Banka Banka

Banka Banka Station was the first pastoral lease in the area and I think it was at one time was part of the huge Sid Kidman cattle empire.

These days it provides a great spot to take a rest out of the dust (has lush green lawn in the camping area) and is famous for its quality spring water.  Like most others we emptied what was left in our tanks on the lawn and topped up with sweet water.

View of Camp area and homestead at dawn

We stayed 2 nights (which is longer than most) and really enjoyed the stop-over. The manager’s wife borrowed some pumpkin off Linda to make some pasties and we were rewarded later in the day with fresh pasties and apple turnovers!

Bit like a western movie - get those vans in a circle!

Most nights they light a huge fire at the fire pit and whilst we were there they had an impromptu karaoke night which Linda really enjoyed (I watched the Eagles beat Richmond!!).

Hill above the camp - think the Perth sign is missing a "0"

Great spot – green grass, best water for 100’s of kilometers, cheap washing machines, and friendly neighbors –worth the stop.

Now with clean clothes, clean water we’re off to Longreach Water hole!

Alice to Edith Falls - Part 1

We took 11 days to travel from Alice Springs to Edith Falls (just north of Katherine NT) and stayed in four camps:

-          Devils Marbles – 1 night

-          Banka Banka Station – 2 nights

-          Longreach Water Hole – 4 nights

-          Bitter Springs – Mataranka – 3 nights

So I have decided to do four short instalments for our Alice to Edith Falls trip. This instalment is Devils Marbles.

A full camping area

Devils Marbles is a NT State Park which covers the very small area of outstanding and unique rock formations.  It’s about 120 km south of Tenant Creek and all travellers only stop for one night to witness the stunning sunset and sunrise colours of the Marbles. Very busy place and all allocated spots are taken early in the day.

Sunset on the Marbles

This is the second time we have stayed here and won’t be the last as this is a special place. 

took me 5 tries to get this photo right!

Standing there in the early morning light it is easy to understand why the Aboriginal people believe that this was a place inhabited by spirits.

Sunrise - wow!

Post card stuff!

On the subject of spirits – poor old Reverend John Flynn (founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service) is buried outside of Alice Springs. His tomb originally had a nice round stone from Devils Marbles placed n top but the “locals” complained and had it returned to Devils Marbles. 

Memorial to Rev Flynn at Three Ways

So poor old Reverend Flynn lost his marble and got a flat stone from the McDonnell Ranges instead!

The Battle with Kittle

The Pajero was due its 135K service so a week out from Alice Springs I googled Mitsubishi Alice Springs and Peter Kittle Motors was the authorized service centre so I booked the Pajero in. The sad sequence of events goes like this:

• 4^th June car goes in for service at Peter Kittle Motors - $1,700.28 later I grimace and pick up the car late in the day. A lot of money but it was a “major” service and considering the remote roads we planned to travel in the months ahead we needed to be sure our vehicle was in tip top condition.
• 8^th June we head off on our way north to warmer climes. 35 km out of Alice we stop at the Tropic of Capricorn roadside stop to check tyres and take photos. Bugger – oil all over front of caravan, oil all over rear mud flaps and under car. Slow trip back into Alice - book another 2 nights and wait for Tuesday to see Mr Kittle (Monday the 8^th is a public holiday in Alice due to Finke Desert Race).
• 9^th June – take Paj back into Peter Kittle Motors and fairly quickly its back on the hoist and the mechanic determines that it’s simply a lose bolt on the Oil Fill of the transfer case – tightened up and we are ready to go again!
• 10^th June we head north again. With some trepidation we stop to check things at the 35 km stop and yep – oil all over van again and all over under body of car! Slow trip back into Alice - unhook the van in the street behind Peter Kittle Motors – take the car in – up on the hoist and now the problem is diagnosed as a blown seal between the auto gearbox and transfer case. I question the service manager on how could it be possible that after 135,000 km with no leaks and no leaks found during their service how this could happen – just a co-incidence Mr. Britton!!  New seals are not in stock so ordered overnight air freight from Sydney.
• 11^th June – get a call from Service Manager late in day saying parts were mistakenly send road freight and another urgent air freight order had been put in!
• 15^th June told that neither set of parts could be found.
• 16^th June - parts found late in day.
• 17^th June parts fitted and I am told car is ready for pick-up. Ask to borrow torch to check under car and find blot missing from bash plate and other bolts on bash plate missing washers and spring washers! Take car for a drive to 35 km park and no leaks observed!
• 18^th June we head north again with caravan hooked up – stop at 35 km park and with fingers crossed and holding breath we check car and caravan again. Yahoo – we finally get 36 km north of Alice.

Now for the interesting stuff.

