alice springs to ormiston gorge

Today saw us heading out into the west macdonnell ranges for a spot of camping. As it was only 135km west of alice, we had a fairly slow start and were on the road by 10.30.

We were heading west to our first stop of standly chasm on a gently undulating road which was a nice change from the emense flatness of previous days. The road ran through a narrow valley flanked by incredibly rugged and beautiful mountains that looked, to me, like the spine of a giant, sleeping dragon.

Riding in to standly chasm i got a really strange sensation of the place being haunted. The way the mountains look and feel it is easy to see why they form an important part of indigenous culture. The walk to the chasm is through a gradualy narrowing valley of beautiful red rock,ghost gums and some kind of spikey palm. The chasm itself is a narrow fissure in the rich, red rock which is probably about 3 metres wide at the narrowest piont and about 50 metres deep. Looking up you see the intensely red and textured rock juxtaposed against an impossibly blue sky.

standley chasm in full sunFrom there we went to ellery creek big hole which is an incrdibly deep and diabolically cold water hole at the base of two, very steep cliffs of the same red rock that seems to make up the west macdonnells. It is a very beautiful spot and would be a haven for wildlife.

ellery creek big hole

Leaving ellery creek we made our way ormiston gorge where we planned to camp for the evening. The ormiston camp site was bigger than the others we had seen and quite busy, so we claimed ouselves some space and went for a walk down to the gorge. The gorge has been carved out of the mountains and is probably a couple of hundren metres deep. You can follow the path of the river bed past several water holes that are filled with the same diabolially cold water as at ellery creek. We also did a walk the winds its way up the cliff and affords some spectacular views both of the gorge and the campsite and surrounding mountains.

evening at ormiston gorge

one of our camping companions

After that it was back to camp for our fist meal of boil-in-a-bag, which pretty tasty and very filling, followed by a wander aorund in the dark to be totally gobsmacked by mindsnappinlgy beautiful night sky. This is the first time on the tour where we have really seen the night sky properly and it was worth the wait.

dinner anyone?

An early night tonight as there is bugger all else to do and we have an early start. Tomorrow we will head back into alice for fuel and water then off to curtain springs for the night.

our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-23.6331,132.7274&ll=-23.6331,132.7274&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

alice springs

Today was a rest day and we slept in, or at least we tried to. Whoever had been in the room before us had very kindly set the alarm for 5.30am. Nice.

After this start, we decided to take it easy and have a stroll around alice and look at the sights on foot. I have to say it was nice to use our legs for a change.

Our first port of call was anzac hill which affords a very good view of the town of alice, and from there we just wandered around and took it very easy.

After lunch i did some blog work and then we went for a ride out to the old telegraph station. An impressive old building, which brought home just how tough it would have been to man these stations that are spread evenly right through the middle of the country.

the old telegraph station, alice springs

old wagon, alicesprings telegraph station

From there it was back to anzac hill to watch the sun set which was spectacular and greatly appreciated by the many people that had gathered to watch it. We also met another motorcycle tourer and chatted for a while, swapping stories of places we had ridden and good places to camp.

anzac memorial

Christine, we rode out to see erwin but the whole place was shut up so we have no idea what is going on there.

Tomorrow we are off to standley chasm and then to ellery creek bighole for the night, and if that dosen't suit then we will push on ormiston gorge. From there we will go to uluru and kata tjuta and mt conner.

three ways to alice springs

After a night at the three ways roadhouse, which as roadhouses go, is quite a good one. We breakfasted with barry and gail, big wal's neighbours, who very kindly plied us with toast and tea while the big fella and barry swapped motor racing stories. Thank you barry and gail and have a great trip.

brekkie with barry and gailWe then went into tennent creek to see if we could get a bit more to eat but we were sadly disappointment as it was sunday morning and bugger all was open. So we thought we would just push on to wauchope which was 100km furhter on.

