Road to the Simpson 20-06-13

It rained almost all night last night.  Michael and I woke at 5:40 and decided to stay up.  All in all we had a good night's sleep.  Since one cannot collect wood or light fires in Witjira national park, we collected a couple of nights needs.  The wood is dense and dry, it should burn well.

We had to pack up a wet tent, always unpleasant, we put the fly into a large garbage bag and will dry it out later if possible.

We stop to put our sand flags on our bullbars

We arrive at Mount Dare (9:40 ish) for a coffee, fuel (this is the last place before Birdsville some 560kms away) and loo stop.  The hotel here is great. The pastoral property of Mt Dare station was purchased by the South Australian National Parks and Wildlife in 1984. It covered 7770 square km (aren't these properties huge, it's mind boggling), it was acquired to protect and rehabilitate Dalhousie Springs.
Mt Dare Hotel lease is 400 square km, now owned and operated as a tourist destination.
We ask about the track condition in the Simpson and are told that all of the tracks are very rough and will not get better.  It seems that trailers have been towed across and chopped up the approaches to the sand dunes.  I really wonder about some people, they think themselves a law unto themselves.  It is clearly stated in the desert pass that trailers should not be taken through the Simpson, but these selfish people think only of themselves.  Apparently there is a move to stop them from entering the desert, a good move.  The dunes will become unassailable if the deterioration continues.

The road is now very rough, rocky, corrugated, sandy, bull dust and constantly changing., we don't like the rocks, we worry about the tyres after our experience last year.


We take another side trip to the ruins of  historic Dalhousie.  On the way we went up to a lookout and Tony draws my attention to our bullbar.  One of the "driving lights" is hanging by it's cables, the mounting has sheared right off.  We wonder if it was weakened in the accident Michael had before we left since we have not really travelled far over rough roads.  We have to cut the cables to remove the light.  SIGH.

On the road to Dalhousie we see a pure white Dingo.  Unfortunately he was quite a distance from the track by the time Michael and I could stop.  It is the white spot in the photo below.  I think Tony may have a better photo.

  
DALHOUSIE RUINS
Heading west from Dalhousie Springs, just 12km is the Dalhousie Ruins on the Pedirka track.

You are standing at the ruins; the hills roll around you for as far as the eye can see, the 100 year old Date Palms (although many have been removed since they were destroying the water holes) that surround you are rustling gently in the breeze, the cattle pens that stand adjacent to the old stone buildings are slowly becoming more weather beaten as the years pass.

Here you’ll see the remains of the residence/homestead, the stockman’s quarters and the blacksmiths building and over in the far corner is a lonely un-named grave, slightly built up with rock and stone bearing a single cross with no name.

The first lease of Dalhousie was in 1872, it was re-sold numerous times and eventually being abandoned in 1925 when cattle were being rationalised, a new homestead was constructed and called Mt Dare in 1933.  It was taken over in 1984 by the Department for Environment and Heritage and was dedicated as ‘Witjira National Park.’ 
 
 We arrived at Dalhousie Springs in time for a quick swim before lunch.  Michael hung the tent fly over a fence to  dry and off for a swim.

 Dalhousie Springs are collection of over 60 natural artesian springs located in Witjira National Park on the western fringe of the Simpson Desert.  Spring water temperatures range from 38 to 43 degrees C. The water is highly mineralised but drinkable (barely). Dalhousie Springs are a popular starting point for crossing the Simpson Desert eastwards to Birdsville in Queensland (around 600 kilometres).
In 1915, the total flow rate of the Dalhousie Springs complex was over 23,000 litres/second, but drilling had reduced this to 17,360 litres/second by 2000.
There are a number of unique species of fish that live in the waters around Dalhousie Springs, such as the Dalhousie catfish (Neosilurus gloveri), the Dalhousie hardyhead (Craterocephalus dalhousiensis) and the Dalhousie goby (Chlamydogobius gloveri). 
 These hot, fresh water springs are very unique and are an outlet from the Great Artesian Basin. It is the largest known springs and the main spring offers a nice soothing swim for travellers after a hard day’s drive. Another novelty of this place are the Dalhousie hardyhead, small fish that live in the springs. They will swarm around you as you swim and nibble at your feet eating away at the dead skin, a treatment you pay through the nose for at top range beauty salons! It certainly tickles but you soon get used to it. I didn't mind having my heels nibbled at, but I didn't like it as much when they started on my stomach, quite a few sharp little nips.  Have a close look at Michael's chest in the photo on the right.  Hehe

Since the late 1990s, new camping facilities have provided a nice area to camp and relax within the Witjira National Park. It is a very popular spot, particularly with those venturing in from the Simpson Desert passing through Pedirka and Mt Dare. A ranger, located at the springs (channel 10) can provide helpful advice and a Desert Pass.

