Our first nights stop was in Wallumbilla, a small town just outside of Roma. The Federal Hotel offered free camping out the back of the hotel so we decided to stop there for the night.

When we arrived in town we were shocked to see all the vehicles and people - it was so busy! It was like a film crew or something had taken over the town.

Camp set up was a breeze and we had dinner and settled in for our first night of the trip. 🏕

So we left the filming area and packed up and headed further west... something we will be doing for the next week or so.

Our first stop today was Roma; we stopped at the bakery for morning tea and did some shopping for some extra things we realised we needed and then headed off towards Quilpie.

The rain started to come down as we got closer to Mitchell. We were glad to see the rain for the area but it wasn’t as fun driving through it. After leaving Mitchell we broke through the clouds and we were back to nice weather.

Our trip to Birdsville was on the Diamantina Development Road, which is Australia’s longest road!

It was a long drive today to Quilpie as we wanted to get into town before 5pm to get to the Butcher. Lots of travellers had raves about the steaks at the Quilpie Butcher so we thought we’d try them ourselves. We made it within 3 minutes of closing and got their last few rib fillets before heading into our next free camp outside of Quilpie.

Tonight we tried the OzPig and even cooked our steak on it. There was plenty of firewood so we cut it up for the OzPig and filled our wood basket for another night. It was nice to have the fire going and it worked a treat - although it was so hot our steaks got a little burnt. Tasted good anyway!

The road wasn’t too bad and we could travel along at a decent speed most of the time. We arrived in Birdsville close to 6:00pm. On inspecting the vehicle we discovered that our left hand driving light had actually fallen off at some point and was hanging on by the power lead! Thank goodness we cable tied the wires in well - we still had the light - just no bolt to fix it to the bullbar.

By the time we made it into town everything had closed - the Roadhouse and Caravan Park closed at 6:00pm so we drove back out of town to a free camp spot we saw driving in for our next nights camp.

We also discovered that our main power switch in the camper stopped working too. After testing we could still get power so we determined it was just an issue with the remote switch (maybe a wire came off?) but we could still operate the camper and lights etc.

Since it was such a rough day we thought we’d go to the Birdsville Hotel for dinner. They’re renowned for a great pub meal. We pulled up and got the obligatory photo in time to watch a ‘local’ drive his ute almost into the pub. If the gutters in the street weren’t as high as they were, he’d have knocked out he front wall of the Hotel!

Inside was as impressive as you’d expect, until we looked at the menu. Steak was $47.50 each! So we decided to change to a drink only... and ordered two soft drinks from the bar. The bartender proceeded to put down two cans of soft drink on the bar and said $9.00 please!

So we didn’t stay at the pub long at all; we went back to our camp and had our Quilpie Butcher’s steak tonight instead on the BBQ and they were the best steaks I’ve ever had! So nice we wanted to go back and get more! It certainly beat he $47.50 steaks!

Having checked Big Red off our list we headed back into Birdsville for lunch, along the way listening to people who were coming into town from a Simpson Desert crossing talking about all the issues they had with their vehicles. To quote one guy... ‘whatever could go wrong did go wrong’. \240We were happy with our small list of issues after that!

We went back to Birdsville and had lunch at the Bakery; both of us had a ‘Lamb Shanks Pie’ which really tasted like the name suggested! We didn’t bother with the ‘Curried Camel Pie’; not a big fan of curry so we settled on something more simple.

In Birdsville we decided to change our plans as we didn’t think we’d have enough time to do the Birdsville Track and still see what we wanted to in Central Australia - since this holiday is focused on the red centre we decided we would go up to Mt Isa and across to Alice Springs, and then come back via the Plenty Highway to make the travel days a little shorter and spend more time in The Alice.

So it was back on the gravel roads to Boulia. This time we had more success with no problems on the camper or Ute. Hopefully those issues are behind us now! We stopped and explored some really cool ruins of an old pub along the way, and of course had to stop at the Tropic of Capricorn for a photo too!

