Way out West 2025. 24th of July.  Day seven.

Ooraminna Homestead to a camp in a gravel pit about 2 hours west of Alice Springs.

Up early to get sorted and hook up, pay up etc.

Then to head into Alice for laundry, some bits and bobs and supermarket and most important fuel for humans and vehicles.

After lunch time for fuel.

I’ve been running below empty for over 40kms, so pleased to fill up.

We’ve spoken with Steve, Ann and Brian on radio and phone. We met up at Mogas and headed out West. 

Here the trip really begins. 

We cruised out along the bitumen Tanami Road, which quickly got skinny and required us to pull right off for oncoming vehicles. We only met one road train and lots of vehicles. After a quick stop at a roadside stop to suss for a camp, we passed on that and continued to the turn off to Papunya/Kintore. Not much further along Stef spied a turn into a gravel pit, which we decided was highly suitable for a camp. 

We pulled up in a fair wind and hoped that being down in the pit would help shelter us. 

I was able to pull up level without unhitching as did Mary and Phil

And Stef had his tent up in no time. Steve and Brian were also good with their set ups. It was a bit of a challenge to get pegs in the ground for Ann’s tent (she is the only one sleeping on the ground this trip.)

In the end we resorted to some long ground screws that Dad had given me years ago, Steve got out his battery drill and we drilled a hole into which the tent pegs could go. 

Phil also got to play with his new Ryobi toy, a blower to clear the dust from the back of the vehicle. 

We were pulled up just after 4pm, which meant time to fold up and put away all the clean clothes and generally tidied up the Tvan and car. 

Stef and Phil purchased a new tyre gauge so I played with that and we’ve discovered a missing tyre pressure monitor cap – will have to swap over one from the Tvan spare wheel. 

Once again delicious tea – Honey Mustard Chicken in the camp oven with veg and rice. 

The temperature was much warmer today – got up to about 27 degrees and the wind was warm. 

Thankfully the wind dropped to be a mild night around the campfire and stargazing again. Several confirmed (seen by more than one person) shooting or falling stars. Again no moon and pitch black sky. The Milky Way was stretching across above us from horizon to horizon. 

This was also the first night we have been surrounded by a cacophony of sounds – possibly cicadas or another kind of insect. 

There were some clouds building out to the West and ants are building their nests too. Hopefully any rain doesn’t mess with our plans. 

All in all a hugely successful day. Got all our supplies (except the boys couldn’t get a sand flag for under $450, so they didn’t bother.) I got a couple of blog posts finalised and posted. We all met up seamlessly and on our way without incident.