We met a man at Dalhousie Springs who told us of a caravan that had parted company from it's vehicle on the Oodnadatta track.  The owner did not have any means of communication to call for help until our kind Samaritan came along with his sat phone.  It is really important that someone in your party should have a sat phone since mobile phones have no  coverage out here.

Purnie Bore was drilled by the French Petroleum Company in its exploration for oil in 1963. When only water was discovered it was left flowing at 18 litres per second (1.5 million litres per day). The water temperature is near boiling as it leaves the bore head and cools as it flows to create an artificial wetland.

In 1987 the Bore was capped to control the flow, reducing it considerably to approximately 5 litres per second, (432,000 litres per Day) for environmental reasons. This still maintains the wetland that many animals and birds are reliant on such as Birds, Camels, Donkeys, and Dingoes etc.

Since we can't have a fire in the Witjira national Park, we decide to move on past Purnie Bore into the Simpson Desert.

Our planned route is to go along the French Line to the Rig Road, down the Rig Road to the WAA Line, down the WAA Line to Knoll's Track, up Knoll's track to the French Line, along the French Line to the QAA Line then on to Birdsville. 

We set up camp about 10 km into the Simpson Desert.

Road to Mt Dare. 19-06-13

We started out this morning to mizzling rain which kept up all day.  The clouds are low and threatening, the weather doesn't bode well.

We had planned to  go to Santa Teresa to have a look at a church there, but Tony had heard from Peter Conroy and Helen that this was not a good place to be, so we bypassed it.

The track now has some deep sand (signs of things to come) and the vegetation has dense small shrubs, then open country.

 We decide to have a look at the Acacia Peuce trees (Waddi). A rare tree found in three widely
separated localities around the edges of the Simpson Desert a very rare and endangered species.  Dead Waddi Trees can remain intact, storing carbon and providing habitat, for at least 200 years. The timber is so dense it has been known to have damaged axes and saws and when dry is almost impossible to drill.

The Waddi trees are 11 kms off our track but it seems that we should make the effort to see such amazing trees. It is so sad when we see them, there is a large conservation park, but the trees are sparse, although there are a few juvenile trees.  They are quite interesting trees and the trip was worth it.

 
Took another sidetrack to Old Andado  Station which is on the very western edge of the Simpson Desert. Old Andado is 102 kilometres north of the Mt Dare Hotel and approximately 2 ¼ hours drive, depending on the track conditions. After passing through the Northern Territory Border gate and entering Andado cattle station, you will drive for a while in amongst a windy tree-lined narrow track; this is the Finke river flood plain, the scenery changes suddenly as you leave this forest like area before coming out into sand dune country with very few trees. The landscape will quickly change from one extreme to the other. Comprising of about 10,800 square kilometers, Andado Station is the largest privately owned cattle station in Australia. The areas cover parts of the Simpson Desert and the Finke River flood plains. It is one of the most southern stations to run Brahman cattle.This historical site, now holds a heritage listing. In the most inhospitable conditions with desert temperatures rising to more than 50 degrees Celsius (in a house made mostly of galvanized iron) they prospered…for around 50 years.
The station ran cattle, sheep and horses. Inside the homestead and old out building structures original personal belongings can be seen and appreciated.  Unfortunately some scum have stolen a salt and pepper shaker set, there are signs asking for its return. 

You can camp at the station which has good but rugged facilities. The station homestead is set down between two red sand hills that run further than the eye can see.

We had hoped to get to Mount Dare today, but unfortunately we had to stop about 40 kms short as it was getting late.  Tony found a small track and good clearing about 100 metres off the road.  We were able to have a small fire (first time on the trip) which was comforting, but the weather was not wonderful (still mizzling and cold) so we retired to the tent at 7:30, lights out at 8:30.

TUESDAY - 18/06/13 - FINAL DAY IN ALICE SPRINGS

Today is our final day in Alice, but purely a working day in preparation for heading off to the Simpson Desert tomorrow.

First of all it was washing our clothes until we get home.

Then off to shop for supplies for the coming 10 days through the Simpson.  The relieving Motel manager - Sarah recommend butchers to visit for our meat supplies.  Dot was blown away by this Butcher's shop.

