Project Pajero
Where are we now!
Day 21-22 16-17 September
 16-09 bitter springs.jpg) Well, our happy crew headed up the Stuart Hwy from Daly Waters to Mataranka. We discovered why SPOT had stopped sending messages. Thanks to the helpful advice from Bernie at www.gpsoz.com.au we found that the host website for Tracking trips on SPOT had gone down. So a few quick emails to Jeff at www.divinebranding.com.au who is looking after our Project Pajero site, soon had it redirected to the SPOT website until the glitch on the Tracking site is rectified by its owner in the USA.
T&C stopped off at Mataranka Springs and had a dip in the Hot Springs of the same name in the Caravan Park, but the overhead fruit bats in their hundreds made it a rather unpleasant place to be and in Tony’s words the Park had a rundown look about it. They stopped the night in another Caravan Park just up the road and also visited Bitter Springs, another hot spring just north of the town, which they say is much nicer, a larger thermal pool in a more natural setting with less people.
From here they took the short drive north to Katherine where they camped in the Shady Lady Caravan Park whoops I mean The shady Lane Caravan Park. From here they could walk down to the Katherine river which flows behind the Park. Looking at SPOT I could see they were surrounded by some kind of fruit tree plantation, which Tony informed me were mango trees, sadly the mangoes are still green. Interesting considering Flemington Markets auctioned off the first case of new season mangoes today for $40,000, I wonder where they came from?
Today (Thursday 17/9 ) was spent walking around the Gorge, Tony was not impressed with the rim walk, saying it was nowhere near the rim and just through rather dull scrub, but he was glad it was not as hot as yesterday, it only reached 40 degrees today yesterday it was 50 degrees! After this they took a canoe for a paddle up the first gorge, cost for one hour was $30. During the afternoon they relaxed in the pool at the Shady Lady. Tomorrow there into Kakadu!
12 Sept to 15 Sept Day 17- Day 20
As the phone cut out our grey nomads were on their way to Kings Canyon. Anyway, they found it easily enough and checked into the Caravan Park in the main section of the resort after finding that the Park on the homestead about 12 k’s away was the same price. T&C seemed suitably impressed with the Park. They also undertook the 4 hour walk to the top of the Canyon along its edge to the Garden of Eden and back down to the car park. This is a spectacular walk and they enjoyed it despite the heat of the day. They also took a walk up the Canyon floor, covering over 8 kilometres in the day on foot.
Next day they hooked up the old van and followed the sealed road back down to the Lasseter Hwy, along the way seeing about 5 camels cross the highway in front of them. Then out to the Stuart Hwy and up to the beautiful Rainbow Valley. Arriving in bright sunshine and setting up camp (in the van) and under the shade of the foxwing awning, they expected to see the beautiful colours of Rainbow Valley at sunset. Unfortunately as the afternoon wore on, the cloud came across the sky and by the time the crowds had gathered to watch sunset on the rocky outcrop, well, there was no sunset so there was no beautiful colour display. Very disappointing as this is one of the treasures of inland Australia.
Monday 14 September they headed into Alice Springs expecting to get their replacement shock absorber fitted up at the local Opposite Lock dealer. But on arrival shortly after 9am they found the shock had not arrived. So they had a few more hours to kill in Alice whilst waiting for the next courier delivery at 3pm.
At 3pm back at Opposite lock, still no shock, things were looking grim, just then the courier from Aust Air Express walked in with the shock absorber. Despite John Agostino at 4Way suspension putting it on overnight delivery the previous Friday and paying $90 for the privilege of overnight delivery, Aust Air Express showed no urgency. They had the shock at 6 am on Monday morning and instead of delivering it straight to Opposite Lock that morning, it was their last delivery for the day that afternoon. Not very good service by Aust Air Express even though John Agostino had paid for it.
Anyway, the boys at Opposite Lock did the best they could and had the shock fitted to Project Pajero shortly after 4pm and T & C were heading north up the Stuart Hwy to try to catch up one of the two days they had lost. They travelled into the evening and 130K’s north of Alice pulled into a rest area on the side of the road which they shared with 2 other carvanners. Sadly one had a generator running, which tended to spoil the ambiance of the outback evening. At least until it spluttered into silence and despite the cussing and swearing of the owner of the generator it could not be started again. Tony said the other caravan owner sharing their rest area cheered loudly when the din died.
