Day 11 Tuesday –
Today we are off to Alice (If I hear one more rendition of “Alice, Alice who
the F is Alice I will scream) Ange, Tina and Josie have picked up on how much
it annoys me and at every opportunity have taken great delight in yelling it
out. So we quickly pack up and hit the road, along the way we grab some fuel at
Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse where we find its 16 cents a litre cheaper than where we
filled up at Curtain Springs. Continuing on 2 hours later we approach Alice
when all we see is a wall of cloud and rain, Bloody hel, we have travelled over 3000 kilometres to get
Ararat weather!!!!, I look at the console and see that its 16 degrees outside
and absolutely Pissing down, I am yearning for shorts and singlet weather and
its F ing 16 degrees! Calling in to the G’day Mate caravan park the guy behind
the counter looks at me like i’m joking when I say I want 3 caravan sites for 2
big vans and a medium size one. To cut a
long story short he shows me around and says that he has 40 vans pulling out
tomorrow and if we can get by with a few small sites he will give us better
ones tomorrow. In the end we ended up with pretty good sites as far as I was
concerned and we stayed in them for both nights. Once we were set up I got Facebook message from Darren House who is
travelling by himself up to Darwin and is in Alice for the night, We arrange to
catch up at a Tavern close by to the caravan parks for a couple of beers. We set off into town
to stock up on supplies, Groceries purchased along with a few necessities After Tea and a shower The boys along with
Josie and Tina head to the pictures to see Jurassic Park 3 while Ange, John and
I head to the pub to catch up with Housey.
At the pub Housey and I have some catch up conversations and I ask him what Wilbur (Gordon Reid) is up
to as I haven’t seen him in years and he tells me that he is still in Western
Australia and gives him a call, short version is we are going to catch up when
we get to W.A. during the conversation I tell him he has to stop at the Daly
Waters Pub (which he had planned to anyway) and have the beef and Barra for tea
and listen to “Chilli” as the entertainment.
Further in the travel conversations Housey asks me if I am going to do
some fishing when I get to Broome, my answer is “I hope too” when he says hang
on I will set you up with a bloke I know there, another phone call later he has
put me on to one of his mates in Broome that will try and take us out if he can
when we get there. Talk about great timing. After a few more beers we call it a
night.
Day 12 Wednesday –
Today is just a settle and catch up day, Thomas heads off with John to the
Truck Museum while Ange does some washing, I do some van chores and head to
Bunnings to get some stuff for Josie van. Once we had finished there we drop
John off with Josie and Tina to do the Royal Flying Doctors centre before we
set off to catch up with an old friend from Horsham who now lives in Alice –
Rod Berry. After a quick catch up with Rod we head back to the park so Ange can
fold the washing while I go and wash the car. Returning from there its nearly
time for tea. We have arranged to go out for tea at “Sporties Bar” with Maria
Howman (Teresa’s Sister), great meal had by all and home for bed. Early rise
needed tomorrow as we have to travel over 400k’s to the Devils Marbles and arrive early before everyone else gets
there as it is a popular camp which is usually full by 3.00pm.
Day 13 Thursday – I
set the alarm for 6.35 and as it went off I thought “oohhh no too early” but we
had arranged to leave by 7.30 to 8.00 so I hit snooze for 10 minutes. Another
snooze button hit later its nearly 7.00. Finally I drag myself and Ange out of
bed and we start to pack up. Boys reluctantly rise and wander aimlessly around
while we get the van set to go and hit the road. Quick stop at Bunnings to get
a few things and off we go, Travelling along the day warms up beautifully and
we have a morning tea stop at Ti Tree before continuing on to Wycliffe Well
which is supposed to be the UFO capital of Australia. Unless the Aliens have
transformed into a couple of rugged looking Indigenous men I didn’t see any,
although a few cars could have passed as UFO’s with the speed they were
travelling along the unrestricted highway!
John grabbed some fuel and we
continued the 30 extra K’s to the Devils Marbles. Arriving at the perfect time
we managed to get 3 spots beside each
other as a procession of Vans followed us in. Before long it was bumper to
bumper here and I was justified in dictating an early leave from Alice. Once
set up we had a little explore around the Marbles before settling in for a
drink. Nearing tea time I dragged the Weber out and while Ange sorted the
salads, I cooked a selection of meats for everyone’s tea.
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| Devils Marbles |
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| Devils Marbles |
Now Hawthorn plays Adelaide tonight in the
footy and much to my dismay there is no TV or phone reception so I pray for
decent radio reception and as I type this up the radio fades in and out with a
score every now and then. At the end of the footy we headed off to bed for a good
nights sleep, have to be up for an early start tomorrow.
Day 14 Friday – With
such a big day ahead today (another 500 + K’s) and needing to get to Daly
Waters as early as possible to get a site at the Pub we rose nice and early and
walked up to watch the sunrise on the Marbles. Once again its a beautiful
sight!
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| Devils Marbles at Sunrise |
For those of you that are avid “Upthemiddle and Roundthewest”
readers you will find that I am running out of adjectives to describe all the
wonderful places and sights we are seeing. So please bear with me when I use
Fantastic, Magnificent, Glorious, Beautiful, Gorgeous, lovely etc etc over and over again because it
seems that on every turn there is some different place that needs describing.
