Monday, Nov 30, 2009 at 05:41
This year we went from our home in NE Victoria through outback NSW to Broken Hill, then across the border and up into the Flinders Ranges coming out at Leigh Creek. We then went up the Oodnadatta Track and onto the highway at Marlo and then on to the indigenous community of Areyonga which is just past Hermannsburg. We spent 3 days at the Sports Carnival there – a wonderful cultural experience especially the disco and women’s choir.
Our son lives in Alice Springs and works as a hairdressing trainer on the Communities, so we spent several weeks in and around Alice and were privileged to be part of the Desert Festival and to visit another community – Harts Range which is on the Plenty Highway. It has a beautiful camping ground several kilometres behind the community just below the ranges (we thoroughly recommend it – very clean pit toilets and cold showers and not full of tourists – like Alice and in picturesque surroundings)
We had planned on going further north but by the time we were ready to leave Alice it was getting too hot so we went across the Plenty Highway to QLD, up to Winton and then down the Diamantina River track to Bedourie (really enjoyed the relaxing hot springs swimming pool here) and then on to Birdsville and Innamincka (met a bloke here who had to pay a total of $1800 to get his vehicle towed to Copley as the mechanic at Birdsville was on holidays). We had planned to go down the Strzelecki and come home via the south coast, but being the end of the season it was apparently very corrugated so we opted for the easier road to the coast – eastwards!! So we finished our trip with about 4 weeks at the Broken Head Caravan Park just below Byron Bay.
The only repairs we had to do for the whole trip were to screw the loose air conditioner ‘bits’ back into place in Alice and replace a wheel bearing near Birdsville. The internal lock on the door has broken and Bob will replace it now we are home. We had one puncture only – at the Areyonga community.
As for next year – our plans are to get away before May and go to Broome – what route we take will be decided as the trip unfolds – isn’t it great to be a grey nomad and not have to stick to plans!
Bob and Wendy
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