• I could not understand why the car would suddenly blow a seal after a service when I had not had a problem for 135,000 km and this only happened after the service.
• I pointed this out to the Service Manager who then refereed me to his manager – who regardless of any discussion or facts - point blank refused to consider any liability (it was costing me $38/night at the caravan park).
• It was also that at this point that I was starting to be treated like a leper rather than a valued customer. Never after this point was I addressed by my name – the standard response when I turned up was a brusk  - “I will be with you soon I am busy at the moment”.
• So with plenty of time on my hands I started investigating why this would occur during a service. By chance four vans from a caravan club pulled up next to us – three of the vans being pulled by Pajero’s  - same model as mine. Talking to one of the guys revealed he had an identical problem after the oil was changed in his auto gearbox. Turns out that the auto pajero’s for the last 4-5 years  have a drain, fill and level plug on the gearbox. Not just a drain and fill as earlier models had. If you fill the auto gearbox with oil till it comes out the ‘fill” hole you put an extra  4-5 litres of oil in and when everything warms us this blows the seal! I did a double check on the Pajero Forum and a guy sent me an extract from the Service Manual which backed this up.
• So under a couple of Pajero’s I went and yep there were the three plugs (not two as the Service Manage insisted were there).  The level plug even has the word “check” engraved on it. I also realized that as my car has a bash plate under the auto gearbox – you cannot remove the “check” plug unless you remove the bash plate first.
• Armed with these facts I once again confronted the dis-service manager I was now having to deal with (let’s call him Joe in this story).  We even went out to look at the transfer case and talk to the mechanic who worked on the car. I asked the mechanic if he had taken the bash plate off to change the auto gearbox oil and in front of Joe and I – he stated he hadn't – aha! I explained to him that there were three plugs in the box so he would not overfill it again when new parts arrived. Joe still refused to discuss any possibility that Peter Kittle had caused the problem and as I was getting pretty frustrated and hot under the collar by this time his behavior (and mine) was getting pretty poor and not something you would expect from a senior guy in a large business. I can distinctly recall a conversation where one of the other Service Managers chipped in – “we don’t have to work on your car – we can put it out in the street and get to it when we are ready”. Pretty close to a threat

So in summary

• $1700 service
• Peter Kittle over fills auto gear box by 4- 5 litres by filling to the fill plug level not the “check/level” plug level.
• When warm the gearbox pressurizes and blows rear seal
• Peter Kittle refuse to admit any liability and behaviors (now that I was not a paying customer) very poor from senior Peter Kittle staff.
• Cost of additional stay in Alice over $380 – never any offer to provide credit on original $1700 cost from Peter Kittle
• 10 days of sitting around in Alice without a car
• Never in the time from first bringing the car back to when I finally left Alice was there a “sorry Mr Britton” from any of the Peter Kittle staff.
• As the replacement of the gearbox seal was covered by warranty – it is likely that Peter Kittle charged Mitsubishi for repairs of a defect they had caused (so I am not the only one being ripped off).

Based on my personal experiences with Peter Kittle Motors Alice Springs I would strongly recommend if at all possible give these guys a miss and get your car serviced in Adelaide or Darwin – you don’t need the stress, cost and heartache!!

Finke Desert Race

By pure coincidence when we were staying in Alice Springs we were lucky to be in town for the 40th Finke Desert Race. This is a world famous race over 220 kilometres of desert from Alice to Finke and return the next day, We got up at 5:15 AM (that's in the  morning Esther :)) to get out to the Start/Finish line for the 7:15 AM start. It was very cold (around 1C) but worth the effort to watch these guy's burn down the track from the Start line heading out into the desert. The fastest car/buggie did the 220 km in 1hr 47 Min - if you do the maths that's an average of around 130 km/hr. We were told that they exceed 200 km/hr in places - now that would be white knuckles stuff!

As I took some video as well as photos I made a short YouTube  movie. Click on the link below to watch.



 https://youtu.be/lQ26-bXTYJA

East MacDonnell Ranges

Emily Gap

As we had spent a lot of time out in the West MacDonnell ranges on out last trip around Oz we decided to do a quick trip through easier part of the East MacDonnell Ranges. Plan was to stop off at the tourist points on the way to Ross River Resort for lunch and then finally get the Pajero into 4WD and head out to see the 5900ish petroglyphs (fancy name for rock carvings) out at N’Dhala  Gorge which is via a 22klm rough 4WD track from the resort. Unfortunalty the road into N’dhala gorge was closed due to recently heavy rains (can you believe our luck – a road closed due to rain in the driest part of the driest continent in the world!).

Caterpillar (striped) paintings - Emily Gap 

First stops were Emily and Jessie Gap’s which surprisingly are gaps in the ranges cut by Emily and Jessie Creeks J. 

Jessie Gap

Both have easy walks from the car parks to the Gap and there are Aboriginal Rock Paintings in the Gorge.

Doing the Corroboree Rock rock

Next stop is Corroboree  Rock which is an interesting formation. 

Corroboree Rock

There is a beaut little 15 minute walk around the Rock and if you listen carefully you can hear the didgeridoo’s in the rustling wind (well almost).

