Day 26 Hawker to Marree in our 'taking the scenic route to the beach!'

 This morning we opted for a slower start to the day and posed for the caravan park managers to film us leaving for their Facebook socials. We headed out of Hawker and onto the road, heading on new roads for Matt and I. The road took us along spectacular mountain ranges, so very green from recent rains. There were views everywhere you looked. It was hard to know if I should film, take photos or just sit back and enjoy it. So eventually I did just that. You will just have to come and see it for yourself!

Our first stop was Leigh Creek, a former mining town. It reminded us of the architecture at Jindabyne in NSW. It was a very planned town, but has been in decline since the mining ended. One fellow has bought up a lot of the facilities, and is hoping to keep the town alive. We shopped for some fresh fruit and veggies at the volunteer run supermarket, where they had more staff than I ever see at my local Coles. and friendlier too even though they are 12. We moved on and drove past the very poorly rehabilitated mining mounds. Shame to the mining company there.

Our next stop was at the historic ruins town of Farina, home to an underground bakery, that has been restored and being used. They have also restored one of the original houses, and that now houses the rest of the bakery shop and cafe. We enjoyed a very tasty sausage roll, spicy beef pie, and bought some of the underground bakery baked bread, a blueberry muffin and cookies for the road. The bakery is run by volunteersfor two months of the year only, and they come from across Australia to work there. There was a steady stream of travellers and tourists enjoying the freshly baked food. There are labelled town ruins all over the area and it has an interesting history. the quest of the volunteers is to raise funds to pay for the rebuilding of sections of the town of Farina, they started with the bakery as the oven pictured below is built underground to keep it insulated and is wood fired. it takes a week to pre heat it, and it then has to be fed wood every 6 hours or so and a good stoking and complete fill of wood at 9pm for the 330 am baking session. they've rebuilt the adjacent building to sell the bread and other bakery items in. it proves that all you need is a good bakery in a town and you'll get a crowd of travelers . there were 50-70 people there at any one time and people rolling in and out all the time, 

Our final stop was Marree. sadly, because of the length of the Clippers, we were unable to get a free camp behind the famous pub, but found powered sites further down the road at the caravan park. We ventured back to the pub to read up on the history, and read more about the Birdsville mailman Tom Kruse. We then took a stroll around the local streets and stopped at the police station, and chatted with the solo Police officer, who covers pretty much most of the land across South Australia by himself. He loves the job. The Police station and residence was built around 1913, and would have housed Matt's great uncle Bill, who was the solo police officer from 1947-1954, when Tom Kruse worked as the Birdsville mailman between Marree and Birdsville. Uncle Bill does get a mention in Tom Kruse's book. Uncle Bill had to do his patrols on a camel though!

 

it was great to see the place where i had heard stories of since i was a kid, and ive read books about the birdsville mailmen from this area ( yes i can read books, i just usually choose not to unless they interest me ) 

 my uncle Bills police station

We rested up after the stroll and I wrote this up for the day, and then we headed to the pub for dinner, and had a nice dinner. Matt tried a camel sausage, emu pattie and roo fillet on a saltbush dukka mash with a red wine and berry jus. Very yummy. We watched the state of origin, though I piked half way through to finish the day.

 

 

 

 

Day 25 Taking the scenic route home in our 'taking the scenic route to the beach!' trip

 This morning we were blessed with the pleasure of an awesome sunrise, across the very flat Coober Pedy horizon. The flat land seemed to stretch out until it met the sun climbing up over the horizon, until the sun filled the whole sky with colour and joy and warmth. We restoked the fire to warm us, and the coals made for great toast. 

i got up way too early to get these photos and beat the sunrise by about half an hour. and it was freezing. and only 4 people will read this and see it. i'm sleeping in tomorrow. happy with the photo though... 

