Lake Argyle

Day 17 Purnululu to Lake Argyle

Distacne today:    Total so far:

Weather Max 33, sunny, min around 20

 

Pack up and head out, taking 1.5 hours to drive 52km from the NP through Mabel Downs Station again. Stop at the gate to reinflate tyres now the next 250km is bitumen.

 

Call Bec for an update on the house and fans and dryers are in place and plumbers and contractors are teed up for next few days to start sorting some things out.

 

Issue with the Redarc BMS not charging the trailer batteries. For some reason second battery is now only getting to 13.0 volts, despite being on 13.4-13.5 across The Tanami etc. Main battery is fine. Changed the source for the trailer charging from secondary to main and all is well. Must investigate the battery, as it was brand new before the trip!

 

Arrive Kununurra about 1330 for lunch and descend Subway for feeding time at the Zoo! Sam inhaled his 6 inch Meatball sub in about 3 minutes! He’ll make a good Ambo one day, being able to eat that fast!

 

Day 18

Lake Argyle

 

 

 

 

Two Words – Infinity Pool!!!! Nothing more to add!

 

Purnululu NP aka The Bungle Bungles

Day 15 Purululu NP

 

Head to the south end which is where the iconic Domes are. Amazing to see. Similarly amazing is Cathedral Gorge. What an amzing sight. It was great except the same tribe of Bogans in their DC Shoes and Gap underdaks hanging out the top of their jeans turned up. One of the brats (about 6 or 7 yo maybe)fell into the waterhole and not a single one of them got up to help him. Didn’t feel compelled to help either. Darwin failed again as one of his siblings dragged him out. All in all though, it was still pretty amazing!

 

Sunset photos were a washout tonight as it had become overcast in the afternoon and the light was really flat

 

Day 16

Purnululu NP. Weather: Dry Max 32, Min 17ish

 

Lazy start as we are going to Echina Chasm, and “they” say its best to get there about midday. Now, I need to point something out for the uninitiated: Despite be3ing winter, the sun Rises about 0600, but sets about 1630, and its DARK by 1730, not dusk, but D.A.R.K! So, throw the clock away, and live by the sun!!!!

 

I’ve been calling in on VKS737 (HF radio network…..because I’m a radio nerd!!) most days and called in last night with Alice Springs base about 1530 local time. I decided to call in to Derby this morning because its close and I could “tick off” another base I’ve called in to. Luck I did. We had an Urgent Message to call My best mate Mark re something with the house. We had lucked into some phone reception on a look out the first night, so I jumped into the car and headed for the lookout

 

Seems the freezing Melbourne Weather froze a water pipe, and the expansion cracked it, causing a leak behind the kitchen wall. Lucky our house sitter was on the ball! Water turned off, and she got a message to Mark for us to call her! Insurance arranged from 8000km away, and within an hour a contractor was on site to start drying carpet!!!!!

 



Echidna chasm - Its HUGE                                    Max Reading the plaque on how the chasm was formed.....without much help!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Melbourne based dramas sorted we jumped into the car and headed for Echidna Chasm. We walked the 1.6km in, up a river bed, half of it in the sun. Mandy did really well getting over the terrain, and paid the price for it later, but the reward was getting to the large chamber before the final climb into the chasm end. The boys and I forged on to the end, and we scrambled over boulders and made it to the end! So narrow and amazing, but for mine, the chamber before the final end is more spectacular!. A few hundred photos later we headed back out, and Zooper Doopers awaited in the freezer, and were a welcome relief!

Heading towards the light..........

 

 

 

Back to camp to relax. Kids did some reading to chill out and we started organising a few things for an early departure in the morning

Day 14 Wolfe Creek Crater to Halls Creek to Mabel Downs Station

 

Km 257 Total

Fuel at Halls Creek $1.75

 

Rocked out of Wolfe Creek after one last look at this amazing phenomenon. 20 kms ordinary track, though not as bad as we’d been led to expect, and we’re back on the Tanami road for the last 100km of the 1050km!!!! Just short of the Halls Creek turn off, we passed the north end of the Canning Stock Route (CSR). I kid Mandy about turning left and heading across the CSR. L was the reply. We go straight ahead onto Bitumen for the first time in almost 600km and head north into Halls Creek. It’s a Sunday, and the Supermarket has a Road Train parked out the front and about 40 staff unpacking everything! As it was only lunch time we decide to head to Mabel Downs and stay the night just outside Purnululu NP rather than drive that 100km tomorrow.

 

We find a large area in the main street of Halls Gap that has a large rtee and park ourselves under it. Mandy opted out of finishing her lunch and the kids feed it to some birds. Seems they called in some mates and soon there are 30+ Black Tailed Kites swooping in and picking the bread out of the air as they throw it in up in the air. Amazing experience!

