Leg 2 – Australia

Saturday, September 21, 2013 Up early to hike Kings Canyon. First stop however was the gas station to get a permit to “enter and transit through Haasts Bluff Pass Aborginal Land Trust along the Mereenie Loop Road between Katapata Pass…

Friday, September 20, 2013 A very nice drive through the back roads of Australia. We were in tourist country and saw lots of other cars, groups and buses also plying the highways. There was not a lot to see, so…

Wednesday, September 18, 2013 From Marla we headed north on the Stuart Highway and then turned left on the Lasseter Highway towards Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. We both remembered lush and spacious grass fields in the campground at Ayers Rock…

Tuesday, September 17, 2013 Today we completed the last 210 kms (130 miles) of the Oodnadatta Track arriving at Marla.  The road was comparable to the previous days so we made reasonable time reaching Marla at lunchtime.  The scenery of…

Monday, September 16, 2013 After a good night’s sleep we got up for our 1hour scenic flight over Lake Eyre at 8am. There were 2 other customers and our pilot Sara. The weather was good, the wind not too much…

Black Friday, September 13, 2013 It bucketed down again during the night, which made for a very noisy night. After packing up we headed for the local Woolworths to stock up on fresh food and supplies for the 8-day trip…

Thursday, September 12, 2013 The drive from Adelaide was uneventful. Best stop was in a place called Port Germein. It’s claim to fame is that it is ‘possibly the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere’. Apparently it used to…

Thursday, September 12, 2013 Today we are leaving Adelaide and will start heading towards Lake Eyre (Kati Thanda). Our route will take us via Port Augusta, through The Flinders Ranges where we may spend 1 or 2 nights. Then onto…

Tuesday, September 10, 2013 After a photo-op with the Hall-Konstandakos family – before the girls went off to school, we set out for the 2-day drive to Adelaide. Pleasant enough. Given we reached our destination for the day, Mount Gambier,…

Sunday, September 8, 2013 Jono and Patty welcomed us into their home when we arrived there Sunday late afternoon.  It was very good to see these long time friends again and see how much their three kids had grown. Stephen…

In the morning we said goodbye to our good friends Fiona and Phil and their kids Sasha and Jonty, and set out towards Melbourne. We decided to do the drive in 2 days and stopped in Eden, NSW for the night. Eden is where Fiona grew up. We spent most of the day driving and got to the camping ground just after dark, but not before some local fish (flathead) and chips. And we left again early in the morning, so no time really to actually see the place.