Today, Tuesday 15 Sept, they have driven a massive 800 k’s up past Tennant Creek to Daly Waters where they are camped at the Highway Roadhouse where a powered site costs $10 pppn. Carol told me on the phone she could see wallabies grazing in the paddock nearby in the evening light. Tomorrow they are off to Mataranka and Katherine. And yes, you are right, the SPOT Tracker stopped tracking them well before Tennant Creek, hopefully this glitch will rectify itself by morning.
Day 16-17 10-11 September
Day 16 saw them leave Alice and head for Ayres Rock which they reached 5 hours later. A powered site in the Ayres Rock camp ground cost $19 per person per night (Ouch!) With the $25 entry fee each to see the sunset on the rock, this is a pretty expensive place for people on a budget. The whole reason for going all the way south to Ayres Rock was so Carol could climb it. There is talk of the local community closing off the climb permanently and Carol wanted to climb it once in her lifetime. After viewing sunset from the usual sunset strip and oooohing and aaaarrhhhing at the changing colours which never cease to amaze, they were up early on Friday morning and back to the base of the Rock by 7.30 am ready to start the climb at 8am. But wait. It appears the climb has to be declared safe before you can climb it.
This is done by a Ranger holding a wind speed measuring device, if the wind exceeds 15 knots, the Rock is closed to climbing. Guess what? The wind speed at 8am measured 17 knots. “Sorry folks the rock is closed to climbers” – lots of very unhappy tourists, some who had flown all the way from Europe just to climb the Rock. And one unhappy Carol. (Actually after seeing how steep and high it was I think she was glad she didn’t have to try the climb) But for those who had been slugged the $25 entry fee only to be told they couldn’t climb, they were pretty annoyed.
T & C paid a visit to the Olgas where they admired from a distance and took the long walk into the deep shaded gorge. At this point the phone cut out, but looking at the SPOT Tracker this afternoon, they drove to Kings Canyon where they hope to do the walk right around the gorge (let’s hope there is no wind) Stay tuned for an update.
Day 13-15 7-9 September.
We had left our Grey nomads camped west of Mt Isa. They had one of the longest and loneliest drives ahead of them, across the Barkley Tableland into the Northern Territory. Tony tackles these long hauls with gusto and as I watched their little green Pajero inch its way across the map of the Northern Territory via the SPOT tracker, I thought “is this guy ever going to stop?” Well they didn’t, apart from topping up with fuel in Barkley Roadhouse and again in Tennant Creek, they managed to knock off more than 770 k’s in one day. Finally pulling into the Devil’s Marbles just before sunset. Tony headed off with the camera to get some sunset photos on these weird rock formations whilst Carol paid the camping fee, Yes! You need to pay a camping fee of $3.30 per person per night. For this vast amount you get a long drop dunny and a small area in which to camp. Carol remarked, lucky they are out of the tourist season, otherwise they would never have found a camp spot.
Anyway, Tony seemed to be happy with his sunset photos, he even commented that he took 2 photos!!!! Maybe we will get to see them one day. Its been 26 years since Carol visited the Devil’s Marbles, in fact I accompanied her and Tony on what was my first Outback trip way back in 1983! Carol reckons the rocks have been mutating or reproducing as she says there are lot more of these unusually round rocks than what she remembers. Apparently there is an Aboriginal guide who attends the Rocks only on Thursdays to provide a walk around guide for those lucky enough to be camping on Thursday nights. In fact it was Thursday night, but Carol told me getting Tony’s dinner ready was more important than listening to the dreamtime version of why these rocks are found here – go figure that one if you can?
Breaking camp, as seems to be the Caravaners want, they were off heading south down the Stuart Hwy by 7.30am. Driving in warm to hot conditions with blue skies they reached Alice Springs by midday after another 450 k’s. After settling into one of the many Parks in Alice they took a walk around the Heritage trail in the town and also visited ANZAC Hill lookout in the middle of town to view the city and the Heavitree Gap (We did that 26 years ago too!) Tony discovered to everyone’s surprise that one of the front Tough Dog shock absorbers was leaking fluid. A quick call to John Agostino at 4WaySuspension soon had things in motion to get another Tough Dog shipped to Alice in time for their return after visiting Ayres Rock. On their spare day in Alice, apart from shopping and chasing shock absorbers they also visited the Botanic Gardens, and took the Wattle Walk, and the Waterhole Walk and even the Mulga Walk, apparently a white person by the name of Olive Pink (true name, go one, google it) helped set up the Botanic Gardens.
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