On our way finally! Delayed by Lockdown (Yeppoon Trip)

 

Saturday 3 July 2021 – 310 716

This morning we got up at the crazy time of 3:30am!  Originally, we had planned to leave yesterday but had to wait for lock down to end.  After pumping up the tyres we drove to Maryborough Parkrun. https://www.parkrun.com.au/maryborough/

Our next destination was Capricorn Spire Visitor Information Centre – unfortunately the staff were neither friendly nor helpful.  

https://www.visitcapricorn.com.au/service/capricorn-spire-visitor-information-centre

Our campground for the net few nights is the Capricorn Yeppoon NRMA Park.  They were great when I phoned about needing to arrive a day later due to COVID restrictions. 

https://www.nrmaparksandresorts.com.au/capricorn-yeppoon/

After setting up we visited the Capricorn Coast Visitor Information Centre in Yeppoon. Thankfully I was able to obtain heaps of information for our stay.

https://www.visitcapricorn.com.au/service/capricorn-coast-visitor-information-centre

13 July - Hermannsburg and Cold! Cold! Cold!

13 July 2016 – 178 622

Hermannsburg and Cold! Cold! Cold!

It is freezing and windy this morning – I did not know it could be this cold when the sun was out.  I spent a couple of hours looking around the Hermannsburg Historic Precinct. 
http://hermannsburg.com.au/
This was the first mission in Australia and was set up by the Lutheran Church in the 1870’s, there are a number of buildings remaining with some still in use as private residences.  They have a collection of Hermannsburg watercolours, dot paintings and beautiful Hermannsburg pottery.  These are gorgeous decorative pottery containers painted with scenes of nature with the lids created as figurines of something from the scene, usually a bird or animal.  https://hermannsburgpotters.com.au/
We drove into Alice Springs this afternoon and did a mountain of laundry.  This afternoon the temperature topped at 13 degrees with 40km/hour winds – it was freezing!! We are camped tonight at Tropic of Capricorn Rest Area.

29 June 2016 - Stuart Highway

29 June 2016 – 176 718

Stuart Highway

I got up at first light to admire the Pebbles in the early morning light – they glowed red, just beautiful!! 

Packed up the van and headed to Lake Mary Ann for showers – there were two taps and hence we were hopeful of hot showers, it was better described as one tap providing water that was less cold than the other.  We were all definitely awake after our showers.  It was a lovely spot by the water and we saw Sturt's Desert Pea growing – the first time I have seen these.  Tennant Creek was a fairly small town, stopped off to get fuel and bread and then headed south.  We detoured slightly off the highway to Devils Marbles (Karlu Karlu) and drove through – these are beautiful and we will aim to camp here on our way north to Darwin so that we can see them at sunrise and sunset. We camped for the night at Tropic of Capricorn Rest Area about 30km north of Alice Springs.  Tomorrow we will headed into Alice Springs for a day or two before going out onto the Red Centre Way. They have a special satellite dish that has a spot to put your mobile phone, to boost the signal enough to make emergency calls.  They have signs for these periodically along the Stuart Highway.