Just outside of wauchope we came to the devil's marbles. What an amazing place, huge granite boulders, piled haphazardly and balancing precariously, scattered over a area of a bit less than a square kilometere. We spent about an hour there, wandering around and taking pictures. It turns out there is a camp site there and we both wished we had known as we would have stayed there rather than three ways. But then we wouldn't have met barry and gail.

a good looking bloke and some ok rocks

Our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-20.5687,134.2626&ll=-20.5687,134.2626&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Still in search of a breakfast extension we pushed on to wauchope which offered only marginally more than tennant creek in that we got a cup of tea but that was about it. So slightly dissappointed, we were off again and in no time at all we arrived in wycliffe well, the ufo capital of australia, or so they'll tell you.

We were still hungry but as it was now approaching lunchtime we thought we would try our luck at barrow creek roadhouse. Our luck had improved somewhat in that we could get some food, but as it was sunday, and let's face it, no-one travels on a sunday, the kitchen was shut and the best they could muster was some toasted sandwiches and a cold drink. At least it was something. We did however meet two girls from taiwan who were driving around australia, right the way around australia in just 4 weeks. That's some serious driving, we thought we were packing a lot in.

More satisfied than we had been we left barrow creek thinking that we would have a short break and keep going to alice. The short break came when we crossed the tropic of capricorn so of course we stopped for the manditory photo. We also stopped at aileron which had these very large and impressive statues.

Approaching alice and the macdonnell ranges became more and more apparent and they are strikingly beautiful in their starkness and ruggedness. I am very much looking forward to spending some time there.

We found some accommodation and as it had been a warm day we decided to go for a swim. What we didn't expect was the pool being ridiculously cold, painfully cold, but it was nice to jump in after a long days riding.

Because we have facilities for cooking we decided to eat in so the big fella went to forage for food and beer. He was successful on all fronts but on his return he recounted how depressing it had been visiting the the bottle shop. We are indeed very lucky.

Tomorrow will be spent sight seeing around alice which i am looking forward to.

our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-23.7136,133.8797&ll=-23.7136,133.8797&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

mt isa to three ways

Well the day started with a bang, literally, the tv in the room we had blew up when we turned it on to see the news and it really stank, which made eating breakfast an outdoors event.

the smoking telly

our room in isa

After the excitement of the exploding telly, we packed up and headed off to get fuell and to find the lookout for a bit of a gander before we started to camooweel which was to be our first stop. We got to the lookout and had a wandered around and took some pictures but just as we were about to leave, the big fella bumps into his step mother's sister and husband, weird. We had a chat to them for a while then hit the road. The road out of isa is like the road in, really nice to ride and stunning to look at. It's not long though before you are once again riding through the seemingly endless flatness of the vast interior.

Sitting in the roadhouse at camooweel, i was approached by the guy sitting at the next table who asked me which direction we were headed. when we told him he asked if we could do the woman he was with a favour. It seems the van they were travelling in had developed engine trouble and her boyfriend was still with the car 150km away in 32 degree heat and she wondered if we could give him a message she had written. We said of course and off we went.

On the way we stopped at the border for a photo op. This is were we met the irish boys who would feature heavily in our, but in particular, my day. The car they were in was choc-a-block with beer and they were well tanked already. After the pics were taken we said goodbye to the irish boys and headed off to find simon, the stranded frenchman.

back on the borderline

We nearly rode right past simon because he was 50km closer than the guys at the roadhouse said he would be. After handing him the message we got to talking about what was wrong with the car and it sounded very much like fuel starvation. The big fella had the idea of removing the fuel cap and when he did there was a huge rush of air into the tank so it seems it had built up a lot of negative pressure and the fuel just wasn't getting through. With the cap off the van seemed to be ok so simon set off for avon downs police station the ring his girlfriend.