We decided it was time to have a shower so we stopped at the Boulia Caravan Park for the night and had such a nice warm shower before making dinner and heading to bed.

The drive today wasn’t too bad; we made it to Mount Isa just after lunch and decided to have a pub lunch for a change. \240We both got Steak Sandwiches and after lunch checked into the Discovery Parks Caravan Park just on the edge of town.

This afternoon we unhitched the trailer for the first time this trip, locked everything all up and headed into Town and did a bit of shopping in the supermarket and butcher as well as Supercheap & BCF before setting up camp. \240It was much easier without the trailer to find a parking spot!

We had a bit of a later start today since we had decided to go to Autobarn to buy what we needed to make our small LED lights on the bullbar into DRLs. We stopped at the Mount Isa Lookout to take in the views of the city and the massive mines, and then filled up on fuel ($1.579) in town.

Today we were heading into the Northern Territory!

The drive into the Northern Territory is quite boring... lots of flat, plain, straight highway with only the occasional vehicle going in the other direction.

The highlight is actually the border sign, so we drove through Camooweal and stopped at the border for lunch.

We decided to stop tonight at Barkly Homestead; it will mean a long drive tomorrow to Alice Springs, but we really didn’t want to have to stay in Tennant Creek or Three Ways tonight.

We setup camp much earlier than we normally do, and Michelle slow cooked lamb shanks on the OzPig for dinner while I did some wiring on the Ute for our DRLs. It is a really nice place to stop and it was good to have a shorter day today.

We stopped in Three Ways for a quick break before continuing on to Tennant Creek and Devils Marbles.

Driving through Tennant Creek made us glad we stayed at Barkly Homestead last night! \240Being Sunday, it was a bit of a ghost town with everything closed up and bars/security on everything.

The Devils Marbles are just off the highway, so we took the turn off the Stuart Highway. Sadly it seems that they’ve put fences up around all of the marbles now, and heaps of signs which say you’re not allowed to climb them anymore!

I’m sure when we were kids we climbed all over the area... not anymore! Well, maybe a little bit of climbing can still happen 😜

We stopped just outside of Barrow Creek for lunch, just past the burnt out Commodore. \240While we were at the rest area we tried the ‘Mobile Hotspot’ which theoretically boosts mobile signal to make calls.

Surprisingly, it worked well enough to make a call home!

After a quick drive past the Barrow Creek Telegraph Station, we arrived in Ti Tree to see a guy on a push bike pulling in to 'refuel'. Yesterday we saw a guy pushing a pram along the Highway!

Only in the Territory would someone be crazy enough to do this.

We had a break for 10 minutes and ate our mini magnum ice creams before making the final 2-hour long trip to Alice Springs.

We made it to Alice Springs before nightfall and set up our camp for the next few nights.

On the way into town we drove past Bunnings... since it is a weekend we were so impressed we didn't need to stop - the first weekend in a long time; sadly, in setting up camp we broke our mallet on the hard ground so we doid need a Bunnings trip after all!

We should do a photo album of all the Bunnings stores across Australia & New Zealand!

While we were packing up the couple in the site across from us came over to warn us to lock everything; he told us that they got broken in to last night! \240While we were all sleeping the ‘locals’ snuck into the locked caravan park and reached into their camper trailer, took the lady’s handbag and stole the cash and car keys... opened the car and took anything little worth taking from the car and snuck off. We never heard a thing! I hope we have better luck than they did on this trip.

Needless to say... everything that could be locked was locked while we went out today.

We dropped the Ute off at Mazda and walked into town to look around. It is amazing to see so many locals just standing around all day - clearly they don’t have jobs and must be getting an income from somewhere else! Walking around town made us realise how good it is to live on the east coast and not The NT.

We had the car back at 12:30pm and picked up a couple of extra supplies. On the way back to the campsite we could smell oil but put it down to The Ghan which was travelling past us.

We decided to try the DRL’s again and when we opened up the bonet we could see oil splattered throughout the engine bay....They didn’t put the dipstick back in properly... so back to Mazda we went.

