Monday 26/7/2010 Mount Dare to Purnie Bore

(Mount Dare to Purnie Bore)
Up at 0800hrs. Much warmer but the wind persists.
Bought some extra sugar, margarine and milk at Mount Dare (having not factored in Col's damper cooking). Topped up with fuel (84L) then said our farewells to Roger, Di, Peter and Glennys, leaving by 0930hrs.
Driving through flat "nothing".
There's clay, rocks and ground cover only, for 360 degrees to the horizon. The track is quite corrugated and we're travelling at 40km/hr.
Closer to Dalhousie there is a small salt pan and behind that Mesas to the NE.
Dalhousie is a little oasis of water, trees and wildlife that I feel is a bit ruined by the Desert Park's buildings and fences. The camping is forced too far back from the water to enjoy it. The site allocated is more like a gravel car park.
We arrived there at 1100hrs and decided on a long soak and lunch and to then continue on rather than camping here. Those that prefer facilities would have stayed.
Dalhousie are naturally fed springs from the artesian basin. Water from Queensland from millions of years ago that is seeping up through fissures.
Wow! So lovely and warm! The temperature ranges from 34 to 38 degrees. The main pool is about 30m x 15m, surrounded by a thin layer of bushes. Lots of birds in the trees.

Col, Jordan and I could mostly reach the bottom with at least our toes, there was a shallower area where Jack could stand and it was deeper to the western end.
Soaked for about an hour in the warmth and natural minerals all the while being exfoliated by the unique spring gobey (3cm long fish).

A true "day spa"!
We ate lunch there and left by 1250hrs to push on to Purnie Bore. We will now have an extra night up our sleeves which is a handy safety margin.
East of Dalhousie were more mesas that looked like big piles of dirt. There were rocks everywhere like giant gravel (including on the road), and corrugations.
We hit sand halfway between Dalhousie and Purnie Bore, but it was pale orange and on a firm base.
Now passing a flowering claypan.
Came upon a part of the track that is now a new waterway, complete with young trees and finches.

We had to make our way around this by heading off track to the left where we had to also circumnavigate a claypan. Wow! it was beautiful. Covered in wild flowers including the poached egg daisy, north of the French Line Junction.

A kite.

There were so many flowers and so much vegetation, it was difficult to find the orange sand dune look that we had been expecting, so it was pretty exciting to come across this..

We arrived at Purnie Bore at 1500hrs. There are signs and a modest toilet and shower block near the track, but you can drive in, well past these along the lake (made by the bore) to a lovely scenic bush camp.

There is no spring to soak in as the water is cold by the time it settles in the lake, but we have beautiful views of a water oasis, surrounded by orange dunes.

It is a birdwatchers paradise. Pluvers, budgerigars, zebra finch, crows, black chickens, a falcon, a white spoon billed water bird (huge), small black water birds living in the reeds, heaps of galahs and even a dove. There are also several dragonflies.

Jordan and Jack followed me around with cameras for a while, and Jordan is now across the water playing on top of the red sand dune with her camera.

Jack and I went for a walk around the lake. He then joined Jordan on the dune.
Originally miners bored down 1800m to the artesian basin. Eventually the cap eroded and water poured out at 18L/second creating it's own lake which went on to support a plethera of flora and fauna. The water is 85 degrees celcius when it first shoots out but settles and cools in the lake.
This disrupted the flow to Dalhousie Springs, so it was re-capped but with a slow flow left to maintain the now flourishing wildlife.

You can see the steam where the water is flowing out of the pipe, amoungst the reeds.
I think I will walk back down to the shower, fed by the naturally hot bore water. It gets there under it's own pressure and some is stored in a tank so that it cools to be used for cold water (nah, maybe tomorow).
After tea I downloaded photos and videos. There were a few mosquitos after dark, but they seemed to only hang around for about 30 minutes.
Very mild weather. No fire tonight. It looks like it might rain though. It has clouded over very quickly.
Off to bed to read. I fell asleep at 2245hrs to the sound of raindrops. Not what we were expecting in the Simpson Desert!



Sunday 25/7/2010 Chambers Pillar to Mount Dare

(Chambers Pillar to Mount Dare)
It is supposed to rain again tomorow, but so far nothing but blue sky.They've had 700mls already out here this half of the year, when usually they only get 200mls for th whole year!
We were up at 0630hrs to get the sunrise shots. Packed up and left by 0800hrs to big waves from the other campers.