We headed back to the Stuart Highway and continued towards Port Augusta. We have had lots of enthusiastic waves, thumbs up, 'hang loose' waves and the two finger Aussie driver salute on our travels, and it makes us smile when we can bring surprise and joy to others. its amazing how many drivers can wave with both hands and drive at the same time.  especially those road train blokes. We had one car that kept overtaking the 3 Clippers today, and we would then find him further down the road taking photos of us, several times. We obviously made his day! three times the fella over took us, then photographed each of us as we went past , then over take us again and do the same thing. i guess it kept him awake. We had about 6 1970's Citroen 2CV cars going the other way and returning enthusiastic waves to us too. That would be a slow trip for them. and you thought WE were stupid...Today the scenery was so green for one, but was constantly changing from dead flat plains, to raised areas, to sand flats where water had been, and Lake Hart that had water in it for a change. We saw Dorpa sheep, some with black heads and some not, kangaroos dead and alive.

We stopped at Glendambo for morning tea and ate lunch on the drive along (the pro's of being in a motorhome), as we tried to get to Port Augusta to help Ian do a search for the shut off solenoid for his engine. We could see the silhouette of the Flinder's Ranges as we neared Port Augusta. When we arrived at Port Augusta, we were mildly amused when one guy said over the CB, that ' we were air streams and there had been 8 of them in Darwin a couple of weeks ago'! Well if Katherine is a part of Darwin, and 3 looks like 8, sure!! But air streams are caravans, so it was another case of someone being a know all, no nothing. Unfortunately we were not able to source the part for Ian's engine, but the stop gap fixture Matt installed yesterday will get Ian home anyway. 

As this trip has become an evolving adventure, and we hadn't really planned too much of it, except the Nhulunbuy section, it has continued to evolve on the return, with us now heading to the Flinder's Ranges. Tonight we have stopped in at Hawker. It is so green in this region, and compared to last year, when the ground was just bare dirt, it is wonderful to see the change that rain can bring (except that we also noted that some paddocks are sadly full of weeds), and that it is evident that farmers destocked to cope with the drought and the remaining sheep can't keep up with the rate the greenery is growing. 

everytime ive come to the flinders its been dry and a red dirt  / saltbush type of landscape. not green at all, so this time is the greenest ive ever seen it. it luminous. mostly weeds but green!.  it makes it all look so different. We had a little wander around Hawker before the sunset and saw quite a few loved and unloved old buildings with some dating back to the 1860's. got to photograph more corrugated iron. my favorite.  The mountain ranges provide an amazing backdrop, as we are surrounded by them. The photos and videos just don't do them enough justice. We were last in Hawker in 2002, when we only had 3 little ones, and I had no. 4 baby on board, and my brother joined us for the adventure. And like all our family holidays, it was also a fun adventure that Matt and I treasure. Tomorrow I am sure will bring more new roads for us to travel down. 

 

Day 24 Alice Springs to Coober Pedy in our 'taking the scenic route to the beach!'

 This morning, as we continue to adjust to the 'descent into Winter' as Matt puts it, we had an early start and were back on the road and leaving Alice Springs. We find Alice to be quite beautiful with the surrounding  rocky outcropped hills, now covered in green patches of bush and grass and median strips with Sturt desert peas in full flower, but growing like a weed all over the median strips. The green continued as we left town and on the Stuart Highway. you could see parts of the West Macdonnell Ranges and many other mountain ranges along the way. We haven't seen it this green before. We got a couple hundred kilometres down the road, before we stopped at Kulgera for morning tea and later we stopped at Marla for lunch and hot drinks.We were now in South Australia and it was encouraging to see it with a little bit of green on the ground for a change, though probably won't be there for long. We spied eagles, exploding cows (result of a truck vs cows incident) and the Bakers spotted a dingo today. We had idiots overtake us whilst towing caravans and driving way too fast and tailgating as well. But overall it was a good drive, until not far out from Coober Pedy, Ian calls out on the radio that his engine had cut out and wouldn't restart. It was a problem that had occurred to others in the Clipper club with Cummins motors, and the shut down solenoid was faulting. A quick cable-tie temporary fix got us to our evening campsite, a free camp on the south side of Coober Pedy. Matt was able to wind together some fencing wire to create a more robust temporary fix for Ian's engine.

