Easter Trip Summary

Here's the trip in brief:

Fueled up Saturday 17.04.11 in Darwin.
Odometer reading: 106337 km
Litres: 119.6
Cost: $1.597/L
Total: $191.10

Thursday 21.04.11
Home in Darwin to Paul's Dad's place in Katherine - 314km

Odometer reading: 106739 km

Litres: 56.24

Cost: $1.569/L

Total: $88.24

Katherine to Elliott Roadhouse - 421km
Elliott Roadhouse to Telecomms Repeater Station near Attack Creek  - 183km

Total: 918km

Friday 22.04.11
Telecomms Repeater Station to Tennant Creek - approx 70km

Odometer reading: 107367 km

Litres: 60.25

Cost: $1.73/L

Total: $104.23

Tennant Creek to Devil's Marbles - 114km
Devil's Marbles to Heritage Caravan Park, Alice Springs - 418km

Total: 591km

Saturday 23.04.11

Odometer reading: 107858 km

Litres: 109.45

Cost: $1.749/L

Total: $191.43

Heritage Caravan Park, Alice Springs to Rainbow Valley - 168km
Plus approx 20km backtracking

Total: 129km

Sunday 24.04.11
Rainbow Valley to Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse - 234km
Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse to Yulara Campground - 231km

Total: 465km

Monday 25.04.11
Yulara Campground to Uluru - 18km
Uluru to Yulara Campground - 18km
Yulara Campground to Kata Tjuta - 51km
Kata Tjuta to Yulara Campground - 51km

Total: 138km

Tuesday 26.04.11
Yulara Campground to Redbank Waterhole, Owen Springs Reserve - approx 400km

Total: 400km

Wednesday 27.04.11
Redbank Waterhole - nil

Thursday 28.04.11
Redbank Waterhole to Alice Springs CBD - approx 30km

Odometer reading: 108982 km

Litres: 156.64

Cost: $1.749/L

Total: $273.96

Alice Springs CBD to Trephina Gorge Campground - 85km

Total: 115km

Friday 29.04.11
Trephina Gorge - nil

Saturday 30.04.11
Trephina Gorge to Paws n Claws, Alice Springs - 76km
Paws n Claws, Alice Springs to Tropic of Capricorn - 29km
Tropic of Capricorn to Stuart Memorial - 173km
Stuart Memorial to Tennant Creek - 314km

Odometer reading: 109608 km

Litres: 91.27

Cost: $1.73/L

Total: $157.90

Tennant Creek to Morphett Creek - approx 80km

Total: 672km

Sunday 01.05.11
Morphett Creek to Larrimah - approx 370km
Larrimah to Paul's Dad's place in Katherine - 184km

Total: 554km

Monday 02.05.11
Katherine to home in Darwin via the Post Office - 320km

Total: 320km

Grand total: 3,919 km in 12 days
Fuel used: 593 litres
Fuel economy: approx 15.14 litres per 100km
Most expensive fuel - $1.749 per litres in Alice Springs
Fuel cost: $1,006.86 or $83.90/day

Sunday 24.04.11 Rainbow Valley - Yulara

We awoke to the temperature inside the camper being slightly colder than the fridge! 4.8 degrees compared to the fridge temperature of 5. Once up just after dawn, the temperature slowly came up. Bacon, eggs and baked beans was the way to refuel, and we did another walk towards Mushroom Rock and more photo opportunities. We packed up and were away at 11am and stopped about 1pm for a quick lunch at Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse after the turnoff to Yulara at Erldunda.

We also did a quick stop further on at the viewing area to get some photos of Mt Connor, which is an impressive monolith in its own right. The expected desert ochre colours are actually hard to find right now - we were surprised that this stretch of road has many trees looking a bit like pines - tallish skinny ones (desert oaks, I think) and then shorter squat trees as well, and plenty of pale green/cream grass.

We continued on to Yulara, arriving after 4pm, quite amazed at the size of the resort and campgrounds and the number of people already here so early in the season. We did a slight choke on the camping fees - $72 for two people for two nights! And the advertised "Sounds of Silence" dinner excursion prompted an even bigger sound of choking at $165 per person.

We went to the viewing area at the campground to see the sun go down over Uluru - unfortunately it is impossible to get photos of it without resort buildings in the foreground. Some judicious cropping will be required. Once back to our camp, we were met with a sense of foreboding of the raucous sound of our immediate neighbours with no volume control. Rachel had a quiet but friendly word with them to tone it down a bit, however their half volume was still intrusive, and became even more so with the addition of further alcohol.

With no letup to the noise at 11pm, an hour after the campground's 10pm noise curfew, another more sterner visit was required in preference to Paul going over there with his axe. That option is still available to us, and may well still be required. We shall claim justifiable homicide.

Dinner was very tender vacuum packed scotch fillet and salad, washed down with a De Bortoli shiraz or three to keep the chill away.

Sat 23.04.11 Alice Springs - Rainbow Valley

We didn't have to rush on Saturday morning as we had until 10am to put the boys in the kennel, and Steve, Lucy and Sophie were leaving the Devil's Marbles for Alice Springs, and weren't due in until lunch time. We dropped the boys off at Paws n Claws, refuelled, went to do our final shop, until Rachel realised she had left her credit card there, so back to pick it up. We then went back into town to park up, whereupon Rachel couldn't find the keys for the trailer. So we re-traced our steps back to the kennel again, but we couldn't see them en-route, nor were they at the kennels. It would have helped if we checked the centre console, which was where they were all along. Hmmmm.

Back into town was where Paul had a chicken burger and Rachel had the best kangaroo burger ever. By the time we had shopped, Steve and Lucy were in town, so we caught up with them before arranging for us to go on ahead to Rainbow Valley, in the hope we would secure two of only seven camps sites. We got there at about 3pm, found only one camp set up and 2 other vehicles, and the perfect site for two vehicles.

Steve and Lucy arrived shortly after and we got all set up at the only section on the grounds that permitted two vehicles side by side.

A steady stream of vehicles and tour groups turned up in time to get photos of the rocks at sunset, all of which disappeared soon enough once the sun went down. And this is what they were after, as were we.

We also found this little fella, who was quite inquisitive and not at all fearful.

One the sun went down the temperature dropped quite quickly. We put some warmer clothes on, reheated some pre-cooked chicken curry and cracked open a couple of beers. Perfect. Apart from multiple and fearless mice benefitting from the recent rains and abundant food supplies. With no ambient light, the stargazing was amazing, and we went to bed to single digit temperatures.