We left from Western New South Whales and went South to see some family and friends before heading to the other side of the country. We have been on the road for a couple weeks now, currently in the Barossa Valley in South Australia. So far, we have stayed with family, camped by a lake, stayed in the Grampians, and parked our van next to the beach. I will update this page and map as we go along on our road trip and share our experiences and adventures. We will be taking the famous Stuart highway up to Katherine, then the Gipp river road to Broome. As you can see by the map, we have LOTS of kilometres to cover. We have not planned any stops along the way, we are just taking it day by day! (Yes that rhymed, yes it’s lame, yes I’ll keep it). I hope you enjoy our travels and if you’re reading this and have any tips, please feel free to share! Syd n Sam x
Port Augusta, SA
We are making our way through South Australia slowly, the last two nights we stayed 30km south of Port Augusta along the ocean at Chinaman Creek campground, in the Winninowie Conservation Park. It was an extremely quiet and peaceful couple days; I read my book and Sam did a little bit of fishing. We are now staying in a caravan park in Port Augusta for the night; this is the first time in our travels that we have had to pay for camping. We pulled up with our old school caravan next to all the flash new ones and we were greeted by all the other caravaners, none close to our age of course. The caravan community is really funny, we’re excited for all the characters we will meet along the way. Up next: we are leaving Twiggy behind for a few days to go explore Flinders Ranges and Lake Eyre!
Flinders Ranges, SA
We decided to leave Twiggy behind and have an unplanned long weekend in the outback of South Australia, and oh my was it an adventure. First night we stayed in the Flinders Ranges, and it was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. I never gave the Flinders Ranges much thought because it was never easily accessible. We were both blown away by the peacefulness and scenery. We achieved an 8.2 km walk followed by by dinner on the campfire, looking at the sky full of stars.
The next night we drove up to a town called Marree, a quaint outback town with a population of around 100 people. We had no idea that it was a big weekend for the town; they had events all weekend making it busy, so we made friends with some locals and we had an awesome night out. There are not enough words to describe how great small outback towns can be, everyone is super interesting and very friendly. Next day we went to Farina, a historic town with a very small population but a popular underground bakery! This bakery is only open 8 weeks of the year. We heard people rave on about this place so we drove to it and after waiting in line anticipating a tasty veggie pastie, they had run out of them for the day. We were gutted, I still highly recommend the experience!
So this is where things get interesting for us, running out of vegetarian options at the bakery wasn’t the worst part of our day. We wanted to go explore the Gammon Ranges National Park and visit Arkaroola, another outback town we had heard was worth seeing. Signs everywhere warning us of the lack of service stations for 400kms and to come prepared for this gravel track. No problem for us, we had jerry cans, extra water, food, tools and a spare tyre. We drive 60kms and pop a tyre, we had a spare so we weren’t too worried. We keep driving and nearly 30km from our destination we pop another tire. Luckily for us, there was a sign saying “Gammon Ranges Headquarters, 200 metres away” so I walked up the hill to get some help. I have seen way too many movies and I started getting really nervous. Being the long weekend no park rangers were around but fortunate for us, three couples from Adelaide were volunteering in the park for a couple weeks. They took us in, gave us rooms, showers, and food. Next day our luck kicked in and the bloke at the auto shop sent two tyres our way. Tip: adjust your tyre pressure according to the roads you are travelling through. We were told to lower our tyre pressure to 30. Next night, we stayed in Parachilna, they had a cute pub so we thought beers were well deserved. We are now reunited with Twiggy, leaving for the centre of Australia tomorrow morning. We feel so grateful for the people who helped us, we will make sure to pass it forward!
Coober Pedy, SA
I LOVED COOBER PEDY. I had no expectations or knowledge of the town except that it was famous for opal mining and underground housing due to the extreme temperatures. Sam and I stayed at Jam B&B, first night in a room underground and second night in the van parked above ground. The room was fantastic, pretty old fashioned but extremely quiet, with a constant temperature that made it great for sleeping. We visited Crocodile Harry’s and the Old Timers Mine Museum. I really enjoyed the museum, going underground and seeing how opal mining worked back in the day (I liked it a lot more than I thought I would). We also went to the Breakaways Conservation Park which was stunning and easily accessible. Tip: cheap park passes and brochures can be found at the visitors information centre in town.
Uluru, NT
We finally crossed the NT border and I can finally say CU in the NT!! This is our fourth state we crossed so far in our trip. I have been anticipating to go to Uluru/ Ayers Rock ever since I first came to Australia! It was even better than I could have imagined. The large sandstone is extremely impressive, especially during sunset and sunrise, the colours are beautiful. We stayed at Ayers Rock Resort which is the only place that allows camping (big shame), and it was really busy and pretty expensive as far as camp grounds go. I recommend finding a spot for sunset (make sure to go early, beat the crowds) and bring a few beers! The next morning we woke up early, watched the sunrise, then walked the base walk around Uluru, took us a few hours.
Kings Canyon, NT
WOW. Kings Canyon was beautiful. We stayed at Kings Canyon Resort for the night (but there’s free camping 20km up the road) and we had a blast. The campground has a pretty good pub, we had a great night meeting people, listening to live music. It was also our first time seeing a dingo on this trip, we ran into him on our walk back to our van from the pub. We did a hike called the “rim walk” that we thought was amazing. The first bit was exhausting but once you got to the top the views were stunning. We spent the first half of our trip driving and eating so it feels great to be walking around getting some hiking done. There is no cell signal in this area so it’s a great way to disconnect, I highly recommend Kings Canyon, especially if you want to get your legs moving!
