Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Epilogue

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Epilogue

It took me a while to get the blog posts written for this trip because I had to spend so much time sorting and culling photos.  At this stage I have 13,387 photos from the trip that I am still trying to sort out.  A majority of those are from the GoPro time lapses and start trails that I tried, so I am planning on getting rid of at least half of them after I have worked out the best way to process them, if they are any good.

Some of the other trip stats:

• Out of the 30 nights away, 18 were unpowered, 12 were powered.  The longest powered stint was in Alice Springs
• 9,037 km, 1521.37 litres of diesel for consumption of 16.83 L per 100Km.

So if you enjoyed following the story along along and liked some of the photos, feel free to contribute to our “Keep Jodie and Steve Travelling Australia Diesel Fund”.

It is easier to contribute to that than our annual leave balances :-)

Because the leave balances are now extremely low, we are not sure when or where the next adventure will be too - so let the dreaming and planning begin!

Steve and Jodie :-)

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 31

Day 31 - 2/7/2016 - Springsure to home

A bit of a bitter sweet day, sad that the holiday was coming to an end, but also glad that we would be getting home today.

A beautiful clear morning

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 30

Day 30 - 1/7/2016 - Charters Towers to Springsure

It was a early start because we had another long day of driving to do.

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 29

Day 29 - 30/6/2016 - Tinaburra to Charters Towers

And so the long trek home begins with that feeling of impending doom that the holidays are nearly over :-(

It was a beautiful morning leaving the Tablelands.  We will definitely be back to explore more of the region and hopefully not just a flying visit.

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 28

Day 28 - 29/6/2016 - Cairns day trip

It was an early start this morning because there were two reasons for heading to Cairns today.  The storage box door still hadn’t been fixed. The part didn’t arrive in time at Alice Springs for it to be repaired there so we organised for another to be sent to Cairns.  We had to completely pack up camp to take the camper with us for the day trip to Cairns.  We had to have the camper at the repairers by 9:30am and Cairns was about 150km away.

Being up early I was able to get some nice morning photos of around the dam before I had to start packing up.

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 27

Day 27 - 28/6/2016 - Family & Friends catch up day

A bit of a quiet day today.  The plan was to catch up with some of Jodies family and family friends.  We were heading to Mareeba to have lunch with Jodies Grandmother along with some long time friends of Jodies parents at a local coffee plantation.

Just out of Yungaburra on the way to Mareeba there was a crop duster working.

Crop duster down low

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 26

Day 26 - 27/6/2016 - Tablelands drive

It had been about 7 years since we were last on the tablelands so this time we decided to re-visit some of our favourite areas.  To start the loop we had to head out through Atherton.

Atherton main street

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 25

Day 25 - 26/6/2016 - Innot Hot Springs to Tinaburra

It wasn’t going to be a big travelling day so we were able to take our time packing up.  I was able to spend some time taking a few more photos of the creek with the steam rising off it.

Early morning steam on the creek

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 24

Day 24 - 25/6/2016 - Cobbold Gorge to Innot Hot Springs

We were packed up and on the road by about 8:30am.  It was good leaving just that little bit later as it let a few of the other campers that were also leaving to get ahead of us.  We then didn’t have to worry too much about people coming up behind us and trying to overtake us.  On the dirt roads we take our time and drive to conditions, but a lot of people don’t seem to.

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 23

Day 23 - 24/6/2016 - Cobbold Tour Day

Today we were doing a gorge tour.  The tour didn’t start until 10am so it was good not to have to get up early and rush.  The tour comprised of a few different stages.  The group was split into two groups of 14 people, one group for each bus.  The first stage was a short 15 minute bus ride to the start of the walking track.  We arrived in a massive purpose build shed where we disembarked.

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 22

Day 22 - 23/6/2016 - Normanton to Cobbold Gorge

Before leaving town we took a few photos that we didn’t get a chance to take the previous afternoon.  It also helped that it was a bit cooler, but it was warming up fast!

Packed up and ready to roll!

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 21

Day 21 - 22/6/2016 - Adels Grove to Normanton

Unfortunately we had to leave today.  We could have stayed a lot longer, exploring the additional walking tracks in the National Park and swimming at Indarri Falls, as well as just relaxing and taking in the tranquility at Adels Grove.

We didn’t really have any firm destination booked, but we were heading north and we needed to find a place that had TV reception, or a least a pub that had TV reception.  It was State of Origin game two tonight!!  The thought had crossed our minds to stay an extra night at Adels and watch the game on the big screen on the Deck, but that would have made the next few days difficult playing catch up on our timetable.

