Odometer: 76,802

22 June 2019

Today was laundry day! After 4 nights of free camping in the red dirt of the Tanami Desert and the Bungles, we all felt pretty grubby. Although Dad had rigged up a hot shower for us each night in camp, we had all loved the water pressure of the caravan park showers.

3 loads of washing and everything was red dust free. Except the back of the Ranger. That will never be red dust free ever again. Never. Ever.

Bill and I headed off to check out the Kununurra leisure centre. We were both pretty impressed with it. Lots of very new looking gym gear – it seems that it might not get a lot of use by the residents of Kununurra. So we had a good session there whilst Mum and Dad chilled out in camp.

After lunch Dad, Bill and I headed out through the valley in which the irrigated agriculture from the Ord River Scheme is grown. We went to the Hoochery Distillery where Dad and Bill had a tasting paddle of the locally produced rum. I had cake. Bill had me try some of the 15 year aged rum, telling me how ‘smooth’ it was. I’m pretty sure my face turned in side out for a couple seconds. Horrid stuff rum. Then it was off to the Sandlewood factory. They grow a lot of Sandlewood up here. I found it quite fascinating to learn that Sandlewood is a parasitic tree, and it requires 4 different host trees to grow.

On the way back in to town we headed up to Kelly’s Knob for a view over the town, then it was back to camp for nibbles, phone calls home, dinner and bed.

A lovely day with minimal driving.

Odometer: 76,546

Up and at em’ with the sun again this morning. We had a pretty chilled out morning as it was only a fairly short drive to Kununurra and so didn’t have to rush off. We had brekkie, packed up and were on the road just after 8 am. We saw our first cane toad for the trip. It had spent the evening underneath Mum and Dads camper. It must have been lost as there wasn’t a drop of water for miles and miles.

We stopped half way at the Doon Doon roadhouse for a thoroughly respectable cup of coffee (no international roast at the roadhouses these days). Saw my first ever live cane toad disposal unit. Interesting concept. Also saw some wonderful boab trees on the drive and a few dead cows and crashed vehicles.

After a bit over 3 hours of driving, arrived at Kununurra and checked in to the caravan park. We’ve got a great site with heaps of room and good afternoon shade.

After both Bill and I almost flipping our wigs over that amount of clobber that we keep pushing around the back seat, Bill rearranged the car numerous times and made it all a bit more user friendly. We then went for a swim – chilly but refreshing and then headed in to town to buy Bill a new pair of shoes after he declared that he hated his thongs. He is now the proud owner of a pair of crocs – ugliest yet most comfy shoes known to man kind. A trip to the supermarket rounded out the day, and we then retired to the caravan park for the evening. Bill and I commenced our bi-daily hunt for the elusive head torches which had gone missing despite the admiral efforts at re-arranging the car.

After all that (we still haven’t found one of them) it was time for dinner, red wine and cards.

By the way – the weather is bloody lovely.

Odometer: 76,337

Had a good night’s sleep and were up early at 545 am with the sun. We got ourselves sorted and then Dad, Bill and I piled in to the Ranger and headed into the Bungle Bungles. Mum decided to stay in the camp as she had been to the Bungles before, and wasn’t at all keen on the rough drive into the park. The drive was quite good. I enjoyed the windy, undulating road. Few corrugations but nothing technical. It took about an hour 20 to get to the park office. From there we headed north and did a couple of short lookout walks, and then Echidna Chasm. It was spectacular. We wound along a dry creek through a narrowing gorge. The end of it was so narrow that I doubt sunlight ever gets right to the bottom. We then headed to the south of the park and walked the Domes and Cathedral Gorge walk. The scenery was just incredible. We had Cathedral Gorge all to ourselves and really took out time to appreciate the size and beauty of it. It would be extraordinary in the wet season. We headed out, had some lunch and then drove back to camp where Mum had the billy on for us before we even pulled up. It was a wonderful day, and a bucket list item ticked off for me.

We spent the evening playing triominos and being forced to listen to a man at the next camp over who had been everywhere, done everything and was telling everyone who would listen about what they ‘gotta’ do. It was equal parts bloody annoying and very amusing. I’ve never come across anyone quite like it. Thank goodness he didn’t stay up late!

Odometer: 76,050

The flies! They were up at daybreak. Had a great nights sleep. Lovely cool breeze blowing right through the roof top tent all night. We packed up and then headed over to check out the crater. Lovely at the look out as it was windy so no flies. Dad, Bill and I walked down in to it. More flies. We left the crater and headed for Halls Creek. The track got a bit worse, however was still pretty good. Stopped in Halls Creek for some fruit and vegies and a box of ice-cream sandwiches. They went down a treat. Then off to Old Halls Creek where we had a look around what is time left of the old gold rush town (pretty much nothing left) had lunch with the flies and then went to China Wall. We were all very impressed with China Wall – such perfectly formed quartz outcroppings. We pumped up the tyres, stopped in Halls Creek for fuel and then drove the hour to our campsite for the night, at the turnoff to the Purnululu (aka Bungle Bungles) National Park. Fantastic free camp – very busy as you’d expect. We got a good spot next to a picnic table, set up, went hunting for some wood, lit a fire for cooking, had tea, showers and another early night. It gets dark so early, and we are all finding that we are done in by 800 pm.

