Darwin to Melbourne - 1986

Here's the last marathon post about my trip around Australia with my mate Leigh way back in 1986. We start this post off in Darwin which is maybe appropriate as Darwin is our favourite city in Australia, the only thing that has stopped us moving up there years ago is the exorbitant price of real estate and the lack of well paying work for me, having said that it's my favourite city you have to wonder why I didn't take any photos when I was up there on this trip, who knows? After getting a message from Sam (who I was communicating back in Melbourne with by phone and snail mail) that my old boss wanted me back in a hurry, and with our reserves of cash running dangerously low, Leigh and I decided to point the XB south a make a mile in a hurry. Leaving Darwin we did a fair few kilometres over night in the next couple of days, we did check out The Devils Pebbles as well as The Devil's Marbles on our quick journey south down the Stuart Highway to Alice Springs.

Our prison like accommodation in Darwin, the dongas were pretty basic.

Leigh doing a bit of maintenance in Darwin, check out our kitchen, yes that's it on the floor.

We pulled up at Elliot late on our first night heading south.

The Stuart Highway features a few that didn't make it, still does actually!

The Devils Pebbles.

Testing out the XB's water ability at The Devils Pebbles.

Next up was The Devils Marbles.

This is now a camping area.

But back in the day the Stuart Highway ran right through the guts of The Devils Marbles.

There is even a mini Uluru.

Sunset near Barrow Creek.

Eating dinner on the side of the road near Barrow Creek, we had all the essentials, tomato sauce and aeroguard. Interestingly Barrow Creek became very infamous when Bradley Murdoch abducted a couple of back backers (and murdered one of them) here years later.

North of Alice Springs, this one didn't make it either.

Alright, it must be time to pull on some more stretch denim.

Breakfast at the Hale River crossing north of Alice Springs, I'd walk through here years later on the last day of my walk on the Larapinta Trail.

We arrived in Alice Springs to find that a lot of the roads were still flooded from some earlier rain, that didn't stop us however as we ventured out west to check out some of the gorges in the MacDonnell Ranges National Park. After spending a day out west we headed back into town along what is now part of the Mereenie Loop Road, only thing was in those days it was barely a road, let alone a major tourist drive that it is today, we eventually got back to town well after midnight after much digging and headed south to find somewhere to sleep for the rest of the night.

Heading into Simpsons Gap.

Simpsons Gap.

Standley Chasm.

Heading into Standley Chasm.

Crossing the flooded Hale river.

Now on my hand scrawled notes on the back of the photos I've got this down as Redbank Gorge but it looks like Serpentine Gorge to me, its definitely not Redbank.

So we'll go with Serpentine Gorge.

The track into the Ochre Pits.

The Ochre Pits.

The Ochre Pits were a traditional site where the local indigenous mined the colourful ochre for ceremonies and to trade with other tribes.

At the visitor centre at Ormiston Gorge, good to see that I still had some stretch denim left.

The day was already old when we crossed the Finke River.

Now the evenings adventure began.

That's one down.

Stopping to tighten the driving lights was a fairly regular occurrence.

Hey Leigh, the lights have gone out!

You pay good money for this at the traffic lights in the cities now days.

Geeze it looked like someone had been murdered under the bonnet.

A bit of water on the lights and we're good to go again!

We'll for a while anyway.

It was a little late by the time we got back to Alice that night.

The morning after our night time epic.

At our camp beside the Stuart Highway south of Alice Springs, the XB was becoming at one with the landscape,  much like us actually.

After our night digging our way back to Alice Springs we headed out to Uluru, or as it was known then Ayers Rock, now for some reason we decided to head out the Ernest Giles Road and then cut down to Ayers Rock, even now days this road is generally rough as guts so I'm not sure what we were  thinking, I suppose we were looking for a bit more adventure. Now these photos of us at Ayers Rock have provided a bit of a conundrum for me, you see we climbed the rock, now from what I know now there is no way that I'd be that insensitive as to climb Uluru, but back in the day we really had no idea to the cultural sensitivities involved, so in the interests of telling it like it is (or was) I've included them in the post.

Passing by the camel farm at Stuarts Well.

Heading out to check out the Henbury Meteorite Crater.