In the few days that we were at Adels Grove the road had dried out to the point where it was now dusty.

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 20

Day 20 - 21/6/2016 - Swimming in Lawn Hill National Park

We enjoyed swimming around Indarri Falls so much we decided to head back for another swim.  Instead of canoeing up Lawn Hill gorge this time, we walked one of the bush walks to the falls.  It was a relatively short walk of only a few kilometres but we were looking forward to the swim because it was so hot.  Jodie found an interesting way to carry the pool noodles.

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 19

Day 19 - 20/6/2016 - Canoeing in Lawn Hill Gorge

We left camp at about 8:30am to head to the national park to hire a canoe.  We were planning on spending a couple of hours canoeing in Lawn Hill gorge.  We were the first ones there for the day so we set off and had the river and gorge to ourselves.

Canoe hire area

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 18

Day 18 - 19/6/2016 - Adels Grove and Lawn Hill National Park

After the wet day yesterday, today was absolutely fantastic.  Hardly a cloud in the sky and no rain in site.  It was a good drying day, to dry out the mud

The caked on mud!

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 17

Day 17 - 18/6/2016 - Cloncurry to Adels Grove

After a later than usual departure the first stop was the Burke and Wills Roadhouse to top up with fuel and a bit of smoko.

Burke and Wills Roadhouse

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 16

Day 16 - 17/6/2016 - Barkly Homestead to Cloncurry

Again another big day of driving with not a lot to look at.  This time there was no police set up at the NT/QLD border so got the photos that missed on the last time through.

Welcome to Queensland!

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 15

Day 15 - 16/6/2016 - Barkly Homestead rest day

We were were still pretty worn out from the Alice Springs week and the big drive yesterday so we decided to just have another rest day taking in the scenery of the Homestead.

After lunch we had a few games of pool at the bar and stayed for the $4 happy hour beers!

That afternoon also provided a fantastic sunset.

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 14

Day 14 - 15/6/2016 - Alice Springs to Barkly Homestead

It was the first day back on the road for a while and we had a lot of kilometres to do so it was an early start.

We were pretty sure that this wasn't here on our way into Alice Springs

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 13

Day 13 - 14/6/2016 - Alice Springs

Originally we were contemplating heading back to Cloncurry via the Plenty Highway that we missed on our first part of the trip due to bad weather.  However we had heard that there was another weather system heading towards western Central Australia and western Queensland. Because the highway was still marked as drive with caution and with the possibility of more rain while we would be out there, along with more traffic than usual due to Finke competitors heading back to the east coast, we decided to again skip going that way.  On top of all of that the hinge for our side storage box still hadn’t turned up so we decided to stay in Alice Springs for an extra day to see if it was going to turn up.

Ian and Pieter had a long ride back to Sydney so they left fairly early.  Lisa checked out of the motel and hung out with us at the van park until it was time to go to the airport for her flight.  We went to the airport with her to help with all of the luggage. The boys had offloaded some of the gear on their bikes that they weren’t using to make the trip home lighter.

After seeing Lisa off we did a final shop for stocking up for the next part of our trip to Lawn Hill.  The rest of the afternoon was spent around camp filling water tanks and starting to pack up.

The MacDonnell Range from the roof of the shopping centre carpark.

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 12

Day 12 - 13/6/2016 - Finke Desert Rally Race Finish

It was a slightly later start to the morning because the cars were not scheduled to leave Finke until 7:15am.  They take just under 2 hours to get back to Alice Springs so we aimed to get to the track at about 8:30 to get a good spot in the stand.  It was good that it was slightly later as it was the coldest morning yet at 2.4 deg!

The last check point that the competitors go through is a fair way away from the finish line, so no one really knew who was leading the race and was going to be first home.  Quite often the positions can change between the last check point and the finish line.  The only way that you could tell that a competitor was getting close was the dust on the horizon.

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 11

Day 11 - 12/6/2016 - Finke Desert Rally Race Start

Today was the first stage of the race.  The competitors were racing from Alice Springs to Finke along the Old Gahan railway track.  It was also a cold and early start.  5.3 deg and we were at the track by 7am.  Add the wind chill factor and it felt a lot colder than the 5.3 deg!  The cars were scheduled to start at 7:15 but didn’t end up getting under way until 7:45am.

