Surprise in Alice Springs, and the Beautiful Rainbow Valley

After Ben's accident we decided to reverse our Red Centre itinerary and head to Alice Springs first.  We had planned around 5 nights there anyway, so this would give his leg time to heal  before doing Uluru, Kings Canyon and the West Macdonell ranges. We had a long 8 hour drive into Alice Springs. When we rolled up to our site at the The Macdonnell Ranges caravan park (which was huge with around 400 sites) we were surprised to find our good friends "the Keig Clan" Tex, Julie, Maddy, Brooke and Tilly, in the site next to ours! How funny....we met these guys on our last big trip 7 years ago in Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsular.  We new they were travelling again and had planned to meet up, but due to itinerary changes neither of us were meant to be in Alice Springs at that time.

Problems Commenting on our Blog!!

Hi everyone, we've been getting feedback that some people are no longer able to leave a comment on the blog.  We don't know why this has suddenly happened but Scott (my computer support) did some testing and has come up with the following possible solution.

Oodnadatta Track, Coober Pedy and trouble in the Painted Desert!

The Oodnadatta track was quite interesting. It followed the old Ghan railway, with ruins of station sidings and some quirky sculptures along the way. The landscape was very desolate, with lots of salt pans and these amazing mound springs that bubble up out of the tops of hills. We stopped off and walked down to Lake Eyre for a dip!

Lake Eyre from the Air!

We took flight with Ty our pilot (who looked only 5 yrs older than Hannah), just after sunrise on a chilly Marree morning.  How excited were the kids....and us! The hour and a half flight took us up to Lake Eyre South and onto Lake Eyre North.  On the way out of Marree I nearly freaked when the pilot pointed out the Oodnadatta track which we were about to travel on after the flight.  It looked like a road in the middle of no where going to no where.  The lake itself was magical.  Its hard to explain and I'm sure the photos won't do it justice.  The changing colours were beautiful, with the contrasts of the pure white salt plains with the aqua blue water that changed colour with depth. We got down to 500 feet and the lake suddenly turned pink!  At other times it looked like we were flying over ice.  

Birdsville Track

We were so excited as we headed off down one of the most famous outback journeys in Australia.  The track from Birdsville to Marree (523kms) cuts through some of our most arid and desolate country, although much to Bens disgust (due to recent rains) it wasn’t the desert landscape he was expecting.

The track was established in the 1880's as a stock route between Sth Western QLD and the railhead at Marree. It was pretty amazing looking out at the harsh landscape and thinking about the mailmen, Afghan cameleers and stockman who trod this route.  Just two days travel for us took drovers and their stock five weeks.  Apparently in the good years as many as 50,000 head walked the track being watered at waterholes and artesian bores along the way. 

Curried Camel pies in Birdsville and Big Red

After four nights in Birdsville, the baker called us 'nearly locals'.  What a spectacular welcome we had.  It just happened the Australian Airforce Roulettes arrived the same day, and put on a fantastic acrobatic air show at sunset. The six of them did all sorts of manouvers as the whole town stood and watched on the street outside the Birdsville hotel.

Music, Yabbies and fishing in Queenslands Outback towns

Hi everyone, we've made it one of Australia's iconic towns,... Birdsville.

Along the way we've stayed at Cunnumulla, Thargomindah and Windorah, so grab a cuppa and I'll fill you in.

We loved our stay at Nardoo station just outside of Cunnumulla. Its a 110 hectare working cattle and sheep station. The great artesian hot tubs were great to soak in. Especially in the cool mornings! The kids watched the station hands muster the sheep and listened to their stories around the campfire. The station was gearing up for a music festival they hold annually, and they were expecting 600 caravans. We were lucky as some of the performers were already there, so we had a great night around the campfire listening to their music. Ben became the fourth member of the band (with his harmonica) after one of the of the musicians noticed him grooving to the music! They ended up giving him a lesson the next day and wrote out some scales to practice. We tried to buy one of their CD's but in typical country spirit they gave it to us for free.                         

Terror in the night!

Terror in the night!

So much for a relaxing last night in St George.  Little did we know that while we were at the St George show another family had made itself at home in our camp! Our first alert was Hannah (quite calmly I must admit) calling out "Ah Mum, Dad, there's a rat in here!"

This was followed by Scott and I armed with torches, the kids fishing nets and the chase was on. Gosh those little things can move.  Ben slept on throughout the first catch, (with the mouse taking refuge under his camp bed) but awoke as it became hands on deck after the second sighting. 

Needless to say my night of terror continued as I hid under the doona with my head covered by my sarong (thanks Kathleen) in fear of one running over my face.  I listened to that mouse...or mice, scurrying from place to place on the camper floor the whole night. The next morning at least ten mice made a run for it as we pulled the camper down. Ooooh!

Today we are on our way to Cunnumulla, staying at the Nardoo station. Hopefully we don’t have any stowaways.

Heading West - Buderim to St George

Hi Everyone,

It was great to hit the road last Friday.  We left Buderim around 7.30am and arrived in St George at 4pm.  We had morning tea at Kilkoy and Lunch at Dalby in the park.