Oz Trip - Day 41

Day 41 – 11/6/2012 – Rally end day

Because day two of the rally started at 7:30am at the Finke end of the track we didn't have to have as early a start as the previous days. The first of the buggies were due at the finish line at about 9:30am so we arrived at the track at about 8:30 so that we could get a good vantage point and early morning Gloria Jeans hot chocolates – a ritual for the last couple of mornings.

This is how we could tell the lead vehicle was getting close

And the Winner is....

A few of them were missing bits and pieces of their vehicles.

Missing the front bits

Broken front bits

And missing back bits and broken suspension

We didn't find the final day of the rally as entertaining as the first couple. After a pretty hard run down to Finke a lot of competitors didn't make it or they pulled out when they got there and didn't do the return leg. This meant that the frequency between competitors arriving at the finish line wasn't consistent. At least with the prologue and start the competitors were released every minute.

Here is some youtube footage
Monster truck roll over

Suspension travel at its best.  You can see why they need 22" of suspension travel! And unfortunately Jodie won't let me fit any to the the Pajero :-(

We left the track at about 11am and headed back to camp for some smoko and to pack up our lunches. We then headed off to Standley Chasm and Simpsons Gap. These were the last two gorges in the West MacDonnell Ranges that we hadn't seen yet.

It was a bit of a rock scramble to get to Standley Chasm. We think the walk grading was a little bit out. They rated it as an easy walk but I think if you asked any of the pensioners on the track you might have got a different answer.

We were lucky enough to have the Chasm to ourselves for a few minutes so I was able to get some photos with no one else in it.

Standley Chasm

Standley Chasm had a nice little coffee shop and small park for camping. We ended up eating our lunch on the park.

Final stop for the day was Simpsons Gap. It was a big wide sandy river bed. It would be nice to swim in it in the summer and wet season.