After the break-in across from us last night, we installed a solar sensor light over the kitchen. Now if anyone walks close by they will be blinded by out light 😀

Our dinner was the last two rib fillet steaks we bought from Mount Isa. They actually melted in our mouths. Each steak was massive and Justin ended up eating half of Michelle’s!

Not having the trailer made the highway drive a bit more exciting as we got to drive at the speed limit of 130km/hr!

Well, until the turn off to the Binns Track at least, then the driving was much, much slower.

Our drive on the Binns Track was to Hale River Homestead, and then Artlunga Historical Reserve.

This area was the original white settlement in Central Australia, and was settled because of the discovery of gold. The lack of water and heat ultimately was the demise of the town.

After driving this track and looking around the ruins, we can understand why the town didn’t survive.

At one point along the route, Michelle looked through the side mirror and noticed that the petrol cap had come off!

We didn't want our ute to look like the old falcons and commodores being driven around here so we turned around and retraced our steps. It was a very, very slow drive... it's amazing how much cow manure looks like the colour of our car!

Luckily we found the cap and put it back on, with some gaffa tape for good measure (ok that makes the ute look a little more local car!).

On the way back the same driving light fell off that previously fell off! \240This time, the only other bolt on the driving light came off, luckily we caught it before it caused any damage.

We also heard a very strange rattling sound and after a lot of investigation we discovered the bash plate under the vehicle was not put in properly by Alice Springs Mazda! Luckily we had the tools to fix that on the side of the road.

For the evening, we had dinner with Michelle‘s friend Megan and her husband Jay. We got back to the caravan park quite late and set the alarm for a reasonably early start the next day since we are going to leave for the west McDonald ranges tomorrow.

We also visited Ellery Creek Big Hole, and Ormiston Gorge before stopping and setting up camp at Glen Helen 'Resort'.

Dinner included dessert consisting of ice cream with ice magic and milo while we sat beside the Oz Pig.

It was freezing...........

Unfortunately the sun didn't rise how we all expected it to. Because if the cyclonic winds there was too much dust in the air which resulted a lot of haze.

We drove around Ayers Rock and along the way came across a little pull off area which provided a better vantage point than the designated 'sunrise viewing' areas.

We continued until we came to the climbing section. Both of us had climbed it before..... Justin when he was 10 years old and Michelle when she was in her mid 20's.

Neither of us could remember how steep it actually was until we laid eyes on it today. What were we thinking, climbing this dangerously steep rock with no safety!

Our next stop was the sunrise viewing area for the Olgas.

We arrived back at our campsite around 10:00am just in time for a 'before-lunch-nap'.

We took a drive into Yulara Town Centre to grab some necessities from the IGA before calling in to say "hello" to a friends' friend at the Shell service station where diesel was 220.9 per litre.

In the afternoon our neighbour popped over for a chat about our fridge slide. Ray said he had seen Michelle open the fridge and thought that was the best thing he'd seen and need to ask where to get one. He was also impressed with 'Max' so Justin showed him around our set up.

During the trip so far we have had issues with the flavour of the water in the water tanks. Justin discovered that our water hose is the culprit to the plastic flavour. This means we need to somehow get a new hose and re-fill our water supply. This may mean a change to our schedule and a trip back to Alice Springs.

The Valley of the Winds lived up to its name. The strong winds from our entire trip so far had followed us out there also. We walked the short 1.1kms to the first lookout, took some photos and decided it was time to head back to Alice Springs to buy the water hose.

Just before the entrance to the park there was a blimp on the side of the road. Apparently this will be the new option to see Ayers Rock when they officially close the climb in October 2019.

Curtain Springs was calling us again to stop for lunch, so after demolishing two steak sandwiches and chips we continued to Erldunda turnoff.

We were not surprised to see this tourist trap..... fenced Emus and Kangaroos for the tourist to visit. Everyone's out to make a buck I guess.

We arrived in Alice Springs and checked in about 6:15pm, had dinner and it was off to bed. Pity the pub across the road wasn't closing early... the music was loud until late in the night!