Our good deed for the day done we prepared to get going, but i remembered that i didn't have my ear plugs in and didn't want to ride without them, so the big fella took off and i was to catch up. As i was leaving i was checking for traffic, of which there was a very large truck, so i hit the brakes but had my weight all wrong and the bike over balanced and i put it down, which was very annoying on two levels; one, i broke my right side mirror; and two, i couldn't lift the bike on my own.

helping our fellow traveller

Enter the irish boys again. They were driving past andf i flagged them down so the pulled over. I turned around to do something and when i turned back they were out of the car but one of the was stark bollock naked holding only a can of beer. Apparently he had been like that for some time. They were well plastered by now but they helped pick up my bike and i was out of there before they could get into the car and get going.

i caught up with the big fella just outside of the berkley homestead where we stopped for a break and fix my mirror the best we could. There we met up with the irish boys again who apparently had been trying some nude hitchhiking along the way. e haven't seen them since then so let's hope they had the sense to pull over.

From barkley homestead it was straight on to the tree ways where we got a site and set up the tents for a well earned rest. Once again we have met really nice people who afre interested in what we afre doing.

Tomorrow is another big straight road day as we do the 600km to alice springs where we will have a couple of days rest and hoefully i can get some of this onto the blog so craig dosen't get upset.

our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-19.4367,134.2093&ll=-19.4367,134.2093&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

burketown to mt isa

Well the theory held. We left the less than friendly town of burketown (exept for debbie the take away queen), for cloncurry and then mt isa via the minor road we had spotted on the map. After about 60km of tarmac we had a very minor river crossing before we speared off down what could have been a complete goat track but wasn't. It was one of ther best dirt roads we have ridden on this trip, very little dust, very few corragations, just nice even dirt road. Bliss. There was however more than the occassional cow and kangaroo that tried to ambush the big fella by jumping out from behind a bush. Cows aren't the sharpest tools in the animal shed, but they have a substantially keener edge than the roo, which is as dumb as a box of hammers. All this time i thought they could fly helicopters and use two way radios. Bloody skippy!

However it's not only cows and roos that are attracted to the big fella, he has a thing for birds as well. The will fly at him or around him at any given opportunity. They occassionally even fly with him. Because there is so much road kill, there is no shortage of eagles and other birds of prey, and today one of them decided it wanted to fly with wal, so instead of flying away from him when he approached, it joined him on the bike, well between him and the windscreen, where it flapped about for a while before thinking better of the situation and flying off.

This section of road to a bit over an hour and then we were onto tarmac again and heading for the burke and will roadhouse for lunch. This is where we met dave byrnes the crazy cyclist who is cycling solo and unsupported, 15,000km around australia in 50 days!! that'a an average of 300km a day. stupid. if you would like to follow his adventures go to www.davebyrnes.com.au. We also learned that the mt isa rodeo, which is the biggest in australia, was on and that we had buckley's of getting accommodation as they were expecting 20,000 visitors.

dave the crazy cyclist

So we thought we'd head to cloncurry, get fuel and chech out the tourist info place and see if they knew anything about accommodation in isa. We found fuel ok but the tourist info place proved elusive, no 2 locals could give us the same location. So in the end we decided to try our luck and press on. We figured that if there was nowhere to stay we could pass through and camp somewhere.

After leaving cloncurry we again rode through some amazing, ancient ranges with incredible colours and textures and stunning rock formations. The road was perfect of bikes with long sweeping bend after long sweeping bend all stitched together with gentle undulations and surrounded by mindbuggering beauty. This continued all the way to mt isa.

We pulled into the first caravan park we came to, and judging bny the signs, things weren't looking too good, but the big fella once again managed to jag a place. He played the sympathy card and used my sleep apnia to get us a small room with 2 beds and power, everytyhing we needed.

Showered and changed into my best shorts and thongs, it was off into town to have a look around and a nice cold beer. The place was certainly jumping and there were hats, really big hats, as far as the eye could see. It seems in these parts you don't really rate unless you have a really big hat. We didn't have hats.

Never having been to mt isa, i was surprised at just how close the mines are. They are not so much close as in the city. They do look pretty at night though but i'm not sure how they'll look in the harsh light of day.

Tomorrow is straight run through to the threeways roadhouse where we'll spend the night. It's long but pretty easy.

our exact location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-20.7226,139.5156&ll=-20.7226,139.5156&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1