and very interesting. Hotter day so ice-cream and coffees in the bar were very welcome. From there drove down to the Balcanoona Rangers station where got some very welcome showers and enough water to wash a few clothes. Water is very much at premium out here so laundry is becoming an issue. Oh oh!!

Dunk found a walk description of Bunyip Chasm which is very near the campsite so set off for that on Saturday morning. Quite a cool morning so perfect for hiking. Followed the creek up into some hills which narrowed into a gorge of red walls and beautiful old gum trees. Fascinating and the chasm was very spectacular but we couldn't get into the upper bit safely so decided to park that for another day. 

In summary, this is a hikers Mecca with loads of formed tracks and over night options plus also heaps of options and potential for exploring. Could easily chew up a week using national park campgrounds and Arkaroola as bases plus it's pretty near the much better known Wilpena pound in the Southern Flinders (which is what we thought of as the Flinders up until now!!). Plenty options for tours and scenic flights as well from Arkaroola and seem to be very well priced compared to most places we have seen. Can't wait to plan our next trip down here!!!

PS I should mention that the flies were pretty annoying on the hotter days so saw plenty people with those fly hats that look even more annoying then the flies!!

Getting closer to QLD

We're staying at Grindels hut campground which is a remote campground in the northern Flinders. It's amazingly remote, isolated, scenic but so so so dry and drought impacted. And the flies are insane. Drove to Arkaroola today to do a hike and get internet access so we could fill in border passes. Plan is to grad for the Strzelecki track at Mt hopeless then cross the border most likely at Cameron's corner in the next couple of days then onto Noccundra or Thargomindah and then maybe Currawinya. Happy out even if at the more extreme side of smelly and dusty. 

 

Oh have seen heaps of yellow footed Wallabies. Soooo cute!! And emu dads and their chicks (the mums dont help at all, just lay the eggs and bugger off!). 

Heading towards Arkaroola

Plan for the next few days is two nights in Vulkathunha-Gammons National Park then to Arkaroola for a few days. From there join the strezlecki and head to either Innamincka or Cameron's corner to get into QLD. 

Limited internet and phone out here. 

Painted Desert and Oodnadatta track

Drove South into South Australia as far as Cadney Park then headed onto the Painted Desert road. Was getting late in the day so the colours of the desert were beautiful. Totally different to the deserts we've seen across the GCH, with very little vegetation and a lot of little red rocks plus hills of varying hues from light cream, yellow, rust and dark brown which is where the desert gets its name. Arckaringa station has basic camping but good showers and toilets and HUGE night skies. Has a chat around the camp fire with the other group staying there who we had met at Ayers Rock resort so that was fun. Also met the station owner who was a really friendly bloke. They run a massive half a million acres with about one animal per 250 acres. It's all certified organic as well cos the cattle eat the native grasses (few and far between), and don't need treatments for ticks or worms etc as I presume it's just so spread out. The vastness and scale are truly mind boggling. Huge 660km covered in one day so we slept soundly that night.

Next day headed for a quick walk to see the painted hills up close. It's really spectacular but so stark and harsh at the same time. Drove onto Oodnadatta and stopped at the pink Roadhouse which is well and truly the best road house we have seen. We even got good bread. If I harp on about bread it's cos it's really difficult to get anything that has any fibre as most of the bread is mighty whitey shitey super soft ugh in the farther out places. The road was freshly graded all the way from Cadney Park so really easy driving too. 

The Oodnadatta track follows the Old Ghan railway line which was decommissioned in 1986 and replaced by the rail line that follows along the Stuart Highway. As you drive along, you can see the old line plus many of the old bridges and supporting buildings remain. Oodnadatta and William creek are the only surviving 'towns'. There are also the old telegraph line remnants as well. We stopped at Algebuckina bridge which is still one of SA's longest single span bridges. Continued as far as Edward creek where we camped next to another bridge. Still has many of the old sleepers and the railway embankments all the way which are still very intact. They only get 150mm of rain a year on average so no water erosion. Was a beautiful quiet place to camp with plenty gum trees under the bridge and along the sandy dry creek.

Next morning a gale started up pretty suddenly around 5am. Made breakfast and camp pull down pretty hard work. Even with 4 of us pulling the tent down, it nearly flew off. It was also cold!! Kids called the campsite In The Spikes as it was covered in bull heads (evil wooden spikes about half a cm in size, capable of penetrating flip flops, feet, tent floor and mattresses!). 

Made it to William creek which has a population of 6 except when lake Eyre floods and then it's inundated with tourists. Stopped to look at the rocket remains and old historical artifacts in the park. The pub looks great as well, would be a cool place to spend the night. 

We drove past some amazing sand dunes and dry lakes then stopped at Strangeways which has the historical ruins of a station and old telegraph line. It's situated on a heap of mound Springs which have now mostly dried up but there's a couple that still trickle and have some very unique plant and animal life. Aptly named it's an eerie, barren place that looks like it's been destroyed by stock and humans over the last century. Huge views out over the red gibber desert were amazing. Had an Irish picnic style lunch hunkered in behind the car sheltering from the howling winds. 

We then went onto to see the Mound Springs at a little national Park south of Coward Springs which looked like a good place to camp. There are two mound springs which are situated in such a stark, surreal location surrounded by salt pans and off in the distance, shimmering mountains in the mirages. A mound spring is a spring fed from the Great Artesian Basin (which sits under a vast area of QLD, SA, NSW and NT. Worth a Google). Around the spring, materials build up over time (think 1000s of years) to form a mound out of which the spring flows and provides water for plant, animal and human alike. It's quite saline so very unique plants grow here. Both the Bubbler and Blanche Cup have only a trickle of water now compared to pre European settlement which opened up thousands of bores on the Great Artesian Basin reducing the water pressure. 

Next stop was a view point over looking Lake Eyre South which joins up to its bigger part Lake Eyre North - Australia's largest salt lake. It's an immense view over the stark white landscape contrasting with the red, bare desert scape. Then stopped briefly at a sculpture Park made by some local at Albertine creek out of old scrap metal. An interesting break from the bleak desert. 

