Way out West 2025. 25th of July.  Day eight.

Gravel pit about 2 hours west of Alice Springs to a roadside camp near a tower about 50kms from Kintore.

Awoke between 1 and 2am to wind AND rain on the roof. A bit of buffeting but nothing too bad. It actually cooled down to a cosy sleeping temperature. The new canvas back handled wind and rain with ease.

Lying there at night listening to the rain, I was hesitant about getting out of bed in the morning.
I woke and got dressed and made a dash for loo when the rain eased and started to prep for breaky. Unfortunately, the rain started up again and I needed to deploy the awning on the camper, so I had some cover over the kitchen area. This all worked fine until the pack up. I am not very practised at packing up the awning yet and it was a group effort to get it all back together into its bag.


We got away from camp at about 910 which was awesome considering a wet weather pack up.

Up to a rainy morning.
Out came the awning so I could make breaky And cuppas without getting wet.

Road surface this morning was everything from Sandy, rocky, muddy, slippery, smooth, wet, corrugated, hard packed, puddley, soft packed- you name it we had it.
It was raining on and off but the sun was shining beautifully on the Bell Ranges to our left at times.

In the middle of all of this Bronwyn and I were trying to organise a new Hot Water service at dad‘s house. Not ideal, we’re in the middle of nowhere very patchy Service. Bronwyn is doing a great job.

Stunning views of Mt Liebig on the left hand side.

Mt Leibig.
Pulled up for a photo.
A tad dirty. The mud sticks like glue and dries like concrete.
Calling the Iruntya Community to try and arrange our visit to Surveyor General’s Corner
The little wooden Zebra I found at Muloorina is now the Tvan mascot – a little worse for wear today. Having his mud bath.
The road ahead.
Passing by Papunya. The home of the Warumpi Band.
The name is derived from a honey-ant dreaming site located near Papunya, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Papunya is a remote Aboriginal community about 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of Alice Springs. The band formed in Papunya in 1980
Mt Leibig.

We were surrounded on both sides with tall, rippling Triodia Grasses (Spinifex) which stood stately along the roadside.

A few stops for photos and we made contact with the people who arrange visits to Surveyor General Corner, we got Andy who is filling in after the main bloke Greg finished up yesterday. We now have contact details for one of the Elders to call over the weekend to try and arrange this.

Lunch stop as per usual along the way.

We determined later in the day that we weren’t going to make it to Kintore today and before the fuel station closed. This meant looking for a camp spot over the next hour or so. This wasn’t as easy as it sounded. We checked out three sites and opted for a cleared area just off the road near a communication tower.
We had talked about a roast tonight but there’s just not enough wood around so we circled the wagons and pottered around for a bit.
There was a beautiful desert sunset and the desert chill started to come down as well.

This was our route – we haven’t made it to Kintore.
Nibblies.
Desert Oak and the Communication tower.
Trees.


Started up the fire in the fire pit and with some nibbles and drinks before dinner preparations which for us was reheated honey mustard chicken which was very nice.
More sitting around the fire stargazing before eventually heading off to bed about 10 o’clock stop.

Mary and Phil gone to bed, the camp was dark and this was what I saw on my way to bed.

Nicola Stuart

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