Alice Springs

Hi, well we arrived at Alice Springs on Thursday and settled in for a few days doing the house work. We have done a bit of looking around. We visited the Telegraph Station, this is amazing to see how people lived in the early late 1800's early 1900's both the men & their wives & children.

The main house of the Telegraph Station

The station is on the banks of the normally dry Todd River

On Monday we had the driving lights replace on the truck as on the drive to William Creek the light fell off. We also went bike riding on Thursday to the Dessert Park, 34km round trip. We looked at many animals, this young thorny lizard was cute.

The bird display was small but interesting

On the 26th Alice Spring had the second of 3 parts of the power station delivered. Two large trucks pulling & one in the rear pushing.

The pulling trucks

Note the towbar for the rear truck. The load was quite high & 5-6 meters wide.

We also went to visit the Transport Museum, There are some very interesting trucks in this museum. A very large display of Kenworth Trucks produced at Bayswater.

We also went to the Pioneer Womens Hall of Fame & Old Gaol. This lady may be related?

On Saturday we headed of for a days drive to Chambers Pillar, boy what a drive 200k's of gravel & 40k's of 4X4 only track.

The Finke Dessert Race Track runs beside the road all the way. This is a mild section of the Finke Track.

This is a dry Hugh River crossing south of Maryvale Station on the 4X4 part of the road in.

Some of the sandy patches, also heaps of mud along the way

Above is the North side of a ridge we had to go up all stoney & quite steep (8% incline)

This is the South side of the same ridge

Snowflake on the South side coming back up

Going over the sand hills in the National Park

Going up the sand hills, you can't see over the tops

This is what we had come to see, sand stone pillars

Explorers carved their names in the pillar in 1870 when they passed by while mark out the Telegraph Line from Adelaide to Darwin

Chambers Pillar in all its glory

We have enjoyed or stay in Alice, although it has been cold & sunny every day, it rained on the Thursday that we arrived. Tomorrow is Monday & we are on our way to Glen Helen Gorge & lots more to explore.

Coober Pedy to Alice Springs

This is the next installment of our trip north.

We crossed into the Northern Territory on 13th of May heading for Ayres Rock & the Olgas. At the boarder we free camped for a change.

We stopped at Erldunda for coffee then went West. Our lunch stop was at the viewing spot for Mt Conner, quite remarkable.

Standing on the sand hill, Mt Conner to the South.

Sand Hill looking West,

Looking North to the Salt Lake

The road west to Curtin Springs & Ayres Rock

The Olgas "Kata Tjuta"

Ayres Rock "Uluru" from the turn off the Kata Tjuta

Some wild life on the road

Views of Uluru

at sunset

After we left Uluru & went to Kings Canyon

beautiful views, so many trees, it was a 100m climb up & 6.5km round, but worth it.

Surprises at every turn

The Garden of Edan 1/2 way round the walk,

The starkness of some of the trees, but still a lot of rock around.

Some of the tourists on the walk

Well more in the next installment of our days in Alice Springs. We had a really great time walking and looking at Uluru, Kata Tjuta & Kings Canyon. See you next time.

Lake Eyre flight

We left Coober Pedy in Monday morning for William Creek and a flight over Lake Eyre.

The little 6 seater plus the crew plane on the strip @ William Creek

Anna Creek Station the largest cattle station in the world with an area of 25,000sq km's & normally 26,000 head but in 2009 only 6,000 head of cattle

Normally Dry creeks that are now green

The Painted Hills from the air

Lake Eyre from the air

Rows upon rows of Sand hills

The Oodnadatta Track & the Old Ghan railway bridge

Lake Eyre

Pelicans over Lake Eyre

Lake Eyre

The road out to William Creek the red flag is to warn of a wash away across the road

William Creek Hotel, with Snow Flake outside

Ian & I after the flight

After the flight we had dinner at the pub, the returned to our tent in the park & had retired by 8.30pm. The wind came up about 2am the tent stayed in place. After breakfast followed by coffee & toast at the pub we headed back to Coober Pedy & our van.

More in the next issue of our travells