Reached Maree about 4.30 passing Anna creek station which is the world's largest pastoral station! The roads were more corrugated from Williams creek but still in very good condition. Very beautiful, stark and striking drive, conditions way better then we expected and probably achievable in a high clearance 2wd. 

Had a couple of birthdays to celebrate so decided to have dinner at the hotel which is a Victorian style building built in 1883 and just full of character. They have free camping out the back so set about setting up the tent. It was still blowing a gale so parked the car as a wind shield. After 15 minutes we managed to get the base pegged down but when it came to standing the poles up, realised we possibly could but risked snapping them so we decided it wasn't an option. Having camped 80 out of the last 87 nights this wasn't a decision made out of laziness but from the fact this was the windiest conditions we had ever (well maybe apart from a few nights in a hiking tent in South America's Andes many moons ago) attempted to set up in. Back into the hotel they had a cabin available so we had to sleep in proper beds after a great feed at the pub plus fresh Coopers pale ale on tap. The silver lining to a failed tent setup!!

Where to next??

Originally we had planned to head to Kings canyon and then onto the Western McDonnell ranges before heading into Alice Springs and then across the plenty Highway to boulia in Qld. 

BUT there was a wildfire went thru our near kings canyon in Thursday so it was evacuated and road closed so we had to sit down and stay thinking about alternative options. 

Thought about going back around the Owen Springs reserve and looping back to Western McDonnell ranges via Owen Springs and continue as planned. Also decided to take a look south and see if we could get back to QLD that way. Turns out there are some really interesting things like the Oodnadatta track which you can link to Strzelecki track and come back in to QLD via Cameron's corner or Innamincka. We could also add a loop down to Arakaroola which has a wildlife sanctuary and a national park with an unprounceable and unspellable name. We also would pass South of lake Eyre AND it would be 1000km less traveling then the original route (so 3000km vs 4000km). So we frantically applied for South Australia covid border passes late yesterday, got approval and then last night made a decision to do the South Australia option as it looks like great fun and adventure. 

Ironically this morning we found out the thunderstorms and rain must have put out the fires at Kings canyon and the road reopens tomorrow so we could have actually stuck to the original plan but the new plan looks awesome. Fingers crossed no-one in SA gets delta variant but too late for that now as we just crossed the border to South Australia. Wahoo!! Pretty boring crossing mind you with no cool sign to take a photo of. There have been thousands and thousands of budgies flying around us on the Stuart highway which is a bit crazy. We might have budgie kebabs for dinner freshly fried on the bull bar the way they are flying so close!!

Tonight we have just decided to stay at Arckaringa station in the painted desert (which we only heard about a day ago cos we have literally only just considered SA as an option) so we miss the first 200km of the Oodnadatta but tomorrow rejoin it. From there Arakaroola then Strzelecki and Cameron's corner then QLD!! 

Not sure how much we'll be posting so don't be worried if we're quiet we're just heading home the interesting way!!

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

Spent 3 nights, 2 days here exploring these geological wonders. First day we decided to do the Uluru base walk which took us about 3.5 hrs and it was about 35+ when we finished. It's a truly amazing piece of rock which holds a lot of significance culturally for the Aboriginals as well. There are many scared sites plus caves and overhangs that used to be areas used as kitchens, shelter and teaching. The Rock itself changes complexion with the light and weather plus has many details which you only see when you walk around. There are tiered waterfalls, honeycomb sections eroded by the wind, natural lines and ridges which all add to the beauty and character. There were still a few waterholes so these were thronged with 1000s of zebra finches and 100s of budgies risking life to get a drop of water whilst the kites and hawks hovered overhead waiting to pounce and snatch. Finished the walk red, hot and sweaty so spent to afternoon with the kids in the pool and washing clothes. 

Didn't cool down much that night so very unpleasant for sleeping. Couple of showers but was so dry and hot that they literally evaporated straight away off the tent  Some dumb ass locals also tried to steal from our fridge which was next to the tent so we heard them and dunk got up and scared them off. They also had stolen a few icy blocks from the camp kitchen but dropped them. An interesting way to meet your fellow campers who helped us trying to make sure they had buggered off. Shortly after that we had a thunder storm which woke everyone and a few mm of rain and a bit of gusty stuff but no damage. 

Pretty exciting to be in the desert when it rains so drove out and around the rock in time to see a few small waterfalls and the totally changed complexion of the rock resulting from a bit of water. It changes so fast thou that within a couple of hours it was all blue skies and dried out again. The kids loved the local art so went back to the gallery for them to get some small pieces. The bigger ones which are very striking cost anywhere from $15-20000!! I think I need to get a job before splashing out on that. All the paintings are done right there and proceeds going back into the local community thou and didn't have a made in XYZ (not Australia) sticker on it. 

Onto Kata Tjuta then for a later then expected start to the valley of wind walk. This is a 7.5km walk thru the domes, gorges and valleys of Kata Tjuta and is incredible. It's closed by 11am thou if the temp goes above 35. It was a much cooler more pleasant day thou and we completed the hike in about 2 hours. It's a really fun, spectacular walk as you wind in and around the domes then out the other side. Saw a big perentie lizard and some beautiful Variegated fairy wrens which are just tiny and so gregarious. Also heaps of zebra finches but they are now so common we don't even look at them anymore!! Think this walk is probably even more specy then Uluru and we really enjoyed it. Forgot to bring lunch in our hurry to see the wet rock so had to have cake instead! Did walpa gorge as well which is very steep sided but kind of under whelming compared to the other stuff we had seen. 

Brilliant showing the kids this area and they really enjoyed it. So glad we spent a few days here. Everyone should and there's accommodation for all budgets at the resort. Also brought back some great memories of the few days we had spent here with Dunks folks in 2005 (we'd just done a 24 hr rogaine with friend Matt so I suspect we ate their fridge and food supplies out!).