 

We have this great spot tonight, with only a few other well-spread out campers, a few hundred metres away (although we can still hear someone's TV and dogs). We collected kindling for a campfire and made some coals to cook dinner on. Brenda made another cheese and bacon damper, and we baked potatoes, pumpkin and our meat in the camp ovens over the coals. I made a coleslaw and it was a great dinner, as we watched the sun set, the stars start to appear as the pink dusky sky on the horizon slowly faded and  with a darkening sky up above, it was perfect. We sat around the campfire after dinner to keep warm, as we chatted and laughed and passed around chocolate. The Milky Way was quite clear tonight, as the sky was cloud free. It was a great end to the day.

i dont have much to add other than i love this part of the country. cant explain why. maybe its a childhood thing but i always feel connected to the desert . 

 

Day 23 Travelling along on our 'taking the scenic route to the beach!'

 Today we left not long after sunrise, to get a lot of kilometres done today, after all the lost time from yesterday. its good to see a good sunrise now and then 

 We stopped at Tennant Creek for fuel and morning tea, posed for photos at Devil's Marbles/ Karlu Karlu and Barrow Creek for lunch (no one tried to abduct and murder us fortunately) and we checked out the old Telegraph Station there. David and Brenda went into the Barrow Creek store and asked for an drumstick ice cream, and got told 'It's Winter, it's too cold to eat ice creams, so we don't have the freezer on for ice creams!' Okay!

 From there we headed to Alice Springs in the late afternoon, and filled up with fuel, and also ventured into Bunnings, 5 minutes before closing time for a plumbing part to cap the shower water tank. on the return trip from Nhulunbuy, a rock smashed through some of the pipework under the bus meaning i cant catch the shower water into the tank. it just dumps on the ground which has been ok till now, but in a caravan park its frowned upon. waste water etiquette etc.  When we pulled into the caravan park,  we got totally parked in and surrounded by others checking in after us, and we couldn't move until they did, and then one campervan almost wiped out the side of the bus as they drove off (clearly new to driving the campervan and have no idea of its size, as they also parked so close to us, they couldn't get out their door!) 

A quiet evening and we have been adjusting to the sudden drop in temperature, from 32 degrees yesterday, to 15 degrees today. We could see evidence of recent rains and the area was so green, and looks completely different to last year, especially at the Devil's Marbles. We also saw Whistling Kites using the air thermals to float so seamlessly in the sky, and Acacia trees in full flower so prolific, that it looked like it was a plantation of them. Trying to make the most of this amazing part of our country that we so rarely get to experience and enjoy. even though we are on a tight schedule to get back, and we are expressing though a lot of the places we spent more time in last year. there's still more to see next time ... oh and there still fireworks going off in alice tonight...

Day 22 It's all part of the adventure in 'taking the scenic route to the beach!'

 This morning we got up early and it was a race between the Clippers to get to the washing  bay at the caravan park. Ian won, with Matt a close second! The Clippers then left the park a lot cleaner than when they arrived yesterday. We drove into Mataranka and parked in the truck parking area by the park, and went to get a few things from the shops. David had driven behind us and noticed but Matt already could feel and tell that the diff was not in correct alignment, so that it was going to be best to attend to sooner than later.

