Oct 29 (Day 272) - Bedourie to Birdsville

 

We packed up our site and topped up the tanks ($1.75/L). The drive from Boulia was sealed all the way, but we were told the road to Birdsville turned into dirt a little way along, although a good dirt road it sounds. We had noticed on the Plenty Highway the sounds of rocks hitting the back windscreen, getting kicked up from the tyres, onto the van, and then back onto the car rear window, so we stuck a sheet of cardboard from the solar blanket box over the window to protect it from any further stone chips.

This done, we headed out of Bedourie, with a great impression of a super tidy, clean town that we would love to stay at again if circumstances allowed. The kids had had some niggling arguments so a portion of the trip was dealing with that again. Irritating, but as always, it's helpful to get to the bottom of why it's happening and address the behaviours / attitudes involved. Travelling all together is so helpful for that even if it gets frustrating at times! We stopped for lunch at Carcory Homestead Ruins. If ever you wanted to see a desolate place, check this out.

 

Oct 27-28 (Day 270-271) - Boulia to Bedourie

We took our time in leaving as it wasn't a 10am checkout like most caravan parks are so enjoyed a yummy cooked breakfast by Matt. We did our morning Chronicles reading and discussed the different influences around the time of Joash and how he was only faithful while Jehoida was alive. Such a shame after the start to his life and faithfulness of Jehoshabeth. 

We stopped by these friendly horses on
the northern outskirts of Boulia

Oct 24 - 26 (Day 267-269) Alice Springs (Burt Plain) to Boulia, Qld

Saturday 24 October - Burt Plain to Gemtree

We finally left our bush campsite and made our way towards QLD via the Plenty Highway. We came this was back in 2017 and visited Gemtree for some gem fossicking which we really enjoyed. The road to start with is two lanes of bitumen, but a little way along it suddenly changes to a single lane. If someone’s coming the other way you both have to drive off onto the gravel shoulder to let each other pass, so you have to have your wits about you!

Attempting (unsuccessfully) to
fossick for Zircon

On our way out here we came across a fellow stopped on the side of the road and asked if there was anything he needed an hand with. He said he needed a lift into Alice to get 2 new tyres as he's shredded two and also has some pets with him. He'd been there for about 24 hours and numerous people had stopped but none had enough room for him and his pets. He thanked us but said we've got kids and that he'd be ok and someone would eventually stop with enough room. I really hope so for his sake as it can get quite hot out here. We made sure he had enough water and food and headed off in the hope that some other kind soul would be generous enough to give him a lift into Alice for this things he needed.

Oct 22-23 (Day 265-266) - Alice Springs to 'Hemmi's Camp' (Burt Plain)

Wow! What a long drive! :D

The kids were pretty disappointed to be leaving the Cole's as they really enjoyed the company of other kids, but we did want to keep moving with our travels.

 

As we headed out of town from the Cole's place we made our way to the shops to quickly pick up something for lunch then to the library as I still had some work to do, while Mim did some top-up food shopping. Matt came with his muscles to help carry it all back!

As we were leaving town there was an eerie red glow in the sky on the horizon which we initially thought was a bushfire! But after a bit we realised it was more the colour of the red dirt, and with the growing wind it was obviously a dust storm. As we drove we could feel the strong winds, and the poor Pajero was guzzling fuel as we headed uphill out of Alice Springs into a head wind! Thankfully it didn't last for long and then we were through it and on the other side where the sky was normal again. We thought it best to head back to our favourite spot in the bush so we could have some signal to keep an eye on business stuff, so off to find our tracks and head into the bush.

No not a bushfire - just a big dust storm plus some clouds!

Oct 18 - 21 (Day 261 -264) - Alice to Finke River, Kings Canyon and back to Alice

Sunday 18 October

We had a fairly late night last night for the boys birthday so we are all feeling a bit tired today. We had a slowish start and made plans for the next few days.  Originally we were going to be heading out to the West MacDonnells for a week, but we have spent quite a bit of time in and around Alice already so decided we would basically just zap out to Kings Canyon (which we've never seen before), come back into Alice and top-up whatever food we need, and then head out east towards the Birdsville track. You have to drive through the West MacDonnell Ranges anyway to get to Kings Canyon which is why we were originally going to do it all together.

