DESERT STORM

It’s hot! I have replaced my hot water bottle from earlier in the trip with ice packs that I put on my feet at night to cool down enough to get to sleep.

Before I go any further, the news you have all been waiting for. By a very narrow margin you have voted for Dennis to keep the beard. However, in deference to those of you who were violently opposed, he has trimmed it so he looks a little less like a feral bushman. Thank you all for the suggestion that I should grow my armpit hair in a show of support – but in a word, “no!”

Back to the deserts – and we’ve seen a few in the last couple of weeks. We spent six days traversing the Moon, Painted, Pedirka and mighty Simpson deserts before ending up in Alice Springs. I have to say that overall I find the desert landscape to be truly grand in its immensity, its colours (raw reds in stark contrast to the amazing blue of the outback sky) and its sense of complete isolation. Dennis, on the other hand, finds the scenery rather barren and uninteresting – so beauty and grandeur are definitely in the eye of the beholder.

Whatever you may think of the visual impression, there is no doubt that the omnipresent red dust, the heat and the interminable flies are exhausting. Because these aren’t the sorts of places where you want to hang out (remember the red dust, the heat and the flies) we moved on everyday – which meant that every day we had to take down our little home and put it up again somewhere else – generally in 40 degree heat. Which explains why, when we finally got to Alice Springs we ended up staying for 10 days.

But I’m getting ahead of myself again, back to those deserts. Even I have to agree with Dennis that the Moon Desert - as the name suggests – is barren. It’s grey, flat, rocky and devastatingly bleak. Interesting for its emptiness, but frankly ugly (see the picture if you don't believe me). Luckily it’s also very small so we were quickly out of the Moon Desert and into the Painted Desert which had much more to offer. We were there in the middle of the day so didn’t get to see the changing colours at sunrise and sunset that have given this place its name. But still we were treated to multiple shades of red rock and sand and plenty of weird rock formations left from the time that this was an inland sea.

The desert highlight, however, was the great Simpson desert. We only saw one small corner, but still could appreciate the vastness of the desert and the horror of the roads. We headed into the Simpson from Oodnadatta (“the hottest, driest town in Australia” and a real hole of a place) and our first port of call was Dalhousie Springs – an amazing oasis of water in the middle of a parched land. Because there has been water here, so distant from any other water, for millennia there are actually some species of fish found in Dalhousie Springs that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. And, of course, from a human perspective it’s this glorious hot spa the size of a small lake – which I’m sure would be wonderful on cold, winter desert mornings – but was not all that appealing in the heat. Nonetheless we took a dip just to say we’d done it.

Our next stop was Mt Dare station which we both found to be a warm, friendly place, albeit not a particularly beautiful campground. The station largely specializes in rescuing people stuck in the Simpson, and providing a jump off point for those starting out to cross the Simpson. I suspect that in high season they do a roaring trade – but we are very late in the season so there were only us, “the Germans” and a couple of guys working on changing over the road signs. (With regard to “the Germans, according to the locals it is now officially “German season” which is the time when it is too hot for any level headed Australian to travel in the Centre, but an influx of Germans arrive to escape their winter.)

From Mt Dare we drove out on the most diabolical road thus far to Old Andado Homestead. There’s a long story associated with this place that I will try to remember correctly and abbreviate for you. Molly and Mac Clarke owned Old Andado Station but for financial reasons had to sell the vast majority of the station (for a song apparently). However, they kept a small corner of the station on which rested the original homestead for the property. Molly made it her life’s work to restore the homestead to how it was in “the old days” and lived there much as the original pioneers had done. This living museum has always been open to the public and in the days when Molly lived there you could expect to share a cup of tea and some stories with her. However, for health reasons Molly has moved to Alice Springs, but the place has been left exactly as it was when she lived there. Sometimes there are caretakers, but when we arrived there was no one. We were able to explore the homestead on our own, and even have a nap in the living room away from the hot sun. It was quite a privilege to be able to rattle about in a place like that all on our own – at least until around sunset when another vehicle arrived and we had to share the space.

