Dust, dirt and dramas!!!!

16 to 18th July, Wilpena Sound to Oondnadatta Once we'd all decided to carry on together we departed the Wilpena Pound campground and set of don a breathtaking and truly beautiful drive through the gorges Dlinders Ranges. Our travels took us through small towns like Leigh Springs and Marree which has one of the 100yr+ pubs  so we thought it would be rude not to stop for a cold refreshment and soak u the atmosphere... as you do. So many of these towns consist of nothing but the pub and Marree is certainly no different, it's deserted but there's ruminants of the old Detention Centre that was going to be used to process illegal immigrants some time ago. Our destination for that day was a small campground called Coward Springs, so from Marree we joined the dirty, dusty and rough Oodnadatta Track. Red dirt, blue sky and low shrubby landscape makes for speculation scenery through this area. As we approached a view of Lake Eyre South we pulled over to take in the amazing sunset but we inadvertently stopped beside an old aboriginal guy with guitar and his dog who was set up in the absolute middle of nowhere playing beautiful music and singing. He has lived his whole life in Maree and was born west of where we had stopped in the desert, he comes out to play to the landscape every morning and every night and his voice bough tears to our eyes....we couldn't have scripted it better....here we were in the middle of nowhere, with amazing live music, watching an incredible sunset......we all needed to pinch ourselves! The trade off for stopping for the show was that we still had quite a ways to got to get to Coward Springs that night so we pushed on into the dusk and early evening and set up camp by spotlight that night. It was another frozen night so we don't tend to stay up late as its much cozier in our trusty sleeping bags. Wednesday 18th July: Bron and I have been trying to keep up (some) running while we're away so the next morning we hit the dust and clocked up a leisurely 12km back along the track, it's funny running out there with the dust, dingos and camels...pretty surreal actually. Once back we needed to pack up, jump in the springs (which is a sandy little hole thats not very warm but kids had a wash just the same) and then hunt down William Creek by 1:30 for our flights over Lake Eyre then on to Oodnadatta for the night. Our flights over the lake were amazing......small 8seater planes, skittish take offs and landings but the view over the lake was incredible. The basin at its lowest point is 15m below sea level (the lowest point in Oz) and when full it holds 8 times the volume of Sydney Harbour!!! It was only 20% full at this time (it was 80% full in March 2012) so there wasn't much bird life however the water that was there had a beautiful pink tinge that's created by algal blooms. It's an incredible natural formation and a must see for sure. So...after landing safely (a little sideways but safely) we headed for the odd little town of Oodnadatta which has just about everything painted pink!! Not much happening around there and a dodgy little campground to say the least, Pa and Ray went soft and booked into a cabin but I must admit hat it was nice to cook and clean up under fluro lights and he kids got a small shot of TV too??? Thursday 19th July: Oodnadatta to Mt Dare The following morning we picked up the Easties new tyre, fill up the tanks at $2:21ltr (it's better if you just cover the bowser and hand over your card without asking any questions!!), checked and rechecked that everyone's tyres had been let down to the recommended pressures and we were headed north toward Mt Dare which was the last stop for fuel and (limited) supplies before we were to head into the Simpson Desert. The track between Oodnadatta and Mt Dare was terrible, rough, corrugated, rocky and just unpleasant but we arrived at Mt Dare Station for lunch, a beer (or soft drink), fuel and our desert passes. Once everything was ready we were off into the desert with our aim to reach Dalhousie Springs campground by late afternoon. However fate through up another hurdle and the initial road into Dalhousie was like a moonscape, it was rocky and rutted terribly.....unfortunately I took my eyes off he track for a second, hit a rock, totaled one new tyre and ruptured the wall of another so that's where our Simpson Desert crossing ended among some cursing, frustrated jumping up & down and a lot of head shaking. The only option the Teudtys had was to turn around and limp back to Mt Dare where we could reassess the situation and make some hard decisions. The Easties decided they would head back with us while we all convinced Pa and Ray (aka Putz and Moron from the movie 'Grumpy Old Men') to keep heading through the desert. We said our goodbyes, wished them luck, put our tail between our legs and putted back to relative civilization. The Mt Dare pub welcomed us back, cooked us a meal, we had a hot shower and some sleep before thinking about what to do next..... Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd July: Mt Dare to (almost the Simpson Desert) Alice Springs A massive flock of those crazy birds (Galahs) made sure there was no sleep-in that morning so we all got up and decided that we were best off heading fro Alice Springs where I could get tyres and we could still get to see Uluru, Kings Canyon, Palm Valley and the Olga's while Bron and Giorgia still had time with us before they fly home on the 30th July. So we headed up into the Northern Territory through the small aboriginal community of Finke, across through Kulgera , back onto the bitumen (for the first time in ages) and made a bee-line for Alice. It was our time to be soft now as we checked into a couple of cabins for a few nights while we got all the chores done and organized our repairs. The kids had a ball here, made some new friends, Mitch took on the pancake eating contest at the Big 4 van park but fell just short, the jumping pillow will never be the same again after tribes of kids took on each other in a fight to the death of 'Force-Em-Backs' and I found some tyres but they couldn't be fitted until Monday morning. The Easties decided that they'd move on on Sunday and headed out to Palm Valley where we will meet up on Monday (tomorrow). I've now spent the day doing trailer maintenance, dust proofing, washing and repacking ready to hit the road again tomorrow. Kids being kids though.....they convinced me to take them out for dinner and a movie like we were on a date so we hit the Outback Steakhouse (great choice for Pete the Vego!) and a showing of Ice Age 4.....now that we are all recivilised I think we're ready to get back out there again so stay tuned........

