Hello again! Let’s pick up from where we left off at William Creek. I’ve also discovered how to make galleries so there are more photos! (Although pending compatibility for complete captions on your phone – I’m working on it!)
On day eight we woke up at 8am to find almost everyone else at the campsite gone, including our German friends. We’re not morning people but we’ve learnt that most other campers are! Charlotte had a cold shower which she complained about and I told her she was being sooky (but admittedly no one likes a cold shower in cold weather), and we hit the road again. The main reason we had taken the Oodnadatta track instead of the highway was to see Lake Eyre but as there wasn’t much to see lake-wise or other we decided to turn off the track to check out Coober Pedy and take the highway north from there. The dirt road west was a bit more fun with a bit of sand to slide around on and we put our lives in the hands of the road train driver in front who kindly told us when it was safe overtake over the radio as his truck was blowing up such a big dust storm we couldn’t see past him.
At one point we pulled off on to a side track going up a hill to try to get a good view over Anna Creek (the world’s largest cattle station – the size of Belgium!), but got a bit scared by restricted area signs so ended up turning back. When we next got reception we did some googling and found out it’s a military area and has ongoing high levels of radiation from British nuclear testing in the 60s. Incidentally a few days before that we were discussing the state of the world and I commented that the UK, unlike Australia had nukes which Charlotte tried to deny. Now we know…
We arrived in Coober Pedy and were happy to bump in to our German friends, Jürgen and Peter, again at the supermarket. We had been trying to find a dugout to stay in (most people in Coober Pedy live underground due to the blistering 50°C heat in summer) but as they were all booked out we took Jürgen’s recommendation to stay in the best reviewed local caravan park. We spent the afternoon visiting an opal museum and going ‘noodling’ which involves sifting through discarded rubble from the opal mines to try to find a missed opal – sadly for us we found nothing but broken beer bottles…
We then moved to the Breakaways Conservation Park for sunset which had incredible views out over what was once the sea floor and lived up to its reputation of a lunar landscape.
After skipping lunch we were ravenous so headed for John’s Pizza, allegedly one of the best pizza joints in Australia. With a 2 hour wait I bailed and made the emergency meal, pesto pasta, whilst Charlotte decided to hold out for the hype. In the meantime we set up camp next to the Germans where we heard about how they were colleagues before they retired, Jürgen’s various trips around the world on his motorbike including through Africa and how he helped build a village in Malawi. You can check out his blog here. Jürgen’s next trip will be in his troopy so he can bring his wife along for a change. Charlotte got her pizza in 20 minutes after ordering at 9pm (hot tip for anyone going to Coober Pedy) but unfortunately our evening was marred by another unwelcome drunk Australian who plonked himself down next to us when he should have gone to bed at the same time as his children. Australia. Please. Help me out here, we are trying to show you off!
Day nine was pretty uneventful. We had considered visiting Uluru but by now we were sick of cold nights and as we’d be told we could easily spend two weeks around there we pushed north to Alice Springs with the plan to visit next year. When we stopped for lunch at Marla we met John, his wife Faye, and BJ, his troopy, who also had a Mulgo pop top. Given we are conversion number 46 what are the odds! We might even catch them again in the Kimberley. We found a stellar last minute deal on a hotel in Alice for our supposed fortnightly treat and to clean off the dust but horror ensued, no bath as advertised – so we took the free upgrade to a suite (thanks Crown Plaza!), washed our clothes, ate instant noodles for dinner and had showers instead.
After a huge sleep in, a late checkout and lots of ADLs in Alice we were never going to make much ground on day 10. We popped in to Toyota as I had noticed dust on the inside of the fuel cap in addition to the wind noise issue. They couldn’t fit us in to look at the door but said we needed a new fuel cap. Unfortunately they didn’t have any new fuel caps in stock and it was at least a four day wait for a delivery there so we called ahead to book in at Toyota in Darwin to sort both out and continue our Toyota dealership tour of Australia! The next job was to pick up a rear wheel bag that we had on hold at ARB but lo and behold, they couldn’t find it. Incidentally the camera microphone we had on hold at a camera shop, also missing. Suppose we’ll just plan the next ADL day for Darwin! Finally leaving Alice late afternoon we drove a hundred or so kilometres north to Ti Tree to spend the night.
Day 11 saw another big drive heading to Banka Banka homestead but we stopped off for lunch at the Devils Marbles, a sacred indigenous site with incredible rock formations.
Next stop was Tennant Creek for fuel as Louis was thirsty and we also emptied and refilled our water tank there as our water was starting to taste strange. We think it was because we used a normal garden hose to fill it initially (rather than a special blue one for drinking water as Andrew taught us in Trangie and that we picked up in Alice!), or because we never rinsed the tank out before first use. With 180L of fuel and 90L of water on board we arrived at Banka Banka where we found a homestead with a fire, a bar and a lone Telstra box.
Another big driving day was ahead. We revelled in watching the outside temperature rise as we drove to a cool 31 degrees and arrived in Katherine as the sun was setting. Given Katherine is a large tourist area camping was rather expensive so we chose the cheapest place we could find which was still $25 a night for an unpowered site (you can pay more to have electricity at some campsites so you can power all the essentials one would pack into a caravan; like a microwave or a television…). We had a barbecue extravaganza for dinner to celebrate the warmth and met another couple in a troopy who are also heading to the Kimberley region. They told us about the Troopcarriers of Australia Facebook page which is filled with a bunch of helpful troopy owners who are happy to provide advice if you are doing any work on the car or in the unlikely event that something goes wrong (which tends to be on the older ones that have done half a million kilometres or so, such is the awesome reliability of these cars). They themselves had an oil leak the day before and were helped by a fellow troopy owner who topped them up with oil and put them back on the road.
Now that we had some heat it was time to slow down and start enjoying ourselves more! Day 13 saw us drive to Katherine Gorge. Charlotte had done some Insta research and found a nice waterhole that was about an 8km return walk to get to and given the temperature we were keen to start swimming! We started with a steep ascent up the cliff face of the gorge and given the incline we were rapidly at an incredible lookout with a view of the river below.
The river looked extraordinarily inviting after the hot climb however given we like our limbs where they are we continued on to the waterhole.
After about an hour or so of walking we were almost there and met a couple walking back who looked suspiciously dry… Turns out the waterhole was now dry and there were signs telling us so down at the visitor centre if we’d bothered to look. The next spot we could actually swim in was another 4km deeper into the park and it was getting late in the day so we settled to walk to one more lookout with an even more spectacular view and then head back. 4km later it was dusk and we were thankful for Louis’ water tank full of now tasty water as we rehydrated and ate snacks in the carpark.
The final day of week two was rather more satisfying in the swimming department. We made our way to Edith Falls which was only a short drive up the road and found ourselves with our camp set up, eating lunch and having a beer just before midday. What had we been thinking doing all this driving this week!? We were just about to leave to walk to the falls when a cheeky caravan owner tried to squeeze in to our spot with us telling us he had cleared it with the lady in charge. We mentioned him to the campsite powers that be as we walked out who weren’t impressed and sent him packing. We felt like little tell tales but it’s nice to have some space. Yep. That’s the challenges we now face day to day. Site secured we started the walk to the upper falls and got to the top to find a beautiful swimming spot nestled between the lower and upper falls. We jumped in and felt like the ADLs and endless driving was finally over and our holiday had begun.
