The long trip South (Stuart Highway) and Easter (Innes National Park)

1. Snorkelling at Bitter Springs - one of our favourite places from our trip North

2. Bitter Springs near Mataranka

3. The Stuart Tree - we actually made a detour to view this highly important historical sight!

4. Camping at Devil's Marbles - our first night back in the bushcamper

5. Sunset at Devil's Marbles

6. Sunset at Devil's Marbles

7. Sunrise at Devil's Marbles

8. Sunrise at Devil's Marbles

9. Sunrise at Devil's Marbles

10. Sunrise at Devil's Marbles

11. Approaching a very green looking Alice Springs

12. View of Alice Springs from Anzac Hill

13. Water (translate as muddy puddle) in the Todd River, Alice Springs.

14. The dry Todd River (though there has actually been water through here two or three times this wet season)
15. Farewell to the Northern Territory

16. And welcome back to South Australia

17. The Breakaways - amazing moonscape type area - approaching Coober Pedy

18. Driving through the Breakaways

19. The Dog Fence - viewed from another angle

20. Warning signs for Opal Mining in the Coober Pedy area

21. Overlooking the perpetually dry Coober Pedy from Big Winch lookout

22. Coober Pedy's metal tree - it's the only sort of tree that grows here!

23. The dugout - an underground home and campsite in Coober Pedy - built to withstand the very high temperatures (often around 50 degrees) experienced over the summer

24. The underground campsite

25. Inside the underground home

26. The underground kitchen

27. Back in the land of the flies

28. Lake Hart - one of the many South Australian salt lakes

29. The Southern end of the Stuart Highway (Port Augusta) - showing where we have come from and where we are heading next

30. Casuarina campiste - Innes National Park - our Easter camping spot
31. Sunset over Pondalowie Bay from the top of the sand dunes - Innes National Park

32. Brendan at the top of the sand dunes - sunset over Pondalowie Bay

33. And the moon rises on the other side of the dunes

34. Pondalowie Bay

35. Our Easter camping spot

36. Granny Smith

37. Gemma at Lake Inneston

38. Brendan overlooking Ethel Beach

39. Gemma and Seb getting the hang of solar showering

40. Linda and Brendan

41. Overlooking Royston Head

42. Brendan makes it down the huge sand dune

43. Followed by Seb

44. And Gemma

45. We look back up and wonder how we are every going to make it back to the top!

46. But we get to swim in the beautiful waters at the bottom and worry about it later. Gemma, Seb and Brendan

47. We start the long climb out

48. Gemma and Linda - are we there yet???

49. Looking back over Royston Head from the top

50. Linda and Brendan, Dolphin Bay

51. Seb and Gemma - under the water in Dolphin Bay

52. Gemma and Seb, Dolphin Bay

53. Brendan, Linda, Seb and Gemma, Dolphin Bay

54. Wildlife spotting at Inneston Historic Township

55. Sunset over Lake Inneston

The long trip South (Stuart Highway) and Easter (Innes National Park)

6 April 2010

Yay! We are finally moving again! We left Darwin nearly two weeks ago for the 3500km drive from one end of the Stuart Highway to the other (Darwin to Port Augusta in South Australia). We made good time of this trip, arriving in Port Augusta five days after leaving Darwin. Not much can be said about the trip apart from the fact that it was long and highlighted with lots of flies…but nothing could dampen our enthusiasm for being able to travel again, finally! Highlights were catching up with Kylie in Katherine for our last sleep in a real bed with air-conditioning in the room; snorkeling at Bitter Springs near Mataranka, one of our favourite places from our trip north; sunset and sunrise at Devil’s Marbles; seeing Alice Springs actually looking quite green; the amazing landscapes of the Breakaways and Coober Pedy (which actually look more like you are on the moon); the dugout houses and underground campgrounds in Coober Pedy, designed for the high temperatures experienced in summer; roadside camping again; arriving in Port Augusta and knowing we had come to the end of the Stuart Highway and travelled it from top to bottom; hot showers at Mt Remarkable campground in the Southern Flinders Ranges and then of course Easter!

Our main goal of the long drive south was to eventually arrive in Innes National Park at the southern tip of the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia – the same place we spent Easter last year – and in particular to catch up and spend time with friends Gemma and Seb who are currently living in Adelaide. We arrived in the National Park a couple of days before Easter to secure ourselves a good campsite and then finally got ourselves properly into holiday mode with a few sleep-ins, finishing a book or two and doing exactly as we felt like all day every day! Gemma and Seb arrived on Good Friday with lots of reinforcements of the food variety and we had a great four days together. We swam in the freezing South Australian waters (cold – but at least there were no crocs to battle with); explored Inneston Historic Township and Lake Inneston (particularly interesting at dusk when the wildlife comes out); took a scenic drive along the coast; walked to Royston Head and Gym Beach; the boys went fishing (unfortunately with no luck) the girls talked and laughed and talked some more!
On Sunday we waved goodbye to Gemma and Seb, sending them back to work in Adelaide and then waited for the Easter long weekend traffic to settle down (great to have the time to do that) before heading back up the Peninsula and back into our favourite National Park campground with hot showers in Mt Remarkable National Park in the Southern Flinders. Tomorrow we plan to start the day with a morning walk up to the lookout in the ranges behind us and then spend a day getting organized to begin heading west. The next step is to cross the Nullarbor and begin exploring Western Australia and enjoying all there is to see and do over there.

Hope everyone is well and not working too hard. 

Love Linda and Brendan.