Alice Springs to Daly Waters

11^th May Today we left Temple Bar Caravan Park at Alice Springs and headed our way North.  I spoke with my cousin Pam this morning and she told me not to break our trip.  So I am following what she said her Mum would have said “keep going, enjoy your trip”.  I am sure that Aunty Nancy is up there watching every step we make and continuing the trip with us.

I think I should put in a couple of photos here.

# One is of the current convoy members:  Rob Costello, Elaine Costello, Darryl, Me, Caroline Eade and Greg Eade.  Buster is behind the fence near Caroline.

# Two is of a little message that Rob wrote on a tank at Finke River – detailing our ‘Expedition’ J

Now back to the current journey.  We left Alice at about 9am this morning and made our way up past the Tropic of Capricorn to Aileron – the town of Big Man Walks.  Here there are two HUGE statues of Indigenous Australians and they can be seen for kms.

The man is up on top of a mountain/hill behind the roadhouse and the lady with young child is beside the Arts centre.

The 6 feet wire fence around the compound only comes up to her knees (to give you an idea of her height).  We couldn’t get near the man on the mountain/hill – so I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess as to his actual height.  Unfortunately the lady and child had the sun behind them so their photo is not that clear. L

Outside the Roadhouse there is another male statue and two very precocious goannas.

We then continued on the road to Ti Tree and a refuel of all the vehicles and then we were on our way again.  Next stop Wycliffe Well – but Daz and I had to stop and let the Expedition Mascot (AKA Buster) have a pit stop…… and boy did he need it….  We stopped at Taylors Creek at 1.30pm for this adventure and it was a busy little stop.  7 vans had already set up for the night with more pulling in as we left.

We met up with the rest of the crew at Wycliffe Wells – the UFO Capital of Australia.

 The sightings and happenings from this part of Australia are very well documented in many magazines and university theses.

We even had OUR UFO photos taken J J :D 

                                    

[When we got inside our friends were just about finished their lunch.  We had cheated at Taylor’s creek and whilst I took our boy for a waddle, Darryl made us sandwiches and a drink, which we had whilst driving. J  We thought that 1.30 really was late enough for lunch J]. 

There was quite a bit of water still around here and along the road has been very green.  You can see where there have been fires through the country though and how the vegetation is starting is fight back.  A lot of the creeks that we passed today were still damp but no visible water.

 tired and bored puppy :(

From here we continued on to the Devils Marbles, a mere 30km further north.  Even though we had been past here when we were stationed in Katherine (Tindal) and Darwin we had never stopped to get out and explore.  There is a camp ground back to the east off the highway and it costs you the princely sum of ………  $3.30 per adult to stay here…….  When we pulled in just on 3pm there were about 5 other vans already set up.  It is now 8pm and we have about 20 vans plus one car and one ‘whizz bang’ (campervan – sliding doors that go Whiz and boot and front doors that go Bang).  There are plenty of elevated wooden platforms for those in tents, so that they are up off the ground.

Our camp

 panorama of the marbles looking West

a balancing one

 and another

 looking to the east over the van park

 this one reminds me of a puppy and when seen from the front looks like a rubber ducky

hmmm

 two children sitting back to back

We had a great Sunset – even though others were saying it wouldn’t be any good because of the cloud cover and just on dark the camp was visited by a couple of Dingoes.

  Sunset at the Marbles

  Sunrise at Devils Marbles

Unfortunately the light was not the best for taking their photo and we just missed them with the flash L.  I am sure that we will have other opportunities to capture other photos of Australia’s dog.  After waking to 8 degrees in Alice Springs this morning we are sitting here at the Marbles with the 12V fan on as it is still 27 degrees at 8pm L J  Buster won’t need his coat tonight……  He is already in the corner of the kitchen in his bed…. snoring. Bless him J :D

We were going to stay here for 2 nights but it now seems that we will have another long day tomorrow and travel to Elliott and stay at the ‘Longreach Water hole’ out of town.  Our companions have been told that it is a fantastic place to stay.  So we will see tomorrow.

12^th May Well it seemed this morning that everything was in fast forward.  The others were ready to roll by 7.30 and we hadn’t finished breakfast L  So Darryl was pushing me to get moving L.  We left the camp grounds at 8am and headed off.  Just before we left camp we were again visited by a dingo.

 We stopped at Tennant Creek for fuel [$1.715 per litre] and continued on our way.  Today we had the foresight to put some biscuits and drinks into the car as we didn’t think that MT would be on the agenda.  We stopped at Renner Springs for a pit stop and everyone had something to eat here also - Fantastic home-made pies - barramundi, beef, corned beef.

  The ant/termite hills are getting bigger :)

 still heading the right way :)

 Renner Springs

 arriving Elliot

 We were advised to check at Elliott about access to Longreach Waterhole and continued on.

Today we have seen the first of the termite mounds – only little ones and we know that they will get bigger as we head further north – but they are here…..

We arrived at Elliot at about 12.30 and enquired when we got petrol [$1.985 per litre] about Longreach.  Advice was – 4WD only and high vans as sandy and rocky and it is very dusty out there at the moment…..  Ok so consensus now became – no we won’t try as our vans are too low L Bugger – oh well maybe next trip J.

We continued another 24 km up the road to Newcastle Waters Rest area and sat and waited for those lunching to vacate the area J  We then took up our positions along the boundary and the one that afforded us the best shade opportunities at the best time of the afternoon J :D  We then went to Ma and Blue’s van and sat in the shade of the tree and enjoyed the afternoon.  We had a lot of fun watching the traffic coming in and selecting their positions.  There are quite a lot of groups travelling together, so lots of Happy Hour camps J J.

It is now7.12pm and we have 18 vans, 3 motorhomes, 4 whiz bangs, and three cars with tenters all set up for the night.  It is amazing where people will find to park and squeeze in for company J

Tomorrow we are making our way to Daly Waters and our friends say that it is “first in best dressed” so looks like we will have an early rise again tomorrow.

13^th May When we awoke this morning we had been joined by a further 4 whiz-bangs and another car.

We left Newcastle Waters Rest area at 8am this morning and made our way north.  We stopped at the HiWay Inn to get fuel ($1.779 per litre) and then drove the next 7 km (yes that is correct – 7km) to the Daly Waters pub. 

 Inside Daly Waters pub

  Here you have to park your van in line and go in and pay and then you are shown to your camp spot.  They pack us in like sardines – but it is a nice spot and we have got the shadiest sites as we were in first J :D  We will be here for 2 nights so time to get some washing done, wash my hair and go to dinner for Mother’s Day…….  We are having Barra and Beef tonight so should be very nice.

 beef and Barra tonight.....

 the souvenir store across the road

 beautiful Bougainvillea

 The pub

 most remote traffic lights

  bottle wall

 hmmm

Here is a little history about Daly Waters

In 1862 John McDouall Stuart successfully crossed the continent from south to north.  After discovering fresh water the area was given the name of Daly Waters in honour of the Governor of South Australia, Sir Dominic Daly.  Bill Pearce opened a 'Drover's Store' which is known today as the 'Daly Waters Pub'. Daly Waters was a major Air Force Base during WW2.  The airfield was Australia's first international airport when it opened its hangar doors for the Australia to England air race.