Darwin 2012 - Cadney Park Station to Alice Springs

Mums birthday today. Happy Birthday Mum.

Good news, the air conditioner managed to run all night and not leak so hopefully I have fixed it. We will see how it is in Alice springs when we get in.

We had a great sunrise this morning but we were greeted at the door of the van to the hoard of flies and 32 deg. After a breakfast of last nights curry we took off to Alice Springs.

The road is surprisingly quiet so we must be just inform of the northbound grey nomad wave. We spent most of the day leap frogging a bus load of backpackers and a greyhound service. They would overtake us then we would pull in to a stop and find them there.

We also made a stop at the border for the customary photos. One of the items on this trips todo list was to purchase bread at erldurunda station as we did both ways last time. Unfortunately there was no bread available of any type this time around.

Lunch was had a bit further up the road where we found a great stop with some shade. We needed the shade due to the 41deg heat. After this we made the last 200km run into Alice Springs. The scenery has changed again as we move into the macdonald ranges.

We are starting to move into what might seem fantastical country. As you can see the surrounding landside is flat and you can see for miles, yet on the Left we have a floodway depth indicator hat shows we “could” be 2m under water at this point. Hard to believe but the roads north of Alice Springs were blocked only 2 weeks ago.

Fuel has increased in price again with today's maximum paid price of $1.94/L and I saw LPG at $1.26/L at the same station. We had a headwind most of the way into Alice Springs

We will be in Alice Springs for 3 nights.

Darwin 2012 - Woomera to Cadney Park Station

Well, after a brief visit to the Cudgee Bar, a nice sleep in and a bit of fun in the night we headed off to Cadney Homestead Caravan Park.

During the night we had a wind pick up so I got up, at about 2am, to wind up the awning. I am sure it would of been ok but I still worry about the awning when we have winds and it is not pegged down. At about 6am I awoke to hearing rain, and on the caravan roof it sounded substantial so up I got again, finding the caravan door unlocked. I went out, packed up the outside chairs and then came in and locked the door. About 10 mins later I could hear someone approach the van and try to get in. ;) it was dad. I didn't hear him go out but he was it amused with a locked door on his return. We also found that today the Flies came on pretty bad as can be seen on Dads back.

We had an uneventful drive towards Cadney Park with little traffic on the road and only Emu on the side of the road. That said we did not see any animals last time we travelled this way and they're we're quite a few Emu.

We stopped at Lake Hart for a look, and walked down to the railway line in from of the lake, startling an Emu in the process. He took off into he distance but we did get off a few shots with the camera.

Coober Pedy was our choice for lunch, and after a quick visit to the local store for some bread rolls for tomorrows lunch we stopped outside the Information center for lunch. Mum even got her chair out and set up under a tree. A quick visit inside told us how to get to the town lookout and after lunch off we went.

The lookout had seen better days, and have most things went you get away from most major cities. Attractions that had been setup by someone with vision? Have been left to age with time. This one was rundown and for sale, as are many things in town.

After the lookout we returned to town to buy fuel for the next leg of our trip. As we went past the information center again mum cried out... She had left her chair und the tree :) dad jumped out and went off to retrieve it whilst mum came up with reasons as to why it was his fault for it being there :)

We have noticed fuel prices rising, as we expected, but I also believe there has been a rise back home which could explain the extreme price. Cadney Homestead Caravan Park has unleaded for $1.87/L

We had a nice swim and a few drinks after setting up camp here at Cadney Park, however after out tea of Chicken Curry I noticed the air conditioner was leaking inside the van. The cause turned out to be a loose seal screw AND a kinked hose. I believe the hose is an installation error by Jayco, yet another example of their production system, however with some force I was able to free the hose up and release much of the built up water. The hose still has a kink, and has worn to such and extent that at some stage I the near future it would of worn through and allowed water to reach electrical items. Not Happy Jayco.

We travelled behind some slower traffic today, maintaining about 90km/h so our fuel economy improved from yesterday to around 14.6L/100km.

All up a good day. Tomorrow awe are off to Alice Springs.

Darwin 2012 - Adelaide to Woomera

Well, we left Adelaide at around 8am, which is a good time to get going. Traffic was heavy out of Adelaide and we tried, whilst moving, to take some photos of some roadside art on the way. Not much luck though for good shots without stopping so we may try to do this on the way back.

We cant travel for a day without some form of issue. Today, dads caravan mirror, the drivers side unit, came loose and then flew off whilst we were doing about 90Km/h. Another stessful moment for dad, who proceeded to pull over so I could run back and retrieve it.

Since there was a truck following, dad got some descriptive words leveled at him over the CB whilst I went back to see how the mirror fared. As would be expected, it was destroyed, so out came the backup mirrors ;)

The rest of the trip was really good, and once we took the turn north, traffic dropped off. We got a great view of the country side, since last time we had a dust storm hit us outside of Pimba and up until Port Augusta this time there was low level cloud. We also managed to see quite a few Emu on the side of the road which we didn't see last time. We hope to get some photos tomorrow.

Woomera caravan park has not changed, and was nearly empty when we came in, but it's a nice quiet park with suitable amenities. We spent some of the evening, after tea, at the caravan park "pub" ;)

Even the Cinema here is open tonight. Very tempting.

Below are some photos taken with the iPhone during the day and after that is the latest fuel economy graphs form mum and dads LTR petrol 4x2 Colorado. I plan to keep this updated during the trip as well.

 

 

Tomorrow we drive to Cadney Park station.

 

Darwin 2012 - Melbourne to Adelaide

We are off again, unfortunately minus some of the key family members. Sara, Bianca and Caitlyn have stayed home whilst Mum, Dad and I are heading back up to Darwin to see my sisters and their families.

The road to Adelaide is normally very quiet and we don't normally stop for anything other than food and fuel. This trip is no different excepting what will hopefully be our only scare on the road. Just outside Nhill we hit a massive bump in the road that was not sign posted or visible. The car and van went up in the air and the van began to sway. We could of been in quite a bit of trouble however we managed to get everything back under control. I am not sure if the local council will do anything but I sent in a notice via the iPhone app "Snap, Send, Solve"

We traveled to Adelaide to visit with some friends and family, having a great meal out at the "slug and lettuce". Whilst in Adelaide we stayed at the Highway 1 caravan park. The park, for us is nice and clean and provides an easy stopping place on the road out of Adelaide. I will place a camp rating On the Badgers website soon.

As I mentioned, not much to photograph but here are some to start the trip.

 

Next stop Woomera.

 

Stay Tunned–Only 1 Week left to go…..

Just a few teaser photo’s. We leave for Adelaide on Friday 30th before we start our journey towards the Stuart Highway and Katherine. As i am not the only driver on this trip i plan on taking heaps of photos, many of which will make their way onto the Blog.

The Next post will be from the road

Trip Update

Well, Only 3 weeks left. I have updated the Katherine 2012 page with some changes to our plans, basically being Daly Waters wont be a destination on the first half of the trip now due to being full. They have a number of events planned for the weekend we were going to stay there so we now plan to stop there on the way home.

Mataranka is now looking like an alternative destination. Fingers crossed the hot springs are open when we get there as i think they close them during the wet season.