Odometer: 75,451

After a fairly poor nights sleep courtesy of the refrigerator truck, Dad cooked us up a sensational brekkie of egg and bacon sandwiches, and we were on the road by 845 am – about 20 mins after the flies found us again. We travelled for about 4 hours, stopped for a quick lunch and fuel for the Ranger (2 jerries filled it up) and then pushed on through to Wolfe Creek Crater. We gained an hour and a half on crossing the border, so it was a big day of driving. Better that then hanging outside with the flies though! Really happy with the campground at Wolfe Creek. New toilets and freeeeeee! The flies were unbelievable though. We all had a great nights sleep.

Odometer: 75,086

Woke up to a clearer day in Alice Springs. We had to buy a UHF this morning and so spent some time around town until the shop opened at 10 am. Bill and I went for a long walk into town along the banks of the currently dry Todd River. We got a good coffee and checked out the Sunday morning market in the Todd Mall. On returning to the caravan park, we packed up and went to buy a UHF. Then it was fuel and a drive up to ANZAC hill where we ate hot donuts from the market and enjoyed the view across Alice. Our impressions of it were really good. The areas we saw were really quite pretty. We then headed out towards the Tanami Track. We fueled up at Tilmouth Well and then shortly after that we hit dirt and so stopped to let the tyres down. The track was in great condition. Some light corrugations that we sailed over at about 85 km/hr.

We pulled into the scrub to make camp at about 415 pm. The flies are extremely annoying and the fly nets came out. Aeroguard did nothing to deter the little beasts. Great camp site with a great fire. We headed to bed pretty early only to be woken at 10 pm by a truck stopping on the road for the night. Turns out it was a refrigerator truck and the compressor kicking in and out during the night was not conducive to a good night’s sleep. 800 km of road, and the truck driver had to stop right near us!

Odometer: 74,384

Another big day of driving. We fueled up in Coober Pedy and headed north. We stopped in Marla for fuel and a pretty decent coffee. I jumped in the cruiser for a short stint whilst Dad tried to fix the radio he’d packed for us. We stopped at the border for the obligatory photo – it is a very good border after all. No crummy tin sign for the N.T. Although the flies were absolutley horrendous. We continued on for another 30 km to Kulgera where we stopped briefly for lunch with about 40 million flies. A few more km’s of central Australia scenery – beautiful although not overly variable – we arrived in Alice Springs to rain and 15 degrees. About the same as Hobart I think. Nah. It was slightly warmer than Hobart. We checked into our caravan park and then Bill and I headed in to town to do a bit of supermarket shopping and to find a potato cake. I feel the 3/5 awarded to the potato cake (see Bills Instagram for more details) was a bit contentious. We had dinner, showers and bed. We were all pretty exhausted after more than 700 km of travel. It continued to rain on and off most of the day and evening.

Odometer: 73,742

Up and gone by 8 am, first stop was Port Germaine to check out the 1.5 km jetty. It was pretty amazing. They had to build it that long in the 1800’s to get the wheat out to the waiting vessels. We walked right out to the end and back, getting a few steps on the ol’ garmin. Then it was a stop for fuel and coffee in Port Augusta and on to Coober Pedy. The landscape changed quite a lot along the way. I’ve no idea how the stations make a go of it as there doesn’t seem to be any feed or water to be seen for the stock they run. At some point I realised how interesting the scattered road signs had become – you’d see them looming in the distance, and there would be slight anticipation of what it was going to say. A break amongst a somewhat monotonous, and yet still pretty amazing landscape.

We stayed in an airbnb for the night as Bill and I were keen to experience sleeping underground. The dugout was really good. One of the rooms was dug out by hand, and the others by a tunnelling machine. We didn’t have a lot of time to explore Coober Pedy. We visited the underground Serbian Orthodox church and then popped in to the supermarket for a few supplies. We found kangaroo tails in the freezer. Lish. No potato cakes to be found. Bill has declared Coober Pedy to be a sh#thole and has decided there is no need for him to ever return. Seemed a pretty interesting place to me and I would have liked to spend a bit more time there.

Odometer: 72,682

It was an early-ish start today with us on the road just before 7 am. Only 30 mins later than planned! The first couple of hours took us through a really lovely part of western Victoria, all green rolling hills around Coleraine and Casterton. First stop was Penola in South Australia then Coonalpyn to have a look at some excellent painted silos. Then on to Mt Barker, just short of Adelaide for lunch. We got through Adelaide and got in to our camp 15 km out of Port Pirie around 6 pm. A long day of driving, however it didn’t feel too long or tiresome.

Odometer: 72,390

Today our 10.5 week journey commenced with the drive to Devonport to catch the Spirit of Tasmania. We made the obligatory stop in Campbell Town (does anyone make the South-north trip without stopping there??) and then Perth to start our #huntforaustraliasbestpotatocake (check out Bill’s insta page to keep up to speed on the search). Hot tip: don’t buy the potato cakes from the United servo in Perth.

Then onto the boat.

Kylie’s version of events: “Well that was a really good crossing. Just enough swell to rock us to sleep”.

Bill’s version of events: “Rough as guts crossing. Roughest crossing ever. Lucky to be alive. I’m taking a plane from now on”.

Wet drive to Lake Bolac via a stop in Ballarat to see my sister and nephews.

Both exhausted – Bill mainly so from his near death experience in the 1 – 2 metre swell of the Bass Strait.