We now have a huge day, having to backtrack to the highway to get to (hopefully) at least Finke, and we'll just visit Mount Dare now.
A huge flock of galahs.
Much less coughing last night. I'm almost better.
1hr and 5mins from Chambers Pillar to Maryville where we had a toilet stop and Col bought some more flour for dampers.
It turned out to be a wonderful day. We met two couples from Dubbo. Roger and Di, and Peter and Glennys.
They were heading south, were also aiming for Finke but had passed the turn off (the one that was closed).
Together we all decided that the Finke would be down by now and they just hadn't removed the "closed" sign because it was the weekend (our ranger had actually hinted at this). They had also heard of someone else coming through yesterday.
So rather than driving the long way round we all teamed up to again take on the mighty Finke River, chatting the whole way on UHF. We were all on a bit of a high to be travelling with a group. It was fun to have friends for the day.
The route we took was along the old Ghan Railway, with old sleepers pins and sidings.

Had to watch out for half the track washed away in parts. It also follows a race track that runs from Alice to Finke.
There were a few cars heading north , telling us it was Ok to cross the Finke River. Yay!

Does anyone else see a breast?

Near the end there are 2 branches to the track. The main track veering to the right, and one to the left that follows the railway. Roger was desperate to try the one on the left to be more adventurous, so off we all went.

Following the embankment, the landscape began changing and we noticed we were going over small sandunes, ending suddenly at a huge gap... the Finke River. It was so wide and all sand!! with huge trees that had been washed down in the rains.

The hardest part was getting up the other bank which was a sheer wall of sand. We dug away to form a ramp. Didn't make it up first go but were OK once we let our tyres down a bit, plus a bit of a nudge over the top soft bit by Peter and his Nissan. We should have used diff lock??

Peter went straight up first go using high speed, at a very scary 45 degree angle. If he'd misjudged just slightly he would have rolled it.
Roger's Landcruiser was almost rolled sideways by his trailer.

We attempted the harder steeper route of straight up. but sank in the top little pile of silt.
After some fun snatchem strapping we all had lunch on the river bank.
There were hundreds of "fish out of water" down on the now dry river bed, and just a few ponds of water with fish (potty mullet size) swimming around.
Had to go and check out the other crossing, where the main track goes, and where the closed sign was.
It was a very solid, smooth dirt road most of the way across with one narrow flow of water. All of us drove across and back just to show the road closed sign should have been removed. The water was only wheel high. I had to take a photo of the "road closed" sign. Very funny! Such an easy crossing. I took a photo of the sign.
Don't worry, we do not advocate ignoring "road closed" or other warning signs. Many people have been drowned, washed away at causeways. It's just that we knew when the river had peaked, there'd been no rain since, and that the signs aren't brought in on weekends. Add to that the new ability to travel in a group, experience of knowing what we're capable of crossing and the fact that we would have turned around at anytime if we thought it looked too dangerous and hearing and seeing that other vehicles had come through we decided to do it.

I'm glad we didn't go all the way back around to the Stuart Highway!
After Charlotte's Water, the trees just suddenly disappear and it feels like the Nullabor.

Our NSW travelling companians camped the night at Mount Dare with us.

I put copies of the riverbank videos onto Roger's memory stick.
Thanks for a fun and adventurous day. We enjoyed your company.

Saturday 24/7/2010 Rainbow Valley to Chamber's Pillar

(Rainbow Valley to Chamber's Pillar)
I think our neighbours regreted their decision after I coughed all night.
Up at 0730hrs. After breakfast we went for a sightseeing walk along claypan and rock formations.

There were tracks of lizards, beetles, hopping mice and a ferral cat. Also a lot of bird life, especially zebra finch. Packed up by 0930hrs.
The kids are now naming birds since their Desert Park education (eg black kites).
Heading south on the Stuart Highway to Hugh River Stock Route.
Lots of gates along this easy dirt road (70km/hr). A good job for Jack.
Passed the current Central Rail Line and will soon hit the Old South Road, then the Old Ghan Railway.
Oh no! The road along the Old Ghan to Finke is closed! We asked about it at Maryville, apparently a car was washed away by the Finke last week.
Need to work out a revised plan today.
Budgies everywhere!
Collected firewood in the Hugh River bed, trees washed down everywhere, before heading into the National Park.
We drove over an amazingly steep hill to see a view of several mesas, insulbergs and buttes, and arrived at Chamber's Pillar at 1400hrs. There are 7 other cars here plus the ranger. We noticed you are meant to pay $7.70 (for a family) into a box, so I got Jordan to do this. She had a lot of trouble filling out the form.
After having tacos for lunch (last night's tea), we did the hike around Chamber's Pillar.

I need to go back for the sunset shots.
I downloaded my photos, had a play with my new shutter release cable, then started a fire while Col is making a mix for the camp oven damper.
It's now 1720hrs. I'll have to hike back up for the sunset shot soon.

Getting tips on photography again, from our camping neighbour. He was also at Rainbow Valley last night.

Col cooked tea tonight while Jordan and I played with photography. Chicken schnitzel, corn cobs in the coals, vegetables and pasta carbonara (dehydrated pack), followed by plain damper for the kids and fruit damper for us.
I did my first time-lapse photo, Castle Rock by moonlight!