 

Also the backpacking trip in Bob the beer Monster (a reliably unreliable yellow Ford Falcon station wagon which we coerced around Oz) which conked out in the forecourt of the servo. Cheers to the wonderful times Trish, Tara, Declan and Karen (RIP legend). As Dunk said he was glad he didn't have to camp near any of our former selves!!

Also wonderful to see the desert transformed by a bit of water. It was truly beautiful yesterday.

Great Central Highway

From Lake Ballard we continued to Menzies which was well kept but pretty much closed up as nothing seemed to open on Monday. We did score a loaf of bread albeit super white which has zero fibre and feels like eating something sweet and gloopy but made a change from wraps. There were heaps of trucks passing thru carrying explosives to the mines further north. Drove North to Lenora and Laverton which are both mining and Aboriginal communities so pretty tough, rough and mean looking places. Not helped by the surrounding country side being completely decimated by mining. We briefly thought about staying at Laverton as it was getting late but looked very unappealing. Instead drove out the first 50km of the GCH (great Central Highway) to Giles breakaway where we camped overlooking the scenic breakaway and had the place to ourselves. It was a bitterly, cold windy night just above zero so didn't take long to move on the next morning. The road has been freshly sealed to this point. 

The GCH is known as the longest shortcut in Australia and it runs 1131km straight across the Great Victorian and Gibson deserts from WA into Yulara in the NT. There are a few Aboriginal communities on the road but they are closed due to covid concerns at the moment which is understandable. 

The road was in great condition. The first day we did 650kms in about 7hrs with many sections as good as bitumen, some sealed sections and just a few bits with corrugations. Didn't stop much as our permit only allowed us 30m off the road (another covid rule). The scenery was quite varied and improved as we went further East. So many colours, flowers, sand dunes and trees! Camped at an Aboriginal provided free camp at a lovely quiet mesa just 50km before Warakuna. Once again had the place to ourselves. Beautiful night sky despite a bright moon and saw a huge shooting star. Very spectacular. Not so cold either and no breeze so more pleasant night for sitting around on our last night in WA. 

The GCH is infamous for abandoned cars. Allegedly there are over 350. We even saw one just parked on the right hand side 'Lane'. Doors opened, rocks under the axles and tires removed! We saw a few locals drive past in some very thrashed looking vehicles so I'm sure there'll be more on that total soon! We didn't see very many other cars at all, maybe one caravan, a couple of folks towing trailers, a few road trains and graders and 1 Subaru (there's always a Subaru out bush!) so really isolated. 

Next day continued to the border with the scenery improving all the way. Many spectacular and beautiful ranges. Beautiful white river and ghost gums too added to the amazing desert scenery. Passed the start of the Gunbarrel hwy, Sandy Blight junction road and Ann Beadell road all the result of the endeavours of Len Beadell in the 60s. We'll have to come back another time for those thou. Across the border (no checks on passes either way), passed Docker river settlement and then the road deteriorated considerably with about 100km of sandy, potholed corrugations intermixed with 150km of freshly sealed bitumen which brings you into Yulara (of the famous Ayers Rock aka Uluru). Stopped at Lasseters cave where he spent his last few days dying of thirst and starvation back at the turn of the 20th century. He was an infamous gold explorer who claimed to have found a huge reef of gold but then couldn't find it again. Many have since tried and failed (himself included) to find the elusive reef. 

The scenery was just amazing on the route especially around the border and on the NT side. We were particularly blown away by the flora. So many flowers on show with plenty grevilleas and desert oaks stealing the limelight. Countless spinifex clad sand dunes, flashes of flocks of budgies, lizards everywhere but we didn't see one camel much to the dismay of the kids as we made a deal to have icecreams when we saw one. Not sure the dead one or the fake one at Ayers Rock resort counts. 

Towards the end we got views of Kata Tjuta (aka Olgas) and then Uluru (Ayers Rock) which are just simply mind blowing. Booked into the Ayers Rock resort on a nice grassy campsite with good facilities (and they'd want to be considering the price!!). Was very good to get a shower and cleanup after so many days and nights out bush.. Think everyone else near us was happy too!

Great journey, highly recommend and don't need fancy 4WD gear to tackle this. I'm sure it'll be all sealed in another few years. Progress?

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Lake Ballard

Arrived in here mid morning and just what a place to behold. It's a really large salt lake that occasionally floods and it's dotted with little islands. Allegedly there's a bird called a pied stilt that breeds here in huge numbers when it does flood which is only about 20 times in the last 200 years so it's a bit of a mystery what the bird does in between. 

The reason we visited was cos of the John Gormley art installation which consists of 51 sculptures made from a mix of stainless steel and the local materials from the lake so the sculptures take on the colour of the surrounding rocks. Each sculpture is a representation of a local indigenous person who was scanned as part of the process. The sculptures are a kind of dark brown/rust and the salt lake is mostly white surface as it's dry at the moment so they stand out for miles. Each sculpture is placed about 500m away from the next one and you can walk between them. When we arrived we could see heaps and the mirages made some of them look like they were floating. We walked way out onto the lake but on the way back you couldn't see the sculptures till you got right up to them as they blended in with the shore colours. The kids were fascinated ... And also by the spiders living on the lake surface which built almost plastic looking webs. Intriguing place well worth a visit. You can also camp there and it's a really nice, free camp ground with beautiful old trees (can't remember what type!) set amongst the red sand dunes. Very special place.

Arrived in Uluru

Arrived in Uluru today after some epic driving and scenery over the last few days in the great Central Highway. Will update the blog with details over the next few days but we smell infinitely better tonight and tomorrow we might even have clean clothes!

In the sticks

On Sunday we left Karalundi with a vague plan to head to meekatharra then South East to sandstone and then onto lake Ballard which is near Menzies. On the main highway had to pull in a few times to let massive wide load road trains pass us. They were carrying the biggest mine buckets/shovels probably about 25m wide, 20m high so took over the whole road. Cant even imagine the size of the machinery needed to operate one of these things. 