Port Augusta to Wilpena Sound (7th July to 16th July)

....so we roll into Pt Augusta (PA), cars are filthy, kids are feral AND filthy, adults are a little testy and everything is wet so we make for a car wash, maccas (for the kids) and a shower in that order and we get set up for a few days. Everything and everyone is clean, fed and happy and we await the arrival of the remainder of the Eastie clan (Bron, Giorgia and Mitch) and luckily they bought some smiles with them. On the flip side we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Karen who was leaving us and heading to Adelaide 😢😢. We'll miss her riddles and her cool outlook on life. We spent the next few days exploring the southern end of the Flinders Ranges, places like Quorn, Hawker, some amazing vistas, fun mud tracks (apart from wreaking in brand new tyre on the V-dub on a sneaky sharp rock). We met some funny horses/ponies which the kids all tried to ride (check out FB for all the footage!!). As we had to lay over in PA while we waited for a new tyre to come in from Adelaide we just kept up the exploring of the area, places like Alligator Gorge & Mt Remarkable were highlights and should be on anyone's agenda for this area.  It was then time to say goodbye to another of our transient passengers, our "Bro with the Mo" Mr Steven Caines had a date with his wife and family that we couldn't talk him out of....we miss his fun and enthusiasm and look forward to catching up when we get back home. Time to get out of PA so we hit the road again and traveled along the blacktop north through Hawker into Wilpena Sound National Park....and more rain!! If you get the chance, google Wilpena Sound and have a look at this incredible natural formation. It looks as though a massive meteor has impacted in the area but it's a natural area that has a wall of mountains enclosing areas of swampland, cypress & eucalypt bushland, with a small pass to enter the area. The views are amazing, colours spectactular and we've spent hours exploring the area as we've been here for a few days now. We even managed an early morning run up to the lookout to see the morning sun on the surrounding rock formations. Oh....and I mustn't forget the hospitality of the Poddy Dodgers bar in the campground for their supply of Coopers Pale Ale, Tooheys 5 Seeds Cider and a roaring outdoor fire place where we've enjoyed Happy Hour for the past few night....and an honorable mention to Mitch and Giorgie for handling the kids while the parents seek off for a quiet sip!!! We owe you guys!!!

