Our Australia trip

Today we want to get past the known road and past Three Way where we came onto the Stuart Highway originally. Because it got a bit late yesterday we prepare to leave on time and are on the road at 8.30 am. We stop at Tennant Creek for fuel and want to go to Lake Marianne for lunch.

When we start the bus to drive from the fuel station the lights from the alternator and filter stay on. Also the voltage remains at the 13 volts. Not good.

We stop and park next to the fuel station and see that the alternator has fallen off. The bolts connecting it to the engine have completely gone out. One is missing and luckily the other still rests on the base of the alternator. Of course it is Sunday and the automotive shop in Tennant Creek is closed. But because we arrived early, the hardware shop is open. They don’t have the bolts though but have the town directory and can provide some numbers of possible help. We call the first and they have sold their business. When I ask whom to she says that they actually went broke and closed down. Sad but not helpful.

I ring another who starts asking 20 questions and apparently knows exactly which bolt I’m talking about exactly to the size of the spanner needed. Then he ends with “but I don’t have one”. Again not really helpful. Then he corrects himself and says, drive to the other end of town and we’ll see what we can do. Not sure who ‘we’ are but at this point he’s all I have. So I hop on my bike and pedal to the other side of town. Tennant Creek is not big but with a stiff wind from one end of town to the other is quite a hike. It all was worth it though as he had the right side bolt!
Happily I pedal back where Marjo and the dogs are patiently waiting. Luckily she can entertain himself wine of the resident aboriginals and help him live a little longer. He was rolling a cigarette using leaves and newspaper papers so she helped him with some scented tobacco that are not her favourite and some older papers. He was over the moon.

I cursed through trying to get the alternator bolts back on and finally at around 1 pm we were on the road again.

We stopped at Lake Marianne, just outside of town but turned around after we saw 6! signs that dogs were not allowed. With the alternator stop we all had rested enough from driving anyway and we ate while driving on.

At around 3.30 we pulled into Renner Springs. It’s not much of a spring, but a nice little pond with bird life.

And great cooling down for the dogs, followed by a nice dry in the grass.

I went for a swim in the 17m pool that had cold spring water (and water flees) and Marjo opted for the hot showers.

Posted from Pamayu, Northern Territory, Australia.

We have another cold night, 5 degrees according to our Dutch neighbour. He has some fancy phone that tells him the temperature and he and his friend were very cold as they slept in a tent. Before arriving at this camping they had to wait on the other side of the accident and later that afternoon got through on a single lane. It appears that the accident was caused by a car plus double axle trailer tried to overtake a road train, swayed and rolled, taking the car with it. The driver didn’t make it. That makes you feel vulnerable and obviously sad for the family.

We try again to escape Alice Springs but have a slow start after we both take a shower first and pack up. This time we seem to succeed. About 100 km down the road we see another accident. This time a rolled 4 wheel drive ended on its side. There are other cars to help and they signal that we have to drive on. It definitely makes you think.

At around 4 pm and 360 km north of Alice we pull into a rest stop. We park the bus and are knackered.

Marjo makes boerenkool with worst because it’s only 34 degrees in the bus. We play around with the camera and end up with some nice shots. The not so nice ones we deleted. Thanks digital camera!

At night it cools down though, not below 15 degrees but nice enough to sleep in.

Posted from Pamayu, Northern Territory, Australia.

Standley chasm, what a beautiful place!

I told Axel I could stay there for a day and not be bored!

We stopped there because we could drive to the parking lot with the dogs. Axel and the dogs stayed in the car and I did the tour/walk.

Every step you take there was something new, a beautiful bird, a nice white gumtree, a little stream with pebbles, giant orange rocks glowing in the sun and more! And that was only the path towards the chasm!

The path was adventures, and strewn with beautiful scenery , but the chasm was breath taking!

I had to wait a bit till some people left, so I could take some nice pictures (without people in it) and also the sun was just coming over the top, so one of the walls was a vibrant orange.

The walk back was just as beautiful, and I had to be careful not to hang around too long, as Axel and the dogs were waiting for me!

Just an amazing place, a Marjo place haha, go figure who was a happy girl for the rest of the day!

Marjo.

Time to move again, don’t want to shoot any roots as yet. We take one parting picture.

For the last two trips we have doped up Nossi on Valium and that makes him travel ok. He sways a little when he sits up but seems ok with the road. Cattle grids still make him stand up and stick his nose straight into the air vent for fresh air, even when the wind is blowing hard and cold enough to give us cold feet (literally).

We drive back along the Larapinta drive back towards Alice Springs.