Once again the road was in super condition with no corrugations at all. Stopped at balangi Rick for morning tea which was a billion year old cone left over from a meteorite impact. Drive out to lake Mason homestead and station which has been acquired by national parks as the pastoral lease was unviable. It was cold enough for jackets plus we when got a few drops of rain. Saw some very pretty Wallabies but have no idea what they were. Could camp out there and there was only one other car out there. 

Drive onto sandstone which wins the prettiest village/town we have been to in our trip so far I think. Really well kept and beautiful old sandstone buildings. The pub looked very tempting but being only 1pm we went to the tea shop instead. What a find that place was. Best carrot cake and Apple sponge on a cool, blustery showery afternoon. Defo pop in here if your ever nearby. The local history is interesting as well and we saw the brewery in the sandstone cliff (an Irishmans solution to cold beer in the outback, the archway at London bridge and the state battery which ran till 1982. 

From there we headed further south east on the quietest road we have been on all trip. Lake Ballard was 250km from sandstone so by 5.30 it was still 70km. We decided to pull into a little cleared area in the bush for the night and it was fantastic. There was 3 cars and a fuel truck have passed us since we left sandstone so the quietest night sleep of the trip. Had a little fire as it was pretty cold (like sub 10!!) But the moon contrived to hide the Milky way. Ahhh well can't have everything the way you want it!! The kids loved the randomness and adventure of the day which is good cos we've plenty driving days like this ahead for the next 3 weeks. 

So now we're still heading to lake Ballard then onto Menzies and Laverton and then the great Central Highway for another random camp site tonight. 

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Mt Augustus National Park

Depending on what you read or who you talk to this is the world's largest or second largest Rock/monocline/isoberg (claims of twice the size of Uluru). We're slightly dubious thou as the national Park brochure makes no such claim.

Whatever the truth is a pretty large mountain/Rock at 1105m and very striking sitting in the middle of nowhere with pretty much nothing around for 350km in every direction except for the station and attached tourist Park. Well run Park and having grass under the tent again was super. Great views of the mountain and I was talking to the woman who runs the place and she said she's never seen it so green and that we've visited at a highly unusual time. I can't remember if I mentioned already but the wild flowers on the way were just incredible with carpets of pink and yellow. So amazing and extra good this year as they had good winter rains. 

The summit climb is the aspiration of most visitors to the park. There are warning signs everywhere about the danger of this climb and risk of dying from exposure, heat stroke, dehydration, etc and to carry 4 lies of water per person so we were a little bit wary. Asked a group of army reserves who has done it for it was and they were like oh it's very tough and dunno if the children could do it etc. We decided we'd her up early and start at sunrise to beat the heat and turn back if it got too much. There are two routes up. The gully route is more difficult and has plenty rock scrambling and walking up the creek bed which it turns out it's mostly rock which would be treacherous in wet conditions. Three summit trail itself is a marked trail with some minor rock scrambling. North have a gentle section of 1.5km to start (gain of 110m altitude) 

and then intersect before dividing again on the middle and steepest section which is 1.5km long (340m altitude gain) where the tracks meet again at the top of the gully. The remaining 3km is a pretty easy and good stroll thru short trees and shrubs although there's a bit of a rock scramble on the last 300m. We decided we'd go up the gully and bail out to the summit trail at the intersections if it was too difficult. Turns out it was great fun and really amazing views so made it to the top in about 3 hours. Had most of the gully section on shade which was brilliant as it would have been a heat trap in the sun with all the reflecting rocks. There's a cairn you can stand on (a dedicated Ranger carried up the cement and materials for it and a picnic table!) with an epic 360 degree view. It's just a vast desert landscape interspersed with patches of mauve (Mulla Mulla) and pink wildflowers plus green areas along the banks of the rivers where the huge river red gums grow. Bumped into a Scottish couple so didn't about an hour chatting before descending in about 1hr 45mins. Great strenuous hike but not as difficult we'd been told. I suspect a lot of people who attempt this rarely hike or start at the wrong time of day. 

After a week deserved lunch we visited the petroglyphs which are some Aboriginal engravings and a stroll at Ooramboo which has some beautiful River gums. There were two tiny waterholes which attracted heaps of birds like budgies, zebra finches, painted finches and spiny cheeked honey eaters. Also loads of lizards. It's brilliant seeing flocks of budgies ripping thru the bush or chattering on huge white River gums. 

That night a fellow camper vans and pointed out some night sky stuff to us including Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mercury which allegedly is rarely seen in a lifetime and also the constellation of Scorpio. Wonder if we'll be able to find it again!

Next morning we strolled up kotka gorge which was a good scramble but we all got a bit hot and tired quickly after the previous day's exertion and there was no breeze in the gorge either. After that headed south to meekatharra which I blogged earlier. 

Definitely worth a visit even for the drive there (was plenty lovely free camps in the road between Mt Augustus and Kennedy Range but none on the road to meekatharra). 

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Last few days in WA

Drive out from Mt Augustus (I'll do a separate post on that shortly) on Saturday heading south to meekatharra, a meer 350km trip as Mt Augustus is literally that far from everywhere. Some wildflowers but the drive up from Kennedy ranges to Mt Augustus was much prettier. Stopped at Mt Gould lockup which is an historical holding jail for Aboriginals caught stealing sheep or whatever misdimeanour or excuse to incarcerate them. Had the grimness and vibes of a haunting history. The road was really good with long stretches sealed recently and in between was in great condition. Meekatharra had an open shop with limited but at least some fresh food and well supplied otherwise. It also has Telstra reception so we could apply for our NT covid border passes plus permits for the great Central Highway. Drove another 50km North to Karalundi along the great northern Highway with has a procession of road trains in stark contrast to the road from Mt Augustus where I think we met about 4 vehicles total and two of them were graders!! Stayed at a little caravan Park with great facilities and camp kitchen and grassy sites. So nice under the tent from all the red dirt and stones. We're back in mining country - gold mines this time!!

