COVID-19, what a nightmare, we were due to head over to the west coast of Australia this year however Mark had other ideas as he flipped the bird and told the rest of us bunch to get stuffed your not welcome. This had us in a spin, we wanted to continue with our family adventures but should we risk catching COVID, after some discussions and family dinner discussions, we landed on Darwin being the destination to end 2021, even if it is the wet season with a possible cyclone heading towards Darwin.

The Explorer’s way Road Trip.
We kicked off around 4:15pm on the 25/12/2021 and headed North to a place we have previously visited, it was some time ago back in 2018 on our very first trip in this van (click here to read), the Port Augusta Sports Club RV. Let’s face it, it was not empty but we didn’t have to fight for a spot as we manoeuvred the van into what seemed like a reasonable spot and unhitched to go and seek some Christmas dinner. After waiting for 30 minutes for fast food, it was somewhat a lacklustre dining event for Christmas but we have learned our lesson from this experience and be better planned for next time. During the night the wind was blowing its tits off and there was a constant rattle coming from somewhere underneath the van, we have never heard it before but it did not keep anyone up as we all crashed after a long day.

26/12 – Port Augusta to Coober Pedy (540kms), that’s why we try to break the trip up as today saw the heat rising and it was the best part of close to 6hrs travelling time, many a time with myself the only person keeping an eye on the road! Now we have also been to Coober Pedy so it was only going to be a stop overnight but gee we were lucky we booked, we had to cruise around the park and find our spot – pick any the lady said! Competing with the other 3 travellers we decided to keep away from everyone else but stay under the shade clothed area to keep some shade on the van, while sitting down to dine on our Taco’s a 4th traveller arrived and decided to set up right next to us! SERIOUSLY DUDE. A couple of things we noted – Showers are now time-limited to 5 minutes without the 20c surcharge and this was the shortest shower Emily has had for about 2yrs, the pool that was in construction way back in 2018 now has concrete but no water, so still a bit to go. Cruising down the main strip we noticed nothing had changed, but really what were we expecting…
Fun Fact: Coober Pedy also known for its Dingo Fence its the worlds longest fence at 5,614 km.

27/12 – Coober Pedy to Alice Springs (690kms), we kicked off around 6:15am as it would be a very long day in the driver’s seat, unfortunately, our day did not start that well, for some unknown reason the RedArc brakes needed to be calibrated again and our fridge was not changing over to 12v. A couple of moments passed and we were soon travelling northbound back on the Stuart highway, was this an omen. The landscape certainly changes on this part of the journey as you leave the brown/white dusty landscape and opal pits of SA you start to see the red dry barrenness of the outback desert. Another thing we noticed was the many car body’s that were left lying around, assuming they never made the trip back to collect.
The NT border, always have to stop and have the photo! but this is where we were expecting to see the NT police to check we had done all the prerequisites for entry to NT, we didn’t get away with it they were just parked about 30kms down the road. Now remembering I had some calibration issues with my brakes that we thought were fixed, we soon found out this was not the case as I entered the COVID checkpoint, I locked the caravan brakes on arrival and then a couple more times edging forward to where the officer was now looking at me with a sense of “your first-time mate” look. We had a couple of minor service issues to present the information but after a 15minute stop, we were ok’d to proceed, advised that we are now required to get RAT tests instead of PCR on days 3 and 6. On arrival at the Heritage Park in Alice Springs, it was a stinker…… drive-through site, van unhitched, air-conditioner blasting and we headed into the town – Dejavu, it felt weird that we had been here before and went to all the same shops again but this time we had to join the queue to collect our RAT tests, easy as. Our day finished with a small dip in the pool and smashing Satay Chicken with Cauliflower Rice, big day = early night.

28/12 – Alice Springs to Tennant Creek (510kms), well that was the plan anyway, as I had been reading and listening to as much information as we could around NT Covid, but to put it simply, more relaxed approach than SA and with lack of data due to remoteness this was proving to be harder than we thought. We did however manage to hear that Tennant Creek was in a lockout “no entry” which meant we had to change our plans on the road without any internet or phone reception and only a poor offline version of wiki camps. Our 5 hour day ended up being 10hrs as we travelled 920kms eventually stopping at “an off the track campground” called Daly Waters.
This was a big day, the outside temp got to 43 degrees, and at its peak, we decided a quick pullover stop at the Devils Marbles would be a great idea, it is certainly incredible to see how these rock formations balance on top of each other, just a pity it was so hot to really enjoy it and walk around. Today would also be a day of plenty of animal life on the roads and the odd one or two that is no more – we were very fortunate to see a few eagles, dodged a cow or 2 crossing the road and then there was that fella standing in the middle of the road, looking for me to pullover – as it was I personally was already only doing 90kph, given its 130kph a road train passed us.
Later that night (730pm) we pulled into a place as mentioned earlier called “Daly Waters”, sometimes the best places you find are the ones you take a chance on, and we were not disappointed here. This was a very quirky little place and the photos will tell you more than I can, I would highly recommend you pull in here to spend a night, we will be on the way home.

29/12 Daly Waters to Darwin (590kms), due to the massive day yesterday we found ourselves a day ahead of schedule to arrive in Darwin, a quick call to Hidden Valley Tourist Park and we were set.

Summary
Travelled 3,050 kilometres
4 Stop Overs – Port Augusta, Coober Pedy, Alice Springs, Daly Waters
Diesel Data: 396 L, costing $719, with the dearest being $2.18 per Litre at Erldunda, 12.9L/100km
Animals: Goat, donkey, horse, cow, sheep, emus, eagles, bush chicken’s, hawks, lizards