A reasonably long day of driving today, about 450km which should take just over 5 hours with a couple of brief stops.
Continue reading “Day 36 – Alice Springs to Uluru”Day 36 – Alice Springs to Uluru
Day 35 – Alice Springs
Day 35 – Alice Springs
Today we pick up Justine’s mum, Dawn. She will be with us for the next 10 days. Last night we tested Caitlin sleeping on one of the bench cushions. We were going to have her where the table is, but we’ve worked out her legs can actually fit under our fold down bed. She loves it, it’s a bit like sleeping in a cubby.
Continue reading “Day 35 – Alice Springs”Day 34 – Gemtree to Alice Springs
There is a road about 8km back along the Plenty, it’s part of the Binns Track, it takes you into the Easts MacDonnell ranges, and then we could go to Alice via the Easts Macs road, I’ve asked a couple of people and it seems it would be too rough to take the van through, we we’ll stick to the black stuff today.
Continue reading “Day 34 – Gemtree to Alice Springs”Day 33 – The Plenty Highway – Day 2
At about 2am, the storm that we were enjoying so much when it was 50km away, now wasn’t so nice when it was on top of us. There was a bit of lightening, almost no rain, but the wind was so strong the van was being buffeted around quite a bit. I heard the table or chairs go, so raced outside to get these under the van for some protection. Justine and I have a pretty restless night’s sleep, we’re not scared as such, but it’s just a little un-nerving, the van is moving quite a lot. And of top of all this, it hasn’t cooled down either.
Continue reading “Day 33 – The Plenty Highway – Day 2”Day 32 – The Plenty Highway
Today is going to a big day, we are up reasonably early. I’d like to get going between 8-9am. By the time we have breakfast, showers and packup, we head into town to fill up with fuel it is 9am when we head out of Isa
Day 31 – Mt Isa
Today is really a catch up day do some washing and rest a bit. We go shopping, a quick trip to Kmart to get some supplies, and we can’t go past the pool noodles. Then over to Coles to stock up on groceries. Important safety tip, don’t come to this place on a Saturday. It makes Coles Leichhardt on Christmas Eve look tame.
Day 30 – Corella Dam to Mt Isa
We wake to see the dam so calm you can see the reflection of the hills. Even though there are probably a dozen or so other campers here, they are so spread out it’s like we have the place to ourselves. It is so quiet here with just the sound of the birds, there are hundred here.
Continue reading “Day 30 – Corella Dam to Mt Isa”Day 29 – Gregory Downs to Corella Dam
Given how hot it is we have a really good sleep, it is a nice reminder how effective a fan can be and maybe we don’t need AC all the time.
Day 28 – Kurumba to Gregory Downs
I’ve looked at the itinerary and I think we can fit in a side trip to Lawn Hill. There are two ways to get there. We can go west via a dirt road to Burketown and then head south to Gregory Downs, or we can go south to the “Four Ways” then west to Gregory downs, the latter is longer although quicker, as it is all tar, but will require about 150km of backtracking the following day. Did I mention I hate back tracking?
Day 27 – Normanton to Kurumba
A short drive today, only about 80km. We’re on our way at 10am, and we stop off for a quick photo with Krys the croc (a full size replica of a croc killed up here in ’57). It’s just after we take this photo we see the large sign saying don’t climb on the croc – Sorry!.