Today we're heading south back thru meekatharra and then cross country to sandstone and further south to lake Ballard which is famous for its John Gormley sculptures. Not sure if this will take one or two days! From there the plan is head across to Uluru on the great Central Highway which is called the longest short cut in Australia. Adventure here we come!! Not sure when we'll have reception again so we'll be in touch when we do. 

PS western Australia national parks have a deal with Optus so if you want internet and phone in the parks buy an Optus SIM. 

PPS we've loved our time here in WA, it's vast and different and soooo much natural beauty. Been such an amazing adventure thru purnululu, the Kimberly area, Cape Leveque, Pilbara region, Ningaloo coast and now the desert areas. 

PPPS if my spelling is crap is cos I'm sending from my phone before we reach internet again and it keeps auto correcting

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Kennedy Range NP

Driving into Carnarvon was a bit different as there are cultivated fields which we haven't seen for a very long time. Known as the fruit bowl of the area north of Perth, they grow bananas, tomatos and lots of other stuff. Was great getting locally grown veg and fruit. We also dropped South of the tropic of Capricorn for the first time since way back on day 2 of our trip in late June. Found a good bakery too plus they had a Woolies so stocked up enough food for a couple of weeks fingers crossed. From there headed east to Gascoyne junction which was quite a pretty drive following along the Gascoyne River. Plenty fat cattle and clay pans filled with water. Field up at Gascoyne junction and were very tempted to stay the night in the little campground as it and the pub looked very inviting but had a couple of hours daylight left so pressed on to Kennedy range. 

Kennedy range is a massive 75km long, 25km sandstone plateau with 100-80metre cliffs running all around is edges so I don't think it's possible to drive on top. It's also really dry so was never stocked with sheep or cattle so in pretty good nick. We arrived in on Sun set and it was very spectacular with beautiful colours. The temple gorge campground is just just turn up and pay there which is great compared to all the hassles we have had recently trying to get into places. The unsealed roads were in awesome condition. Campground was nestled just near the cliffs with stunning views of the escarpement and incredible night skies. Plenty friendly happy campers and camp host as well. 

Next day we walked over to honeycomb gorge along the base of escapement. Did it pretty early to avoid the heat and it was glorious with red Cliffs and masses of mauve Mulla Mulla plus a heap of other flowering shrubs and flowers. Walked out to the sunrise lookout which has good views along the escarpement. The gorge itself has walls pocked with little eroded holes hence the name. There was and a bathtub worth of a cloudy puddle at the bottom which we didn't swim in even thou the camp host was incredulous that we didn't. I can only imagine the bacterial count on such a stagnant cloudy pool even if you ignored the hornets!

After lunch, the lovely couple in the caravan next to us invited the kids over to play Uno and greed (cracking game for traveling) whilst we played food storage Tetris trying to squeeze all the supplies for two weeks back into the food drawers. Then headed up drapers gorge which was a fun rock scramble. At the end is a natural amphitheatre so Ciara brought the guitar and the kids played a few tunes up there. We didn't swim here either thou there was more water it was stagnant and green. We then headed up another gorge to the top of the escarpement which was spectacular as it was just before sunset and we could literally see for miles. Stunning. 

Packed up the next morning and walked up temple gorge for an hour before we left. Very pretty as well. On our drive out we stopped at a clay pan the camphost told us about. All around the edges were the Burrows of the Dawson's burrowing bee. They are a sizeable 2cm bee that burrow tunnel in the clay where they lay their eggs. The tunnels are about 20cm long allegedly!! And have a rim around the top to keep water out. The bees only live in bee form for a month and the eggs survive under the ground floor the whole year till next season's breeding season. 

Drove North then East along the Kingsford Smith mail trail (he has a contract to do the mail run between the coast and the stations back in the early 20th century) to Mt Augustus station. The drive was just a tapestry of pink, mauve, green, ivory wildflowers and shrubs. In places it was literally like a carpet and there were also heaps of birds like crimson chats, honey eaters and flocks of budgies ripping around anywhere there were River gums. 

Beautiful off the beaten track place well worth a couple of days visit.

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Heading east

So with 4 weeks left in our trip we're pretty much as far from Brisbane as we could be so it's time to start heading east. Going to be a few long days in the car but plenty stuff to see on the way including a couple of monoclines. There's the one we all know at Uluru and then an even bigger one at Mt Augustus that we're hoping to conquer in the next week. 

The plan for the next few days is stock up in Carnarvon then head towards Kennedy range national Park or camp at Gascoyne junction if we don't have time to get to the national Park. Spend a couple of days there then head to Mt Augustus for a few days before heading south to the start of the great Central Highway which will bring us in the back of Uluru. 

I don't know how much internet we'll have but will update when we can. Just saw the biggest wedgie (wedge tailed eagle) and the wildflowers have been stunning all morning! 

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Ningaloo and Cape Range

For the last 5 nights based ourselves at Bullara station which is a massive cattle station (250000 acres) that also runs a highly efficient and professional caravan park. Best hottest showers ever which was well timed as we were pretty stinky and dusty after 7 days in national parks. Was blowing a gale when we arrived so even managed to get clean and dry bedding that night. First cold weather for 2 months was a shock thou. Was about 10 degrees so we had to dig out jackets even. The station is situated half way between Exmouth and Coral bay both of which have very densely packed and full caravan parks so decided to spend an hour commuting rather then being stuck in a miserable squash of caravan. 

First day was also cloudy which was also a bit of a novelty and not very conducive to going swimming especially with the end blowing pretty hard. Decided to go and explore the Cape Range national Park. The park runs from near the station all the way up the peninsula to the top of the Cape. It's limestone with huge canyons and gorges and covered in an abundance of green Spinifex and heath like shrubs plus wildflowers everywhere. Did the hike along the tops to see shothole canyon which was like something straight out of a John Wayne western. Typical limestone formations along the way then the canyon is very deep and spectacular. Totally unexpected. Stocked up on a bit of food and fuel in Exmouth which is actually not a bad little town and returned to the very windy campsite. Was burger night at the station so we lined up for our $12.50 burgers watching them being cooked on a massive plate over a huge fire. Some operation! There was also a bloke singing who was actually quite good and didn't sing country and western. Phew. 