we tried to line up the diff as best we could but once the new spring had settled a bit the diff was too far backward on one side and the bus was crabbing a bit, travelling at a slight angle down the road like the back was drifting out a bit.  Then we were informed via the CB that a road train had jack-knifed and collided with another truck, that then rolled and seriously injured the driver and completely blocked the Stuart highway 5 km south from us and there was no way around it, and it was unlikely to be reopened for many hours. sounds like the road train's 3rd trailer got a bit out of hand and clipped the oncoming rigid truck , which in turn caused both trucks to roll .  So they parked the Clippers in the shade, Matt and David donned their work clothes and promptly got under 'Bridget' and a few hours later, the diff was aligned up correctly. we figured we may as well get it done now as we weren't able to go past this location until further notice. we just had to get one side of the diff 10mm further forward to straighten things up, and we were able to. so we are happy with the result.  The girls meanwhile, got into deep cleaning of the red dirt and got the Clippers much cleaner (though after today's drive, more has emerged from under the drawers and walls and will forevermore!) We also handled the paparazzi and inquiries of all the other fellow travellers waiting for the road to open. seemingly 100's of questions.  We all had the CB radios turned on and listened to the gossip, police messages and all the stuff that gets discussed, waiting for the truth the to prevail and for us to then race to the road to get past the accident. We sat in the shade under the trees in the park, watched an Indigenous mob start a fire, and hear all sorts of loud bangs and explosions going off, and it wasn't leftover fireworks from territory day. Finally at lunch, we heard discussion that they had a grader create a bypass for traffic, with both directions taking turns to get past the accident. So we collected David and Brenda who had gone to the local campdraft event nearby, they like to investigate what ever is going on in towns, to watch, and then we drove off, only to then sit in the traffic queue for the next hour, until we got our turn to go down the bypass and could get going.

We knew with the time lost, (about 5 hours) we wouldn't make our planned destination of Devil's Marbles today, so we just hightailed it, to see where we would get by sunset. We stopped briefly at Dunmarra for afternoon tea, but then David couldn't start his Clipper again. An investigation revealed the main battery cabling was no longer connected to the bus and was no longer charging it. So some creative hunting for the right parts to repair it, and we were back on the road about 40 minutes later. We pushed on and watched the sun beginning to set, and reached the overnight roadside stop near Newcastle Waters. It was already very full, but we did manage to find 3 places to squeeze in. As usual, no sooner had we stopped the engines and people were taking photos, coming over to give us the Spanish inquisition and I even had someone looking into our bedroom windows, while I was in there trying to get my meds for the night. People!!

We cooked dinner and ate together, and had a few good laughs about the days misgivings, but feeling grateful that we were together and able to help each other. We had to rethink our plans for tomorrow, due to the lost time. We retreated to our respective buses and out of the evening air and being fodder to the bitey insects. But the starry night was spectacular, and I did stand there in awe momentarily to enjoy the sight and know that God, our awesome creator is with us. we might have about 800km to get to Alice springs but we will see how we go. 

 

Day 21 You never know what each day will bring… on ‘taking the scenic route to the beach!’

 

 This morning we got back on the dirt, as we wanted to try and get to Daly Waters. We knew how bad this part of Central Arnhem road was, and we took our time. We impressed the fellas working at the road works, had the idiots from the day before overtake us again with again no care, and we spied more buffalo and cows today. The road was pretty bad, (so bad, at one point our freezer door opened and the contents of the freezer started flying out, and as I went to deal with it, and Matt kept going, as fast as I was putting things back in, they were flying back out, and I managed to get hit in the head by flying frozen chicken, im not entirely convinced its dead eventually Matt did pull over so I could succeed in returning the food to the freezer and shut the door!) and we were all very relieved to get back on bitumen at Beswick. The art centre was open this time, and we were able to enjoy the art works and check out the gift store. Beswick had a town donkey that was free roaming and clearly well loved, as I spotted it go up to a local car (you can tell it’s a local car as there isn’t a straight panel, lights or exhaust!) and stick its head into the passenger windows. We said farewell to Simon and Elise, who were returning to Darwin. From Beswick we headed to Mataranka and stopped there for lunch. But as David and Brenda exited their Clipper, they came over to let us know that they thought something was wrong with ‘Bridget’, as she was what’s known as ‘crabbing’ or seemingly driving at an angle, (and not because Matt is a bad driver!) They looked underneath, and sure enough the rear right spring was broken and the diff slightly out of kilter. Not what we wanted to find, but grateful it was found before further damage could occur and that it wasn’t a problem on the dirt (but the damage likely occurred from the poor conditions of Central Arnhem Road).

