We arrived at Pimba after a long but very easy tow from Port Lincoln. Last year we stayed at Woomera which is just a few kms away from here but this time we decided to stay at "Spud's Roadhouse" which is a free camp, just off the highway.
We were expecting bad weather here and true to form, we had a day of very high winds. We just stayed put, not wanting to tow our caravan in high winds. It was a good stop for two nights, at least we could get a drink at the bar and watched TV for a day, it was quite relaxing.
Our next stop would be the Opal town of Coober Pedy, here we need to fill our water tanks, this will cost us! On arrival in the town we soon find the Information Centre where we see the water pumps.... Richard filled our tanks for the measly price of $1. Off we went to find the cheapest camp ground. The place being found we managed to drive around and notice that there is no way our caravan will fit in the place. A phone call to the Big4 was done and after filling the fuel tanks with reasonably priced diesel we travelled the 2km to the Caravan Park! A great place with excellent facilities and lots of off-road vehicles in for the night after leaving the Oodnadatta Track they had had some rain and boy oh boy their vehicles where covered in the old "RED DIRT/MUD"
Further and further north we travelled, passing the places we had seen last year and once again we talked about the Peter Falconio murder!!
We had a stop at a place called Agnes Creek and got a lovely spot, soon after a caravan arrived close to us and as always we got chatting. As the sun was going down Richard decided we would have a fire on our Oz pig that he had made, so Helen set too and made up a small "damper". We seemed to cook it just perfectly this time! We also cooked our chicken for dinner on the flat plate, photographs below.
Our neighbours were heading down to Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon, maybe we will see them on the road again, who knows??
We left one happy couple at Agnes Creek they had decided to stay another night, we wanted to get to Alice Springs and we are trying a different Caravan Park this year!
Telephone reception is nil for km after km.... Until we hit a hot spot and managed to get a call to the Temple Bar Caravan Park.... The owner said he would hold it for the next 2 hours, yippeeee!!
What an amazing caravan park, $22 per night and we paid separately for our electricity on the morning we leave. A nice lady called Fiona put us on our drive through pitch under the amazing cliff face of part of the Macdonnell Ranges. Once again here in Alice Springs we decided to visit the Royal Flying Doctors Visitors Centre and re visit the Desert Park as we loved it so much last year! Helen had her hair cut in town by a lovely lady who was living on our caravan park.
 |
| View from our caravan |
 |
| View from our caravan |
We realised that we had never been in this area of Alice Springs and so we took a trip around and found Honeymoon Gap and the amazing Simpson Gap. We had a wonderful conversation with a Ranger at Simpson Gap and he told us to take a walk into where the water is and we would probably see the Rock Wallabies. What a wonderful place.
At the Royal Flying Doctors we saw a wonderful Holographic Presentation telling the story of John Flynn and how he instigated the first Flying Doctor services, we were in awe of this amazing story!
Whilst here in Alice Springs we received a call from our friends Glenn and Sue who we were meeting up with us in either Tennant Creek or Banka Banka Station, for the two rigs to travel to Darwin. They were stranded in Mount Isa, Queensland after their Jeep stopped in the gateway of their Caravan Park. Their insurance company were excellent and paid for RACQ, caravan park fees etc...We had no problem with waiting around for them in either Alice or Tennant Creek. Glenn continued to keep us informed and the outcome was the JEEP had died so he bought a new Wildtrack Ford Ranger, luckily the Ford agent in Mount Isa had one! as there is a 6 month waiting list if you want to buy one!! Glenn and Sue continued on through Queensland and us up the middle. We did stay in Tennant Creek for 3 days, as always we visited the local Memorial club and had a meal there.
We also visited the Civic Centre where there was a Da Vinci Machines exhibition, a few hours spent looking at these amazing exhibits here in the outback!
Before leaving Tennant Creek we had lots of communication with Glenn and Sue as to where we should meet up, as both of us would have no telephone reception. It was agreed we would wait at Banka Banka Station a relatively cheap place that had decent water but no electricity. We had stayed here last year. We knew that we would be entertained by some country and western style singers in the evenings! This is a place where people arrive around 11a.m. and stay for one night and move off early in the morning. We had great neighbours and one lovely family.
 |
| Our second morning, everyone has left |
 |
| Another Damper made here at Banka Banka |
 |
| The resident Donkeys |
 |
| Glenn and Sue a few metres away |
Glenn and Sue arrived a day earlier than we anticipated, see the new Wildy above (black one), we decided to stay another night....
Our two rigs left and headed for Daly Waters pub, but, we decided on a place on the highway, where it was a little cheaper and they gave us a voucher for a free drink at happy hour, needless to say it was very good. We had a lovely grassy site. After unhitching we took a drive to the famous Daly Waters pub and took the usual touristy photos! (did that last year too)
After a pleasant evening and a good sleep we all headed off for Mataranka where we wanted to show Glenn and Sue the hots springs and the "We of the Never Never" homestead.
Our next stop is to Lee and Jennys Bushcamp which is a long tow but will be worth it.
Arriving on the Daly River we were met by Lee, he is so welcoming. Jenny was in Sydney!
Unfortunately our stay here this year was hampered by the amount of mosquitoes, Richard was continually using Bushmans, Aeroguard etc. Even Helen had some bad bites!! The humidity was unbelievable.... Glenn and Sue were also being driven to despair with the insects!
We were lucky to have three evening meal cooked for us by Lee, he had two large Barramundi cooking on hot coals one night. The next day, two of his friends from Darwin arrived early and went hunting for buffalo and we were treated to slow cooked buffalo meals, then Sunday evening we had a roast dinner of pork and all the trimmings. We left on Monday morning feeling we had been well looked after during our five night stay!
Onwards we travelled to Berry Spring and Tumbling Waters our next Caravan Park. Great tow and a wonderful greeting from Jenny and Darren the owners... we have been here four nights now and tonight we are going to listen to the entertainment at the Habit bar/café where we just might have a feed of Barra and chips...
Watch out for our next update.
