Alice to Broken Hill

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Howdy,
Sorry it’s been awhile.
After leaving Alice Springs we headed south on the Stuart Hwy staying at Marla (South Australia). We watched a couple of back packers set up their roof top tent incorrectly (a favourite past time of ours). They hadn’t pulled the ladder out far enough and half the roof topper was angled upwards. We have sometimes wondered if the hiring company actually shows the people renting them how to set them up properly.
After leaving Marla (at 7.30am) we continued onto Coober Pedy. Coober Pedy was very similar to White Cliffs but quite a bit larger. Every sign you saw was for an underground something, from restaurants to hotels to shops and to homes.
We continued on through to Port Augusta staying the night. It was a long day.
After a bit of a sleep in we started to head south east, driving up through Horrocks Pass towards Burra and camped on the shores of the Murray River.
We didn’t set up straight away and as the wind picked up and the storm clouds came over, we decided to roll out the swag in the back of the Ute. It was quite funny and reminded me of sleep outs and cubby houses when we were kids.
From here we drove on to Mildura. The weather got cold and the rain came in, something we hadn’t experienced in awhile. We spent a couple of days here and even went to the movies (we saw Hot Rod, it wasn’t the best movie).
We still had a week till we meet Ian but didn’t know where else to go so we headed straight to Broken Hill. We hadn’t heard back from Dan and were wondering if he knew we were coming back to town. After deciding to go out for dinner (it had been awhile), I (yes I got to drive) was driving through the main street and had to stop at the red light, when all of a sudden someone was banging on my window. It was Dan.
He had been on holidays for the last week and hadn’t got our email. So instead of trying to kill time we spent a week meeting Dan’s friends and becoming locals ourselves.
Ian met up with us on the Friday and we headed out through Silverton the next day taking the dirt roads through to the Veldt Rd and onto Packsaddle Roadhouse, where we were recognized from the previous year from the Outback Challenge (we left the trailer at Dan’s again, thanks a million again).
The next day we drove up to Tibooburra passing Milparinka before stopping at Cameron’s corner and having a beer (the boys did anyway). After a quick bite to eat we continued onto the Strzelecki Track and camped by the Montecollina bore.
The track was fairly easy but in places a bit chopped up due to previous rains. Continuing down the track we stop at Lyndhurst before heading towards Maree Pub. Another beer down before we started the Birdsville Track. We stopped and had a look at the sites and camped at the Mungeranie roadhouse, which was next to a wetland with numerous birdlife. A couple of beers later and we turned in for the night. As Ian is an early riser (likes to get up before the sun) we were generally on the road before 8, this was enabling us to get quite a few kilometers down each day. We headed to Birdsville via the inside track. This track was easier then the Strzelecki trek and was very scenic.
The pub was the first stop before we headed up to the windmill to get our stew started. Since we were on the outskirts of the Simpson Desert the boys wanted to tackle Big Red and some of the Simpson Desert.
So nice and early we headed out to the desert and dropped our tyre pressures. They both drove up Big Red in the reverse route to normal, both successful the first try before tackling Little Red, which ended up being harder than big red. Mick drove up first go and Ian after three attempts finally got up too. We tackled a few dunes and had a quick look around whilst there.
After all the fun and games they had we headed back to the pub for a double cheese burger and another beer (Schotty we mentioned your name and they kick us out, Na only joking).
We decided to head to Innamincka via the Sturt Stony Desert and Cordillo Downs (Australia’s largest shearing shed). It was a very slow, rocky and bumpy. And I was glad when we pulled over to camp that night.
Once we reached Innamincka we had a look around, first stopping to view Will’s (Burke and Will’s) grave before pulling up on the Cooper Creek for some lunch.
Heading back into Innamincka the boys had a beer at the pub before noticing we had picked up a nail in a tyre. A quick plug and we were back on the road and on our way up to Coongie Lakes (100km NW of Innamincka).
The road was slow and corrugated. But after the trip in we drove up over a sand dune and came to the lake. It was magical. There was birdlife everywhere. Lots of photos later (we even got up to see the sunrise) we headed back through Innamincka and out to Burke’s grave before continuing onto the Dig Tree.
Once leaving the Dig Tree we headed back to Tibooburra and Packsaddle via Warri Gate. It was another slow corrugated and deeply washed out road. A day later and we were back in Broken Hill watching Dan ride his bike in the Broken Hill races (no horses due to the flu), having a BBQ dinner and a few quiet ones for Dan’s birthday and just repacking the car and trailer again before heading off again.
From here we are continuing to head east.

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Comments

[Brent]

Where's my mention this time? You typed a novel but not one mention of me. I am very very disappointed. I think you two need to get your priorities in order and start thinking more about me and less on your trip.