Alice Springs

We have been in Alice Springs for the past few days which has been great to shake off some of the red dust. Tomorrow we head out to the East McDonald Ranges until Saturday when we return to the Alice for a week as Griz has discovered we just happened to be here when a 5 day moutain bike race is on!

Another beautiful day, another beautiful place. Jessie's Gap. 10km east of Alice.
So, from Saturday we will be online and on the phone for the next week before we head north.
 

Today we saw our first Dingo.

He was just by the side of the road, cute & cuddly. Right colour but he has pudgy ears. So we head into the NT in search of a Dingo.

We drive up the dirt for 2 hours, don't see another soul, come around a corner on the old Ghan track out of Finke, I say to Annie "look fresh dingo tracks", next corner there is Dingo, complete with fresh entry/exit wound, and a boy from west oz looking a bit guilty. So we pull over for a chat, ring his mates on the 2 way then have a coffee on the dirt to celebrate the Dingo's life that was.

So that folks is our first encounter with a Dingo & some crayzzie west Australians.

Mt Dare SA

Mt Dare is 10 km south of the NT border. There is no Mt to speak of but we found the pub!

We took a day trip down to Dalhousie Springs - 36 degrees in the middle of Aust. A natural spring fed by the artesian basin.

We had 2 swims and a long walk and then bounced the truck along the gibbers back to the pub.

Painted Desert SA

We left Coober Pedy and headed off to Oodnadatta. Along the way we came across the Painted Desert - we are constantly amazed at the changing geography.

We arrived at Oodnadatta which claims to be the hottest & driest town in Aust. however we found a waterhole and launched the boat for the 1st time!

Here is the captain - his crew mutineered to cook dinner!

Mining at Coober Pedy/Birthday

Everybody run! Boys with big TOYS! He wanted a shot with it down the back of his jeans but I said "I don't think so".

We did a tour of an active opal mine which was fascinating. We then went shopping for my birthday present. As you do in Rome... I have now a new opal ring.
Thanks everyone one for my birthday wishes. We are now off to a Greek restaurant for dinner (can you believe there is Greek in Coober Pedy)! xxoo

This is a Lake!

We hit the Oooodnadatta track, for several hours until we hit Lake Eyre south.

So then we went looking for the real Lake Eyre & when we found it I said to Annie "How Big"?
And she said.

And that's big, well we thought is was, so then we headed back to William Creek (sounds like wolf creek), I run into a mate from the Peninsular doing a motorbike tour, Darren Bonniface, so we drink some beer then headed back to camp to enjoy an evening with the mice.

End of months

After our stay at Arkaroola we headed back to the Leigh Creek Office of Comm Off Mod P/L, to do BAS & end of months. We took a day trip to Beltana, then up a goat track to a sheep station that is being turned back to wilderness, we will stay there on another trip. We visited Leigh Creeks water supply Aroona Dam, it,s chockas after this years rain. The office was closed, then we headed off to find a real lake.