Our first stop for the day was the Telegraph Station, where we did a quick self-guided tour through the homestead.

After leaving Alice Springs we made our way down to Kulgera to visit the pub.

Next was the South Australian border crossing where all our fruit and veggies we just bought ended up in the fruit bins. Not happy!

We arrived at Cadney Homestead to find out that it is a really lovely spot so we booked our camper in for the night and decided to have dinner at the pub!

We had been tossing up which way to go on the journey home since we left Alice, but we knew we wanted to go south.

After passing the dingo fence, the plan was to make our way down to Coober Pedy then head back north to Oodnadatta.

After locating the "Big Miner" and "Big Winch" and taking a quick drive around to see the underground houses and RSL we found the local bakery for a quick bite. Not the freshest of products so we don't recommend this bakery to anyone.

We had been tossing up which way to go on the journey home and after looking at the start on the Oodnadatta Track we decided this was not the way and changed our destination to Port Augusta instead.

Along the boring drive to Woomera we decided to change plans again and head to the Eyre Peninsular.

We drove along the dirt road until we came to a Roadhouse at Kingoonya, then we chatted with the old owner while we ate our ice creams. He gave us some tips about the road ahead then we were off on our way.

He was right this area was beautiful and it wasn't long before we came across a massive dried up salt lake.

It was getting dark so we decided to pull over on the side of the road and set up camp for the night.

We slept really well overnight and felt refreshed ready for the drive to Streaky Bay. We passed some more picturesque salt lakes along the way.

Suddenly out of nowhere we hit a bull dust hidden pot hole. We weren't travelling fast and the impact felt hard. We pulled over immediately to survey any damage. The car was fine but the drivers wheel on the camper was badly bent out of alignment.

Our first thoughts were to work out what was actually broken. We took off the tyre and replaced it with the spare. Unfortunately this did not fix the angle of the wheel so we knew it was something more serious.

We also were in a place with no mobile phone reception so luckily we had the Satellite phone. RACQ wouldn't help us but ol' Pat Callinan's Club 4X4 seemed more willing to assist us.

For us to have reception on the mobiles we had to drive 15kms down the road towards Wirrulla past some more beautiful salt lakes and green farmland.

We drove this road four times to make phone calls to Metalian, uncle Dick and the insurers. Dick and Metalian both suggested we check the bearings..... but it wasn't the bearings - they were fine. We took photos and sent it to Metalian and Steven was shocked that the axle was bent.

The last option was for us to try and take off the shockies. Not something either of us had done before but we were willing to try anything by this time as it was getting late. We took the tyre off again and with Steven's help over the Satellite phone we could only get the shockies half off! We needed a small shifting spanner on the final nut and bolt. So we put the wheel back on again. By now it was dark, cold and late!

We were too tired to even cook dinner so we ate Shapes, a box of TV snacks and had a drink of soft drink while we positioned ourselves in the front seat of the car for the long night ahead.

We slept surprisingly well considering we slept sitting up. Our first job was to find a small spanner to get the shockies off, so we drove 40kms into Wirrulla to find a mechanic.

After paying a deposit to borrow a couple of spanners we drove back to Max, took the tyre off again and finally had success with getting the shockies off. Finally something was going our way! We swapped the spare tyre back to the original one and drove slowly into Wirrulla to return the spanners.

After chatting to the old mechanic Eric, he confirmed it was the axle and said he'd seen it happen before though.

In the mean time, Steven had organised a new axle to be made and was being transported from Adelaide up to "Hocko's Automotive" in Ceduna for installation - we just needed to get to Ceduna somehow. The only way without causing further damage to either Max or the tyres was to organise a tow.

We paid our $10 to stay in the Town's Park and set up camp for the night because we couldn't get a tow truck until morning.

Darren was happy for us to take the camper to the caravan park and bring it back on Monday morning. At least that way we have a bed, our food and clothes.

The caravan park is located on the beachfront and our lot is grass! Something we haven't seen for weeks!

So now we just wait until we hear from the insurance company.

