Stats Overview
Km's Travelled: 2361
Km's Hiked: 3
No. of Camps: 5
The Adventures
After 46 weeks on the road we have officially finished our lap of Australia! The end came upon us very quickly as we decided to push hard and get off the dirt and onto the bitumen in outback Queensland as quickly as possible, as there has been a lot of storm events around and we weren't keen to be stranded in the middle of nowhere. As most tourist things are closed in the outback this time of year, we also found ourselves pushing through to get home rather than killing time for the sake of it. We are also very happy to report that we have finally found summer and are enjoying putting all our winter clothes away...finally! We keep marvelling at the fact that most of the minimums we have experienced over the past week are actually higher than the majority of the maximum temperatures we experienced on the Eyre Pensinsula.
The first part of this week was spent around Quorn and then making our way up through the Flinders Ranges. It was great to be back in a part of SA that we really loved visiting the first time and, returning for a second time, meant we got to go and do all the things we had missed the first time round. Some notable highlights were seeing the Quorn Silo Light Show, climbing Devil's Peak and getting to stop in at the Prairie Hotel at Parachilna to try their "Feral" antipasto platter. The platter features kangaroo pastrami, camel metwurst, emu pate and goat chevre and while I wasn't so keen on it, Will really enjoyed getting to try something a little unusual! We then continued heading north, with our original plan being to take the Strezleki Track back to Queensland, with a slight detour out to Cameron's Corner before making our way east via Thargomindah. Our plan was to start driving it on the Friday but after yo-yoing between open and closed all day Thursday, the Strezleki eventually closed Thursday night and stayed that way for the next few days. We were a bit disappointed as we were very keen to check out Cameron's Corner and also get to do all the Burke and Wills sites around Innaminka. (We spent 25 hours of driving time listening to an in-depth account of the Burke and Wills expedition so we were keen to see where it all went wrong for ourselves!) Our back up plan had always been to take the bitumen back via Broken Hill, however, by this stage we were already up at Leigh Creek and decided, rather than back track, that we would continue north and take the Birdsville Track back into Queensland. It ended up being a fun, unexpected adventure where we even got treated to a free astronomy show by a fellow traveller at the Mungeranie Pub. One of our favourite parts of travelling this year has been all the unexpected adventures we have had!
While we were in Birdsville we had to make a detour west to climb the famed sand dune "Big Red". We are happy to report that we made it up first go without getting bogged! It was definitely a nice way to finish our desert adventures for the year. We then started heading east, stopping in at Quilpie for a few days for Will to work before making it back to the farm. The best part of our stay out west was having Will experience the pleasures of rotten egg smelling hot showers for the first time in his life! There is nothing quite like showering in water from the Great Artesian Basin.
We now have all the joys of trying to clean the car and van, which we think will keep us busy for a while to come! We will do one more blog post next week when we have been through and worked out all our stats.
Kodak Moments
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| Our last mountain was definitely one of the best! - Devils Peak |
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| The views from the summit were pretty spectacular! - Devils Peak |
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| This was an awesome silo artwork experience. They actually project movies about the history of Quorn and then images of the surrounding scenery onto the silos. A unique experience and a lot more exciting than a mural. - Quorn |
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| I managed about 3 pieces of kangaroo...Will had to eat the rest and happily accepted the challenge! - Parachilna |
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| Its crazy that they had a punt in the middle of the desert to help drovers when Coopers Creek flooded! - Birdville Track |
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| We got the mandatory tourist shot...complete with cow pats. - Birdsville Track |
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| The steam shows where water is being pumped into a dam from a bore. They ended up having to sink bores about every 40kms on the stock route to make it safer and easier for droving livestock.- Birdsville Track |
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| We were greeted by a 40 degree day in the Sunshine State! - Birdsville |
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| Will was pretty chuffed with his and Bertie's efforts making it up Big Red! - Birdsville |
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| Nothing says the desert quite like the photo of a sand dune! - Big Red |
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| Not the dig tree...but we did manage to find one of the trees blazed as a camp by Burke and Wills. - Birdsville |
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| There is so much water lying around out west! - Birdsville |
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| A short, early morning hike to try and escape the heat and enjoy the views around Quilpie - Baldy Top |
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| We got to add one last "big thing" to our list. - Charleville |
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| Had so much fun playing the musical grid. Although it is definitely in need of a tune! - Mitchell |
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