Alice Springs

We always stay at Blatheskite park when we stay in Alice Springs, its the showgrounds. We are allowed here because we have dogs, and the dog training grounds are here so we are camped right outside the gate. The DOGS sign that looks like it is on the roof of the Navara in the photo is on the fence round the dog grounds.
The trials are over, we are staying a couple of days to be tourists, then we will head for home.
I put the spare tyre on the caravan to replace the one that has worn unevenly so we can get home. We felt it was better to wreck a $150 tyre due to scrubbing rather than have the worn tyre blow and wreck a $60,000 caravan.

Tennant Creek

We got to Mt Isa last night then set out early to get to Tennant Creek. One tyre on the Navara was a pound under pressure when I checked it, so after filling up the diesel tank at the Shell servo, I looked for the air line. "Its Broke" said the check-out chic," Try the BP up the road, or the Mobil, or the truck stop". The truck stop was miles away, the Mobil went out of  business last month and the BP had an airline but no pressure gauge. I managed to blow up the tyre and checked it with my own gauge, then left Mt Isa and set of across the Barkly later than we intended. The pic shows the four of us at the Barkly Homestead where we stopped for lunch. Having traveled across the Barkly during my Telstra days, I expected to be traveling in near desert conditions, but the last few years have been wet so it was like traveling through park lands, with lots of thick undergrowth, green trees and shrubs with lots of spring flowers.
We got to Three Ways (where Tennant Creek town was planned to be in the 1860s, but the beer wagon broke an axle crossing the creek so the miners all moved down the road and set up camp where the beer was, and so the town grew there) I set up the van in the van park, and I noticed a van tyre was wearing very unevenly. Looks like I will have to get the van checked before we leave tomorrow.

Longreach

Longreach is famous for being the original base of QANTAS and they have the QANTAS Founders Museum with the history of the airline. The pic shows us standing by one of the original QANTAS planes that was actually built at Longreach.
It has been an eventful journey to get here. Hannah got something in her eye in Charleville and we stayed an extra day so that she could get treatment, then when we were walking the dogs before leaving Charleville, Hannah pulled Kathy off balance causing her to fall. This gave her scraped knees and elbows, and a hard hit on her left hand. The swelling and pain in her wrist did not go away, so today we were visiting the Longreach Hospital. There were only nurses in attendance, the doctor was at the other end of an internet connection using the medical equivalent of Skype. The conclusion was her hand is badly bruised, but if the swelling and pain are still there in 5 days, go for an X-Ray. Reminds me of the old doctor joke, "Take one of these pills before you go to sleep tonight, and IF you wake up in the morning, take another one"

Charleville

The drive to Charleville was long and full of wild life, and death. There were animals on or near the road, the pic show some emu chicks close to the side of the road with Dad looking on. (Emu mums are the ultimate feminists, they lay the eggs, give them to Dad and take off for the emu equivalent of a singles bar). Apart from the emus, there were kangaroos, goats by the hundreds, sheep, cattle, lizards, snakes and a couple of pigs. Road kill all the way made the trip a bit smelly, and dodging carcasses became a full time occupation.
We stopped at Baileys Bar caravan park. After we said we knew Dave Butcher but were not responsible for any of his debts, they let us in and gave us a really good site.
We will be here for two nights, so tomorrow we will be tourists for the day.

Cobar

Pulled in to Cobar to a really good caravan park. Big sites with lots of space between vans, grassy areas to walk the dogs and a big area at the back for them too. We stayed an extra night so we could have a look round and do the washing. The pic shows the recreation lake and reservoir at Cobar where we went for a drive, after visiting the Peake Gold Mine and looking at the huge hole they dug for an open cut mine at Fort Bourke. Heading north towards Charleville tomorrow.

Broken Hill

The trials at Broken Hill are over. There was a good pas in UD with a dog getting it's first pass in UD after over a year of trialing. Another pass in Open completed the list, but there were several dogs that had a bit of bad luck that caused a fail.
We did a Rally demo that sparked a lot of interest, and then we went back to the van for a nanna nap.
Tomorrow the holiday starts.

The Big Trip Begins-

tomorrow. Forecast high winds, thunderstorms and rain have persuaded us to delay the start until tomorrow. We have to be in Broken Hill by Friday, so two days will be plenty, we could do it in one if we have to.
Our original plan was to leave on Monday, but Kathy had to work, so we delayed until Wednesday so we could get everything prepared on Tuesday. The weather gods were against us, we have delayed until Thursday.
We have experienced towing the caravan in strong wind and it is not pleasant.
The forecast is for gale force north winds today, easing to westerly tomorrow. As we are heading north west, it could save us $50 in fuel.