Then we decide to take a turn towards Standley Chasm. This must be some attraction as the road is bitumen all the way where the Serpentine Gorge was all dirt, rocky and corrugated.
This time it’s Marjo’s turn to look at the sights while I keep the dogs company. The disadvantage of that is that you rarely visit sites together but then again the plus point, as Marjo points out, is that the one can tell the other about it, show the pictures and can give their own interpretive colour to the experience.

ok, from here on it is fiction as I started writing the rest of this blog while Marjo was chasming. So much for predicting the future….

Then we head into Alice Springs. Get some fuel at affordable prices and finally get Marjo her own mattress. I suspect that she has not been lying very well but been too modest to say anything about it to save the $250. I on the other hand find that money well spent. We still are going to sleep about 300 nights or 3,000 hours on these things and that makes it less than 10 cents an hour. What can you do these days for a dime an hour? What I won’t tell her is that it makes me rolling over to her side of the bed such a more pleasurable experience 🙂

Meanwhile we load up on some Internet as that is going to be scarce for a while as it was in Glen Helen and publish some of the posts (not this one as it still needs completing).

On the way north we will have some stops but don’t expect too much to Katherine (which is still 1250 km’s) apart from Daly Waters. That seems to have a pub which is the most well known amongst travelers of the NT.

Now to what really happened….

Marjo had a great time wandering around at Standley Chasm and you can all read about it in her post. Meanwhile I did some art.

So that the dogs and I get some exercise too, we stop a little further down the road for lunch in the river (again no water).

Then we head into Alice Springs. Get some fuel at affordable prices and finally get Marjo her own mattress. I suspect that she has not been lying very well but been too modest to say anything about it to save the $320. I on the other hand find that money well spent. We still are going to sleep about 300 nights or 3,000 hours on these things and that makes it just more than 10 cents an hour. What can you do these days for a dime an hour? What I won’t tell her is that it makes me rolling over to her side of the bed such a more pleasurable experience 🙂

We spend long enough to call both Joran and Niki but they’re in the middle of their busy lives and we can only leave a message. Then we continue and head north from Alice. Ten minutes later we see more and more emergency vehicles and get stopped 10 km north of Alice Springs. The constable explains that there has been a fatal accident and we see indeed a car blocking the road. The road (our only connection north) will be blocked for crime scene investigation till later tonight and there’s no alternative for two wheel drive cars.

So we turn around, buy some beer, try a nearby camping who don’t take pets and after considering for a second to tie the dogs to a tree (just joking, Niki), we head back to White Gums and stay where we stayed three nights ago……

From two Dutch guys who arrived later at the camping we hear that one of the lanes has opened and that it was a guy with a car and trailer trying to overtake a road train. His trailer swerved, toppled and took the car with it. The driver didn’t survive.
Glad we’re not in a hurry….

The camping has abundant wildlife and Nossi is very interested in the resident Kangaroo family.

Posted from Hugh, Northern Territory, Australia.

Finally we’re on our way to Glen Helen in the West MacDonnell Ranges. The road scenery is captivating with on the left jagged rocks and on the right rounded mountains that remains Marjo of Elephants and Rhinoceros’; big, round, and wrinkly.

Glad she didn’t associate them with me or at least had enough self preservation to keep those thoughts to herself 😉 You can see me ponder though.

The road is hilly and has interesting stops. All not dog friendly though. We stop outside of the gate of Serpentine Gorge and I make the walk to the top with an astonishing view.

When I come back, Marjo utilized the time to do some art and Nossi made it clear that he finds that we have traveled far enough. We pretend not to understand him and continue onto Glen Helen.

After more hilly roads and pretty hills we arrive at the campsite. A great location and view. First lunch and a little nap in the shade.

To escape the 34 celcius temperature and the blistering wind Marjo does the Gorge walk. Surprisingly a lot of – friggin freezin – water. Someone estimates 12 degrees, which is really fresh when the outside temperature is 34.

Then we listen for a while when a group of campers make music around a fire. But decide that they need more practice and go and watch Bones on the iPad.

Another great day.

Then we wake up and the wind has turned. From the warm western wind to a colder south wind. The temperature is still nice, high 20’s but not too hot like yesterday. Also from our bus the rockface look brilliant. So we ponder.

The main plus point is the water. After being in North West Queensland and Northern Territory for a while you really start missing water. Everything is red dust and the hygrometer has not shown anything but LO (which means that there’s not enough moisture in the air to measure). We start salivating with pictures of green grass and I can’t remember having cows as any of our forefathers.

