Mt Dare.

We decided to be daring and  travel up to Mt Dare and how happy we are that we made this decision. The camp is great - we are by ourselves and have a fire in the fire pit supplied - we have good amenities albeit a little rustic - and Tops and I had a bit of fun in the laundry!!  The machine was a little smelly so we rinsed it - and frogs come out of the rinse water so we did that a few times and ended up removing 9 frogs from the machine!! 🐸🐸. After all of that we did manage to get clean clothes! The hosts were so friendly - and being the only guests,  Darryl & Dennis found it a little difficult to leave the pub!!. This pub was once a station but was purchased by the SA government and is now a National Park and gives weary travellers a respite as they head across the Simpson Desert or other tracks (like us) 

        This chap is "Cobby" and quite a character and he wrote a poem about " Old Henry (Ford)" that he gave to Dennis. 

The track here was much better than we imagined - often it looked like just a track through a station. Once again we set up for morning tea just off the road:

          

and at lunch time we found this wonderful oasis by a waterhole which was so pretty - it reminded us of Cooper Creek.

      

The only wild life we saw was a frill neck lizard which was cleverly camouflaged on a tree:

      

We left Mt Dare this morning, deciding to travel along the Ghan Track - in a way it was great but there were times when we wondered what on earth possessed us to tackle such a long track (330 km)  Just north of Mt Dare we crossed into NT and the first bit was pretty good - just a rough track through the station! There was a little evidence of rain with some wet spots but the track was not rough. The stock along the way was looking in great condition and they were interested in our travelling past them. 

       

 We arrived in Finke for morning tea ( quite an education) then the track actually went along the Ghan track. We had to keep a lookout for spikes that can puncture tyres - and there were many - but it was so interesting seeing the varied scenery, and knowing this was the very track the train went on. 

       

The section from Finke to here was either very sandy or very rough - by the time we reached bitumen we were very sick of corregations!! 

     

This  is typical of the old sidings - these were workers buildings. We are proud to say now that we have followed the old Ghan all along the way from Port Augusta to here - and we feel we have been on a huge adventure - and it's only been a week!! 

Our first port of call when we hit Alice Springs was fuel and then the the car wash! We now have much cleaner cars and vans - and we are finding red dust around but luckily our dust suppresser works very well!  We've booked into a park here on the edge of town for 3 nights so can unwind and rest up a bit. 

It's good to be back in touch - to learn that you won Josh - and Port - but unfortunately not Murrabit. 

So the next blog will be of our adventures around Alice - no doubt they will not be quite as extreme as what we've done. 

Love to you all xxxx.