Sunday 01.05.11 Morphett Creek - Larrimah - Katherine

Another uneventful getaway by about 9.30am, stopping only at Fran's Tea House at Larrimah for lunch. Unfortunately we couldn't eat in with the dogs, but we got a couple of enormous homemade beef pies and ate them in some nearby shade. Another couple of hours got us in to Katherine at around 4pm, with a roast on offer at Paul's brother Andrew's place for the evening.

The best part of the day was our first hot shower, or any shower at all, for the last 5 days. Bliss!

We had our last night in the camper in the front yard of Paul's Dad's place, listening to a neighbour's dog bark for about an hour and a half. Welcome to suburbia.

Saturday 30.04.11 Trephina Gorge - Alice Springs - Morphett Creek

We managed to get away the earliest on the trip at about 9.15am, probably the anticipation of getting the boys back from the kennel in Alice Springs was motivation enough! They were very excited to see us, and within 5 minutes they had assumed the position and were asleep on the back seat.

We stopped briefly at the Tropic of Capricorn monument, then continued on for close to another couple of hundred kilometres to the Stuart Memorial rest stop, approx 15km north of Ti-Tree, where we had lunch.

The next stop was Tennant Creek for more fuel at around 4.30pm, and we drove on for another half hour or so looking for a track off the highway to camp for the night. We considered going back onto the Old Stuart Highway to stop at the repeater station where we camped on the way down, but liked the idea of staying somewhere different. We found a spot just as the sun was going down on the banks of Morphett Creek not far from Muckaty Station where the Federal Government is considering putting a radioactive waste deposit site.

The temperature quickly dropped, but we weren't bothered with too many bugs, or mice, this time. Off in the distance on the other side of the creek we heard dingoes howling and yipping, perhaps one adult and two pups. Fortunately, they were far enough away not to attract the boys attention.

Friday 29.04.11 Trephina Gorge

We got up at around 7.30am, had juice, coffee and bacon, eggs and baked beans to give us the energy boost to do a couple of walks around the Gorge. We got away around 10am after Steve did some experimental plugging up of the hole in his tyre that seemed to do the job. We walked along the ridge top of the Gorge, back down to Trephina Creek and took our boots off to walk back through the mostly ankle deep, but cold, creek. It was absolutely stunning scenery with warm but not hot temperatures, although it's easy to see that in the height of summer it would be blisteringly hot.

Along the way, Steve and Sophie were up ahead and called out that they could see a snake swimming just in front of them. Being fairly knowledgeable about Australian snakes, Paul identified it as possibly a juvenile western brown snake, so we gave it the respect it justifiably deserved. It wasn't very big, perhaps 40cm long, and was dark grey in colour with a coppery coloured head and tail.

We continued on, stopped to put our boots back on and did the second of the shorter walks, the Panorama Trail, that wound its way up the other side of the gorge. This took about another hour, and in hindsight perhaps should be walked first, as the walk back to camp through the creek is a highlight.

Back at camp we had lunch and had a quiet little afternoon of not doing much at all. Paul tried his hand at his first ever damper, which was a great success with butter and honey. We then chopped up the veggies to go in the camp stew for the evening. A cast iron camp oven definitely imparts intangible flavours that can't be captured in a kitchen-based pot or slow cooker, we all agreed that it was the best one ever.

It was a much quieter night mouse-wise, with only a few heard scrabbling on the canvas during the night. One definitely did get in and took about half an hour for us not to find it at all. That makes it a bit harder to fall asleep, but it seems to have got away.

Thursday 28.04.11 Redbank Waterhole - Alice Springs - Trephina Gorge

Another nice warming breakfast of freshly ground coffee and porridge was had before the inevitable pack up and move on to the next and final destination before heading home - Trephina Gorge. Instead of going back to the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs we continued on the 4WD track up Owen Spring Reserve towards Larapinta Drive. This is a gorgeous drive winding along the Hugh River, requiring a couple of easy river crossings. We stopped at the ruins of the Old Owen Springs Homestead for some photos and marvelling at what a place to live with such a spectacular backdrop, then just past the Ranger's station Steve got his first ever flat tyre. That delayed our lunch stop in Alice Springs for a short while, but we survived.

We went back to the Red Dog Cafe in the Todd Mall so Rachel could have another roo burger, then Paul and Rachel spent a good hour in a camping shop trying on half a dozen pair of boots before Rachel settled on yet another pair of Scarpas. A bag of replacement supplies at Woolies, and then we were off to Trephina Gorge.

We got to the Gorge Campground around 5pm and quickly set up. This campground is in a bit of a valley, with sheer ochre red cliffs on one side where the setting sun hits them brilliantly. The temperature quickly dropped, while the numbers of mice exploded. A quick and easy dinner of pumpkin, feta and sage risotto with a creamed rice chaser meant we were in bed early at around 9pm. Just as well, for what was soon to come, as we discovered in the time it took for us to get dessert out from the stash of food under the bed in the camper and in bed about an hour later, there was evidence of a mouse in da house. We pulled everything out, but it appeared to have gone.

Around 11pm Paul woke up from a mouse crawling on his arm that then went into one of the storage spaces next to the bed and couldn't get out. it was lifted out with some "gentle persuasion" from Paul, and we spent the next hour watching about half a dozen mice getting in and out of the camper from four separate places. The camper is virtually weather-proof, but it appears not to be vermin-proof, and the spots the mice could access are not ones that can easily be sealed up. Paul plugged up the gaps with gaffer tape, and we seemed to have a relatively quiet night after that. Not happy, Jan.

Wednesday 27.04.11 - Redbank Waterhole

With a nice dark camper and no need to rush, we slept in until after 8am and had a leisurely breakfast of bacon, eggs and baked beans. We did a bit of a walk exploring along the waterhole, with a nice sandy beach perfect for Sophie to have a bit of a dip. Us adults didn't have the ticker for the kind of water temperature. We saw some flocks of budgies, some Major Mitchell cockatoos, finches and magpies, as well as willie wagtails, cormorants and hawks.

Back to camp for a lunch of noodles, surprise peas and corn and some ham, when Steve discovered his second battery wasn't holding charge. As most of our power was coming from the trailer, we weren't using our second car battery, so Paul and Steve moved it over to Steve's car. After that little exercise, it was time to get the roast and veggies on the Cobb cooker, and of course, more social lubrication and bikkies and cheese. We are not suffering! Afterwards, there was the obligatory staring into the bush tv.

The roast was superb, although at 2.7kg for 2.5 people, there was plenty left over. Steve then cooked up his famous (for us) baked apricot custard, and even though we full from the entree and main course, there is ALWAYS room in the dessert stomach. As may be evident right about now, our camping trips are as much about checking out new places as they are for lurching from one feeding frenzy to the next!