We Have Returned, quicker than McArthur did!

Back home and getting back to normal.
The Navara is in for its overdue service and a thorough check up after doing 15000 km on roads that ranged from perfect to terrible. Lots of things have shaken loose and need attention.
The body shop has looked at the dents in the Navara doors and reckoned that they will need the Ute for ten days to fix it.
The caravan is also going in for a service, warranty repairs and fix-ups as soon as we can book it in.
Hannah has joined the household. Hannah is a full sister to Tiffany, she is 8 weeks old and is already pushing her way into our lives.
We will be staying home for a while until all the maintenance has been done, some jobs around home have been done, and until the bank balance builds up again.

Alice Springs

Hard to find a pic for today as we have about 2 dozen taken around Alice Springs and the McDonnell Ranges, and nearly all of them are screen savers. The locals say that they have had over 10 times their normal annual rain so far this year. The rain means that the desert is in bloom with flowers, shrubs, grass and trees splashing colours against the backdrop of the red Mcdonnell Ranges

I picked the shots of the Todd river flowing through Heavitree Gap and also flowing over the road as it is so unusual to see the Todd flowing.

When we first got here there was a trickle over the road that dried up over night, but after a couple of days of rain the Todd was flowing again.

If you look carefully you can just see Tiffany in the bottom right corner, sitting by the flooded road.

We will be moving out on Monday after doing the dog trials for the Alice Springs Obedience Dog Club

Devils Marbles

We had a night at Camooweal, which was hot during the day and most of the night until some rain cooled things down. There has been lots of rain up here as the drive along the Barkley Highway was like driving through park lands with wild flowers in bloom, lush green grass, shrubs and trees, and lots of surface water too.

Last night was at Tennant Creek. Kathy asked about staying 2 nights and the woman at the desk asked "Why would you want to stay here for two nights?", so we didn't. On the way out of the Tennant Creek site I brushed against a site marker and dented the passenger side doors on the Navara. I tell everyone that asks about the dents that we were crossing a creek when a croc attacked, but not many believe me.

Now in Alice Springs preparing for the trials at the weekend. The pic was taken at the Devils Marbles site during a break from driving.

Mt Isa

No prizes for working out what the major industry for Mount Isa is, just look at the mine site dominating the town. The pic shows the view from the city lookout. Mount Isa is a lot bigger than we imagined as it spreads out for miles.

We have booked in to The Irish Club for dinner tonight for Kathy's birthday, and we usually go out for dinner on birthdays.

Tiffany likes the caravan park as the off lead dog park is about 100m up the road so she gets a bit of a walk and a good run.

Cloncurry

We left Karumba after 2 nights and started south towards home. The sunsets at Karumba are considered magnificent, but it could be because the majority of visitors are from the eastern states and are not used to seeing the sun go down over the sea.

Our intention was to stop at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse, but when we got there at lunch time it was already crowded with more queuing up to get in, so we continued to Cloncurry. We will stay here for a couple of days while we decide where we will go from here. We have to be in Alice by 10th September, so we have some time to look around on the way.

Georgetown

After 10 days in Atherton, we are on move again, heading west towards Karumba on the Savannah Way.

We had a weekend at the dog trials, with very friendly people and lots of tips and advice on training, and a good feed from the Tablelands Dog Obedience club.

The pic shows one of the residents of the Atherton caravan park. The cane toad lives near the toilets and is active at night, which usually frightens Kathy on her way to the loo in the dark. They are hard to see unless they move, but there are lots of them around.

Georgetown is a little place halfway between Atherton and Karumba. We will be here for one night and should be in Karumba tomorrow.

Platypus Sighting

We were at Yungaburra, the heritage listed village near Atherton, being tourists when we were told about the platypus viewing platform near the bridge. Nothing doing at the official viewing point, but there was a walk along the creek. Not twenty paces down the track and there was a platypus on the surface doing platypus things. We watched it for a while and got about a minute of video, the pic is a grab from the video. We only saw the one, which is quite lucky because I have no idea of what the plural of platypus is.