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 10

Day 10 - 11/6/2016 - Finke Desert Rally Prologue Day

Today was the first real race day.  It was a nice and chilly start for getting to the track early, 6.8deg.  The competitors were doing a time trial to work out the starting order for the following day.  The cars and buggies started at 8:30am with the bikes and quads at 11:15am.

We always like the prologue day because you are at the start and finish line.  You get to see them go out and then come back in again.

Starting with some of the slowest first - pretty much a stock BT-50

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 9

Day 9 - 10/6/2016 - Standley Chasm and Finke Desert Rally Scrutineering

Because scrutineering wasn’t until the afternoon/evening we thought we would do some sight seeing.  First stop was Standley Chasm.  

Standley Chasm kiosk and cafe

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 8

Day 8 - 9/6/2016 - Alice Springs

It was good to have another slow start to the morning.  To make up for the last week of travelling and also becuase once the Finke Desert Rally starts there will be a few early starts.

A few more transporters rolled in later that morning.

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 7

Day 7 - 8/6/2016 - Gemtree to Alice Springs

It was a nice change to have a slow start to the morning.  We couldn’t check into the MacDonnell Range Big4 until after 10am so we took our time to get moving.  It was just after 10am when we left Gemtree.  Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to try any of the gem fossicking - something for next time.

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 6

Day 6 - 7/6/2016 - Gemtree

What was meant to be a rest day turned out to be only a semi rest day.  The night before as I was getting the camp chairs out of the store box in the camper, I had one arm holding both chairs and then tried to close the storage door with the other.  As I was repositioning my free hand I dropped the storage door and it snapped the plastic hinge and the door came completely off.

Doh!

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 5

Day 5 - 6/6/2016 - Barkly Homestead to Gemtree

Because we had changed our plans and were heading to Alice via the black top we were running a day ahead of schedule.  So we weren’t exactly sure where we were headed today and there wasn’t going to be a lot too see or stop at.

The first stop was at the Threeways Roadhouse to top up with fuel.  It had one of the best 3D wall paintings we had seen for awhile.

Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 4

Day 4 - 5/6/2016 - Cloncurry to Barkly Homestead

It was a bit of a slower start this morning due to the party last night.  After saying goodbye to everyone that was awake, we were on the road by 9am.

The backyard camp

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 3

Day 3 - 4/6/2016 - Ilfracombe to Cloncurry

Well we thought we were up early, but Louise had left Barcaldine even earlier and she and the kids were on our door step before we knew it at about 7am.  It was a quick hello while we were having breakfast and said we would see them tonight in Cloncurry.  They took off ahead of us as we still had to clean, pack and fuel up.

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 2

Day 2 - 3/6/2016 - Springsure to Ilfracombe

A bit of rain over night made for a damp packup.  Luckily we didn’t have a lot to pack up and we just managed to get packed up and on the road before it started getting heavier.  We were on the road earlier than we had planned so we were hoping to get to Ilfracombe by mid afternoon.

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Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 1

Day 1 - 2/6/2016 - Bundaberg to Springsure

We were finally setting off on a trip that was a number of years in the making and also catching up with family from all over the country.  7 years ago our first trip in the Pajero was a loop through western QLD, then across to Cairns and back down the coast to home.  At that time there were a few things that we didn’t get a chance to see and vowed that we would be back.  Well 7 years and a lot of kilometres later, we were finally going to get a few more places ticked off the bucket list.  We were also timing/planning the trip to coincide with the Finke Desert rally in Alice Springs, (which was a highlight from a trip 4 years ago), so we had a lot of kilometres to do in a small amount of time in order to meet a few deadlines.

On the road again!

3 Corners & a Double Simpson Desert Crossing - Day 10 to Day 12

Day 10 to Day 12 - 1/4/2016 to 3/4/2016 - Birdsville to Home

After a good nights sleep it was an early start to start making the long push back home.  Because I still wasn’t eating anything, I skipped the Birdsville bakery for breakfast and headed off before the others.

The Birdsville Pub

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3 Corners & a Double Simpson Desert Crossing - Day 9

Day 9 - 31/3/2016 - Camp 4 to the Birdsville Pub

This morning was the coolest morning of the trip.  It was about 8degC when we all surfaced for breakfast.  The aim was to make it through to Birdsville that night but we still had a lot of sand dunes to cover to get there.  Because I was still sick and drained of energy from not having eaten anything for 3 days, I wasn’t really in the right frame of mind for early morning photos, so no camp photo today.

