This morning we farewelled Yulara and continued our journey north to Alice Springs. It was a lovely sunny day with the wind picking up in the afternoon. We stopped for lunch in the shade of the roadhouse at Stuarts Well. Apparently Stuarts Well is famous for Dingley the Singing (and piano playing) Dingo, according to the information board. We chose not to pursue it. As we got closer to Alice Springs half the road was closed due to a semitrailer carrying a shipping container loosing its back wheels. It didn’t appear as though anybody had been injured, but the consequences could have been disastrous. The speed limit on the highways up here is one hundred and thirty kilometres an hour. Considerably faster than the ninety kilometres an hour we travel at with the van. Leaving the ... read more

It was a big day for us today. We drove from Marla to the Ayers Rock Resort at Yulara. Not an especially long drive, about five hundred kilometres, more that it was part of a dream fulfilled. Not long after we turned onto the Lasseter Highway the magic happened. The landscape became quite beautiful. Soft grass tussocks gently swaying in the breeze, wattles and grevilleas in flower everywhere, and wildflowers of many colours decorated the red sand. As we came around one bend we were struck by the beauty of a huge monolith in the distance. Not Ularu as we originally thought, but Mount Connor. The beauty of Ularu was not to be seen for at least another fifty kilometres. And when did see it, we were in awe. Ayers Rock is much more beautiful in ... read more

We were packed up and on the road a little after seven o’clock this morning. Simon, our TomTom (Tom is a to obvious a name) was directed to lead us to Woomera via Port Augusta, which he did admirably, despite Frank’s best efforts to confuse him. I think that is something that men insist on doing. Set the GPS and then insist on going of in a different direction and then actually trying to argue with it. After a couple of episodes of this behaviour this morning, The Driver finally admitted that perhaps Simon did know what he was doing after all. We drove through some lovely old towns in the Barossa and Clare Valleys before joining the Main North Road. Victoria doesn’t seem to have such picturesque towns. Between Clare and Port Augusta we were ... read more

Day six. On the road again. After a slow start this morning, due to phone calls to Authorised Service Agents in Victoria, Adelaide, Whyalla, and Alice Springs trying to track down a replacement part for the fridge (yes, still the fridge) we left Mildura heading towards Adelaide. A pleasant drive, although I think I had my eyes closed for a fair bit of it. The sun is very bright. We stopped for lunch at a roadside rest stop and were absolutely appalled by the amount of rubbish left there. Admittedly, there were no rubbish bins, but really, if you can carry the rubbish there, surely you can take it away with you. Somebody had even dumped a bag full of make-up. (Nothing in my colours.) We prepared for the next stage of our trip by doing ... read more

That first step is a doosy. At our lovely camp site at Gol Gol, just over the Murray River from Mildura, the van is parked on a bit of a hill. The van itself is beautifully level, as it should be, but there is quite a large first step down to the steps at the door due to the incline of the land. As a result, I take that first step very tentatively. The first step, I think, is a good analogy for our trip. As you are probably aware, this is our first trip out in our lovely home built van. Although very excited about it, we are still quite tentative about how everything will work, and whether it will fail us as we progress on our journey. The ongoing issues with the fridge add ... read more