Henbury Meteorite Crater, it's no Wolfe Creek but you still wouldn't want it landing on your head.

Ernest Giles Road.

This little water dip had the empty coke cans on the floor floating around, the water came up through the gear stick hole...and through the rust holes in the floor.

A bit of a dry section.

Filling up at the old roadhouse at Wallara, its long gone now.

Yeah, I see it Leigh.

The money shot.

Checking out The Olgas, more commonly known as Kata Tjuta now days, the road out there back in '86 was a corragated goat track.

Uluru from the brand new town of Yulara.

Practising my air guitar moves at Yulara.

The information at the base of the climb back in '86.

It's a steep climb, maybe not as steep as Leigh is making out though.

Yeah, I'm a comedian too.

The white line is painted on the rock so the punters won't get lost.

Yeah, we're going home.

Little did I know it at the time but Uluru would draw me back repeatedly over the years, I've grown to have a deep respect for both the rock and its owners.

With the money dwindling and work beckoning back in Melbourne we headed off on the last leg of our trip, the starter motor in the XB was now cactus (it was full of mud, who'd of thought!) so for the rest of the drive home we had to push start her. Now back in '86 the Stuart Highway was still a dirt corrugated goat track in the northern part of South Australia so we decided that we may as well head down the even rougher Oodnadatta Track...don't ask me. The Oodnadatta Track provided for our last big adventure on the trip, like a lot of the other roads in Central Australia that year it had seen its share of rain, which made for some interesting times in the XB.

Heading out to the Stuart Highway we passed the lookout to Mt Conner.

A salt lake from the Mt Conner lookout.

Wild brumbies, you wouldn't want to hit one of these guys.

Heading south on a newly sealed section of the Stuart Highway. Back in the day the white posts were actually white posts, you know made out of wood, it was a novelty to find these plastic ones, yeah yeah I know, but there wasn't a lot else going on sometimes to keep our minds interested!

Crossing back into South Australia.

Late at night on the now rough as guts Stuart Highway.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Lets head down the Oodnadatta Track, what could possibly go wrong.

Back in '86 we were on the old Oodnadatta Track which started at Chandler instead of down at Marla where it starts now. You can still drive this section of the track but its rough, much like it was this night actually.

Our camp on the Oodnadatta Track north of Oodnadatta, we spent the night here and didn't have another vehicle go past us. Notice we stopped on the top of a little hill, it made it easier to roll start it.

Oodnadatta 1986.

The main street of Oodnadatta.

The old Algebuckina bridge over the Neales River was used by the original Ghan train.

Like a lot of other tracks on this trip the Oodnadatta was a bit on the damp side.

There's an XB in there somewhere.

The historical Coward Springs was un restored back in '86.

We needed a bit of a run way to fire the old girl up, this was at Coward Springs.

Date Palms at Coward Springs.

Our last sunset in the desert, Coward Springs.

Pushing on down the Oodnadatta Track at night again.

Yeah I can count, looks like that's one less we'll have to keep tightening.

The Oodnadatta Track, the roads people used these red flags to mark hazards back in the dark ages.

Hey hey we've made it to the southern end of the track at Marree.

An hour or so later we've made it to the bitumen at Lyndhurst.

The start of the Strzelecki Track at Lyndhurst, I'd been up here a fair bit with my old man in a truck years before when the Moomba gas fields were being developed. Check out the billboard for the smokes, you don't see them anymore.

The Dirt.
We clocked up around 4000 kilometres on this leg, the XB was looking a bit second hand by the time we got back to Melbourne but we cleaned her up and actually sold her for a profit. Not long after getting home I officially hooked up with Sam and we all know how that went. I returned to work and have been working for the same company now for almost 30 years. This is an adventure within the reach of most people, (as an army of grey nomads and international back packers has worked out), the key to this type of travel is to make sure you can get a comfortable sleep, almost everything else works itself out.
Relevant Posts.
Part 1 of this trip.
Part 2 of this trip.
Part 3 of this trip.
Part 4 of this trip.
Mereenie Loop Road 2015.
Uluru Base Walk 2015

Crossing back over the border into Victoria, only a few hours from home.

The XB was looking a bit second hand when we got home, we actually cleaned it up a bit and sold it for a small profit, who would of thought.