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3 Corners & a Double Simpson Desert Crossing - Day 8

Day 8 - 30/3/2016 - Camp 3 to Camp 4

At about 3am in the still of the night a dingo started howling.  It sounded like it was sitting in the middle of our camp site.  Then a few dunes over another dingo answered.  It certainly made the hairs on the back of the neck standard up and made it difficult to get back to sleep.

The culprit from the night before

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3 Corners & a Double Simpson Desert Crossing - Day 7

Day 7 - 29/3/2016 - Camp 2 to the edge of the Simpson Desert Reserve and Camp 3

Later that night the wind eased off, but it then started to rain.  It was a constant drizzle most of the night.  Selwyn had left a left cup out overnight and at breakfast he mentioned that there was about 1mm in it from the rain overnight.  The rain was part of a cool change that came through.  The change was very much welcomed.  It was a bit of a slower start to the morning as we were all trying to let the tents dry out a bit before packing them up.  The rain was just enough to wet everything and having the sand stick to everything while trying to pack up.

You can just see the dry tent footprint beside the vehicle

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3 Corners & a Double Simpson Desert Crossing - Day 6

Day 6 - 28/3/2016 - Simpson Desert Camp 1 to Poeppel Corner and Camp 2

It was a slightly earlier start because we wanted to try and make as much distance as possible today.  Also the temperature was also staring to climb so packing up while it was cool made it a lot more comfortable.

Campsite by morning

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3 Corners & a Double Simpson Desert Crossing - Day 5

Day 5 - 27/3/2016 - Haddon Corner to Simpson Desert Camp 1

Generally not being an early riser, it was getting easier to get up earlier due to the sound of the birds at dawn, and the heat slowly but noticeably increasing.  We were all up relatively early this morning.  It was only our second day of actual camping so we were all still getting into the groove of our camp packups.

Selwyn packed up and was the first to head off so that he could try and source some spare parts in Birdsville before everything closed.  We still had a 260km or so run into Birdsville from Haddon Corner.

I was the next to leave.  I was about an hour behind Selwyn because I took my time packing up and I also took a few photos.  Snowy was the last to leave and he was about an hour behind me.

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3 Corners & a Double Simpson Desert Crossing - Day 4

Day 4 - 26/3/2016 - Cameron Corner to Haddon Corner

The wind finally started to ease off and it started to cool down a little in the hours leading up to dawn.  That was about the only respite we received from the temperature.  Even when we started packing up fairly early in the morning you could feel the temperature starting to rise.

My Camp

3 Corners & a Double Simpson Desert Crossing - Day 3

Day 3 - 25/3/2016 - Bourke to Cameron Corner

The early rise made sure we saw the spectacular sunrise.  If the sunrises was going to be like this for the next week or so, then it certainly wasn’t going to be hard getting out of bed.  

Sunrise over the Old Bourke Bridge

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3 Corners & a Double Simpson Desert Crossing - Day 2

Day 2 - 24/3/2016 - Goondiwindi to Bourke

After a good nights sleep I was up and on the road again by about 8am.  The early start was useful because as soon as I crossed over the border at Goondiwindi into NSW, I lost an hour due to daylight saving.

We had passed through Brewarrina at the start of our 2012 trip.  It was interesting to compare how dry it looked now compared to back then.

Brewarrina rest area 2016

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3 Corners & a Double Simpson Desert Crossing - Day 1

Day 1 - 23/3/2016 - Bundaberg to Goondiwindi

What was planned to be a quiet easter break was suddenly going to be not so quiet and relaxing!  A mate from Uni days mentioned that he was planning on doing a double Simpson Desert crossing over the easter break and wanted to know if I wanted to tag-a-long.  It was too good an opportunity to pass up.  A Simpson Desert Trip had been on my bucket list for a while but I had never really put much thought into how I was actually going to do it.  So when this opportunity presented itself it was too good to refuse.

2016 also marked the 20 year anniversary of finishing Uni, so what better way to mark the occasion than doing a road trip with a Uni mate and picking up some prominent survey marks along the way, (we did Surveying at Uni, hence the theme of picking up the survey marks).

It was going to be my first major camping trip without the camper so I had to do a bit of work to re-work and setup my camping configuration.  I managed to get all necessary camping gear in along with all of the recovery gear, extra spare tyre, 2 x 20ltr fuel jerry cans, 30ltrs of “working” water and 30ltrs of purely drinking water, spare engine oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter, fan belts, radiator hoses and other miscellaneous spares.

All packed up and ready to roll!

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