Mystical Monolith

Everyone seems to think, and I did, that Ayers Rock is next to Alice Springs. It is 450k away, which come to think of it is next door in outback terms! A very easy drive on sealed roads got us to the Ayers Rock Resort early afternoon, after a quick lunch at Curtin Springs. The resort was less than impressive, dirty and dusty with very cramped camping, and one of the most expensive campsites we have stayed in. Thankfully the rock itself more than compensates. Jo and I drove out to the rock just after 8am next morning and the sight of it looming in the distance really is mind blowing. It is just a lump of rock, but WOW, there is something very special about it.

I was real keen to climb to the top but my plans were thwarted by the weather. If the day is forecast to reach 36c or more, the climb is closed at 8am. We arrived at 8.15am. So we took on the 12k base walk instead which was simply brilliant and well worth the effort, even if it was getting a bit warm by the time we completed it.

We took heaps of photos, both close up and distant, but none come even close to doing it justice. I am tempted to blame the bad light on the day, but it is more likely my lack of photographic skill!
Later that day we drove to the sunset viewing area and enjoyed a glass, ok, a bottle of wine and cheese and biscuits on the roof of the landcruiser whilst watching the sunset on the rock.

Next morning we arrived at the rock before 6am so I could have a run up it. This time it was closed because of wind. Ah well, it looked a bit hard anyway. They say 35 people have died attempting to climb it. So we had a look round the Olgas, very impressive and picturesque, but not in the same league as Ayers Rock in my opinion.
Our next day was spent driving to  Kings Canyon where we stayed in a nice campground with Dingos. And we forgot to bring the Schmackos!

We made a very early start next day to do the 6.5k Kings Canyon rim walk, which was stunning, one of the best walks we have done, with a good bit of climbing too.

We weren't intending to return to Alice Springs, but we got some bad diesel and had to get a new diesel filter and the nearest dealer was in Alice Springs. So we decided to take the trail less travelled and go via the aboriginal land between Kings Canyon and the West Mac ranges. So after buying our permit to travel in Australia ( what the f#*k is that all about ) we took off on the 150k of reasonable dirt road, and it was here we saw our first feral camels.

And an aboriginal version of a 'reduce speed' sign!

So back in Alice we had a great feed in The Steakhouse, where they serve camel, goat, roo etc. And thankfully one of the best ribeye steaks I can remember eating, and next day replaced our waterlogged diesel filter.

Old Ambalindum

After a bit of research we decided to explore the East Macdonnell Ranges in preference to the west. We decided to head for Old Ambalindum Homestead in the east of the ranges on the Binns Track, a  4wd track named for territory identity, Bill Binns. The track starts in Mt Dare, S.A and ends at Timber Creek, N.T. we had already travelled the northern section to Timber Creek.
We landed on our feet this time for sure. The East Macs are stunning, and the hospitality we enjoyed at Old Ambalindum has to be experienced to be believed.

Our camp at Old Ambalindum Homestead.

Ambalindum is a 800,000 acre working cattle station holding around 15,000 head of cattle, mostly Droughtmasters and Brahmans. You can set up camp on the lush green grass surrounding the original 1900's homestead, as we did, or stay in the homestead itself. Either way you will be well looked after for sure. They also have bunkhouse style accom. The new managers, Sarah and Scott were so accommodating, we even enjoyed a roast pork dinner with them in their cottage. We went for 2 nights and stayed for 5, with Scott and Sarah joining us for a beer and a yarn around our campfire most nights.

Sunset at Old Ambalindum

From the homestead it is easy to explore the surrounding country and the Arltunga historic reserve and gold mine relics. the station has a resident gem fossiker, Dave who is passionate about the area and took us out on the station in his 4wd, supplied lunch and beer, helped us fossick for garnet and ruby and took us to some very special places including these caves. No charge.