West Macdonnell Ranges, NT
Would you believe it if I told you we took our 1970’s van on a dirt road for 160 kms? Yep we sure did (against all of the oldies advice). We really wanted to explore the ranges from start to finish so we took the Larapinta road towards Glen Helen. Someone told us this road used to be the worst track in Australia. We heard it got graded a few weeks back so we figured we could manage, but to be fair we hadn’t had service in a few days so we couldn’t really do our research, we were going in blind! The drive was so beautiful, one of the nicest scenery I’ve seen in Australia but it was hard to relax because we both kept waiting for something to happen to the van. We saw heaps of wild horses and a couple camels, made the drive worth it. Luckily, Twiggy only had a broken window, broken fitting on the water storage tank which was easily fixed and lots (and by lots I mean LOTS) of red dirt inside every inch of the van. Anyways, we were rewarded with a beautiful camping spot at the Glen Helen Resort campground, which was completely unplanned. We stayed for two nights, a perfect way to hike and explore all day, and come back to drink a glass of red wine and watch the sunset. The ranges were very easy to explore, and easily one of our favourite parts of our adventures so far! Unfortunately it was a bit too cold to swim in the water holes. From the ranges we left to Alice Springs to regroup for a couple nights. We cleaned the van, replaced the window, and did a huge grocery shop getting us ready to head up north to the waterfalls and warm weather! The red centre has been AMAZING. Our only minor disappoint is how expensive everything is. We had to pay for certain roads to drive on and national parks on top of everything, which we understand to a point, however this morning we tried to do a ten minute walk to the popular lookout Standley Chasm, and they asked 12 dollars each. We drove 50km to get here and they didn’t even take eftpos, we decided to skip it. Overall, our experience has been fantastic and I hope my friends reading this get to experience it one day for themselves!
Daly Waters & Mataranka, NT
We have been enjoying our time exploring and disconnecting from the internet, hence the lack of updates on the blog. I figured it was about time to update our friends and family on our adventures!! We stopped at the famous Daly Waters pub for the night, perfect place for a Sunday sesh… while we found the pub very touristy it was really beautiful. They had live music on and plenty of memorabilia to look at. Great spot to stop for the night. Next we went to Mataranka, famous for their hot springs and waterholes. We took a friends advice and stayed at the Bitter Springs camp site, where we woke up both mornings at 6 am to be the first to dip in the springs! (And get the perfect pictures of course). We also did a four km walk along the riverbank to the Mataranka waterfalls. We would choose the Bitter Springs over Mataranka springs because it felt less busy and more unique. Side note, if you love palm trees Mataranka is the place for you!
Litchfield National Park, NT
Woweee Litchfield was cool. It was the first national park that was totally free, and we found it the most beautiful. It was easily accessible and had so many swimming spots. We did a 2km hike up to the cascades and it was so serene, best part is we were alone up there for a while (very rare out here!) While I was swimming in a little rock pool, Sam walked up the stream and saw two crocs lounging in the sun. Crocs and I both love sunning ourselves, as long as were not sharing the same rock pool… We then drove to the other popular waterholes and enjoyed the views. We left the van at the caravan site so we took a 4WD track where we had to cross a river (infested with crocs) that led us to the most beautiful waterfall. Staying in National Parks is our favourite, we rarely have service and apart from camping fees we don’t have to use our bank cards, always a bonus!
Kakadu, NT
On our way to our next adventure, we thought we would treat ourselves to an excursion, since we haven’t paid for one yet. We took our friends advice and did the Jumping Crocodile Tours in the Adelaide River. IT WAS AWESOME. Crocodiles are so beautiful and interesting when you’re sitting in a boat far far far away from them. The tours did no harm to the animals and operated in a way that was natural for the crocodiles in their environment. It was bloody cool. We even got to see a rare crocodile feed that David Attenborough came to film but wouldn’t show up for him. Before we even went to Kakadu, we heard some people say Kaka-don’t, but that did not stop us from exploring the largest national park in Australia, also some of the most photographed places! I was really excited to go, and I’m so glad we did… oh man it was beautiful, extremely crowded in some areas but still beautiful. We had to park our van in tourist parks which was a bit costly because Kakadu is meant for 4WD vehicles (sorry Twiggy). All the tracks to the waterfalls and main spots were dirt tracks which I found surprising since its so touristy. We had to cram everything in three days but we could have stayed a lot longer. The park is huge and everywhere we went we found spots we wanted to further adventure for the next time. First night we went to Ubirr, enjoyed the culture walk up to the look out. This would be a perfect spot for a sunset however timing wasn’t right and we were cooking it was so hot so we ditched and had dinner back at the caravan site. Second we explored Nourlangie Rock (great aboriginal art) and Jim Jim falls. We were quite surprised to have Jim Jim falls almost all to ourselves. What an impressive waterhole. Next day was my favourite part of Kakadu, and I’m sure you’ll see why from pictures. We went to Barramundi falls and explored the plunge pools at the top of the waterfall, it was unreal wow. Then we went to the instagram famous Gunlom Falls. It was busy but it was really nice, who doesn’t love swimming while looking over Kakadu National Park? I hope you enjoy my pictures, and yes Sam is becoming a great instagram boyfriend!!
Beauty And The Bogan 