Graham and Chris on tour 2014 – Update #5

…..The story continues, camped at Cadelga ruins….

We had the whole area to ourselves at Cadelga Ruins and it was indeed a pleasant place to camp. Still cool though, from the recent rains, with single figures overnight and 20° days with a cool/cold breeze. We could not quite work out why there were not more people around as it is normally a favoured place to camp when travelling to Birdsville from Innamincka.

There is a large waterhole at Cadelga and due to the recent rains it was quite full which has attracted literally thousand of Little Corellas. Noisy buggers.

Little Corellas take to the sky over Cadelga Ruins

The following morning we set off thinking that our only option from here was to first travel to Birdsville then head north to Bedourie. The road between Cadelga and the junction with the Wyndorah – Birdsville Road became fairly challenging with expanses of mud that could not be driven around and so we had to charge on through the middle of some very large washouts. Sorry; no photos. Not only was it difficult to get out and take photos, our focus on getting through the mud and slush overtook any thoughts of photography. Once again the Tojo performed superbly.

Travelling along the very well formed and hi quality Wyndorah – Birdsville road, albeit gravel, was a breeze and a pleasant relief from the latter part of the Cordillo Downs Road that had obviously gotten a huge dump of rain in the last few days.

When we were 60km out of Birdsville we approached a turn off that on all our most current maps is shown as a “Private Road – No Public Thoroughfare”. Lo and behold as we got closer we could read a regular, official road sign pointing up the road “Bedourie 176km”. So off we went up a very recently maintained and smooth gravel road, saving us about 100km to get to Bedourie. Although we like Birdsville, we did not feel the need to revisit on this trip so were very pleased to take a short cut.

Arriving in Bedourie, we visited the local information office and paid $10 camping fees which included free laundry facilities. As it was fairly early we took the opportunity to do a couple of loads of washing, had a spa in the 40°C naturally heated artesian spa at the local aquatic centre, (also free except for a $50 deposit on the key to gain access); then had dinner at the pub across the road from our camp.

We have always enjoyed our stays in Bedourie, it is a very friendly clean outback town and is the Shire HQ for the Diamantina Shire which has the most kms of road per resident of any shire in Australia. Shire population is 739 ± 7000 (Birdsville Races).

The following morning we set off for Boulia, only a short trip of 217km. We needed to spend the afternoon catching up on emails and updating my web site as this is the first mobile coverage for about 2 weeks. We chose to have a non powered site in Boulia as they were much quieter and more pleasant than the powered sites where the punters were packed in tightly.

This Wedge Tail could not be discouraged from his carrion.

So on the morning of 18th July, emails, web sites etc as up to date as possible, we headed across the Donohue/Plenty Hwy headed for Alice Springs, expecting to take 2 nights (3 days) to reach Alice, but in fact we only had a one night camp. We bush camped about 500m off the road behind a hummock. Fantastic, nothing beats bush camping without another soul for miles.

Our bush camp, far, far from the madding crowd – the best!

Getting fuel at Jervois Station on the Plenty Highway

One of many impressive ant hills on the Plenty, this being the largest that we saw.

We arrived in Alice about 3PM and strolled into the G’Day Mate Tourist Park. “Have you got a booking?” “No” we replied. “Hmmm w’ere full, we will see what we can do, how big is your Van?”

They found us a great site with green grass.

Alice Springs is chocker block full of tourists and it is almost impossible to get a caravan site after 2:30 – 3:00 pm each day. The second night of our stay in the park, they found extra sites for people in front of the workshop, In front of the laundry, anywhere they could squeeze in another punter. They even had them park on the side of internal roads wherever it would not be too inconvenient to others.

Get us out of here! We are not real fans of caravan parks – just a necessity from time to time.

Fortunately our redirected mail arrived at the post office early so instead of staying until Monday morning we will head out tomorrow, Sunday the 22nd instead of Mondayas originally planned.

Heading up the Tanami to Halls Creek, 1077 km. Limited fuel available so we will have to rely on Jerry cans between the Communities of Yuendemu and Bulullina.