Well, of course we decide we stay another day. Fixing the odometer, fixing the drawer in the back of the bus, de-icing the fridge, cleaning the bus (finally no dust on and in everything).

Also the dogs are having a great time on another walk and Nossi even did zoomies.

Posted from Mt Zeil, Northern Territory, Australia.

In the morning we pack up and leave before 9 so we’re well in time for our appointment with the Truck Tyre mob. We arrive there just before 11 and after a set of problems that show their incompetence we leave close to 5 pm.

Meanwhile we have been able to do shopping, buy a new car battery, mail some post cards and do bank business. Highly dissatisfied with the Alice Springs Truck Tyre service we now lost our opportunity to go to Glen Helen and decide to stay at a camping 10 km out of Alice Springs in palace called White Gums.

The place is run by a grandma and her grad daughter (Rachel? Caroline?) who have a strange type of love and hate relationship. It’s kinda funny to watch and in the end we are able to get a site.

White Gums is located a few kilometer in the West MacDonnell Ranges and already the rock formations are beautiful.

Also for the first time we encounter various types of multi coloured birds. Up to now we have mainly seen Kites, Eagles, Cockatoos and magpies.

Posted from Arumbera, Northern Territory, Australia.

I wake up from our sports neighbour. He indeed told me that they will be doing a sunrise camel tour. Up at 5 am, tour starts at 6. With bedtime before 9.30 pm I am rested and can’t fall asleep. I watch Marjo sleeping like a baby. Her breathing slow and regularly, a smile on her face, must be a pleasant dream.
Then I’ve had enough and start making breakfast. An early one. As long as it’s with an egg, no one complains.

Then we pack up, our plan this morning is to utilize the $25 pass once more for me to visit Ayers Rock (if you hadn’t worked it out, that’s a synonym for Uluru) and the Olga’s (synonym for Kata Tjuta) while Marjo minds the dogs at the campground. Indeed I visit Kata Tjuta.

And then drive to touch Ayers Rock and bring some red sand for my mother which we will mail.

Then we take fuel at Yulara (thieves) and drive back east to go to Kings Canyon. That is halfway between Yulara and the turn off back to a town called Alice.
Then the bus starts to wobble. At first we think it’s the road. Then I stop and check the tyres and find nothing wrong. We drive again and suddenly a siss and a bang and we have a flat. We stop the bus on the side of the road and start with swapping tyres. Never known that on the passenger side the nuts have counter thread and when Marjo suggest that I say “naaaaaay”. Well of course she was right and finally we get the tyre undone, lift the bus with the help of blocks and put the spare on. I now see that it is a retread. A tyre where later a new profile is glued on. Also it is a different brand and the side wall doesn’t look great. It’s all we have though and we start the journey again.

As there is no service station between here and Kings Canyon that could help fix the tyre (it needs a new tyre as the original one has a jagged hole the size of Marjo’s fist). We therefore decide to leave Kings Canyon and head straight for the Stuart Highway. The roadhouse at the junction 130 km further looked very modern and is also had mobile reception. While Marjo is praying to the angels we float back like carried on a cloud (well not quite but her prayers helped). At the roadhouse they could help at 50% premium but not that day. We arrived before 4 pm and they close at 3.

So we decide that Marjo says a few more prayers and we continue towards Alice Springs, 120km up the Stuart Highway. We book in at the Truck Tyre service and because it is getting late pull into the Desert Oaks rest stop. It is not a bad place but has millions of very big bindie’s (very prickly for both us and the dogs) and of course Desert Oaks (tree that can withstand the desert well).

We are treated on a very nice sky.

Posted from Ghan, Northern Territory, Australia.

Well I got this tour from Joran and Christine for my birthday!
From the camping in Yulara, the AATKing bus picks me up at the bus shelter with about 25 other people already in the bus.
We drive the 20 minutes trip with lots of inside stories from the bus driver, who had a very hoarse voice.
And there it is, The rock, Ayers rock or Uluru, and some tables with white table cloths and champagne and healthy nibbles.
We each got a camping chair from the bus driver and he mentioned the number of the bus, and that we have to be at that bus around 20 minutes past sunset.
I thought there is only one bus but ok I will remember the number!
Good thinking Marjo, because there were many more busses to come, with loads of Japanese people (it is holiday time in Japan at the moment).
I settled on my camping chair with my champagne and camera, and really focused on the color changing of the rock formation.
The woman next to me wanted the rock up side down through her champagne glass, I think she was a bit bored, because it took a while before it changed color.
Some good pictures came out of that evening, mainly the rock changed color, not the sky so much.
I wished on a purple red orange yellow behind the rock disappearing sort of sky.
But hey, this night the sky was like this, and I am happy to have seen it!
Thanks so much Joran and Christine!
Lots of love,Marjo

Posted from Ghan, Northern Territory, Australia.

