Tuesday 26.04.11 Yulara - Redbank Waterhole

We got away from Yulara about 10.30am and headed for Redbank Waterhole in Owen's Springs Reserve about 60km south of Alice Springs. Rather than going on the Stuart Highway where we had already been, we planned on going up towards King's Canyon on Luritja Rd, and then east along the Ernest Giles Highway. We had a roadside stop for lunch, then onto the wide dirt road of the Ernest Giles that had a few ditches and corrugations along the way but was otherwise a good dirt road. It's a little bit more picturesque than the Stuart Highway as well, and provided the opportunity to see some countryside we hadn't seen before, and may not get a chance to see again, even if it is more of the same!

We then turned off this and back onto the blacktop of the Stuart Highway heading north, with just a short stretch before the turnoff to Owen's Springs Reserve. Redbank Waterhole was only about 6km from the turnoff on an easy but sandy 4WD track, and there were numerous choices for setting up camp along the waterhole. 

We set up, had a hunt for timber to set up a fire, and settled down with a couple of wee drinkies and bikes and cheese watching the sun go down through the gum trees - a very picturesque and peaceful setting.

Paul got to play with the new camera some more, and tested out some night time star shots. We didn't get to see any shooting stars or satellites, but we weren't disappointed.

Despite being the last day of an unusually long 5 day long weekend (Easter and Anzac Day back to back) there was little evidence of intensive recent use in the area and we only saw two other cars parked nearby. One car followed us in just after dark and continued along past us and camped at least another 500m away, so they may as well not have been there. We had dinner and watched the bush tv for a while, then headed for bed. The mice were friendly here too and kept Steve awake all night; they scrabbled on the canvas of the camper a few times but not enough to bother us too much.