Hopefully in the not too distant future the station will be running adventure tourism type tours to these caves incuding an overnight stay in the largest one. This is seriously remote and beautiful country, and the star show at night needs to be seen.
Arltunga historic reserve is excellent and so well looked after. N.T does national parks better than anywhere. Superb camping for $3.30 per night, campfires, no problem, even maps and notes etc free to collect on the park entry. Puts Vic and NSW parks to shame.
Was looking forward to the Arltunga Bush Hotel, but disaster struck!

The pub was unattended but open and sold soft drink on an honesty box system.

Heaps of wildlife to be seen.
On our last  day we took a 4wd track through the property to Ruby Gap national park. It is around 2 hours to get there on some pretty rough tracks, but it is worth it. Ruby gap is pristine and unspoilt, no litter in sight, and if it weren't for the tyre tracks in the sand you could think you were the first there.We did some walking through the gorge but with the temps nudging 40c again we didn't venture too far.
We were sad to leave Old Ambilindum and we will certainly return. Back to Alice now for supplies, then on to Ayers Rock and the Olgas.

Alice Springs

We checked into a caravan park just south of Alice town that had a bush camp area where we could have a campfire. We needed it to, daytime temps were only mid 20c's and a min of 6c overnight. On with the long pants! I made good use of the firewood we imported from Wolfe Creek.

Alice is a nice town with some great things to do. We visited the Transport Hall of Fame, one of the best motor museums I've seen. Ended up spending 4 hours there!

So grown up......not!

After the museum we had lunch at Tinh & Lans Vietnamese restaurant south of Alice in a garden setting. Not usually my cup of tea, but I loved it. Even had a vietnamese beer, '333'.

We had morning coffee next day at the excellent Sportsmans bar in town. They have a whole room dedicated the the Finke Desert Race. I couldn't drag myself away!

I reckon it's worth a trip to Alice just for the Sporties Bar, The Transport Hall of Fame and Tinh and Lans place. And we haven't even seen the East Macdonnell Ranges yet! Much entertainment can be had at night watching the local constabulary chasing the indiginous population around town mounted on DRZ250 dirt bikes!!

Scary Movie and corrugations

We reluctantly said goodbye to Kununurra and headed through Halls Creek, which was quite nice and nowhere near as bad as we had been led to believe. One thing we have learned on this trip is to check a place out ourselves and make our own observations, rather than listen to other travellers opinions. I guess everyone is looking for something different from a place.
From Halls Creek it's only a short hop to the start of the Tanami Track, a 1045km 'shortcut' through to Alice.

 Most of it looks like this!
Our first night camp on the Tanami was at Wolfe Creek Crater. Jo was happy we weren't the only campers there, but I maintain each extra person increases your chance of getting murdered! Anyway, we didn't, and it really is a nice camp spot, with new long drop dunnies, and some kind person had left a heap of cut firewood ( no campfires allowed here)  which we took with us and made use of a few days later when it dropped below 40c. we got up at 5am next day to walk into the crater before it got too hot. Wolfe Creek crater is the second largest meteorite crater in the world and around 300 years old.

You can just see Jo at the top of this pic. It is a steep and fairly long climb down into the centre of the crater, that the signage says you shouldn't do, but I wasn't coming all this way not to stand in the bottom of the crater! The climb was worth it. It is strangely calm in the crater with a slight sound echo.

Our camp viewed from the crater rim.
We left Wolfe Creek, unmurdered, and drove into the aboriginal community of Bililuna, 50k down the track. although we had refueled in Halls Creek, only 140k back, we needed to have a full tank as there is  600k between fuel availability since Rabbit Flat roudhouse closed for good in 2010. Apparantly it was for sale for 18 years, and when you see the location, it's not surprising!
Buliluna is.....interesting.