That morning we can barely lift the doona as the thermometer shows 2 degrees. That’s very cold and lucky for us the sun rises at 6.45 and allows us to move around in the bus. The dogs don’t like it at all and stay under blankets until we say the word “dinner”. They don’t distinguish between breakfast and dinner. Food is food. Then we pack up and head south again with the idea to stop in Stuarts Well, a roadhouse with *free* unpowered camping. If that doesn’t attract good Dutch people then nothing will.

The road showed some Ayers Rock wannabe’s but we won’t get fooled.

They even warn for camels here and we saw our first road kill with birds, and an eagle at that!

Marjo says I’m to dark talking about road kill and toilets so I’ll try and better my life. She is doing the final editing and will keep me honest.

The dirt along the road is getting increasingly more red and even the bitumen itself turns a redder shade of pale.

Then we suddenly turn believers……140 km from Uluru we see the rock already. It must have super powers to turn our eyesight so that we have laser vision of 140 kilometer, or does it?

Then we get thrown back to reality when we arrive at Mt Connor lookout. It’s a kinda lookalike for Ayers Rock and our initial disappointment gets squashed soon when we see on the other side of the road a dry inland sea white with salt.

We now have the fever though and decide to go on to Yulara and not stop in Stuart’s Well.

Then we try to capture the sheer beauty of the grass tijana (?) that seems to be the toughest grass that can withstand years of draught, fires and other onslaughts and still survive. It shines really nice in the sun but to convey that in a picture is another story.

Then we get a first glimpse of “the red rock” as well as the Olga’s of Kata Tjuta.

We take a picture just before the turnoff to Yulara, the accommodation for Uluru and then Nossi finally settles. He was much better after the pheremone spray, still not his own self, but definitely more settled in the bus.

The camping is big and commercial. We stand next to a family from Queensland who cannot leave their sport at home so we can hear his rugby commentator on the radio. On the other side a German couple that visit the north for 5 weeks in a cramped 4 wheel drive (his words). They give some tips for visits like Litchfield and Nitmiluk. That seems to fit in our plans so we like them.

Then Marjo goes on a sunset trip that she will tell you all about in a different post. Nossi, Dotti and I see the sunset from a viewing point in the camping with about 20 other people and 3 dogs.

Then we turn in, expecting another cold night.

Posted from Yulara, Northern Territory, Australia.

After Gemtree it’s back 68 km up the Happy Highway, oh apparently it’s called Plenty Highway, back to the Stuart Highway. In a magazine I read that Stuart was a guy in the 1800’s who explored the route to make a telegraph connection from Darwin to Adelaide. He was quite good for creating opportunities for people to settle along the route and also to establish harmonious relationships with the aboriginals. Apparently he didn’t fare that well himself. He was malnourished, suffered from gastro diseases and turned blind from navigating too much by looking at the sun. Then when he was not capable to work anymore the English government refused to look after him and he died in poverty, living with his sister.
Yeah….we didn’t like the story either, but now I’ve shared it with you, I feel much better. Thanks.

On a more friendly note, Marjo read a story at a rest area about the wording of Australia. Not sure how they worked that out as it all happened millions of years ago.

Then we turn south towards Alice.

There we stop for some petrol at reasonably normal prices and a vet check for Nossi. Since he went scuba diving in Port Douglas and put his head under he has been anxious in the bus. We treated his water ear when it happened but now every time we drive he’s panting and can’t get settled. The vet thinks he’s quite a nervous dog (hope she didn’t have to study very long to make that assessment) and that Valium might help. In addition we get DAP (Dog Appeasing Pheromone). That seems to be a scent secreted by mother dogs that makes puppies less anxious. We’ll try.

Then it’s further south. We drive past more hilly country.

Then we arrive at Finke River. It’s a bit overstated as all the Northern Territory rivers we have seen are dry as a bone. This is clearly the dry season with sandy rivers, warm days and cold nights.
The rest area is actually not bad and extends behind the formal bitumen part. We park in the red sand and watch some nice sunset.

This is actually the after-the-sunset picture. Marjo saw the nice sunset but went walking with the dogs and no camera. Meanwhile I was reading the Stuart-not-so-happy story and missed the whole shebang. So when she said if I got the sunset on camera, we decided to share whatever we still could capture.

Posted from Yulara, Northern Territory, Australia.