The rest of today was very relaxing considering the stress of the previous couple of days. We took the opportunity to take it easy and get some laundry done in the sun.

Unfortunately there was no 'whistling' at Whistling Rocks and as the sea was low tide we only saw very small 'blow hole' action.

Luckily we could use the drone and managed to get us in the photo.

Streaky Bay is also known for catching the largest white pointer shark in the world. Back in 1990 Dion Gilmour went fishing and after fighting with the shark for 5 hours he dragged the shark 3 hours back to Streaky Bay.

You can see Michelle is really impressed being so close, even to the replica.

We continued south to Point Labatt to the seal colony.

From the point we returned north to Murphys Haystack. These gigantic Inselbergs are formed by the weathering of the crystalline Rock which leaves these boulders and pillars behind.

Anxious Bay was another beautiful Bay on the way south.

The Woolshed down at Tahlia caves was part of a group of limestone caves in the area.

"The Tub" down at Tahlia Caves was empty due to low tide but we still found an opportunity to get a great photo.

We continued all the way to Port Lincoln and found a nice hotel along the foreshore. As the Eyre Peninsular is renowned for their seafood, we decided to have some fish and chips for dinner.

We had a BBQ lunch on the foreshore then relaxed for the rest of the day. We envisage a fast trip home from Ceduna, so it's a good idea to rest while we can.....after all we are on holidays.

So we visited the bakery...... twice.

We sat at the pier for hours ....... twice.

Until.......... late in the afternoon when Hocko finally called to say Max was ready to pick up.

We inspected the old hollow axle and Hocko assured us the new solid axle will be much stronger.

So we checked into our usual caravan park for the night in preparation for our journey home.

After a quick bite for lunch on the side of the road, we arrived in Kimba and found the Big Galah and the 'Halfway Across Australia' Roadhouse.

(Note: Michelle and the galah are in matching colours 😂)

We had a quick refuelling stop for both the car and us. We decided to cash in our free fast food winnings from Maccas on the way through Port Augusta.

We drove over Horrock's Pass and through to Peterborough for the night.

The crossing between South Australia and New a South Wales was kind of a let down compared to the other crossings we have done; the sign wasn't worth stopping for and there was no fanfare... it's like you don't want to go into NSW.

We spent a bit of time looking around Broken Hill and drove up to see the 'Big Chair' and the Miners' Memorial at the lookout in town before continuing out of town along the Barrier Highway towards Wilcannia and Cobar..

We have seen most wildlife on this journey, except a camel (dead or alive). This includes:

Kangaroo, Emu, Dingoes, Cattle, Foxes, Wild Horses, Sheep, Feral Goats, Feral Pigs, Wombats, Blue Tongue Lizards, Bobs, Wallabies.

We like to see the animals... just would prefer to see them far from the road...

Just after leaving Broken Hill an emu walk straight in front of us on the highway. It came from nowhere! Luckily we missed colliding with it

We drove through Wilcannia; considered stopping in a shaded area in town, but since it had an abandoned old 4wd drive there, we decided to keep going until a rest stop out of town.

We stopped in the town of Cobar to see the 'Big Beer Can' (it's what we do on our trips), and then continued on to Bourke for the night.

Along the road there were numerous mobs of emus.......enough to start your own farm if you wanted.

After a quick bite to eat at the Walgett bakery we were back on road home via the Gwydir Highway.

We've clearly said goodbye to the green farmland of South Australia and now only see brown, dry or dead paddocks were crops once flourished.

We arrived back in Queensland and took our traditional border crossing photo.

Next it was on to Millmerran to see the Big Teepee, before making our way to Uncle Dick and Aunty Melva's place for the night.

We called into to Toowoomba to visit Lorraine for morning tea and ate our caramel tarts and custard slice.

The next stop was a sausage roll delivery for lunch with Nick and Kim before arriving at home at 3:30pm.

In total over the 27 days since we left, we have travelled through 4 states/territories totalling 10,416kms.

It's time to return to work for a holiday........🙂