John and Alisons Anti-Clockwise Odyssey

After our break in the centre we pressed on up the Stuart to Karlu Karlu where we overnighted in a fairly busy little site near what used to be called the Devils Marbles. From there we took the Barkly Highway even though Google persisted in saying it did not exist all the way to the Queensland border and Camooweal where we stayed behind the pub. The next morning we found a billabong nearby full of birds and lilies A fellow camper gave us the tip off of where to stay next. Clem Walton Park, Corella Dam just outside Cloncurry. This was by another billabong, which we camped by, under the shade of a coolabah tree and near some campers Alison suspects were doomsday preppers. We continued our dash across Queensland to meet our old friends at their property near Charters Towers. The next day they showed us around the cattle saleyards which especially appealed to Alison as she reminisced about her upbringing on...

After a good break in the Filnders we had a stock up in Port Augusta where we visited  the excellent Australian Arid Lands Botanics gardens. We continued on and stopped at a station a few hundred kms up the road. Nothing really there but a flat site a decent distance from the road but it suited us for a quick stop. We rose early to this sunrise and headed on up the Stuart. We put in a big 700 km day and stopped the night at a roadhouse just over the border in NT. The next day we pushed through Alice Springs to Trephina Gorge in the East MacDonnell  ranges.  The scenery  and birdlife here is stunning and camping sites and infrastructure  really well set up, and mostly empty. We have done multiple walks here including one today called the chain of ponds walk that descended through red rock gorges skirting ponds of water. Stunning, though maybe we should have been doing bouldering with Catherine and Kate to prepare.

From Kinchega we drove down towards Adelaide and had a night in Nuriootpa in striking distance of the Offline factory. The next day we had our door repaired and restocked our supplies and had a quick tour of Adelaide.  We had a night at a lovely community caravan park in Auburn before proceeding on to Argadells in the Flinder Ranges. It is a sheep station  that has set itself up well with good facilities ( we have the luxury of and ensuite and the place mostly to ourselves) and 4WD tracks through some amazing country.  We drove up to Mt Arden on the 'green' 4WD track that was hairy enough  for me so I didn't try the yellow or blue tracks. From the top of Mt Arden  we could see from Lake Torrens to Wilpena Pound. We had planned to pivot to the Birdsville  track but flooding rain there quashed that plan so we are pivoting again. Our trip so far going south and west, somehow has not managed to get us north and east. So we now plan to hoot up the centre and tur...

(See below for translation) We arrived at Mutawintji and commenced following the prescribed set up procedural checklist as part of our risk mitigation strategy. However not all all contingencies were anticipated and despite following  correct protocols  this resulted in a major incident with significant  impact. Our ingress point to our camper suffered a malfunction resulting in reduced camper performance.  A post incident lesson learned exercise failed to adequately find the root cause. Team members  showed great resilience and creatively  in seeking solutions resulting in a bush mechanical solution.  An over-abundance  of precipitation then resulted in failure  of our forward planning, however our agile team quickly  pivoted to a new scenario with a south west ward as opposed to a northern trajectory. Team members then consolidated their plan during a three day retreat that increased their positivity. A new plan that included seeking t...