Mt Isa - The Red Centre

Sun 5 Aug – We left the workers camp at the mine dominated Mt Isa and drove 180kms on flat highway to the only town in this area, Camooweal. Just out of the town we camped beside the Georgia River which, in the dry season is only a billabong. Quite a few camping here. It was another great spot.

Mon 6 Aug – The wind got up in the night and turned from a hot N/W to a cool S/E. We headed across the Northern Territory border and with a strong wind pushing us along, to Soudan Bore. We felt sorry for the caravans and campers going the other direction struggling into the wind. Our time will come at some stage however!  Behind another rest area for the night with lots of flies annoying us.

Tues 7 Aug – A fly free breakfast and then a shorter drive to Barkly Homestead, the only bit of civilization on the road. We fuelled up and got a camp site. Our cellphone lit up with texts as Mary, Val’s mum, had been admitted to hospital with a broken collar bone. Val rang the girls, Lynne and Alan. 4:00pm was “happy hour” in the bar and we enjoyed the live music and a chat with a couple going in the other direction. We went back to the restaurant and had a great pizza and chips sitting and chatting to another couple.

Wed 8 Aug – Overnight the camp had filled up. We were one of the last to leave as we only had a 117km drive to our camp at 41 Mile Bore. We found a site well off the road, but it was windy and a bit dusty. It took a couple of tries to get out of the wind and dust. Again, there were lots of flies but at Barkly Homestead we had bought hat nets. Judy and Frank had suggested these to combat the annoying problem. They look a bit strange (we look like bee keepers) but work well. Another beautiful sunset.

Thurs 9 Aug – It is hard to get our heads around the isolation of this part of the Northern Territory. Since leaving Camooweal we have travelled about 500kms with the only sign of civilization being Barkly Homestead. We came to a major milestone in our trip at Three Ways. This is the junction of the highway we have been travelling west with the Stuart Highway. Turn left and you eventually get to Adelaide and turn right and you get to Darwin. We turned left. 20kms down the road is Tennant Creek.

We had been advised by many of our follow travellers to go straight thru the town but we chose to stay in a camp here. This is very much an Aboriginal town. We walked about 1.5kms to the main street to shop. We were the only non-Aboriginal people around. We felt quite safe though but certainly not welcomed.

Fri 10 Aug – Out on the Stuart Highway

heading south for 110kms and then a short trip off the highway to an area called the Devil’s Marbles or Karlu Karlu. What a great place! We pulled into the camping area with huge red boulders all around. We did a short walk thru the rocky outcrops

before lunch and when it cooled down a bit we did a longer walk (5kms) around the whole area. This was a granite area and over time erosion has formed these unusual rocky outcrops many of which are almost perfect spheres. It reminded us of the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. In the evening we joined two couples around a camp fire.

Sat 11 Aug – The wind got up about 5:00am and blew hard. We stayed for it to calm down and did another 1.5km walk thru these amazing rock formations. Only a short drive today but the wind had eased. We stopped at an old WW11 army staging area. This was the first stop for the recruits on their way from Alice Springs to Darwin. Only the concrete foundations were left but they made great parking places out of the red dust. We relaxed but the flies were bad and we wore our hat nets. We both had haircuts today. We discovered later that is was the area where Peter Falconio, the British Tourist, was murdered!

Sun 12 Aug – Less wind this morning and a 150km drive.  At Barrow Creek Pub we bought $40 worth of fuel ($1.94/Lt)!!! and continued to Ti Tree where we topped the fuel up and had cell phone coverage so checked up on how Mary was. All good. Stopped for the night at another great rest area on the highway, Prowse Gap. Had a great chat to Rosie who is travelling by herself towing a caravan. She gave us a bottle of red wine which she does not drink. We have met lots of interesting characters at our O/N stops.

Mon 13 Aug – We drove on to Alice Springs which is situated in a valley. We booked into a camp for 2 nights. In the afternoon we biked into the CBD. The town has been recently rebuilt with some modern buildings and a great pedestrian area. The town is on the banks of the Todd River which is dry for 90% of the time. This weekend they are having the Henley on Todd regatta which is all nautically based in the dry river bed. Bizarre!

Tues 14 Aug – We spent some time cleaning the red dust which has got everywhere. A short ride to Bunnings to buy stuff to put a curtain over the window in the “Andy’s” door. We thought the window was not see thru but after some further investigation we have discovered that you can see in. We apologise to any Aussies we may have traumatised over the last few months. In the afternoon we biked 15kms along the great cycleways around the town ending up back in the CBD for a gelato before climbing ANZAC Hill, at one end of the town, for great views. Alice Springs is a very nice town, an oasis in the red centre of Aussie.

Wed 15 Aug – After a shop (with no alcohol however as in Northern Territory the bottle shops do not open until 2:00pm to stop Indigenous drunkenness at least until after lunch) and a fuel up, we headed off the Stuart Highway and inland into the West MacDonnell Ranges to Standley Chasm. We walked up to the chasm straight away as the sun only shines there for 90 minutes around midday. Very much like the slot canyons we had experienced in the USA. Quite spectacular. We will camp here the night, so later in the afternoon we walked the 1.2kms back to the chasm and then climbed out of the gorge up a steep natural stairway for magnificent views of the gorge and the chasm far below. Quite a climb.

Thurs 16 Aug – Back on the road west for 100kms into the McDonnell Ranges to the Ormiston Gorge. We found a nice flat campsite and took a quick walk to the waterhole. This is a spectacular body of water in the dry river bed. After lunch we followed the Gum Ghost trail out of the gorge to a great viewing platform with the waterhole below and then carried on back down into the gorge following the dry river bed back to the waterhole and our campsite.

Fri 17 Aug – After breakfast we packed our lunch and set off on the 7km Pound Trail. It was a great walk climbing into the hills for spectacular views of the red rocky hills and then down into the pound (the river valley) where we stopped for lunch. The trail eventually led into the Ormiston Gorge and it was hard work walking either in loose sand or boulder hopping back to the waterhole and “Andy”. It was a great walk but we were both fairly tired at the end. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at camp. There is a 230km trail (The Larapinta Trail) which follows the McDonnell Range from Alice Springs to Red Bank in 10 stages. Many of the people in the camps are following this trail.

Sat 18 Aug – Just a short drive of 45kms east to our next camp at Ellery Creek Big Hole. This is another beautiful body of water in another dry river bed surrounded by red cliffs. Before lunch we walked a 3km trail (The Dolomite Trail). Very nice but not as great as yesterday’s walk. We took our chairs down to the waterhole and enjoyed the changing light on the rocks and the water.

Sun 19 Aug – I have not mentioned the weather as it has been the same for as long as we can remember. Cool in the mornings (around 2-5C) but warming up very quickly to around 27-29C, breakfast outside most mornings, and cooling once the sun sets with very clear starry nights. This morning it was a bit different as a cool breeze kept the day temp to around 20C.  We drove back towards Alice Springs and stopped off at Desert Park, a wildlife experience of desert life. There were birds, marsupials, reptiles and mammals. All very interesting, we especially liked the nocturnal section, amazing what is wandering around the desert at night! Back into Alice Springs and another attempt at buying alcohol. Eventually I had to show my passport before being allowed to purchase expensive wine and beer. Stocked up so we will not have the problem again in the N.T. We are in a camp for the night and will drive into the Eastern MacDonnell ranges tomorrow for a few days and then resume our trip south on the Stuart Highway.