The range of meat products was unbelievable.  In addition to the normal product lines we could choose from goat, buffalo, camel burgers and camel/date sausages, kangaroo metwurst & cabana,  Duck feet & tongues, livers etc, Chicken feet / livers etc.
In addition it had a huge range of frozen seafood products sourced from Alaska, Hong Kong, New Zealand as well as around Australia.  Much of this was very reasonably priced according to Dot.

Further still it had a large range of cheeses,  sauces [ including washabi]   and  relishes eg ham jam, snag jam, pork jam, lamb jam.

They were very helpful and cryo-vacced all of the meat, even breaking down existing larger amounts into smaller parcels for our convenience.   We were adventurous and look forward to their camel products, middle eastern rissoles, kangaroo mettwurst.
Dot wants them to set up an outlet in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.  She was so excited about the shop, she immediately rang Helen [Darvell] to update her on the shop, but she was not home.  Instead Dot brought Ian upto date on the shop and its contents.

Then onto Woolworths for much canned and dried produce.

The afternoon was spent reorganising the car and getting everything back into the car, or into the roof bag.
This was quite tiring.   

No photos were taken today.

We will be outside Telecom footprint for probably the next 10 days, unless we have coverage at Birdsville.
We will update the blog when next we can.

MONDAY - 17/06/13 - VISIT TO STANDLEY CHASM & SIMPSON GAP

Started off the morning by going shopping and having a coffee/cake at the Wicked bakery.   The weather was a  sunny 19C- 20C and without the cool wind was very pleasant.

Back to the motel and prepared a salad lunch before heading off to Standley Chasm.  Scenic drive to the Chasm with stops for photo opportunities.

The walk up into the Chasm is a mixture of large quartz rocks, plants plus a little stream cascading into a
range of pools.  We arrived just after the sun was directly overhead, and Dot got some great photo shots with the sun shining brightly on
one of the walls.

The return loop walk was just over an hour.  On return to the carpark we had our salad lunch.

We then took off to Simpsons Gap and on the way we received an SMS to advise that Tony & Jennifer had arrived at the Motel.  They were attending to domestic duties and after Tony was to have a kip.

Arrived at Simpsons Gap and walked into the Gap which has a wide dry sandy river bed leading out from the Gap.   There was a waterpool in the Gap itself.  The cliff rocks were massive and there was possible signs of a large rockfall having occurred sometime ago [??? howlong ago].   The rock fall areas and surrounding grassy areas are the home of the rare black footted wallabies.......unfortunately we didn't see any.  This is a another area providing plenty photo opportunities.

Back to the Motel and we caught up with Tony & Jennifer.  Both looked very fit and refreshed by their time up north.   It was interesting to hear of their travels and challenges encountered on the Canning Stock Route and up in the Kimberleys.  Evening meal was off to a Chinese restaurant for the four of us.

SUNDAY 16/06/13 - VISIT PALM VALLEY

We met up with Jon, Lan Lan , Peter & Sue for breakfast in the Woolworths Plaza, before going our seperate ways.

We headed off to Palm Valley some 23 klm past Hermannsburg [circa 126 klm from Alice].  Our first stop was a photo opportunity of a large wedgetail eagle sitting in a tree near the road.  This road is a lot less
spectacular than the road to Glen Helen Gorge - it runs down the middle of the valley between the West Macdonnell Ranges and the Owen Springs Range, both of which are well off in the distance.

We passed signs indicating wandering stock and horses.......saw no stock and only [2] horses.  However we saw a herd of donkeys [10 - 15] on the way out and again on our return.   We have been told you do not drive at night, as the horses & wild camels sleep on the roads at night.   Along the roadside at different intervals there are pooping stations where the stock constantly return.   The locals would have a trailer full for the garden very
quickly.

We chose to go by pass  Hermannsburg and go direct to Palm Valley.   The turnoff road provided signs to greet us - 22 klm   - severe 4wd route - allow 3.0hr [return].   The road base varied from rounded river stones, to sand and rock shelfs.  Many occassions we were driving across the very wide river bed or beside it, with weathered canyon walls to our left and right.  Speed ranged from about 5klm as we negotiated the rock shelfs and hollows to 40 klm  on the hard sandy tracts.  Even though our storage boxes have tie downs they were vibratting and wobbling all over the place in the back of the Prado.

The scenery is varied and spectacular all the way into and returning from Palm Valley.

