Trephina Gorge in the East Mc Donnell Ranges is just out of Alice Springs (Alice lies in between the East and West McDonnell Ranges) and is a beautiful camping spot but got down to -1C overnight. Used our jaffle maker on an open fire and it was great. Offline for 6 days now walking the Larapinta trail in the West McDonnel Ranges.
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| View from our campsite |
Nothing to see here. No sights, just a nice pub lunch in an outback roadhouse, but at least we made it to the Northern Territory.
We went through the Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park, which is some weird mesa formations of brown and white that look like mine tailings, which has been used as scenery for some films made in and around Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy is weird.
A flight over Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre, a few hours on the Oodnadatta Track, and a visit to the historic town of Oodnadatta.
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| Water in lake Eyre |
After a great night camping, we hit the Oodnadatta Track (the path of the old Ghan Railway line) and got some of our best photos so far.
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| Lake Eyre South, the smallest part |
The real outback: nothing for miles. We actually drove the Outback Highway. We camped near Lake Eyre but unfortunately the road to Level Post Bay (between Lake Eyre North and South) is closed. No matter, tomorrow we will be driving around the bottom of the lake on the Oodnadata Track, ending up at William Creek where we will get a flight over the lake the next day.
This 3-day, 45km walk goes from Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Ranges back to Arkaba, a 64,000 acre property bordering the park.
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| The Milky Way |
Not a spectacular drive, but plenty of kangaroos and emus spotted. The highlight was the cracked windscreen and arranging repairs: Port Augusta couldn’t do it for another two weeks so we lined up to have it replaced in Alice Springs while we do the Lara Pinta walk and they will keep the car in their garage while we are on the trek.
A car update for those interested. I chose the petrol option for the Defender because it was cheaper (to buy and to run) and lighter, and because I thought diesels were so last century. Availability in remote areas used to be an issue but you can get petrol pretty much anywhere now (even if you need to add octane booster occasionally for your fussy engine). I made the wrong call.
Nothing but goats, lots of goats, along the way. Left early, so we got to see the Living Desert Sculptures, Pro Hart museum and Line of Lode memorial and have dinner at the Palace Hotel from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Finally reached the outback, apparently. Went through some big, flat country with massive cotton fields, wheat fields and a massive solar farm, ending up in the mining town of Cobar.
We got to see our old holiday house in Rockley and visit Blayney and Millthorpe but as soon as we set off from Medlow Bath in the morning, we got a call from the kids saying that the house was flooding from the upstairs bathroom…
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| Following the sheep |
People will tell you that you can’t have too much water but that’s simply not true.
After (expertly) packing the car, we set off to Glenbrook to walk to Elizabeth's lookout and Marge’s lookout to get some photos of Sydney.
One of the items on my pack list was a satellite phone. I thought it was not only essential but also handy, as it came with apps for “web and mail”. The idea of being able to contact anyone at any time, as long as you could see the sky, was pretty cool, but I later realised that there are two ways of doing that. I will tell you the story of my two communication purchases, and you decide which one you prefer: a satphone or a Starlink dish.
