MickP

Second last day on the road. A bit sad, but am keen to get back to clean up the house, myself and the touring gear. Got away nice and early to fuel up and get a greasy breakfast (dagwood dogs for the kids - good parenting) at the servo. Out of town before 8am. First stop was Bourke. Not much going on except I got stuck in a toilet and Suz had to bail me out by kicking the door in! Next stop was at Nyngan where we fuelled up and had a look at the Big Bogan. Interesting - reminds me of me… We finally got to Peak Hill after Phil and Jen, who stopped in Narromine for some damper ingredients, accidentally started heading to Dubbo before they realised they were meant to head for ... read more

We exited the Hay River track onto massive salt pans that were a bit weird to look at - very white amongst the red of the sand and green/grey of the trees and bushes. After a short time we hit the QAA line, which is one of the main tracks across the Simpson Desert. So after five days of travelling South we took a 90 degree turn to the East. This was some awesome driving up and over the dunes. There were a few that we had to back down and try a few times - mostly because my stoopid traction control kept turning on automatically which kills the wheel spin that is sometimes needed to get over those last few ruts. The pictures that we have do not do justice to how big, long and ... read more

We arrived in Alice Springs today. An interesting drive down from the Mount Doreen ruins, which appeared to be an old mining operation. First stop was at Yuandemu (incorrect spelling no doubt) for some fuel. $2.15 a litre. Ooooof. It was a funny setup in this community - prepay in the store and when there were enough people wanting fuel a fella came out (Swiss backpacker) who tried to organise the chaos. There was one set of pumps that only went to one side (locked in a cage) and cars coming in from both directions. Took ages to get to us but gave me a chance to chat to the people in line. The carnival that we found out about yesterday had been held here and it was a massive event. Home team won the footy ... read more

Today was all about driving. We have all wanted to do the Tanami track - just because. Not much on it but it is an iconic 1,000 km odd stretch of road in Australia. First stop was back in Halls Creek for lots if fuel, including the jerry cans, and a pie. From there it was straight to the Tanami. Approximately 100 km down the track is the Wolf Creek Meteorite Crater. That was pretty cool. Not quite to the scale of Wilpena Pound but still impressive. At the top of the crater was a fella called Benji. He had just finished riding a motorbike across all ten of Australia’s deserts in Guinness Record time! He plans to circumnavigate Tasmania on a jet ski next year as his next adventure. On the way out we passed ... read more

Not much to report for today (Sunday). Got up from our park in Broome, packed stuff away and headed down the bitumen highway toward Fitzroy Crossing. The landscape was not overly spectacular and the drive was interrupted by a stack of roadworks so the 400 km drive took a bit over five hours. We spotted a free camp in our camp books up the road towards Tunnel Creek (the other end from a week or so previous). The books gave us a bum steer but we ended up accidentally finding it. A great little spot, that we had to ourselves, that included a bunch of Boabs and Gums in a sort of valley surrounded by beautiful, mini-gorges. I hope the photos do it justice. Next morning, my family and Di did a cruise in the Geikie ... read more