Oct 3

Wow, I slept well, must have been the massage <g>.  Normally we have been waking up around 5am and getting ourselves organized for the day but this morning neither of us woke up till 7:30.  We checked out of the Desert Palms Resort and booked ourselves in again for the nights of 8th and 9th.  Just as well we did, the Masters is on and the place will be heaving.

With everything packed we made tracks out of Alice onto Namatjira Drive, the scenic route of the West MacDonnell Range.  We have found one bush track with three bush camping sites along it so that is where we are heading, but first we stopped at Simpsons Gap, very pretty but noisy.
Two bus loads of kids were there with their usual loud voice.  I guess they were about 15 years of age and this was obviously a school organized trip and what a wonderful one at that for them.

The only Rock Wallaby we saw!!

The obligatory school holiday pic

I rather like this one <g>

 Time to move on, hunting for that elusive, at one with nature spot we love so much. 

We nearly missed the turning for the track, the sign was pushed well back behind the shrubbery, great, if we nearly missed it fingers crossed lots of other folks will defiantly miss it <g>. 

Not sure of the different areas we found, the map as I mentioned shows 3 campsites but we have found four :).  At the first stop, by the river we came across budgies everywhere, so comical to watch and a few were rather horny!!!!!  It seemed 'nookie' was all around.  I guess we sat there for about an hour, taking photos, enjoying the sounds and drinking a cup of tea.  It really is great having the kitchen in the vehicle, tea on tap.  Oh yes, we also ate one of the newly cooked sausages each, chilli variety and scrumptious.

Alan has seen several more tracks on the sat nave so that is where we headed next, one never knows what gem is awaiting our eyes away from all our fellow tourists.  We bumbled around for a couple of hours, not as hair raising driving as we had at Old Halls Creek but great fun never the less.

And the track ran out.

Alan checking to see if he can see where it went.

Back onto the main track and time to hunt for a camp spot and look what we found.  We are a few kilometers away from the Ready Waterhole on the Stuart Pass.  We have our own stretch of the Hugh River, somebody has kindly made a circle of stone for the fire and left a couple of bits of firewood and there is ample shade to give us some shelter from the heat of the sun. 

Home for the next day, Hugh River.

The lounge furniture is set up quickly.

One of our first visitors, landed on the river, swam around for a bit then flew off.

Time to find out what the water is like, it was cool, some areas were about waist deep and very refreshing, wonderful, and the trees are full of budgies here too, you should hear them, forever chirping.  It has been rather comical watching these birds chase of unwanted flying visitors, they don't seem to be afraid of anything.

Alan getting the air beds.

Dinner is sorted for tonight, curry and potatoes and several more cups of tea <g>.  See what has happened to our tin of carrots, attacked by the curry paste!!!  That's an off-road driving casualty <g>

Now that really needed some rough treatment, I have enough problem removing tin lids but I never thought a glass jar of curry paste could do such a good job.

Looking around there are very few insects, nice to not be attacked by mosquitoes and ants, so we have decided no tent is needed.  A night under the stars with nothing blocking our vision.  Just for a change we blew up our air bed by ourselves instead of using the compressor, very challenging lol. Thinking it may well be cold we had a couple of sleeping bags to throw over ourselves and our pillows, such luxury and I doubt any 5 start hotel could beat this location <g>.

With a fire to keep us warm, we watched the sun go down and the stars come out, there were millions of them, another of those 'magic moments' to keep securely in the memory for the future when grey, cloud filled skies are the norm.

No sunset picture tonight, but instead our lovely camp fire.