Setting off up the highway we travelled to Tennant Creek
where we refuelled the cars and continued on for a couple of hours to Renner
Springs where we stopped for brunch, Ange cooked up some Hotdogs which were
devoured by the boys in no time. Back on the road we continued for another
couple of hours until we hit Daly Waters. Now those that have been there will
know what I am talking about when I say there is no other Pub like it, it is
something straight out of a Slim Dusty song crossed with a Back Packers hostel
for Grey Nomads. Booking in we were directed to our sites. Thank God we got
here when we did, as another hour and the place was Chock a Block full. Previously at the Devils Marbles we ran into
a Bloke and his daughter and son in law whom we had met at Coober Pedy for a
chat, during the conversation they mentioned that they too were going to Daly
Waters so we arranged to grab a table with them for tea and as we were booking
in they caught up with us and said that 7.30 was the booking time for the “Beef
and Barra”. After setting up the boys hit the pool whilst Ange and I sat and
had a drink with John before deciding to unhook and go back to the Servo on the
highway and fill up in prep for the morning. On the way back John and I dropped
into the WW2 Airstrip that is nearby, Walking in to the Hangar we were
disappointed to find all the pictures and memorabilia and information about the
place had been removed. Returning to the Pub we had a shower and got sorted for
tea. At the Bar we sat around and had a drink waiting for our meals, Tracy,
Michael and Lindsay (The people we met at Coober Pedy) arranged our table so we
joined them for a chat. It wasn’t long before our names were called to collect
our food, Ange and I had straight Barra but both boys chose the Beef and Barra
combo. Once again we were not disappointed the meal was magnificent and plenty
to fill the plate too. Mitch and Thomas returned to the bar and played pool
with a couple of blokes they met earlier whilst the rest of us continued our
conversations with our new found friends.
About 10.30 we decided to call it a night and I wandered into the main
bar to find out how the boys were going. Mitch was a bit P!ssed and Thomas was
in his element, Mitch assured me that he had 1 beer to come and then they would
be back so Ange and I walked back to the van and got into bed. Midnight came
and neither of the boys had returned so I got dressed and wandered down to find
Mitch and Thomas still there although the bar had shut and they were just
standing around chatting. Dragging them off to bed I once again tried to get
settled.
Day 15 Saturday – Planning
to hit the road around 7.30 I set the alarm for 6.45 only to be woken by Thomas
at 6.20 which is unusual as its usually me kicking them out of the swags to get
going. So we got up and started to pack up. Walking outside at 7.00 Josie, Tina
and John were ready to go! Ange and I
quickly finished packing up while Mitch had a sobering shower. Once he returned
we got going, only 170 K’s to drive today, felt like a quick trip to the shops
before arriving at Mataranka. Booking in we were pretty lucky to get some
pretty good camp sites as there weren’t many available, pays to arrive early it
seems. Once we were set up we had a bite to eat before heading down to the hot
springs for a swim, ah how bloody good is this – 28 degrees in the sun and
water at about 34, bloody beautiful.
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| Mataranka Homestead Springs |
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| Mataranka Homestead Springs |
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| Mataranka Homestead Springs |
Floating around for an hour or so we
hopped out and went for a walk along the boardwalk and had a look at the river,
signs were up saying - No Swimming, most likely due to a Saltwater Croc
sighting! I wasn’t going to try my luck again with regards to swimming with
crocs so we had a look around from the land and then returned to the Hot
Springs. Thomas decided that he would keep swimming at the Hot Springs for a
while so Ange and I went back to the van and sorted a few things before Ange
cooked up a tea of Tuscan Meatballs (sausages) and oriental fried rice. 5’s was at Josie’s tonight so we wandered
down to her site and had drinks and nibbles before tea. Tea was had around 6.30 then the boys went
back for a swim while Ange and I cleaned up. Around 7.40 we walked down to get
the boys as the Whip Cracking show was about to start, Apparently this was the
entertainment show for the night so we thought we would wander down and have a
look. Not expecting much, but this guy was good he cracked whips in time with
music along with a few other tricks including cracking whips that were on fire,
I was impressed anyway! At the end of
the show we wandered back to the van and Ange had a shower whilst I did a bit
more blog.
Day 16 Sunday - Tod ay was sleep in day, stayed in bed till
about 10.00 before getting up for a coffee with Tina and John. Once we were
organised we grabbed our fishing gear and Mitch, John and I set off down the
road to the Roper River where we cast a few lures with no success, not to worry
“A bad days fishin beats a good days workin”. Getting back about 1.30 we
grabbed some lunch that Ange had made for us and scoffed that down so we could
go for a swim at Bitter Springs which is just down the road. Bitter springs is
a natural hot spring river that you can just hop in and float down river to the
last set of steps, hop out, walk back to the start and go again. We brought
with us some noodle chairs that are ideal for this. After floating down river 4
or 5 times I went and found the boys that were up the top end of the river
area. They had got the goggles out and had found an underwater cave of sorts,
well it was where the weeds and plant life had formed a canopy on the water and
if you dived down there was a really clear water cave that they swam through
and popped up in pockets where there were no weeds. Of course there is no show
without punch so I grabbed my sports cam and went for a swim through the cave a
few times. Filming as I went.
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| Bitter Springs |
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| Bitter Springs |
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| Bitter Springs |
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| Bitter Springs |
Once the swimming was done we headed back to camp where
there was a nice roast pork cooking whilst we swam. Back at camp I am updating
this whilst having a couple of cans and everyone else is “Chillaxing” coz that’s
just how we roll on this trip LOL.
Once the Roast was devoured we sat around for a while
chatting before setting off down to see the boys who were once again having a night
swim. When we arrived Mitch told us that someone had spotted a Croc down at the
end of the boardwalk so Ange and I went for a look, when we got there at the
bottom of the swimming steps was one of the biggest freshwater crocs I had ever
seen. It was around 2 metres long and was quite large round the belly so we
took a couple of photos and headed back to drag the boys home for the night.
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