Random Rememberings

This is random list of things that the group recalled from the trip. Some may have appeared on the blog already, but others may not have. I guess they are people's highlights really.

There is no particular, just as they were recalled.

• Rohan flying his kite with the kites.
• Steve with no indicators all the way home.
• Ro sliding at Lake Eyre
• Turning around at Coober Pedy
• The campground at Marree...pretty ordinary amenities etc.
• The roast nights, particularly the first one.
• Second roast, with candles included.
• Walking in the mud and water in gale force wind at Lake Eyre
• Steve taking 5 attempts on Big Red
• View from the Top of Big Red
• Steve being thrown into 'disarray' by the decision to change plans outside Coober Pedy - he had his good 'going home' clothes on....he managed to adapt.
• Tyres up, tyres down, tyres up, tyres down...repeated.
• Mud road and rain at Mungerannie
• Farina Ruins
• Dalhousie mouse in the Disco's drawers at Mt Dare. - displaced mouse.
• Picking up the sleepers at Leigh Creek for firewood, that travelled all the way to Mt Dare.
• Milani and Crystal playing at Mt Dare
• Spa in the tank outside Marree
• Helicopter at the Cooper Creek Ferry
• Hilux attempting a sand dune in 2 wheel drive
• Broken Rohan :-(
• Ro providing the cuppa tea for Reve at lunch breaks
• Underground campground
• The Cathy and Mike tent saga, no fly, kids in strife.
• Snausage, Chip and Chippina our Australian Long Haired Rats
• Mozzie bites at Dalhousie - Rohan and Milani
• Dingo at Dalhousie
• Dalhousie springs, were too hot/cold or wet for Mike, he never quite made it in for a dip.
• Motel saga on the Saturday night in Adelaide
• Kerri and Nicola's sleepover with Toadette
• Closed sign at Birdsville
• Meal at the Birdsville Pub
• Flag raising ceremony
• Toasts to Col and Mary and Steve.
• Stef beached on Big Red
• Leadfoot Cleaver
• Stern words for the driver upon big black clouds from the Disco
• Rock collecting by Reve
• Poor Ska, left behind on the track to Lake Eyre
• Camels and dingo's
• Jaffy coming to dinner
• Bubble blowing
• Milani and Reve getting sea sick through the desert (sand dunes) and throwing up
• Ro with the planes, missiles and space junk at Woomera
• Kites (the birds) at our camps
• Stinking hot day at the Knolls
• Ro learning that Kites fly better with all the parts ON
• driving around Peterborough and the Peterborough Pub meal
• Repairing the tyre of a Supreme court judge
• Steve buying Kerri a mattress at Port Augusta
• Stef carrying Milani home from tea at Mongolian BBQ and Birdsville Pub
• Stef's toilet issues at Birdsville
• Group photos at many spots and the running photographers to make into shot.
• Stef on the post at Poeppel's corner
• Nicola on top of Disco to help get the gear down for Meg
• The Foxwing - we couldn't live without the Foxwing.
• Girls digging toilet tent, with all the improvements being rated
• Ro digging fire pits we couldn't use in windy weather and in hard ground too
• Providing water to the motorbikers
• All the stories of other travellers telling us how difficult the track was across the dunes
• exploding pepsi cans at Coober Pedy
• Attempting to get the knocked over Stuart Creek sign
• Leaking shocker
• Broken HF aerials
• Mike's big superior flag post
• Dalhousie springs - swimming in the rain
• Early morning swim
• Boys and girls rooms at William Creek
• Stef's song of the day
• Milani's "I spy"
• Milani and her t-shirt artworks
• Steve not enjoying Geelong's win or John's decorations on the Hi Lux
• Eringa waterhole - dead fish
• Dave at Mt Dare and his stories about vehicle recoveries and the floods
• Tyres going up and down - all the time
• Lake Caddiwirrabirracanna.
• Chairs in the artesian pool at Mungerannie
• Milani 'accidentally' falling in at Mungerannie...shoes, socks and all
• NO snakes at campsites
• Lizards on trees and bushes
• Mum (Meg) scared of mice
• Lizards on the road
• All the sunset and sunrise photos
• Corrugations
• Georgina Gidgees
• Flower photos
• Rat in swap and bite
• Young girl crossing the Simpson alone, with her car and pushbike
• Steve using 2.5 litres less fuel than Stef between Birdsville and Coober Pedy
• Steve using 27 litres more between Coober Pedy and Port Augusta
• Freezing rain at the BP near Calder Park on our first day out
• Cool playground at Swan Hill
• Milani in big bed with Mummy
• Story of needing a mattress, so we could beat Steve to Parachilna
• Mud between toes at Lake Eyre
• Reve and her jam
• Ro - red wine infused chocolate
• Glenlivet 12 year old scotch
• Mike's Bailey's Tokay
• Pepsi and Bundy for Kerri
• Pure Blonde not bad for a beer
• Cowboys are pretty good and popular too, more casks next time
• Broken Ro
• Lack of a firestick. Missed Col and Mary
• Kerri's history/navigations lessons
• Ro's Garmin control
• Speed of tent putting up
• Milani telling Ro to hitch his pants up.

