An early start back through ‘The Alice’ before once again heading North this time towards our overnight stop at the Devils Marbles. Once again another big drive taking in some aboriginal art work at in Ti Tree and then onwards to the now infamous Barrow Creek – the closest town to where  Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio were attacked by Bradly John Murdoch when driving their combi along the same route. Walking round the round house at Barrow Creek was a weird feeling…

After a brief stop there it was onwards through the town of Tennat Creek and onto the Devils Marbles just in time for sunset. The Devils Marbles are large and small granite rocks scattered all over the landscape making for impressive scenery aswell as an important sacred site for the traditional owners.

Oh watch out for the dingos if your staying there one evening!

Leaving ‘The Alice’ and heading west to see the West Macdonnell Range – The Macdonnell range is a long row of mountains stretching for about 600km with Alice Springs divding them East and West. Lunch was spent at Simpsons Gap – Last time I was i’d cycled from Alice in extreme heat, thankfully not so hot this time and more relaxed having the van!

Camped for the night at Ellery Creek Big Hole – A great spot for swimming and just relaxing in the middle of the outback…

Three fairly quiet days….

Day 11 was a nice drive from Kings Canyon up to Alice Springs for a break from the van and a night in a hostel! It was good to be able to have a proper bed for the night and to be able to go out for a few drinks in the town before moving to a campsite the following day for a rest day.

It was also a chance to for the van to have a break and have a service before continuing the journey North.

Day 10 was a drive from Uluru to Kings Canyon, a few hours drive before doing the amazing walk round the canyon. Starting with a bit of a climb to take you to the top of the canyon before a few hours walking round the rim with some amazing views of the local area along with some sheer drops to take care of! The evening was camping at the kings canyon resort.

Day 7 was a mammoth drive from Marla, crossing the South Australia and Northern Territory border onto Erldunda for an unusual experience.

A left turn onto a different road!! Its a big thing after a thousand or so km on the same road! The new road, Lasseter Hwy, took us to Uluru where we would spend the next few nights catching some dramatic sunrise and sunsets, hiking round the rock and enjoying the valley of the winds hike at Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). A couple of the stand out moments were going to the sunrise point to watch the sunset – so peacfule away from all the tourists. The following morning we did a similar thing and went to the bus sunset point to watch the sunrise point. We were joined by a few tour groups doing that, and it has to be said after doing the sunrise in both the sunrise and sunset locations if you have the chance goto the bus sunset point as its far more enjoyable!

Yey another big day of driving including a stop in the opal mining town of Coober Pedy for some sneaky checking of emails in the tourist information centre and a look round some of the underground buildings. We’d heard a few other traveller talking about a number of campervan breakins in the town so we were reluctant to leave the van alone for too long, so after a little look round we headed further north to the Breakways. Some stunning landmarks just of the highway – though it is down an unsealed road, that despite its good quality is not a good thing in a campervan. Bumpy and noisy goes noway to describing that small 9km journey. The views at the end are more than worth it.

I’d wanted to camp there for the night but we had lots of day light left so we kept heading north to our first paid campsite for some much needed showers and the chance to do some washing. It was nice for a bit of luxury but with so many people around it made for a much less enjoyable night than the ones alone in the middle of nowhere!

[mappress]

Leaving Quorn and a brief stop in Port Augusta we then headed onto what, with a few exceptions for ’sight seeing’, would be the last road we would need to get to Darwin – The Stuart Highway. Named after John McDouall Stuart the road stretches from Adelaide in the South to Darwin in the north – totalling more than 2800 kilometers!

A mamoth driving day after leaving Port Augusta saw us head a long way north towards the first target of Coober Pedy. We didn’t get quite that far stopping to take in some vast open views of the interior and to take walk on a salt lake, until we saw signs warning of laser hazard and unexploded bombs!!

Our stop that night was a rest stop along the side of the road with luxury drop! toliets – compared to some drop toilets they really were luxury. Another amazing night under the stars and a chance to air the van and sit our under the warming eveing sun. One bonus about heading north was the steadily higher temperatures!

Another driving day as we made our way towards the Stuart Highway where the trup north would begin properly. Day four saw us taking in some of the sight of the Flinders Ranges and another mad dash to find somewhere to stay for the night before the sun set. The led us to the small town of Quorn where we found a nice big carpark which we had to ourself. There is something strange about cooking dinner in a large carpark in the center of a town -something you can only really do on a roadtrip!

Another early start, the great thing about camping is you get up with the sun and goto bed when its dark. Its a much simpler way of living, thugh when driving in outback Australia its a good idea to plan your stops before sunset to avoid dusk driving. when it gets dark the animals come out to play, and they seem to like car/van bumpers!

Today included a stop in the mining town of Broken Hill, though now its perhaps more well known as an outback tourist destination. It’s also a stop for the Indian Pacific on its way from Sydney to Perth and so i’d been here briefly a few years before.

Another big driving day saw us trying to get further North than we perhaps should have and its became clear that we were getting close to sunset with nowhere to stop. We set of down the barrier highway expecting a rest stop/car park of some sort, according to the map there were a couple, but really there was nothing! Thankfully as the sun was geading beyond the horizon we came across a small and abanonded town of Olary, a victim of the the drought and a downturn in farming. It was still mainataind to a basic level, and after a few discussions on whether it would turn into a wolf creek style place we stopped for the night. As it turned out it was one of the best nights stopped, being totally alone in the outback makes for a lot of fun and some amazing stars!

Daytwo of the roadtrip saw a early and very cold start! Thankfully the girls had bought porridge when we stopped in Bendigo the day before, though it took an age to cook on the gas burner which wasn’t liking the cold start.

Once warmed up we continued the trek north alog the Calder Highway taking a few random detours to ‘places of interest’ along the way -though most of the day was just mileage to get north.

Overnight was a small roadhouse outside the small town of Wentworth. Free hot showers were a bonus before heading into another cold night.