Caretaking in the Outback Pt 1

August:  It was a big 1st month at Hamilton Downs Youth Camp, 75km west of Alice Springs.  Wonderful views of the mountains from our cottage and up the hill on the Drover's Walk.
The property has a 25km driveway which requires monthly dragging with tyres.
It was pretty cold at night, below 0 degrees sometimes and Indigo got a Snuggie blanket to keep her warm from the local op shop.
Straight up, Danny got into building a Vege House: starting with rolling an old water tank from the dry creek bed up the hill to the shed. He cut it in half and that made the 2 vege gardens.
Next was the digging of the holes and then cementing in of the upright poles.
Followed by welding the upper support poles and attaching clothes line-looking wire to 2 sides for extra stability.  Did I mention that Danny also became very attached to the tractor? 
Meanwhile, two of my sisters, Lynda and Leilani were staying in Alice Springs and we all caught up for coffee in the Todd Mall.
We did another of the designated walks through the paddocks and bush and up around the creek.  Also, we walked up a hill out front, which had spectacular views of the mountains and the old property.On August 27, we celebrated Danny's 40th birthday with a trip into town and a party that arvo/night with Indigo Velvet and Keith (who I decorated with baloons and xmas lights) down near the creek. 
I had promised that I would hula hoop on top of Keith as part of the festivities and so I made this a reality the next day. 

Ofcourse we did some work too with 4 groups of guests staying at the old homestead and surrounding buildings.  There was even a wedding to cap off a great month here. 


Outside our cottage there are 2 bird baths which get visited each day by a variety of birds:  galahs, native pigeons, ring neck parrots, butcher birds, magpies, crows and lots of bees.
Remote living is interesting, sometimes challenging (no corner shops) and a great way to experience the centre of Australia.

Keith has a Close Encounter at the Devil's Marbles

.Outside the Camoweal servo.

Friday 27 July:  We refueled at the Barkly Homestead and enjoyed the line up of road trains.  I got a bit excited about getting to the border - I have never been to the Northern Territory.
I drove Keith (for the 1st time since we left Redcliffe) to the 3 Ways and down to Tennant Creek. 
We drove into the Devil's Marbles camp ground and set up for the night.  It was only $3.30/pp with long drop toilets.

Saturday 28 July:  We went for a walk at sunrise next morning and when we got back to the camp, there was a dingo roaming around.  He decided to wait near a rather rotund man who was cooking a big breakfast outside his van.

We drove down the Stuart Hwy and got as far as Wycliffe Wells servo to take some photos.  It is an alien hotspot appartently...I noticed that our outside battery door on Keith was missing, so we headed back to the Marbles to have a look.  Not far up the road, Danny commented that the fuel gauge was pointing at below half.  That was weird, we hadn't used that much petrol we thought.  Then, the gauge went up, down again and finally back to normal.  There was only one answer:  ALIENS.
Anyway, Danny spotted the battery door on the Marbles access road, put it back on and once again we headed back down the hwy.  This time the gauge was fine, but we re-fueled at Wycliffe Wells, even though it was honking expensive,  just in case.

Finally we got to the Tanami Road turnoff (20km from Alice Springs) and after about 30km, we arrived at the Hamiliton Downs Youth Camp gate.  We weren't too pleased that they use 1080 on the dingos as it is a death sentence for all animals.  We would have to keep Indigo inside and carefully watched outside.  But no free roaming unfortunately.
We drove up the 25km dirt driveway and coming up to the 10km mark hill...Keith runs out of petrol!  Luckily we had our jerry can in the back and that was enough to get us to the homestead. 

We were a couple of days later than anticipated - but Keith got us here!