Outback2003

Sunday: To the East McDonnell's

Originally logged August 24, 2003

Rebuilt, reprovisioned, and refreshed, we hit the road early on Sunday morning. We filled up with truck diesel and stove LPG at a BP near the gap in the mountains south of Alice Springs.

We ran east along the Ross Hwy (8) out of Alice Springs, parallel to and south of the East McDonnell mountains. 28km later we took a turnoff for what Lonely Planet calls the Ringwood Beef Road which eventually brought us to a turn north, through the "Explorers Trail 4WD Only." This heads north into the mountains passing the N'Dhala Gorge Nature Park, Ross River Homestead, and eventually reaching the Trephina Gorge Nature Park.

Explorer's Trail to N'Dhala Gorge
The driving was slow but easy. Not far along we saw an enoromous cloud of dust on the horizon. It was being stirred up by a massive herd of cattle being driven by a mosquito-like helicopter mustering operation. We parked the trucks, took a long break, and watched as the cattle guardedly made their way past us. I did a great job of shooting several rolls of film without having any film in the camera. Definite sepuku moment. The cattle muster (and the tour group following the cows at their glacial pace) eventually passed us and we moved on.

Before we reached N'Dhala Gorge we drove through a valley that had endured a brutal fire. Every tree was absolutely carbonized black. All of them were bent in windswept forms that were so extreme that it must have been the ferocity of fire that molded their extreme shape. I thought they were beautiful. Ling thought they were evil. I later shot many photos at this site, but Ling forbids them from being hung in the house.

An hour later we drove on to the N'Dhala Gorge. We only walked in far enough to see a very few of the more than six thousand aborigine carvings reported in the striking, colorful canyon.

Ross River Homestead

The Ross River was our next obstacle. The whole trip was very dry, this was the first time we encountered water. Theoretically it's a river, but in practice it's a big sandy bed with a bit of water borrowing some space. Regardless, we did the crossing in textbook style. First we reconned it on foot, sounding the depth and stickiness. Then we crossed Mom and Dad's truck (The Shunned) first. Ours was the only one with a front tow loop. If they got stuck, we would still be able to yank them free. This is where the famous photo of Gripped Mother was taken. The trucks made it across with no problem at all. It wasn't a shock, really, as we saw numerous tracks that showed other drivers showing considerably less caution -- forging straight through it in Subarus, towing trailers, whatever.

The Ross River Homestead was closed for the year. A crappy Rob Lowe TV movie was being filmed there. It looked totally deserted to us, but seemed like a nice relaxing place to stay if it was available.

Mother, before our first stream crossing, near Ross River Homestead.

Onward to Trephina Gorge
After we crossed the water, it was on to Trephina Gorge, our day's destination. We reached by late afternoon and had a fly-tortured lunch at Trephina Bluff. The campsite was more developed (picnic grottos, pit toilet, and tap water) but we went elsewhere because there seemed to be other camping parties and we are not a friendly folk. We back tracked to the John Henry Rockhole camp that night.

Balloon Aerial Photography at the Ghost Gum

Aerial photograph of the Ghost Gum

Along the backtrack we visited the largest example of the Ghost Gum tree in Central Australia. These trees have bright white bark with clear complexion. They're also very symmetrical, handsome trees that often stand alone in the middle of large open areas. The sun was lowering at this point, providing nice, warm light from the west. Seemed like perfect time to try Balloon Aerial Photography.

We had never tried Balloon Aerial Photography before, only Kite Aerial Photography. Suprisingly our system worked with few complications. The 8' balloon had plenty of lift. The first problem of the day was the Nicads in the RC Controller had no charge and wouldn't take a charge. Dad, in his style, gave them a good Cardio Paddle shocking which somehow brought them back to life and dropped Matt's blood pressure by about 300%.

Preparing the weather balloon with an expensive tank of Helium

Matt driving the camera with the remote control system

Before long the balloon was up and we ripped out many rolls of film, as well as captured the video downlink to tape. Eventually a slow evening wind came up and got the balloon nicely tangled in the Ghost Gum. The last moment of the video recorder preserved a lot of angry, confused instructions being shouted.

It took us thirty minutes to snag the balloon line and drag it down. Matt, Dad, and I all struggled to construct tethered hurling slings after we realized just how hard it is to throw a rock with a string 150' in the air. Mom sat back by the cars doing a watercolor and Ling looked around enjoying the confused scene Matt, Dad, and I were making.

