Day 1. Saturday 7 July 2018

Roxby Downs to 50km North of William Creek

After final preparations Wedgie130 hit the road, only to be called back.  The Navara had a flat battery. Obviously we had left something on overnight.  Not a good start.

Out with the Thumper, a quick jump start, final refuel and we hit the Borefield Track north from Olympic Dam.  As usual, the first 40km or so were a bit rough but we were in no rush so we just cruised along, turning left onto the Oodnadatta Track.  We have done this part of the trip a number of times so only stopped at The Bubbler for a quick look before stopping for lunch, Hot Dogs, at Coward Springs.  From there it was a gentle cruise to William Creek for the obligatory beer in its famous front bar. We have never been past without a beer and this was not going the be the first.

After beers, it was a short cruise about 50 km north where we had an early set up in a tributary of the Anna Creek.  Nice and simple set up with Yiros for dinner under a starry night.

Day 2. William Creek to Hamilton Station.

Day two saw a chilly morning at -1 degree. It was a cold but beautiful morning that kept us all moving while we packed up after bacon and egg muffins for breakfast. There was no rush on the pack up, hitting the road just before 10.

Again we just took our time heading north up the Oodna Track with a few stop offs at places of interest, the most striking as usual being the Algebukina Bridge and nearby waterhole.  We haven’t been back here in about 30 years, but other than the obvious impact of tourism, almost all wood has been ravaged, not too much has changed.

Next stop 50km north was Oodnadatta with its iconic Pink Roadhouse and Transcontinental Hotel. Fuel at the Pink Roadhouse was $1.83 per litre, not too bad I thought, so we topped up the tanks before wandering down to the Transcontinental for a burger for lunch. While we were in Oodna we wandered out to the Airport for a look.  My parents lived here for a few years in the late 1950’s.  I will have to dig out their slides before our next visit to see if we can recognise their house.  Some of the places referenced in the many stories of this stage of their lives, most memorable being the outdoor cinema and Dept of Meteorology weather station are still present.

After lunch we headed north on the Oddnadatta Track before turning right to head north on the Dalhousie road.  We passed Mt Sarah Station which I visited in my youth chasing brumbies in the mid 1980’s before finally setting up camp just to the east of Hamilton Station.

This had to be a reasonably early set up as we had lamb shanks in the camp oven, so we were stopped and the fire going by 3:30.  Lamb shanks we devine and we crashed for the night to another perfect outback starry night.

Day 3. Dalhousie Hot Springs

Another chilly -1 morning greeted us as we arose to the sunrise and a sprinkling of ice on Wedgie130. Luckily there was no shortage of wood and we had a fire crackling away to keep the chill at bay.

On the road around 9:30 and we cruised at a leisurely pace via the Purdika siding ruins before entering the Witjira National Park from the south.  A stop off at the Dalhousie Station ruins, which have been stabilised since our last visit many years ago, and we wandered on to the target of our visit the famous Dalhousie Hot Springs.

As soon as we arrived, it was into the boardies and into the hot springs for a most refreshing swim.  The warm water is certainly a bonus as it was a bit chilly when you exposed yourself to the lazy breeze, certainly different that the mid 30’s of our last visit in the late 80’s

The Hot Springs have hardly changed since our last visit, other than the much improved camping facilities.  Much of this can be attributed to the controls imposed by the National Parks, the most telling for us being the ‘no fires’ anywhere policy.  Predicting another night close to or below zero, this was not enticing at all and as we were thoroughly refreshed by the swim we decided to push on via Bloods Bore to find a camp in the Abminga Creek just outside the park boundary.

Dinner was chicken risotto, a Lucy specialty, under the stars before into bed. 

Day 4. Abminga Creek to Maryvale

After another chilly night down to zero, we packed up and hit the road.  First stop was Mt Dare. Fortunately, having topped up in Oodnadatta, we didn’t need to refuel at the $2.45 they were asking. I tried buying a khaki drovers shirt, but they are restricted to 'relatives only', so no sale for them and we pushed on.  The roads were pretty good and we made good time through to Finke where we turned west for a short detour to Lambert’s Centre of Australia.  This relatively little known spot on the map is apparently the exact centre of Australia, where we would balance if put on a pin.  The road in was interesting, almost two lanes criss crossing each other, dropping back to one at times. Arriving in time for lunch we were surprised by the number of like minded travellers. A quick feed, a few photos and a lap of the drone before heading back out the way we had come and back tracked to Finke.