The whole group of us had another talk by the ranger around a group fire where we also all sang happy birthday to one of the ladies.
I then had another play with a time lapse photo (only 1 minute due to the bright moon) of the starry sky over Chamber's Pillar.

Wow...this is fun!!
Our neighbours then joined us at our fire for a chat and a glass of wine. He gave lots of advice on photography. They are just starting a 6 month trip. Lucky ducks!

Friday 23/7/2010 Alice Springs to Rainbow Valley

(Alice Springs to Rainbow Valley)
After a buffet breakfast at our motel, we checked out and headed to the dreamtime tour with mum and dad. It was absolutely nothing like advertised. I was expecting a whole community demonstrating their culture, bushtucker, doing a traditional dance (corroboree) in their traditional dress, and plenty of children for Jordan and Jack to meet. I was so disappointed. It was still OK but it was definitely false advertising!!
Instead there were only 5 Aboriginal women and one Aboriginal man there. They were sitting with a display of their paintings for sale.

Other than that we had an educational session from a caucasian man, damper and a cuppa. Then we tried some bush tucker, met the Aboriginal people and bought a painting for $100. Next were lessons and turns at throwing boomerangs.

Jordan and Jack have gone to the Desert Park with their grandma and grandad.
Col and I had jobs to do. First we stopped at a mechanics especially for Land Rovers as we had a couple of studs snapped off. The guy wouldn't be back till 1430hrs so we parked at Coles. Needing a toilet, we thought that Maccas was a good idea (and snuck in a bit of food).
With the groceries tended to we set off to find the camera shop (opposite Woolworths) and bought a shutter release cable for time lapse photography.
I then headed into the laundromat and did 2 loads of washing..drying..folding. I chatted to a girl from Estonia, had some police come in searching for someone and started the next Stieg Larsson book. I needed a rest. I can't stop coughing and feel like crap.
Col spoke to the mechanic and ended up just taking some studs to replace himself later. He then went to a camp store and bought a new billy and a baby camp oven to do dampers. He didn't get sand tracks as intended as he couldn't find any. I hope we don't regret this.
Got the kids back off mum and dad near the mall. sounds like they had fun with the kites (but they didn't have a wedgetailed eagle!). Bye mum and dad. It was great meeting up with you!! Will miss you!!
Although we were already checked out, we went back to our motel to fill up our water tank from the laundry tap.
Leaving for Rainbow Valley at 1730hrs.
We saw the sun setting along Stuart Highway instead of at Rainbow Valley. It was an easy dirt road in even in the dark. We used our spotlights. There were a lot of cattle on the road that wouldn't move until you almost touched them.
We arrived at 1910hrs to a completely packed area. A nice couple let us share their bay. Quickly put up the tents then were called away. The whole group and a ranger were waiting for us. Apparently there is a ranger talk every Friday night here and every Saturday night at Chambers Pillar.
Apparently it's the biggest wet out here since 1971. After a lovely talk and picture viewing of the unique environment and wildlife while sitting around a lovely big campfire, we decided on quick sandwiches and a cuppa for tea, then to bed to read.
There was still a bitterly cold wind, it was too late and I was too tired to cook.

Thursday 22/7/2010 Glen Helen to Alice Springs

(Glen Helen to Alice Springs)
Up at 0700hrs, ready by 0820hrs. A record!
Beautiful sunrise colours on Mount Sonder. A photographer's dream!

Off to Glen Helen to get some fuel and meet mum and dad.
Yay! Hugs all around... it feels funny to be running into peole all the way out here in the middle of Australia. Fancy our trips crossing over at Alice at the same time!!

It was lovely to have some extra company. You tend to feel a bit socially starved after a while.
Together we visited the scenic sites of Glen Helen Gorge, Ormiston Gorge,

Serpentine Gorge,

Ellery Creek Big Hole,

and Standley Chasm

...on our drive back in to Alice Springs.

It was a little overcast and windy to get perfect Gorge photos, but still beautiful regardless. Jordan had fun with her grandfather doing macro shots together.

We were booked into our motel by 1600hrs, had showers, edited photos and organised a mudmap to be faxed to the motel reception for our Aboriginal Dream Time tour tomorow.

Off to Ali and Han's house for dinner. Ali is Col's cousin. They have 2 daughters Allana 4yrs and Kiera 2yrs. We last saw Ali and Hans at their wedding here in 2002. Col's aunt and uncle, Chris and Trevor were also there and my parents Kay and Paul were invited.

Wow!! Boy did they go to an amazing effort! We were shocked at how much work they had gone to to put on dinner for us. It was amazing. I think there was enough food to feed several more families. It was delicious and we really appreciate the effort. So fantastic to see them again. Our outback family. We enjoyed a fantastic night listening to some funny and interesting stories.

Jordan and Jack had a great time bonding with their second cousins Allana and Kiera. Who were very sad to see us go.