From there we took the Old Andado track and rattled, bounced and jolted our way into Alice. It was a long, hot drive, and the corrugation was nerve jarring. So needless to say, neither of us was in a particularly great mood when we arrived at the caravan park and noticed that the bike rack had somehow ripped away from the vehicle and our bikes were practically hanging on the ground. Now I need to assure you that Dennis and I have been getting along really well and the fighting has subsided to be a very rare event. However, I must tell you that setting up camp in Alice that night was the exception that proved the rule – the word “explosive” comes to mind.

Despite the bad start, we really love Alice Springs. Initially I think just being in a well equipped caravan park and not having to pack up every day was the appeal. But it turned out that Alice is one of those perfect Dennis-Stephanie places with great walking and great golf all in the same place. Plus, it’s quite a beautiful place as the MacDonnell ranges run right through the middle of the city. So we just kept extending our stay and ended up there for 10 days. Dennis got in 3 games of golf at the Alice Springs golf club and I was able to do 3 really great walks on the Larapinta Trail in the West MacDonnell ranges. We also went to the Alice Springs racetrack for Melbourne Cup day which was kind of fun. It felt a bit like a holiday from our holiday…if that makes any sense.

We are now in the East MacDonnell ranges where we have been camped for a couple of days. It’s stunning here – and generally overlooked by the tourists who head west toward “the Rock”. From here we will head back to Alice to restock (and for Dennis to sneak in one more game of golf) before we start winding our way to the west coast. We have just this morning agreed that we may take the Gunbarrel Highway to Willuna (instead of the “safer”, gentler Central Desert Road), which will be a bit of an adventure. Will keep you posted.

Before I hand over to Dennis I will add one final observation. I think we are starting to get the hang of this nomadic lifestyle. It is hard to let go of the need for purpose and achievement that is so much a part of our western urban culture. I feel that we are finally getting to a place where we are able to truly relax and “go with the flow”. We are finding it easier to change plans to suit our mood, the weather or new information, and I am finding it easier to just sit and read or even (God forbid) do nothing at all. We aren’t there yet, because we still make lists and feel compelled to complete all the tasks on the list as quickly as possible, and Dennis will never truly get over the need to put “ticks in the box”….but we’re heading in the right direction.

DENNIS’S SIDE OF THE STORY

We’d not planned to come to Alice and spend more time in the deserts, but it’s started getting very hot now, both day and night, and we’d become accustomed to being near a pool in the heat of the day so perhaps it was this that took us into Alice. We booked for 3 nights, extended 3 more and then another 4 for 10 nights. When I think about how we spent our time we were waiting for mail, getting the car serviced….oh, and golf at one of the top 50 courses in Australia. I played in the comp on Saturday and won a prize so being spurred with confidence played 9 holes on Wednesday and the medal on the next Saturday. Sadly I only had one good round in me!

I met some more interesting guys at golf. Three Americans who were very coy about what they did for a living. Eventually I got the gos that they worked at Pine Gap, the US base and something about missile tracking – top secret stuff!

We met Darby and Joan (really Gordon and Joan) at the campground and spent some time with them. Darby joined me in the golf and we all got on well. Hope to see them again in WA, their home.

Alice has lots of walks and Stephanie did most of them. No doubt she will mention the overnight camp she did on the Larapinta Trail.

Buying alcohol here is different again. The store opens at 2pm, you must produce ID and purchases are recorded and wine casks of 2 litres or more aren’t available until after 6pm. This system does not seem to inhibit the locals and is the game going on here.

We have been away for 2 months now and are getting into the swing of it and really loving the road. We’ve taken an excursion out to the East MacDonnell ranges to Ross River and love the isolation and the rugged terrain. In the mornings we walk through beautiful gorges and then find a shady spot for lunch and relaxing.

Mt Dare hotel near the SA/NT border was a great stop off for 1 night. Time to refuel and get another challenge for myself: an outback pub stubby holder where you can tick off each of the 9 pubs after having a cool one there. Three down so far. (Note from Stephanie…..you see what I mean now about that "tick the box" mentality!)

We are now planning for the next 4 weeks to get to Fremantle, which roads to take and where to stay – should be interesting crossing from Uluru to WA. Before that we go back to Alice for 2 nights to refuel and do some housekeeping. Oh, and play in the Wednesday comp at ASGC – 9 holes. We both really like Alice which is surprising as the last time we were here it did not impress. I think that was more about us than the city itself.