Buying fuel here, at $2.60 a litre is a challenge. You have to buy a fuel card which is sold by the $ not the litre. The biggest you can buy is $90.00. We grabbed a $90 and a $20 which gave us 42.5 litres and pretty much topped the tanks. They don't sell petrol and the diesel bowser is locked in a huge steel cage. But at least there is diesel there, it would be beyond the fuel range of most vehicles to cross the Tanami without the good hearted souls at Bililuna!
Onward onto corrugations galore! There are a few sections of lovely smooth dirt, and even a couple of short stretches of bitumin, but the majority is very heavily corrugated dirt road. I think perhaps the corrugations are more noticeable because the terrain is boringly monotonous! Nothing broke or fell off the car or trailer, although 3 beer cans burst. There is a sweet spot around 85-90kph where the car seems to glide across the tops of the corrugations, but then the steering doesn't really work!
we saw upwards of 20 crashed or broken cars on the Tanami, some quite new. I think it costs more to recover them than the cars are worth in many cases.

We had to stop once more on the Tanami, and we saw a camp spot marked on the map at Renahans Bore so we planned to stop there around 4pm. When we got there the place was a disgrace with a million discarded VB cans and general rubbish and graffiti everywhere. Neither of us felt comfortable there so we pushed on. Temp was nudging 45c anyway so the airconditioned comfort of the Landcruiser was the place to be.
We found a great, clean camp spot, not marked on the maps, about 500m off the track just before sunset, and spent the night there.

Our 2 iphones, ipad and laptop are all displaying different times!! I think they are confused.

You just get out of the way when these guys come through! We found them all very courteous.
There are two more fuel stops on the southern Tanami, the aboriginal community of Yuendumu and Tilmouth Well. We pulled into Yuendumu with the fuel light on. Dirt roads and corrugations increase fuel consumption by around 50%. After a quick tour of the 'town' which the sign proclaimed the locals were 'proud of ', I decided to run the fuel gauntlet and get to Tilmouth Well.

This is a typical Yuendumu dwelling, not the worst by far. If you want to know how Julia is spending your tax dollars, look no further. Millions of $ have been spent here, they have a new, very nice sports centre and a swimming pool complex, and a community centre, all of which are better than any I can think of near home. All the homes have solar hot water, and all the roads are new bitumin. And covered with litter.
We made it to Tilmouth Well thanks to a jerry can of diesel we were carrying, and refueled at a more reasonable $2.15l.

After 17,000km, most of which has been off road, we got our first puncture on the bitumin in Alice Springs! We made it to a caravan park and I changed the wheel there, and had the puncture repaired in town next day

Kununurra

Because of the time difference between NT and WA, and the fact Kununurra is only 35k over the border, we got to Kununurra before we left our overnight camp at Big Horse Creek in NT! Kununurra is a newish town, developed following the building of Lake Argyle and the Ord River irrigation scheme with a young population of around 7000. we stayed in a caravan park on the shores of Lake Kunnunurra and it was HOT. It is a nice town with all the supplies you need and very friendly locals. There are the usual blacks asleep or fighting in the street, but nowhere near as bad as some other towns.
We found an awesome restaurant, called the Pumphouse which is actually in the old pumphouse building on the Diversion Dam, complete with original pumps etc.

Our table at The Pumphouse

Gotta love a boab tree

Was looking forward to driving over here, but it has been closed for some time following  2010 flood damage.
We booked a scenic flight over lake Argyle and the Bungle Bungles. We were collected at 6.30am by our pilot and we were looking forward to the flight. OK, Jo was shitting herself. One look at the plane gave us confidence though, a 1977 Cessna 210, in much the same condition as a 1977 Datsun. Gulp.

So off we went along the runway with the old girl gradually building speed and all of a sudden the pilot is off the power and we are coasting. Just a small problem, he says, we will get in the other plane, it will take an hour or so to get ready. We had a quick chat and elected to take the flight next morning, due to the building heat.
So a 5.30 start next morning in a similar vintage Cessna, no problems this time and a very smooth and scenic flight ensued.

It really is hard to convey the scale and beauty of the Bungles and Lake Argyle with a photo, but they really are breathtaking.
Our plan from here was to take 3-4 weeks on the Gibb River Road through the Kimberleys, followed by a few days in Broome and a seaplane flight out to the horozontal falls and a blast in their 500bhp speed boat followed by a 3 course meal and night on their boat moored near the falls. When we tried to book we discovered they had finished for the season. aaagghh. So this coupled with the heat,( it's now over 40c during the day, and never below 30c at night,) made us rethink our plans and we are going to save the Kimberley for another trip and to do the region properly. So if anyones keen, we plan to depart April 2014, across the Nulabor, up the west coast, arriving in the North West just after te Wet.
So off we go south east accross the Tanami desert to Alice Springs.