Next day was still windy so our snorkeling tour was postponed for a day. Instead we drive over to the western side of the Cape where the Ningaloo reef runs right upto the land. Beautiful beaches which are either fantastic for snorkeling or surfing so loads of surfy backpackers around which was great to see. Visited mangrove bay first and the bird hide. Beautiful beach which we walked along without seeing another soul. Next up went to the visitor Centre at milyering which had heaps of really good info on the land and sea flora and fauna. Even managed to find a picnic table under the shade of the verandah and out of the wind. Went for a snorkel at Lakeside which is just beautiful but jeez the water was cold. Or maybe the water was ok but when you stood up and got out the wind just froze us. Not much Coral but plenty fish like damselfish. I checked the water temps and it's allegedly 20c so I feel very embarrassed that we are that acclimatised we only managed about 10 minutes in the water before turning purple and starting to shake and chatter with the cold. Soft!!! Went and did the 3km Munda Munda gorge walk nearby to warm up and 30 minutes later we're sweating bricks! Very spectacular gorge again but no water. Fantastic views out over the reef. Even saw a humpback off shore! Went back in for a snorkel at turquoise bay which was just so stunning and beautiful. Was lovely but a bit murky with the tide changing and once again froze within 15 minutes! Drive back in the sunset was beautiful with all the wildflowers, red sand and dunes and green Spinifex catching the light. Oh I forgot we also visited the lighthouse in the morning which had huge views over coast, reef and land. Saw the Harold holdt naval communications centre. Bit of an ironic name given he's the prime Minister who went for swim and never was seen again. 

On Sunday the snorkeling tour we booked was able to go ahead as planned even thou it was still a bit windy. Early start as had to be in Exmouth for 7.30. very friendly helpful crew and we all got fitted out with snorkels, fins and wetsuits. The sea was about 2-3m and choppy enough but we didn't get sick. Saw a whale on the way out to the muiron islands which was our destination for the day. First stop was at the keyhole site. I have to admit I was scared jumping off the boat which was rocking about in the swell into basically the open ocean. Just before we got in a huge humpback cruised past us like 20m from the boat which was incredible and very funny too cos all the divers who had just jumped in didn't see it even thou it was like 5m from them as they were looking the other way!! W snorkeled about 200m away from the boat and as a mum it was a bit heart stopping watching the kids but they were just brilliant and loved it. Laura just kept heading off chasing whatever fish she saw. Got out about 45 min later all frozen but elated. The coral was incredible. The colours and structure were just unbelievable. At the next snorkel site, we saw heaps of parrot fish who eat the coral plus a heap of other tropical fish that I can't remember the name of. Amazing experience to be floating on the sea looking at the glorious show on display underneath. On the way back we sat up the front as the seas had calmed considerably. There was still a couple of people very very sick. Saw a manta ray which was soooo serene and huge 3-4 metres and just kind of floated there before heading off. Also saw a sea snake that popped up a couple of metres from the boat. So venomous but striking Orange/yellow colours. Glad we weren't in the sea!! Such an adrenaline filled, exciting day exploring the beauty of the sea plus getting a taste of what it's like to be rough seas.

Next morning we woke up pretty tired and couldn't decide where to move to next so just booked in for an extra night at the station. Had to move campsites thou and hang around for the other people to move so after a lazy, late start drive down to Coral bay. Now we had heard that this place was amazing so we were very underwhelmed when we arrived into what is essentially a ginormous, packed in like sardines caravan Park. People were literally on top of each other in tiny little open dusty spaces. Ugh. The beach at Billy's bay and Paradise beach are just stunning turquoise thou and after lunch we got our act together. Went for a snorkel at Billy's bay first which was good but cloudy then walked down Paradise beach. The ride was going out so the reef was literally metres from the shore edge. We walked in and immediately had about 20 different types of tropical fish right next to us. It was soooo exciting and clear. The Coral looked a bit dull but the shapes and structures and number and variety of fish was just jaw dropping. I even saw a lion fish which also scared me but it went the other way. I was also eye balled by a grey fish with purple spots behind it's fins. It would just zoom straight at my mask then veer off just before hitting me. I presume it was protecting its territory. Stayed in till we were shaking with the cold but so hyper and elated. 

It's been an incredible experience sharing this with the kids and pushing all of us out of our comfort zones. Even the sunsets and sunrises and landscape have been epic. Tempted to stay another day but the kids faces are red sore from masks plus we're all a bit tired. Time to move on again but hopefully one day we'll get a chance to come back. 

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Some lingo explainers

Ok some folks reading this are not quite so familiar with Aussie terms and lingo so here's a few explainers...

Salty

A bloody big scary estaurine crocodile anything from 3-12m and it will eat you after it's snappy jaws have crushed you then it'll drag you into the water and do a few death rolls just to make sure your well and truly dead. Lurks under water in the cloudy depths so stay away from banks and over hanging trees. 

Freshy

Much smaller 1-2m that lives in freshwater (fancy that) that only lives in northern Australia. Probably wouldn't kill you but could take a massive chunk out if you mess with them. 

Grey Nomads

Australian retirees who set off into the sunset and follow the seasons around Australia. Travel in singles, couples or even in groups. Mode of transport typically is large 4wd towing large caravans but you do see some with really really big setups including tinnies (see below)  on the roof top or those massive American style trailer caravans that extend out and up and have sat dishes and all sorts of stuff attached. Some thou just have a more modest rooftop tent or a camp trailer or even single customised vehicle fitted out with bed, etc or ute with canopy fitted out with living space. Rarely spotted is one in a standard tent. Actually that's kind of true for most people traveling around here. Mostly found in the North of Oz from may-oct then they move south for the summer. Covid has messed up the whole flow thou so there's parts of the country over run with them as they wait for borders between states to open up. They hate corrugated roads (see below) which is fair given the hammering a caravan gets on those roads. 