With the arrival of the sunshine we also welcomed the arrival of Ang's dad (Pa) and his mate Ray. Its great to see them and we're looking forward to some travel time together. However, with the arrival of new comers also comes the need for compromise as we all have various commitments that we need to stick to, so today (Monday) is being spent meshing everyone's plans together to come up with a solution that will suit us all, enable us to see the things we all want to witness and spend some time together.....wish us luck!!!!

The past 7 days.....almost.....

Ok.....so we hit the dirt roads yet again and followed some seriously lonely paths, I think when people talk about "the middle of nowhere" that this road was what they were talking about. We finally touched down into South Australia into a beautiful little town called Wentworthville and after following the Darling river from its source in Bourke we found it's end where it joined the mighty Murray River. The waters from the two rivers were distinctly different in colour so we were able to watch as they came together to form the one single waterway.....it was pretty cool for sure! Our first night camping on the Murray River found us in a little tributary called Frenchmans Creek. This was the site of most of our first initiation of swimming in the river and we all found out the hard way just how COLD COLD COLD the water was!!! Steve & Pete were the first to go in and as the surfaced gasping for air we all knew it must be pretty cold but eventually (through tears, 500m Forest Gump sprints and an awful lot of psyching up) everyone had braved the waters and then spent the next hour huddled around a roaring fire talking up the whole experience!! The weather the following day had started to turn overcast so we packed up and headed further into SA stopping at Lake Victoria which had both a rich aboriginal history and some significant ties to the training of second world war aircraft pilots, two of which lost their lives by crashing into the lake in low visibility, their bodies and aircraft remain in the lake and a shrine to them takes pride of place from the viewing platform. We continued through the towns of Renmark and Waikerie (sampling the wears of the various bakeries along the way)& after a quick grocery restock and lunch down by the river at Waikerie where there were paddle-boats & 100's of houseboats, we caught the ferry across the river and set off to find a suitable campsite. After a lot of searching and having to cross back over the Murray once more we lucked upon a beautiful camp site in one of the state parks, got all set up and kicked back with a cold beer! The night was beautiful, stars out, moon shining so we thought everything was good to leave outside for the night......bad idea!!!! The weather changed overnight, the rain started and it poured, so we flew into action, packed everything and everyone up soaked through and hit out early. Food thing we did because the roads into the camp area had turned to mush, if we'd left it for much longer we'd have had a tough time getting out!! The Eastment/Teudt caravan continued to head south (once we'd dried out) through some very lonely but equally beautiful terrain. We travelled through the towns of Butra and Jamestown among many other little hamlets, stopped off at Banrock Station Winery to sample their wines (as you do when your wet, dirty and have a car full of wet/dirty/tired kids!!), needless to say we thought that we all deserved a couple of cases of red to help take the edge off the next few days!!! We now continued through the rolling hills, green pastoral lands & miles of vineyards down into the southern end of the Flinders Ranges where we wound our way down through some majestic passes and into Port Augusta......to be continued.......

Time for an update......