From Corroboree Rock it’s a half hour drive to the entrance to Trephina Gorge National Park.  It’s an easy drive in the 12klm to the end of the road the first 4klm being blacktop and the remainder good quality dirt road. There are two camping areas that have room for caravans and there were a few vans parked in these (something for us to consider next time we are near Alice Springs).  

Yep - lets do the Gorge Rim walk!

There are a number of walk options from the day visit areas rating from easy to moderate to difficult. We decided to take on the “moderate to hard” Trephina  Gorge walk signposted as a walk up to the Gorge Rim and then return via the river bed of around 1 hour. 

on our way to the top of the rim

As we slowly made our way up the uneven rocky path to the top of the rim I was starting to think that we had bitten off more than we could chew as Linda is only 4 months out from a total hip replacement. So in a slow step by step trek we made our way around the ascents and descents finally into the gorge river bed. 

What! - we are are not at the top yet!

My girl is a tough and determined lassie - must be her Scottish blood (half mule and half mountain goat J) – took us more than an hour and half but quiet an achievement for Linda (considering she was also carrying some of the bloody rocks she is always collecting J).

Trephina Gorge - love those red cliffs

After our trek we had a half hour drive to Ross River Resort for lunch. 

That guy on the left was part of Linda's burger!

Barra and Chips for me and a burger for Linda that had a meat paddy made from half a cow! Good tucker! There is a caravan park, a campground and some simple cabins available at Ross River Resort – once again all accessible by bitumen road so another option for our next trip back this way.  Couple of tidbits from Ross River Resort:

They had a sign saying the there is no “Ross River Virus” at Ross River Resort (guess they got sick of being asked), and

The Chef couldn’t work the till or use a camera – seemed more interested in playing pool with the young backpacker lassie working their then serving customers (perhaps he had his priorities right?).

John Hayes Rock Hole

Noting the N’dhala Gorge road we closed we headed back to Trephina Gorge National Park to a track we had noticed on the way in to John Hayes Rock hole – a 4 klm 4WD only track to a small camp and a couple of rock holes at the start of a small gorge. Finally the Paj was in 4WD!! and with Kerry smiling and Linda grimacing off we went. Turned out that 4WD wasn’t really required it was more about high clearance and wheel placement over the rocky sections – still the last few hundred meters of very rocky track would put a small smile on my mate Pete Ridley’s face. Nice spot – not sure if I would do it again – but off the bucket list.

On the way back to Alice we found some good firewood outside of the National Park area so good excuse to get out the new chain saw and have a cup of tea. We drove off the road to collect the wood and surprise surprise found ourselves bogged. After laughing about the irony of this we put the Paj into 4WD and easily extracted ourselves.

 Great day out - we will camp out here next trip through the "Alice"

Flinders to Alice Springs

Lake Hart near Woomera - normally salt - now water

It’s a 1,400klm drive from Flinders Ranges to Alice Springs. We planned to do this with 4 free camps but did it in three (not much to stop for and good roads).  The photos were taken on the trip.

Our Free Camp outside Coober Pedy at dawn

As we have spent some time at Coober Pedy last trip we didn't really do much sightseeing on the way – other than enjoy the slowly changing scenery as we headed north. So this blog is in the topic of water.

minimal "one nighter" - SAT TV and Internet

Before we headed out from the Flinders we did some research on where we can fill up with water along the way. For those who haven’t free camped for extended periods noting the technology for solar power and the ever reliable generator the only real constraint on how long you can stay away from caravan parks is availabity of good water.

Mullock Heaps outside Coober Pedy - yep that's a puddle of water

A few tips for future travelers:

Enjoying the first sun for days

•  If it rains while you are free camping collect water from your awning. After letting the dust and grime wash away, tie a rope around the lowest end of your awning and water will run down the rope into your jerry cans – pure rain water – there is no better! We collected 40ltrs this way whilst out at Flinders Ranges and could have collected a lot more if we wanted to.
• If you can - separate your shower/washing up water tanks from your drinking water tank – this will allow you to top up you shower water tanks from “suspect water” like clean rivers, lakes and bore water and keep your good drinking water in a separate tank.
• Email Visitors Centers of towns you are planning to travel through – they are generally very responsive and a great help locating that water tap. Coober Pedy for instance has a 24 hr facility where for 20 cents you can purchase 30ltrs of pure RO drinkable water (we filled up for less than a dollar).
• Talk to other grey nomads – we all have the same problem.
• We budget on using around 50ltrs/day while we are out in the bush which gives a 5 day endurance without rain or topping up the two 20ltr water containers we carry in the back of the Pajero. This is having a – get wet (tap off), soap and shampoo, wash off (tap on again) shower sing less than10ltrs each.
• When you are free camping run your taps at a trickle and make sure you don’t let any go down the sink till the water is  really dirty!
• If you stay in a caravan park before heading out bush make sure the last thing you do on the day you leave is to have a long hot shower.
• Drink lots of beer and wine – this helps save water J