Corrugations

This is what happens to unsealed aka dirt roads after a few weeks of traffic. Basically tyres cause waves or ripples to develop on the road surface. These can range from teenie 3cm high ones to massive maybe 30cm. You have to find the right speed to kind of float across them but they tend to throw your vehicle out sideways on corners so need to be super careful. Drive too slow thou and the vibrations are just horrendous. Cant hear anything and it rattles the hell out of everything in the vehicle. Most destructive force on the road. We had 2 beer tins leak cos they vibrated against a tiny protruding stud head in the fridge. Plus broken roof rack, headlights, nearly lost front rego plate, etc.

Tinnie

Beer Can or small aluminium fishing boat about 2*4m in size. 

Roads in the outback

Main routes sealed but sometimes especially in Qld just one car width sealed in the middle and the sides are dirt or not sealed. Unsealed means no bitumen on top. These roads are graded by a big grader (obviously duh) which has a huge metal plate in front that skims the top (lose rocks, corrugations, etc) filling in potholes and leveling the surface. Sometimes done at the end of the wet season when roads accessible again and then not again for the rest of the year so by the end of the dry season some awful corrugations. Can also be covered in gravel which is good for driving but crap for windscreens. Unsealed roads are very dusty.

Bull dust

A fine layer of deep dust that develops in some sections. Screws your ability to steer. Can be deep enough to get bogged!! Very dusty obviously. 

Drop loo

A hole in the ground with a toilet on top. No flushing needed. If properly used so  close the lid and don't put anything other then poo/pee down there, then usually fine. Bad stuff happens when the insects get in or rubbish kills the composting bacteria or simply the hole isn't deep enough. Never ever approach with your head torch on full at night. Nightmares for sure. Usually found in national parks. 

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Karijini National Park

So this place has been on my list for a long time as it's pretty famous for its photos of inky black canyon and pool photos. We drove down the private Rio Tinto road that services it's rail line and some mines. Unsealed but pretty much as good as it gets. Incredible scenery all the way as well. We passed the Solomon mine on the way to the park. It's basically a cutting into a huge mountain/hill. The scale of mining operations here has to be seen to be believed. The mine has its own airfield and the road between that and the mine had been recently dampened with what we assumed was water but after about a km of driving discovered it was some tarry, oily mix to dampen the dust. The underside of the ute now has a coating of this which I'm not sure we'll ever get off. Not very happy. 

Proceeded to Hammersley gorge which is on the western side of the park. Very accessible so that also means heaps of people which was once again a bit of a shock. It's quite wide with water flowing over slabs of rocks into deep pools and a cutting thru the gorge which is quite impressive. There are some magnificent examples of geological folds and layers with dark purple, indigo, rust colours. Unfortunately the whole experience was dampened by a bus load of miners who just have been on their day off. Beer guts swaggering they proceeded to intimidate all the families and quieter folks with their loud music, obnoxious, ignorant behaviour. 

Headed to Tom price for fuel and a bit of fresh food then onto the overflow campsite which was actually much more pleasant then it sounds. Numbers are limited and you have to book online so plenty space and a good outlook. We preferred this to the Dales campground that we moved to next day. Dales campground was pretty alright but quite noisy between generators, backpacker parties and the just in general noise travelled a lot there. Plenty space thou. Why do people need generators when camping???  The couple in a caravan next to us has a satellite dish set up when we arrived at about 4pm. We didn't see the lady till next day and we only saw the bloke when it was time to fire up the bbq mate (a Weber of course). We could hear their tv tuned into channel 7 or 9 or 10 (ads every five minutes, corny, shite music) watching whatever mind numbing dribble like the voice or married at first shite or I'm too stupid I drove from Qld in my $80k caravan to watch this crap reality tv show. Meanwhile the Milky way and sunset were entertaining us!! So enough of the rants onto the gorgeous gorges (I just had to say that!). 

First day we did Hancock and Weano. We hadn't really researched much just had a map and decided to do the furthest away ones first. Hancock was fantastic. Drop down a couple if ladders into a narrow gorge, wade across a narrow pool then it's into the swimmers for a 20m swim/freeze or skirt the ledges like Ciara did. The rest of us did the plunge and swim and it was so cold that dunk and Laura had to sit in the little amphitheatre area for 10 mins to stop shaking. Me and Ciara continued on down the very narrow little canyon (about a metre wide) into basically the cave that contains Kermit pool. It's just fantastic and we swam across to look over the ledge as the canyon continues in further down but it's not accessible without climbing gear and wetsuits. Swam back and dunk and Laura did the same. All freezing now went back and warmed up before having to swim back the last pool and then sit in the sun for 30 minutes to warm up. Poor Laura went blue (which is amazing cos she's turned red with a fine Pilbara red dust tan since).

Walked thru Weano which is probably the least impressive but still worth a look and then did Oxer lookout over where the 4 gorges meet. The interesting part of Weano is shut due to a recent fatality we heard (which is scary but can imagine how it happens a it's so slippery in places). Took the sealed road back to camp via the lookout over the mine that got a special exemption in 1991 to be in the national Park. Pretty depressing gouge and scar on the landscape and not sure whether parks put the lookout there as subtle dig at what happens if national Parks are returned to mines. 

Next day we had a huge day covering the Knox, Joffre and Kalamina gorges. The shorter unsealed road which connects the campsite and eastern gorges to the western side is pretty much the biggest corrugations we have seen and bumpy as. Knox was the best for exploring and adventure. Descended down the steep, rocky scree path into the depths of the gorge then we went downstream following the rock slabs and clambering around narrow ledges between water pools, towering gorge walls protecting us from the sun. The trail ends where the gorge becomes a narrow canyon but just before that is this clear, beautiful, long narrow pool where we all went for an icy, short swim. I dunno what temperature the water was but we did lose feeling in the extremities! After that explored upstream which wasn't officially marked as a track so only met one other couple. It was glorious and peaceful, heaps of birds, butterflies and Dragon flies, paper barks, reeds and beautiful swimming holes. We did have to retreat after 4 hours thou cos we needed lunch!! Met about 10 people total so completely unspoilt by people, a relief after the previous day's experience.