So......we spent another day (Wednesday 4th July) in Broken Hill more as a necessity rather than wanting to hang around because the Patrol had a turbo issue and my camper trailer needed a new cover which had to be ordered. Some spent the day at a park playing touch footy, eating bakery food and filling in time while Pete and Stevo worked on the Patrol. Once we were back inaction we headed for Menindee Lakes that afternoon where we camped beside the lake area for the next 2 nights in Kinchega National Park. As it was State of Origin night we headed for one of the 2 pubs in town to watch as poor old Samo became heart broken at NSW's 7th straight series loss......there were tears & cursing aplenty!!!
The next day (Thursday 5th July) the team spent the day exploring the National Park, making spears while I (Pete) made a dash for Broken Hill to pick up the trailer cover and do some other mundane bits and pieces. When I returned we set off to take a look at the historic Kinchega Woolshed for which the National Park was named (after the the original sheep station). This shed at it's peak would shear 72,000 sheep a year with only 62 stands (sharers stations). The sheds themselves are in great condition and were perfect for getting some fantastic photos. We then headed out to do a loop of the park with the thought to stop off and watch the sunset over the lakes. As it turned out there were only a few takers to watch the sunset but for those of us that made the effort what we witnessed was just incredible, the colours, sounds, wildlife etc was simply breathtaking. We returned to camp where a roast lamb dinner was waiting for all the carnivores and some vego sausages for the hippy!! We eat like royalty out here....certainly no bully beef and spam for the "glampers"!!!!!
Friday 6th July; Izzy and Em (2 of the girls from the sheep station 'Glenora') had joined us for a couple of nights and they had to head back today so after a very vocal goodbye we packed up and headed out from Kinchega NP (with a sexy new camper trailer cover) and made our way southwest toward the small village of Pooncarie. Today would have been (was/is) our beautiful Ang's 42nd birthday so we had a little celebration planned for her. We found a cracking spot beside the Darling River and set up for a cake, party hats etc. We also had a helium ballon kit which we used to inflate a heap of balloons which everyone wrote messages on to her. We let them go, sang happy birthday, talked about some of the things that we cherished most about her....there were some tears, some laughs and a lot of good memories......Ang was such an incredible person, we love her so much and we miss her every day, she would be so proud of our wonderful kids and I hope she's smiling downing us from somewhere up high, I feel her doing this every single day!!
We arrived into Pooncarie just a after lunch and had a look around this tiny but cute & very tidy little town. As we were ready to leave another traveller had broken down and our resident mechanic was volunteered (by who I wonder????) to give them a hand to get going, so the next couple of hours were spent working on a new V8 turbo diesel Troopy that had decided not to start, old magic fingers got it sorted out, received a couple of bottles of red as payment and we set off for a camp spot somewhere between Pooncarie and Wentworth on the western side of the river. Let it be known that we found yet another cracking spot, right on the river......and as I write this we've just finished another gourmet meal, there's a huge fire roaring, the water birds are settling around us, fish are jumping in the river and the sky has lit up an almost unbelievable show of stars for as far as the eye can see.....this country that we call ours is truly truly amazing and is something we should all be proud to be a part of! Once again there's still some people missing....wish you guys were here!!!

The last few days or "we're now in Broken Hill!!"....

So.....we travelled through the red dirt toward Tilpa, a tiny town (population Of 6!!) the kids were allowed to write their names on the walls for a small donation to the Royal Flying Doctors...what an awesome little dot on the map, plenty of history and a pub that is the essence of an outback pub, oddly enough the lady working behind the bar was from Culburra!! Back on the road we got diverted an extra 100km around a closed road to arrive at a 84,000acre sheep station with 16,000 sheep (& 99 cattle)! 2 nights out here to emerse ourselves in life on the land. There was horses, dirt bikes, 4x4's, yabbying, shooting (yep...shooting), riding around the property on the back of utes, lots of meat and beer, and lots of good old fashioned country hospitality...thank you Glenora, you guys were awesome! We arrived in Broken Hill yesterday to the high pitched squeals of Bridie screaming "there's a Maccas, there's a Maccas, there's a Maccas"....so Maccas was lunch followed by a quick look around. We set up at a small van park, showers and washing were a bit of a luxury so everyone indulged! A very average pub meal (the comment "that was crap on a stick.... Not worth digging a hole for" (don't ever go to the Theatre Royal Hotel)!!! Today (Tuesday) were spent the day exploring Silverton, a beautiful Old world country town full of art galleries, mad max memorabilia, amazing colours....the full outback picture! We made a detour off track down to a dry river bed to give sand driving a go so after lunch we hit it......& I got bogged (only because that bloody Patrol stopped in front of me), so we spent the next hour and a hfdigging the Amrok out followed by using the snatch strap! Good practice & lots of fun! . We then checked out the view from the top of the massive tailings heap across the middle of The town! ! Another pub meal (bit better this time)......check all the photos out on facebook and we'll aim to keep the blog updated a bit more regularly!! Stay tuned.....