The plans to try and reach Daly Waters went out the window, and we went and booked into the last 3 spots available at the Mataranka caravan park! God was good, as not only were there 3 spots left, but they all were perfect for our needs, and Matt was able to have a big, flat site, with power and the fellas were soon stuck into action. It took around 4 hours for them to pull out the broken spring, remove the broken parts and replace it with a spare spring that Ian had strapped underneath his Clipper, just in case! It wasn’t easy to get it back together again, but they managed it with some persuasion, and had it mounted in, just as it got dark. Meanwhile the ladies cleaned out the inside of the Clippers and removed some red dirt (I say only ‘some’ as you never, ever really get rid of it… speaking from experience). The ladies went down to Bitter Springs for one last time and did enjoy 2 laps down the warm, clear waters. It was very busy and fortunately no sign of crocs today (though Matt thought Brenda and Meredith were game to take me with them, being croc bait and all!)

We returned to feed the fellas and have dinner under the stars again. Despite the unexpected injury to ‘Bridget’, it was another good day, and goes to show how you never know what each day will bring, and the importance of thinking ahead and being prepared for all sorts of scenarios and break downs, when travelling in the outback on these kind of outback roads.

she wouldnt hug me  or give me a 'thanks for fixing the bus' kiss..

 

Day 20 Turning around and heading back in 'taking the scenic route to the beach!'

 This morning, after the fire crackers stopped being let off around 11pm last night, we had one go off at 6am, just to start the day! We got told that for the next month or so, crackers will be let off at any time of the day around town. We had to get up and pack up and say goodbye to Nhulunbuy and start the trek home. But before we left, we had lined up one more activity - a photoshoot at The Hog Shed music venue for the owner Dan. We met him there, (he turned up in his LC3 Morris Commercial rat rod truck) and we lined up the Clippers outside the venue. To thank us we got given a Hogs shed bar mat and drink coolers. Really nice guy and so very grateful for meeting us and seeing the Clippers. David thinks ive found my people up here, car guys , hot rods, musos and long grey beards. 

After this meeting, we headed onto the road out to the 'track' as all the locals call it - Central Arnhem Road (675km and the only road to Nhulunbuy), passing a wild dingo on the way. I guess calling the main road a track is probably more apt, considering how poor the condition of the road is in places. Matt led the Clippers, providing commentary over the CB radio to warn David and Ian about upcoming road damage or oncoming traffic, or animals crossing the road. Today we saw wallabies and kangaroos, eagles, a bustard, emu, water buffalo, horses, donkeys, cows, lizards and snakes. We also saw idiots ignoring the no visibility from road dust from other vehicles and one of these times, it almost ended in a head on collision, but Matt was able to veer left,  and the overtaking vehicle veered right and the oncoming vehicle went between them, phew! But we saw the best and worst of drivers today and survived. 

most people will contact you on the cb to see if its safe to pass and wait for a go ahead. i also tell people that are coming up behind me of approacing vehicles to avoid this type of situation. clearly this guy didnt have a radio or didnt care. i radioed about the oncoming car asi looked in my mirror to see  how far behind me he was, only to see him come out of the dust cloud beside me. at this point he saw the oncoming 4wd, and stupidly went for the right side of the road at the same time the oncoming car headed left putting them in a headon situation. i headed to the far left and the oncoming car seeing the gap  then swerved right to go between us. the overtaking car then sped off into the dust. idiots. 

We stopped briefly for morning tea and lunch, but it was a long day for the fellas, driving around 9 hours to do 480km of the dirt track. We were glad to pull in back at Mainoru Store again, for the night. We first had to sweep and mop out the red dirt, before we could clean up ourselves. i was orange again. and will be tomorrow. The water was so hot in the water tank from all the driving and the warm day, we didn't miss the hot water system. In fact, the water coming out of the cold tap was almost too hot! Then I cooked dinner and made the bus even hotter, it was very humid as well. I was glad to step out of the bus, despite the midges and mozzies being about. We had dinner together and sang happy birthday to Simon, and finished the rest of the mud cake off, that I had made a few days earlier. I made sure I enjoyed the stars, while the evenings are still warm, as the weather will cool right down, the further south we go.