Close to a hundred planes in storage at Alice Springs airport -
Cathay Pacific, Turkish, Scoot, Singapore and others

From the caravan park we headed briefly down to the airport and saw where some of the planes that aren't in use at the moment because of Covid, including Singapore Airlines' Airbus A380's. It was quite an amazing sight as they are normally all in the sky and only a few on the ground at a time.

Oct 13 - 17 - (Day 256 - 260) - Alice Springs and back via Hemmi's free camp near Alice Springs!

Tuesday 13 October - Thursday 15 October - Alice out to Hemmi's Camp north of Alice

As you may or may not remember back at Mataranka our solar blanket died. :( So this is one of the reasons for heading to Alice to pick up the replacement that is being sent from Adelaide. Greg did some tests on it but that only determined it definitely wasn't working, but at least they were happy to replace it after sending them some video evidence and explanations of what wasn't working. 

 

I needed to do some food shopping and get some bits and pieces organised for the boys birthday so we parked the car and van and Greg and the kids went into the library to do some work and read for a while while I went about what I needed to do. 

 

Oct 7-12 - (Day 250 - 255) - Tennant Creek - Alice Springs

Sorry for the delay getting these posted! We're working on catching up. Currently October 23 and just leaving Alice Springs for what we expect to be the last time!

 Wednesday 7 October

 Last night at 2.30am we go the fright of our lives when a train went whizzing by. We knew it would happen but it just sounded so loud. We were camped fairly close to the line so we should have been expecting it and we had seen one go back during the evening last night but when you are asleep and then get woken by a loud thunder that seems to get louder it does get the heart racing for a little while until you come into consciousness and realise what is actually happening. In the main we had quite a peaceful sleep.

We headed down the Stuart Highway and did our morning reading. During the reading there had been some disagreement between the boys that needed to be addressed so we talked through that to come to some resolution. This is the reality of travelling, and you may have seen our intention to run a Q&A soon on full-time travel. It's not all fun and games, there are definitely challenges; but the benefit is that you have the time to sit down and work through them. 

Oct 2-6 (Day 245 - 249) - Douglas-Daly - Tennant Creek

Friday 2 October

We left the van at Douglas-Daly Caravan Park and followed the directions we'd been given to get out to the swimming area, known as Crystal Cascades. The person we spoke to at the Darwin Freespirit Resort told us how to get to some better spots but we honestly couldn't remember them all so decided to just take it as it came.

The road out to the swimming area first takes you out to the Douglas-Daly research station, where they seem to do research on farming techniques. There are numerous fields around, some with crops, some with livestock. You then drive around the station property and continue along behind it along tracks like these:

Sep 26 - Oct 1 (Day 238 - 244) - Kakadu National Park (Palmerston to Douglas-Daly)

Saturday 26 September

At last - we're leaving Darwin! Not that we were in a mad rush to get away from the swimming pools, but it was good to be on the next leg of our journey. We've never been into Kakadu before - on our last trip we went into Litchfield National Park which we really enjoyed, and we've heard mixed reports about Kakadu, so we were keen to form our own opinion and see such a famous National Park!

First up we had to get a slow leak in one of the caravan tyres fixed up at a local tyre repair shop. Thankfully they had a nice air conditioned waiting room! We then went into the Gateway shopping centre again to buy another toaster as our last one broke :(  and then onto a service station to check the tyre pressures.

When I hopped out a lovely gentleman told her there was a horrible noise coming from our caravan wheels. It turned out most of the wheel nuts on the back left were loose! Eeek. Greg reckons this was his fault as he reckons he got interrupted while working on the van back at the caravan park and didn't do the final tighten up. Thankfully we hadn't driven far from the caravan park and had only been to the nearby shopping centre otherwise this could have been quite a different story. Thankful to God for keeping us safe and for the lovely gentleman letting us know.