Joffre waterfalls was next up. Stunning views from the top. The waterfall drops into a kind of large bowl which has a big pool at the bottom where you can swim. Was a bit green for us but did met a pair Cork and Dublin women who took the plunge! Downstream is beautiful but have to swim maybe 50-60m thru a narrow gorge and was way too cold and far for us. Clambered down about 8 ladders to get to the bottom but limited exploration otherwise. 

Was getting late now but decided to squeeze in Kalamina Gorge as well as it was on the way back and we didn't want to do that dirt road again the day after. Arrived around 4.45 which have us an hour to do a 6km return walk which we just about did although we were pretty tired the exhilaration of being in such a beautiful spot and having it all to ourselves helped us power on. Easy enough walk over flat Rock slabs and lowish gorge walls bathed in beautiful afternoon light. The waterfall at the top was very striking as well but didn't do another swim as was getting a bit late and dark. 

On our last full day we stayed local to the campsite and walked to Dales gorge. Did the rim walk first and out the lookouts over circular pool which is closed due to a rock fall that has exposed some asbestos. It's crazy but you can actually see the asbestos fibres in some of the rocks as you walk by. Dales gorge is very pretty and although not quite as spectacular as some of the others still really lovely. We strolled very slowly up thru the gorge. Stopped and jumped in at a cool pool fringed by ferns and paperbacks. So clear but when I say cool I mean frozen brain territory. We were so cold we couldn't brave getting back in for a swim at Fortescue Falls five minutes further up. It was pretty busy there thou so Ciara reckons we have people phobia now and more then 5 people is a crowd! Not sure how we're going to find City life in a month's time!! Went onto Fern pool which is beautiful and strangely the water temperature is about 5 degrees warmer. We managed a 15 minute swim here -  even despite the over 5 people rule having been smashed!! 

Back to campsite for chilling out then. A wind picked up so we're now covered in red dust. And by we I mean us, the car and pretty much all of our possessions!!

On our way to Buralla Station now which is about 600km West of the national Park. We woke up at 5.30, left camp at 7 and currently aiming for much wanted and badly needed showers (it's been way too long) in a couple of hours time!! The station is half way between Coral bay and Exmouth so going to be our base for exploring Ningaloo Reef for a few days. 

Milstream Chichester national Park

Before leaving Dampier we checked out the Red Dog statue of the legendary wandering pooch. Great story. Also visited the Murujuga national Park which has one of the most prolific indigenous Rock art sites in the country. There are huge hills of red iron ore boulders with barely a tree or anything growing on them. We visited in the morning so it was difficult to see the etchings till you got your eye in but then we saw quolls, fat tailed wallabies, human and other spiritual figures, dark emu and Milky way depiction (indigenous peoples used the Milky way for navigation and as a seasonal tool but they saw the dark patches rather then the bright bits we westerners traditionally used), tools and many other pieces that are either too old to see properly or are unknown. Pretty special place. Although it's quite a juxtaposition with ancient rock art on one side and the largest gas processing plant in the world (we think) on the other side of the little Peninsula. Thanks for the heads up on this Paula S! 

We also walked along hearsons cove beach which is covered in shells rather then sand but was a bit early in the day for a swim. Managed to score a haircut in Karratha. Everything is soooo expensive up here. Guess miners get paid well and it is pretty far away. I then had to sit thru 30 minutes of a safety presentation and test to get a permit to drive on one of the private Rio Tinto mine roads south of milstream which would reduce our journey time. Thought we could just get a pass at the visitors centre but no. 

The drive to the national Park was fascinating up onto the high plateau above the coast. The road winds up they Spinifex clad hills and follows the rail road so saw plenty of the 3km trains. Beautiful scenery along the way. The Pilbara really is as good as the photos actually maybe better!! Stayed at the stargazers campground where there was a very friendly camp host called shrimpy. Also had a good shaded area with proper gas BBQs, cleanest drop loos ever and was really small so very friendly. Meet a good few people there for chats which was so much more sociable then the vast caravan parks where everyone is just locked in their van watching crap tv. 

Next day drove to the Chichester section of the park (including 10kms of pretty tough corrugations) to python Pool. Such beautiful drive passing close to Mt Herbert and then dropping off the range on a very windy (but sealed and smooth) road back down to the bottom of the valley with enormous views of Spinifex, red iron ore cliffs and dotted with white snappy gums. The pool is at the bottom of red Cliffs which have a waterfall flowing in the summer season. Very serene especially in the morning with no-one else there but us. Decided to the do the Cameleers trail as far as McKenzie Springs. Tough 11km return walk on exposed Spinifex country but saw heaps of lizards, wild flowers, pebble mouse mound and the springs had lovely shady trees and water (not swimmable) which brought down heaps of honey eaters, Spinifex pigeons and painted finches (very exciting seeing these). After lunch went for a swim at the pool which was very refreshing albeit slightly on the slimy side this time of year. Did the quick scramble to Mt Herbert on the drive back. Epic scenery. Had a funny moment when a willy willy (like mini tornado) stole Laura and dunks hats and dumped them about 20m away! 

The night skies and sunsets were fantastic. We were lucky in that the moon didn't rise till later in the night but the Milky way was soooo bright you could actually see by it's light. 

Next day visited the homestead and did the 8km walk thru the huge paper barks and rushes along the river before heading up to the cliff Top look out over the Fortescue River which has so much water. Ciara was not impressed that we did 8km stroll on our quiet day! The homestead is the reason the Cameleers trail was built but was decommissioned in 1890 cos it was too hard even for camels. The homestead is a pretty cool building literally. Huge verandahs are very effective!! Was a functioning tavern till 40 years ago when parks took over. That afternoon swam at deep reach which is part of the Fortescue River. Very very wide and deep and incredible amount of water given the dry looking surrounding countryside. Think it's the water source for Dampier and Karratha. Really good picnic facilities here as well. 

Loved our few days here and highly recommend as an off the beaten track location with glorious Pilbara scenery. 

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