Uluru to Coober Pedy - the long, hot road!

We spent the 29th at the Heritage Caravan Park, Alice Springs.  I
knew they meant 'dog friendly' when I walked into the park office and there was a dog sitting on the chair and other on the floor. 
We hung out for the arvo and then went into town for the Desert Music Club jam night.  I put our name on the board first and we did 4 of our original songs.  A nice helpx lady host came up to us afterwards with some kind words, which was cool.

Next day, we left at 6am for The Big Rock.  We saw in the distance a big rock, but it was Mt Connell.  Lovely in it's own right.

And then I saw it...and it was big and majestic and more than I had hoped for.  We went to our campground at the Ayres Rock Resort and had a bit of a rest from the heat.  The park man mentioned a dog sitting service and so we rang them and dropped off the Girls for the arvo. 
We had a bit of a drive towards The Olgas / Katja Juta, but there was not enough time to explore...next time, in Winter! 


So we headed for Uluru.  I had waited for over 20 years to meet the big fella and I was not disappointed.
It was nearing sunset, so we did the small walk to the gorge and saws some caves and wall paintings. 
Then we parked Keith in the Sunset Viewing carpark and sat on the roof cage with a glass of wine and watched the sun depart.  It was a lovely finale to a long, hot day in the red center.
We collected Indigo and Fuggles who had been for a walk with their 2 young carers, made our dinner and went to bed. 

Oct  31st at 5am, we left for the 9 hr drive to Coober Pedy.  It started to heat up at about 9:30am and with no aircon in Keith, it got a bit nasty.  The opal mines lined the highway in with their mounds of dirt and trucks and make shift camp sites.  We stayed at a caravan park in town and had a look at the underground Catholic Church which was very peaceful ( I was sure there was an underground caravan park too, but it was not to be.... )

We had 2 great Sri Lankan curries at the pub and then chatted with an interesting fellow who was staying at our caravan park. He was from Melbourne and writes a column for the Sunday Age, but has been hitchhiking around, most recently to Darwin.  He sat in Keith and had a cup of tea and told some tales about lifts with mostly friendly, but some dubious strangers.  The kind he knew he shouldn't get in the car with! 
After a 40 degrees day, we went to sleep with the sound of the hot wind still blowing across the merciless desert. 

But we dreamed of tomorrow when, after 4 long, months...we would see the ocean again.

We Got Some Country - last month in the Desert

OCT:  Well, the last month at Hamilton Downs.  Lots of tidying up and cleaning in preparation for the New Caretakers including finishing the vege garden with garden hose on the edges and clearing rocks from the 12km rough part of the driveway.  I dressed up in my best work shorts and glow vest for the occasion.   

It was getting hot, 40 degrees a couple of days, but luckily cooled down into the 20's for the arrival of the lovely Jennifer and Rob from the near the  NSW central coast.                                                     

And in case you missed it, here is the music clip we shot on the property of our song:  Get Some Country.

Indigo and Fuggles did some climbing up the hill bonding...

And Danny photographed a long jet stream and noticed a bright, shiningball of light underneath.  Weather balloon, U.F.O ? 





Danny, with a bit of help from Sammy, made a new access road for the tip truck and fire trailer with salvaged double gate.

 Monday, Oct 29 and it was time to leave Hamilton Downs Youth Camp.  It was in interesting 3 months with beautiful sunsets and views of the Namatjira-style landscape on our doorstep. 

We took it very slowly going out the 25km driveway and said our Goodbyes at the gate.

Country Music, Radio Interviews & Fuggles arrives!

Sep:  The month starts off with a visit from our Greek nomad friends, Stella and Angelo from Melbourne (who we met in Karumba).  Lots of dog-love; great food cooked by Stella and a walk to the Fish Hole in the national park.                                                           

We finished off the vege house:  "Veg-topia" with shade cloth and bird mesh and got some coppers logs from the chuck out area to weight the edge down.               Summer arrived with some hot, dry days over the mid 30's and we got creative with a blue, plastic container filled with water for some relief.                                                                    
I got sick for the first time on our adventures and so Danny did a solo trip into Alice for  supplies.  (he did a great shop)

Thanks to a contact from an old mate, we had an interview on the local indigenous radio station, CAAMA and another the same day on the ABC.   We sung our latest country song:  Get Some Country and talked about The Adventures of Keith.             

We also sent off a link to a short doco we made:  A Dog's Breaksfast:  Living with Megaesophagus (on you tube) to Gil, our house sitting host from Millaa Millaa, Nth Qld.  She surprised us by saying that she had lost her job at the jail (Cambell Newman public service cuts) and would we like Fuggles (mini foxie / chihuahua), as she didn't know where they might be going to live and work.  We had been seriously thinking of getting another shelter dog when we went to Grafton at the end of the year.  Danny especially had really bonded with Fuggles and Indigo already knew her too.                                                                                           

So, we said yes and she flew in this week from Cairns.  Didn't take long for her to settle in to her new environment:  a big change from the rainy Atherton Tablelands to the NT desert.               Another surprise was...she is on heat (the vet advised Gil to let this happen once before getting fixed) and she has been very amorous to her new sister, Indigo.  Only took them a day to suss each other out, but now they are happily playing - making the most of the substantial height and weight differences. 

The dynamic has changed with the arrival of Fuggles on The Adventures of Keith and we have exactly 1 month left here at Hamilton Downs Youth Camp.

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!