Andy, Nessa, James & Jemma’s All Aussie Adventures: Up the guts, part 1

It’s now day 6 of our trip and finally getting some time to relax.

We got away pretty well on Saturday. Happily our house-sitters Dido and Katrina arrived bang on time and our practice packing and optimising had paid off. I’d filled the car up on the Thursday - 93 litres to fill the main tank from around a quarter full which seemed too much as we thought the main tank only held 90 litres. I checked under the car to see if I’d blown the tank, but it turned out the main tank holds 147 litres. The second holds 30 litres. So a cool $529 to fill from empty based on the price at Kulgera yesterday ($2.99 per litre, the cheapest for a long way around).

Our first stop was Mambray Creek, a revisit for Ness and I. It’s a beautiful site in Mount Remarkable National Park a few hours north of Adelaide. An easy drive, with a short stop at Snowtown for lunch and a road stop to pick up some firewood. The first set up went pretty well, a bit of a rush as the light was failing and the temperature dropping, but within an hour we were set up and sat down with wine in hand. A quick stroll around the campground and river bed and then back for dinner and a fire. The sky was clear and the stars were sensational - way more satellites than we’d seen in the past, some shooting stars as well.

It was a cold night. They’ve all been cold so far, and will be until we get to Katherine in a week or so’s time. They don’t feel quite as cold now we’re getting used to them, but typically getting down to 3-5 degrees and with the wind chill that’s pretty cold. It’s been getting dark between 6 and 6.30 and light again around 7, so plenty of night to contend with.

Pack up was similarly around an hour, not much help from the kids, but they are getting better. The tent is not ideally suited to touring - it’s a great tent for four, luxurious size with internal strip LEDs. We bought it a couple of years ago and were disappointed to find that most of the legs had been screwed in the wrong way around and you needed a screwdriver to fix it up, which we didn’t have with us. I’ve since removed all of the screws and she packs up much more easily. The biggest issue is the weight - around 30kgs which is a bit of a lift to get on the roof.

Our next stop was Woomera. Not much of a destination, but we had kms to cover and there aren’t that many places on the way up to the territory. It’s where the UK and Australia used to test missiles and nuclear bombs. Civilians have only been allowed in fairly recently. The caravan park was reasonably expensive for an unpowered site but that seems to be the way of things now. I think it was around $40. The sunset was awesome and the stars were again really great. We woke after a very cold night to a damp fog that took almost an hour of sunlight to clear.

Woomera outdoor missile museum

On Monday we packed up in around 45 minutes and started the drive up to Coober Pedy, to the Big 4 Resort with heated pool. Coober Pedy, named appropriately by indigenous folk as White Man’s hole. Opal mining capital of the world, and ground soft enough that it can be dug out by hand. All the sensible people live underground where the temperature is around 20 degrees all year round. Above ground in our dusty campground it was close to freezing. Sleep was difficult with the constant barking of stray dogs. The highlight was a tour of Old Timers Opal Mine and then a trip out to the Breakaways and Dog Fence. And dinner at the servo.

It was nice to have two nights so we didn’t have to pack and set up for a day, but the Big 4 was disappointing.

Walking up the sand dune to view Lake Hart, which was full of water

Bridge repair underway at Island Lagoon

The ‘resort’ at Coober Pedy

Sunset at The Big Winch, Coober Pedy

The Old Timers Mine Tour (fantastic)

Some shots from the Breakways

On Wednesday we set off for Kulgera, just inside the NT border. A simple roadhouse, with a great pub (the first and last in the NT) and pleasant campground with good facilities. It’s set back a bit further from the highway than the Big 4 at Coober Pedy so sleep was better too. Not so much for Ness who was in some pain following an attempted amputation of her left hand when cutting bread rolls the way people always tell you not to with our brand new kitchen knife. The bleeding was profuse. Amazingly there was a doctor on hand (visiting from Victor Harbor) who happened to be in the toilets when Ness took Jemma over for a wee. Let me have a look at she said, and 10 minutes a later an operating theatre had been assembled in the light of the laundry and Doctor Kate stitched up Nessa’s hand. It took four stitches and a local anaesthetic. Real stitches too, with needle and string. How exciting! I will post a photo when the stitches come out in Alice Springs (or earlier if there’s an infection). Candice has offered her nursing services on a FIFO basis.

Camping at Kulgera

The SA/NT border

We are very grateful to Doctor Kate. This could have been the end of our trip, or worse. Ness has been very brave but is operating with one hand - not ideal given the amount of opening and closing, zipping and unzipping.

The other exciting feature of Kulgera this time around was a full in-swing mouse plague. Cute little hopping mice in large numbers, particularly after dark. They were everywhere. You could hear them trying to get into the tent I think I did very well to only squash one on the pack up the next day.

Thursday saw another early pack up and we drove the next 350kms or so to Yulara, which is around 20kms north of Uluṟu. It’s weird but Chrome autocorrects to put the line under the r, and then says it’s misspelt. Anyhow we have three nights here. This is a proper ‘resort’ - great facilities, a decent pub, hot showers, water, recycling, and Uluṟu /Kata-Tjuta. Prices to match and fairly severe restrictions on takeaway alcohol.

Today (Friday 1 July) is Territory Day - the one day of the year when Territorians can light fireworks. After a great sleep, probably the best of the trip so far and marginally less cold than previous nights, we did the base walk around the rock. It’s just short of 11kms, but flat. Significantly cooler than when Ness and I did it at the end of October 2007. The kids did really well, especially Jemma. We have had the most amazing blue skies, and the days are warming up a bit (we are now around 1600 kms from home, most of which is north).

Tomorrow we head out to Kata-Tjuta for a walk around the Olgas. After that we are hoping for another lazy day before packing up on Sunday to move on to Kings Canyon.

It’s certainly a different experience doing this with the kids compared to when it was just us all those years ago. We’ve remembered a lot of the tricks of the trade and things are going pretty smoothly on the camping side of life. I don’t want to tempt fate, but the Patrol has been awesome so far. Very well appointed, lots of little customisations that Brett has made over the year that make a big difference.

I’ll finish with a joke - What’s Blue and not heavy.

Light Blue. Boom Boom.