After a quick lap of Finke we headed north on the Old South Road.  We should have guessed when we hit a big bull dust patch on the road one kilometre out that the road was going to be rough. This is probably not unexpected given the traffic it would have received during the Finke Desert Race in June, but we had heard that it is often graded straight after the race. The next 80km was rough, corrugated, sandy and bulldusty and we were down to 40km/h in places just trying to stay on the road. In fact in a few places we seriously considered getting off the road and trying the Alice to Finke race track which parallels the road most of the way. Speaking with some travellers the next day, they said that section of road was worse than anything they encountered crossing the Simpson.  Even given the roughness, we still managed to get rounded up (over taken) by a hire car pushing close to 100 and passed several caravan and camper trailer combinations heading south.

Camp for the night was in the Alice Creek about 20km south of Maryvale for yet another cold and starry night.

Day 5. Chambers Pillar

After a relatively sedate start to the day we just had to travel the 20 or so kilometres into the  Maryvale/Titjikala Community, a much improved road after the previous afternoon, before the 45km out  Chambers Pillar, arriving in time for lunch. This section of road was not too bad, a few bulldust holes but certainly not the 4WD track the signs warned us were needed.

On arrival, we set up Camp, had lunch and then spent the afternoon doing a couple of the walks around Chambers Pillar and nearby Castle Rock before migratin, with almost everyone else in the campground it seemed, out to the west side of the Pillar for the spectacular colours as the sun set on another perfect day at another Central Australia bucket list location. 

Day 6. Chambers Pillar to Rainbow Valley

Whether it was the icy cold in a swag or Eliesa’s broken ankle, most likely a bit of both, the girls have decided to head straight in on the Old South Road to Alice Springs, leaving Denise and myself to travel on our own.

After packing up we headed back the way we came to  Maryvale/ Titjikala before continuing north on a much improved road for roughly 35km before turning left to head west on the Hugh River Stock Route, a simple 60km run to bring us out on the Stuart Highway. About half way across, you cross the Tarcoola to Darwin train line, a good place to stop for a cuppa, but no trains came by while we were stopped. At the Stuart Highway, we turned to head north, passing the Stuart’s Well Roadhouse and 18km later we turned off the bitumen for the 23km run out to Rainbow Valley.  It was a bit corrugated and sandy but nothing to faze Wedgie130. Reading the comments book at Rainbow Valley you would have thought it was the worst road imaginable. I guess this is what you get as you get closer to civilisation and just over an hour out of Alice Springs.

Arriving in time for lunch, it was a quick set up, attracting a bit of interest in Wedgie130 from other travellers, Richard and Jeanett from Ararat Victoria in their Active Camper.

After lunch and a chat we wandered the several walking tracks in the area, most notably the Mushroom Rock and Claypan walks, both of which give amazing views of the main Rainbow Valley rock landform and its many colours.

From talking to Richard and Jeanette I decided to try some time lapse video of the sunset on my iPhone. The result was pretty good if I say so myself and so much easier than doing the same thing on my Nikon D7000.

By the time the sun had set, the temperature was plummeting and the lazy breeze made it uncomfortable around the fire so as soon as we had finished dinner we enjoyed one of the best features of Wedgie130, getting inside, out of the breeze with the heater going. Even only on one, it was heaps more comfortable than outside trying to absorb some heat from the fire.

Jeanette and Richard also dropped down and we had an enjoyable time swapping travel yarns and picking up on new places to go explore.

Around 5.30 in the morning we were awoken to a single loud crack sound we had never heard before from Wedgie130. Checking the thermometer, the temperature was well on the wrong side of -5.  When we woke in the morning we found ice in the kitchen tap spout and on further checking found the source of the ‘crack’. It was the hand piece for our shower cracking due to expanding ice. A lesson for all outback campers on a icy night, turn off the taps and  drain the hose/hand piece. 

Day 7 and 8. Alice Springs

After the cold awakening, it was pack up, exchange details with Richard and Jeanette before cruising the 100km into Alice to catch up with Lucy and Eliesa at the Alice Springs Tourist Park where they had a cabin and had booked us an unpowered site.

The first day was almost totally taken up with cruising Alice in search of a new shower hand piece, unfortunately with no luck. A call to David at Wedgetail Campers gave no real solution, his regular supplier has closed down, he is running down stocks and heads off to Cape York the next day. The next best solution, wrap the hand piece with silicon tape to make it water tight, then other layer of duct tape to keep it all tight and we were back in business.

As an aside, fellow Wedgie owners Peta and Andrew had their pipes freeze in the same cold spell in Qld, damaging their pump.  While a damaged pump is more catastrophic, it seems that the shower hand piece is harder to source. We will need to look into this and find a replacement on our return home.

The next day was doing the washing and other chores.  We got to appreciate the ‘quality’ of some fellow campers when my RM Williams jeans were taken from the caravan park clothes line.

Being crammed in like sardines, the ‘noise’ of being in town and the general overall vibe meant we were well and truly ready to take Wedgie130 back out bush