There endeth the story of our Simpson Sojourn 2011.

Day 16. Sunday October 16th. Adelaide to Moe.

Day 16. Sunday October 16th. Adelaide to Moe.

Got off to a pretty good start, close to 8.30, drove through pretty much, other than fuel and lunch stops.

transferring Ro's gear to other vehicles...for the final leg.

We had lunch at Horsham and said ‘hooroo’ to Dad, this required a bit of shuffling of gear into other vehicles and Ro jumped in with Stef, Meg and Milani. Dad headed off to for a look at the Grampians, the Halls Gap road is still closed, so he had to backtrack to Horsham and ended up staying the night in Stawell.

We stopped for a ‘wee’ break at the service centre near the Daylesford turn off, not too far past Ballarat, it was freezing cold and wet…a bit worried the dirty cars might be clean before we got an opportunity to show them off.

We took the opportunity during the day to capture the crews “random remembering” from the trip, so I will capture them in the next and LAST post of the blog.

Arrived home eventually about 7.30 – Steve did a quick drop off some of our gear, and Kerri headed off home to Boolarra, Stef, Meg and Milani dropped Ro and his gear off and were soon home also.

It’s taken a while to get unpacked, although it is amazing how much easier it is to get the gear out than to pack it all in in the first place.

Very few photos today…so boring end to the blog. I will finish with a final post of “random rememberings.”

Day 15. Saturday October 15th. William Creek to Adelaide

Saturday October 15^th – WILLIAM CREEK TO ADELAIDE.

Up for a quick breakfast and onto the road for a long days travel – we now have two days to get home – about 1600kms.

Breaky outside our rooms at William Creek.

 We headed off again with some quick photo’s of the “Old Ghan” railway and Overland Telegraph line, towards Roxby Downs.

The overland telegraph line

Crossed our Creek again - Stuart Creek. It even had some water in it.

 We stopped for a ‘wee’ break at Lake Eyre South before heading on.

Milani and Kerri at Lake Eyre South - another pitstop.

 Again we saw some lizards etc along the way. At one stop we also got some good photos of a snake slithering across the road.

a snake had crossed the road, quite a healthy specimen

Roxby Downs, Olympic Dam Village, Woomera, Pimba were all on the way. We stopped for lunch at Woomera, with a chance for some who hadn’t been to check out the planes and rockets etc.

We hit bitumen at Roxby Downs, inflated tyres AGAIN, and that was pretty much the end of the photos...

Steve had no indicators all day, and this proved a little trickier through town, so he stayted sandwiched between Stef and Nicola who acted as his indicators.

Through to Port Augusta where FINALLY Stef and Steve had to fuel up, for the first time since Birdsville.

After Port Augusta we started to plan for accommodation for hte night somewhere near Murray Bridge initially, but the town was booked out it seemed. Then we determined Adelaide would do the trick, but we didn’t have much luck there either, finally got two rooms to house us all at Arkana County Motel...good work Stef. We threw our gear upstairs and then walked to the Kubla Khan Mongolian BBQ for tea. It was fabulous, even Reve had a go at mixing her own options to be quickly cooked on the huge wood fired plate. Very nice and a great choice by Stef.

Reve making her selections

Milani with her tea on the 'Mongolian BBQ'

Mmmmm, Reve, Steve and Kerry tucking in.

Dad chose a lot of the hot/spicy sauce...a little ambitious. It was so
very hot, I had a tiny bit and had to give up on that bowl

Kerry and Steve opted for the Chocolate Hotpot...with apple and marshmallow.

the fight was on...it went down very quickly.

About 800kms to home tomorrow, so another early one if possible, better go to bed...goodnight.

Day 14. Friday October 14th. Coober Pedy to a heading somewhere south. Port Augusta...maybe, maybe not.

Friday October  14^th. COOBER PEDY to a heading somewhere south. Port Augusta...maybe, maybe not.