 

Lob at Mabel Downs Station “caravan park” which is really part of the station set aside for tourist activites. They have 4x4 coach (read 4x4 trucks with bus bodies on the back), fixed wing and helicopter flights. Because you can only take High Clearance 4x4 and single axle Off Road “Towable Units” (read Trailer/Caravan) many Greyus Nomadicus park their 500ft Triaxle Caravan/Palaces and take the coach tour ($250 pp!!!!!!) or some people leave their sensible caravans and take their 4x4’s into the park. It’s a long way for a day trip (52km of windy dirt track, no worse than a Victorian High country track) and there is easily 2 days worth of stuff to see, but 3 would be better. As we arrived about 1100, we had the extra half day to set up, look around and generally get a feel for the place.

 

Unfortunately, 5 car loads of bogans arrived with a pose of feral kids. Loud and obnoxious. Firewood is brought in, and cant be collected within the NP. Bogans inc inched all the firewood from both fireplaces. Karma people

 

Day 13 Renahn’s Bore to Wolfe Creek Crater

 

Road improved substantially after Tanami gold mine and 85-95kph was achievable without  shaking the fillings out of your head!  We made it to Wolfe Creek Crater around 1630 ACST, but as we’d crossed the border into WA about 2 hours earlier, it was technically now only 1430!!

 

Called in on HF to VKS Alice Springs, listened to another bloke in outback Queensland, and another in the Flinders Ranges in SA! Love it!

Wolfe Creek Crater - Impressive!

 












 

Crater is impressive! 850m across (its as wide and Mt Dandenong is tall!) and
 about 75m deep. Nice camp site..

Didn’t see John Jarret at Wolfe Creek either



Wolfe Creek Sunset

Day 12 Alice -> Tanami Road!!! The fun realllllly begins

 

Fuel Alice Springs $1.69 Tilmouth Well $2.24

 

Tanks filled and off we go, heading for the real bush now. 150km to Tilmouth Well, and after paying for liquid Gold at Tilmouth well, we finally hit dirt. Well, reports that the Tanami was in “the best condition it been in for years”soon make way for corrugations that could hide a Small car! Luckily these are interspersed with sections of reasonable road and bitumen. As we approach our intended destination of Renahan’s Bore they are getting fairly big and nasty. 6 hours of driving and we were all pretty over it.

 

Renahan's Bore: By Moonlight (116seconds @ F9)

Mandy had seen a post on Myswag.org about driving back away from the road and we were rewarded with a brilliant site about 100m back from the road. You could hear the Road Trains coming for 5 minutes before they went past, but they weren’t loud enough to wake you. An almost full moon and not a cloud to be seen. Magic!

Day 11 - Alice Srings and surrounds

Alice Springs and surrounds

 

Simpsons Gap

 



Memorial to the Rev. John Flynn, founder of the now
Royal flying Doctor Service

Headed out to Simpsons Gap, saw the Memorial to
 Rev. John Flynn, founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Interesting man, visionary really, providing medical care to those in the outback in the 1920’s would have been very challenging. Also visited the Alice Springs Telegraph station, where the telegraph repeater station between Adelaide and Darwin was situated. Until it was commissioned in 1886, Australia had no telegraph link to the rest of the world. Now, messages could be passed around the world to and from Australia in hours rather than weeks by ship!

 

At the Telegraph station was Charlie. Charlie is an Aborigine who lived there in the 1940’s after he was taken from his family as part of the “Stolen Generation”. Very heartening to listen to him speak of that time and his experiences. He is not negative or bitter, just factual and a great insight into a different time in our country's history.

 

Also interesting was Sam’s comment:

Sam:“So, Dad. Did they take him away from his Mum and Dad just because his mum was an Aborigine and his dad was white?”

Me:“Yes mate, they did.”

Sam “ But that’s just wrong! Why would they do that? Its not fair on him, or his mum and dad!”

Me: “ I know, but they don’t do it now….. but back then they thought it was going to help them”

Sam “I just don’t get it!”

 

Yep, me either mate!

 

Day 9

Uluru to Alice Springs

 

Longish day in the car. Arrive in Alice Spring and head to the  MacDonnell Range Caravan Park. Aka the Big 4. Amazing. Great sites and level, massive play ground with 2 jumping pillows!

 

Day 10 Alice Springs and Surrounds

 

A Day to get a few things sorted, a few check up on bubs. Max stayed with mandy whilst Sam and I went off to do some “stuff” Found Supercheap, ARB, TJM, Repco, BBQ’s Galore and Jaycar in Alice Springs. Woo Hoo!

 

Boys hung out with Jack and Tom again.