Daly Waters Madness

Instead of heading west the normal way, via the Victoria Hwy, we decided, as usual to take the 'trail less travelled'! And surprise surprise, that took us past a pub!! But not any normal pub, the Daly Waters pub. Then up the Buchanan Hwy, past Top Springs, through Gregory National Park ( another must go back to place ) and to Timber Creek. The track was fairly rough, but that may have been my hangover!!
So how do you describe the Daly Waters pub to someone that hasn't been? Not sure, check out the pics!

I'm sure you get the idea, it's a fun pub. The night we stayed there was a group of bikies celebrating a 50th birthday by  visiting as many outback pubs in 5 days, as time or their livers allow! They were drinking shots till 2am and were back on the Harleys at 7am.

Darwin

This holiday gets better and better. The couple we met on the Telegraph track, and travelled with, Nev and Leanne, extended some good old Northern Territory hospitality and invited us to stay with them at their house in Darwin. So we left Point Stuart and drove directly to Darwin..........Ok, via the Humpty Doo pub! What a place. I wish I could have photographed some of the clientelle, but I do still like my front teeth, so you will have to use your imagination. A great pub with a huge menu and cold beer.
Darwin is an awesome city, full of life and a warm tropical climate. We went to the night markets where we met Pete and Kim again, fellow travellers we first met and camped with on Cape York. They now have work in Darwin and are staying for the foreseeable.

Darwin beach any day of the week, the place is pumping. We were lucky enough to experience Darwins first downpour of the build up season under the verandah of Nev and Leannes house.
We did a great evening harbour cruise aboard a ( licensed, obviously ) original pearling schooner.

My first for the day, honest!

We both loved Darwin and plan to visit again as soon as we can. Would love to be there in the Wet.
Thanks again to nev and Leanne, and sorry about your beer and wine stock, mate!!

Point Stuart

We had a few days before Nev and Leanne were expecting us in Darwin, so we headed north from the Arnhem Hwy to camp at Point Stuart in the Mary River Wetlands. The place is named for John Mcdouall Stuart, the first person to successfully cross Australia from south to north.

As you can see from the photo, we probably had it a bit easier than old John! This was another great stop, I can't believe how many awesome places we have found without even trying!
The following day we hired a tinny and set off at 8am for a chug up the Mary River and a bit of fishing. Just before we were due to go we learnt the 4k stretch of the Mary River we were about to float along in a 3m tin foil boat, is home to more salt water crocs than anywhere else in the world. GULP. I asked old mate who launched the boat for us ( trying to sound casual ) if it was safe given the fact I was looking at a saltie only 10 metres away. 'Yes', he said. 'Obviously keep your hands in the boat. Oh, and if a 4m black coloured croc with a busted up nose comes over to the boat hissing at you, don't worry, we normally just through him a chicken frame'. We wondered what the croc may do in the absence of chicken? Well, the boat was paid for, so we 'confidently' set sail.

The boat was actually quite fast. 25bhp on a 3.5m tinny is 'adequate'

Well, the sight of these guys had us reaching for the esky pretty damn quick, I can tell you, even if it was only 8.30am. If we're getting eaten, we are going down with a beer in our hand!

To give an idea of how close we were to this guy, these pics weren't taken with a telefoto lens.
We counted at least 25 different crocs, all salties, by the time the sun had cooked us, and we had run out of beer, at around 1.30, and we didn't get bitten, even once!
There was also plenty of other great wildlife on the river, including this Jabiru.

The barramundi evaded our best efforts as usual. We threw this bloke back.

We had a fantastic morning, I don't think I have ever had as much fun with 25bhp! Hiring the boat has convinced us to get a rooftopper for our next trip.