With a few miles to put under the belt the next day, we planned for some who hadn’t seen much of CP to do some shopping/looking around while the rest of us packed up. As it turned out we were all up and about early and everyone was ready to leave about 8.45. Dad and I sorted fuel, air for tyres and supermarket shopping, while Stef and  Steve showered and the rest of the crew went for a wander around  CP.

Dad and I were forced to return to John’s Pizza for a coffee and I did a bit of an update to the blog, the others eventually gathered in dribs and drabs for coffees, gelati’s and milkshakes before we finally hit the road to head south.

Dad's Engel had been turned down, so there were a couple of frozen pepsi's to sort out...oops!!!

 About 30kms out of CP, Meg and Stef pulled over and called for a bit of a discussion...one of the key catalysts for our trip was that Milani was keen to SEE Lake Eyre, following the fabulous ABC documentary she'd seen earlier in the year. Here we were heading home down the blacktop and realsised that one of the major aims of the trip was yet to be fulfilled. The option of heading back towards CP and out the road onto the Oodnadatta track towards William Creek and Lake Eyre, was put to the group...Cathy and Mike decided to continue on to Port Augusta, given that it was looking like a hot day and the car was playing up...so we wished them well and saw them continue on down the Stuart Highway. The rest of us did a‘u-ey’ and headed back to take the William Creek turn, on the way we visited the “underground camping’ that we couldn’t find the night before...it looked great and is definitely on the list for another time. Tyres were DEFLATED once more in preparation for the track.

Then into CP for a quick lunch and we finally started the day again, somewhere around 1.00.

that's a bit extreme Steve don't you think...cleaning lights...
especially when your indicators don't work!!

A plane flying into Coober Pedy.

"Beam me up Scotty" Ro in the light of one of the breather holes
at the underground campground.

Looking up a breather tube.

Yep, I reckon the tent would fit very nicely here, no wind, no pegs required.

Milani and the Thunder Dunny

cactus flower in the Gardens of Riba's Underground Campground

more cactii

 On the way we detoured in to look at Lake Cadibarrawirracanna - the lake from the song about the "little lake in South Australia"

The sign for Lake Cadibarrawirracanna.

It was unreal to see so much water out her in the middle of nowhere

Milani overlooking the lake.

A banded...something or other bird...we think

 Hit William Creek in howling wind ( seems its always windy in WC) we stopped into the pub for a drink and decided to book a couple of rooms for the night.

William Creek car park - blowy as usual (in my experience anyway)

Then off to see and touch Lake Eyre. A very rough road out to the Lake, saw Kerri and I bail out of Ska and into the other vehicles, to save doing any further damage and speed up the trip to the lake which was a bout 60kms of roughish, corrugated and potholed track.

Travelling with Steve and Reve out to the Lake

This was our first view of the Lake - it is out there on teh horizon.

Our first views of the Lake were pretty amazing, despite being almost blown away by the strength of hte wind. We then drove around to Halligan Bay, where we all traipsed out to the water and hat a fun time, paddling in the mud and extremely salty water. We had hoped to camp out here, but thank goodness common sense had prevailed at the pub, despite the drinks we had.

There it is, the shore of Lake Eyre.

Yep Ro, Pretty amazing standing in Lake Eyre.

Here me giving my feet a salt abrasion.

Here we are carefully stepping our way out through the salty mud.

sun over the Lake

Stef getting a shot

It was quite windy and the footing unsure...

There you go Milani, not only a LOOK but a paddle too...
pretty amazing!!!!

Yay, me and my shadow made it...tick paddle in Lake Eyre off the bucket list.

the wind whipped the water into the most amazing patterns.

Sun on all our footsteps in the Lake

We certainly made our mark.

A little salty spot with a strange piece of weed in it..us in the background

Then off for a very quick glance at ABC bay, before heading back to collect Ska.

Hurtling back to William Creek as the sunsets over a lone tree.

the jetstream was turned to gold in the sunset.

 Back to our cosy cabins at WC for a quick tea of wraps for some and tinned stew for others, with a few drinks and lots of entertainment from the “hopping mice.” Meg wasn’t so impressed and Milani was very tired, so Reve, Milani and Meg headed off to bed in the girls room, joined later by Kerri and Nicola. The boys room was Stef, Steve, Ro and John.

Very cute 'hopping mice' Long bushy tail, long feet and ears.

Stef made friends.

This fella wasn't scared at all.

Milani really WASN'T scared, not that you'd know. Have
a look at the cute little guy under her chair.

I know the girls room slept well, the boys claimed to sleep well too.