John Henry Rockhole Camp
We successfully recovered everything with little spare time to get to the John Henry Rockhole camp, where we had a solitary campsite to ourselves. We grilled pork chops on a pit fire and then had an early night. The next morning would be a 'Speed Camp' so that we could return to the valley of the burnt fire trees. It seemed like a great place to try Balloon Aerial Photography again.

I did some astrophotography and went to bed last.

Friday and Saturday: Logistics Weekend

Originally journalled in August 2003

Friday
After licking our wounds at pleasant Mt. Dare we headed back to Alice Springs to fix our tires and get more supplies for the trip's second half. Since we had consumed all our good spare tires and had only a very marginal spare left, I decided to take the Stuart Highway back to Alice Springs. That offered the least chance of any more tire problems before we returned for repairs.

In retrospect we probably could have blasted home along the main Finke N-S road on higher tire pressure. The ride would have been more interesting and I could have taken some documentary photos of the Finke Route, but by the time I thought of it in those terms, instead of tire risk mitigation, we were halfway along the rig road that connects Finke to Kulgera town and the Stuart Highway.

Like I said, I only took the Stuart because it was best for our tire management situation. Otherwise we all hated any drive along it. Matt remarked, it's always a horrible way to finish up a 4wd trip -- it's both dull and dangerous. It scarcely deserves the label highway -- it's more like a secondary state road -- a narrow two-lane road with a wide, sandy berm and lots of fast oncoming traffic. . At night it's a lethal cocktail of drunk drivers and stray animals. For a long-term resident of Alice Springs it must be horrible when night falls -- any escape is a long drive on a bad road.

I don't remember doing much when we got in Friday night. We arrived just as evening fell. Even the car rental agreements in the outback proscribe night-time driving. The risk of animal strikes is too great.

As always, we settled for another night at the Todd Tavern. I don't recall where we had our meal, but probably it was... the Todd Tavern. We've eaten many square meters of breaded schnitzel and many kilograms of Three Vegetable Delight at the Todd Tavern in 2003.

Saturday

We had a lot of chores to fit in Saturday morning if we hoped to be able to head back to the Outback on Sunday.

We took Ling to the Laundromat next to the BP station and let Mom and Dad spend the day wandering around town.

Expecting no sympathy and no warranty, we took the trucks over to Budget. As expected, they told us the tires were our responsibility. They issued a purchase/install order to Goodyear along North Stuart Highway. We hurried over to begin the repairs. They were only going to be open until 1pm and would be closed Sunday.

Matt and I spent an unremarkable hour waiting for the job(s) to be finished. We did stroll over to former Finke champion Michael Vroom's Desert Edge motorcycle dealership. I don't recall what make he sold (I think all the bikes were red ... that makes them Hondas?) but he had all the models from tiny 125cc up to the 650cc giants. The curious thing about these bikes was that aside from the engine size, they otherwise looked almost entirely identical. Literally nothing but a different engine.

So after an hour or more the tires were finished. By now we're totally sick of Tire Talk so I don't even recall what the guy told us about the tires, but I think we ended up pressurizing them to the high side of his suggested range. [Even now I am sick of talking about those fucking tires]

Since it was a purchase order, we were hoping that maybe it might get lost in the mail or something, and that the replacement cost for three tires wouldn't ever catch up with us. (It ultimately did... Something like 900$AUD I vaguely remember) Regardless, we were now fully repaired and could get on our way.

So it was back into town, pick up Ling, and then over to Woolworths where we bought $180 of groceries. They filled up six apple crates. Throughout the trip we'd been using these teriffic apple package crates that were very sturdy and had a cardboard lid that covered the entire crate, essentially making it double-thickness. They worked substantially better than the cardboard filing boxes we bought at KMart earlier. Plus they were free! (thanks BiLo produce guy!)

After a mediocre lunch at the Sport Cafe we adjourned to the Todd Tavern outside patio where a cranky, unhappy waitress served us Coopers Original Pale Ales (my favorite beer) for the rest of the late afternoon.

Typically, we had dinner at Todd Tavern. It was something of a speed camp, though, because I had to run down to Andrew Langford's 'Sounds of Starlight' theatre in order to book Saturday night tickets. I was dismayed to find it was fully sold out and I was wait listed.

Happy endings, though, as we did manage to get seats. There was a giant high school class in attendance this time, so the room was much busier than our visit in June, during the Finke. Seeing it a second time was still entertaining even though it was 98% the same show as June. My parents certainly liked it; I think Matt was more neutral on Rick Wakeman of the Desert.

The show was over by 10pm at which point there is not much to do other than sleep, so we all headed back to Todd Tavern and got ready for hauling out first thing Sunday morning.