After 1hr 20 minutes driving the track, we stopped on a very large rock shelf, below the canyon wall,  about 1 klm from the end of the the valley, for our salad lunch.   A great photo spot with 2 different Palms growing around the rockface and the waterpools.  We spoke to others returning from the end of the valley, who felt it was disappointing and of no value to continue given condition of remaining track.  Given this we headed back to the tarred highway.

A brief visit to Hermannsburg Historic Village section, and then back to Alice.

A tiring day, but very satisfying seeing this unique area of Central Australia.

SATURDAY - 15/06/13 ALICE SPRINGS

After a driving day yesterday, today was spent in Alice.

After some birthday shopping research, we met up with Peter & Sue, and David & Kerryn and wandered off to view the Royal Flying Doctor Service [RFDS] Museum.  We saw a film of its history in their small theatre and then wandered around their display area of historical equipment & records.  They provide a great service to all, especially the outback areas of Australia. The RFDS currently operates a fleet of 62 planes and funding from donations & fundraisers is a key to keep these planes in the air and provide the essential services.

From there we wandered back to our vehicles and headed to the Botanic Gardens for lunch - sandwiches for all.  A quick wander around to view the plants then onto to the Transport Museum - 2 sections covering Rail [Ghan] and Trucks.  This area is staffed by volunteers from all over Australia.

We all visited the Rail Museum, which had informative displays from  the early to late 1900s.   The initial alternatives prior to rail were Camels and their "Afghan" handlers.  The pictorial display for this indicated that the Afghan handlers were not from Afghanistan, but from Pakistan and a number of surrounding provinces/countries.

An informative  video covered the history of the Ghan railway up to its suspension in the late 1980s .  We were able to wander through a couple of dining car carriages of different vintages.  The older one had coke fired Arger stoves in the kitchen area.

Peter & David opted to pay the entry fee to visit the Truck Museum, which they were a little disappointed in.

We all met for a parting dinner at an excellent Thai/Indian restaurant in the Hilton complex.

In the morning, David & Kerryn returning to Melbourne, while John, Lan Lan, Peter & Sue are heading north on the tar before diverting westward to Broome.  They are planning to met up with Tony & Jennifer [we will be travelling home with them] tomorrow night at the caravan park, some 400klm above Alice Springs.

We didn't take any photos today since meeting up with our friends was unexpected at that time (we thought we would meet up after lunch) and both cameras were back at the motel.

Friday 14-6-13. Alice Springs

Had a very interesting day today.  Picked the gang (John, Lanlan, Peter, Sue, Keren and David) up at their hotel and set out along the Larapinta Drive to the Namatjira Drive.  We had decided to go to the farthest Gorge and do other attractions on the way back as time dictated.  (Michael was designated leader by John)

The drive was great, some very nice scenery and a couple of Wedgetailed eagles sitting in a tree.

 We got to Ormiston Gorge (140 klm) at lunchtime and decided to eat before walking.  A couple of our party were not keen on walking at all (not us) but we all set out for the very short walk anyway.  Saw eagles soaring above and a cormorant on the rocks of a deep pond.  Lovely scenery and incredibly aged rocks of the usual wonderful orange/red colour with quartz veins and other rocks running through them.

Back to the car and on to Glen Helen Gorge, not nearly as spectacular I'm afraid.  I was disappointed, when I was here 40 odd years ago the Finke River had water in it in front of the bluff and was wide and deep.  Now it's a dry river bed with reeds and a few small water pockets.  One of which I, of course, stepped into.  SIGH.  The old Afghan camel driver's hut is still there, but is falling into ruin, unless something is done to preserve it, it's lifespan is diminishing.

We were now heading back to AS and the Ochre pits were our next destination.  Very interesting and quite spectacular, you are not allowed to take any, but you can see what colours could be scraped from the rocks.

Next stop Ellery Creek Big Hole, a very lovely deep water hole with high rising red rock on either side and quite a nice sandy beach.  Too cold for us to swim I'm afraid, but on a very hot day it would be most inviting.  Michael chatted to some people who had been walking for nine days doing the big walking
trail (some 200+ klm) they had done half in the nine days.




On the way back Michael and I stopped off to take photo of John Flynn's grave (the father of the Flying Doctors Service).  The Rock on his grave is a sacred rock from the Devil's Marbles some kilometres further north.


It was now getting late in the afternoon so we headed off to our respective Motels to meet later for tea.  Went to the Red Ochre which seemed appropriate after our day.