Day 5 Matt's birthday

The Rock
Temperature 26 - 38C
Distance Travelled 2524km
Tracks
We visited the rock up close today, unfortunately we're not allowed to climb it, many explanation s as to why not but we put it down to over regulated like many things in this area, like the parking the shopping baskets drone usage etc etc..
Anyhow as much as this place has ruined a natural experience the rock is still spectacular to see. We attempted to fly the drone over the Olga's but the wind through the valley was too strong so we had to abort mission.
We celebrated Matt's birthday with a cake after dinner and spent new years eve playing cards and laundering our cloth's in preparation for the the next leg of our trip

Day 4 The Rock

Kulgera to Yulara
Temperature 32 - 38C
Distance Travelled 2361km
Link1
We left Kulgera after a late well deserved sleep-in. 320km to the rock not 130km as the publican had advised, and although the speed limit on the roads was an inviting 130km/h we decided on 110km/h to conserve fuel so the GS could make it on a tank.
Another hot day and we spent the later part of it in the pool at the outback resort where we managed to find a couple of rooms.
Very touristy as we expected but you cannot come to this part of the country without dropping in on the rock, Olga's and kings canyon. We plan to stay here 2 nights to celebrate Matt's birthday and new years eve in a little luxury.
We hear weather is very bad in Alice with thunder storms and low 20C temperatures. no sign of bad weather here even though we are only a few hundred km's away.

Day 3 Smells like rain

Glendambo to  Kalgera
Distance traveled: 2038km
Temperature range: 32 - 38°

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Link2

Another long day driving, after breakfast at the inn from hell we set of for kalgera NT. But not before we stopped in at Coober peddy to check out the old mines and scratch round for some opals, Matt managed to find a rock with some remnants, no phone coverage north of here until we reach the rock. We then took a detour down the oodnadatta track to the dog fence and the rock castle's, the scenery was spectacular, JC managed to stay upright all day today after offloading yet another bag. The last bag failed inspection and uncovered a soft pillow, after interrogation JC owned up to it and identified his partner in crime Carmel whom he tells us forced him to bring it and made it specially for him.
We headed into Kalgera after 6:00pm on the way passing brumbys and stray cattle.
It was odd to see these outback roads with green grass at its edges, later we would learn that the highway was under water a few days earlier with 4 feet of rain blocking it off. The roadhouse here is a marked improvement on last night with a clean refreshing pool. Dinner at the pub was awesome and the foos ball table kept us amused for ages with its players spinning freely and a ball return that made you fetch it from the floor. Matt was so amused he Injured himself in fits of laughter.
The publican gave us a few tips on where to stay at the rock and informed us that the highway north of 3 ways (Tennant creek) was under water and expected to remain like that for a week.

Day 2 Hahndorf to Glendambo

Distance Travelled 1345km
Temperature 15 - 35°

MyMap Link

Packed up the tents and headed off on day2 from Hahndorf, breaky at the local subway along the way to ensure a fast exit for the trip today (no prizes for guessing who's choice subway was). A fair bit of holiday traffic up until Port Augusta, then there were only the few fool hardy travelers such as us beyond that point. The temperature was above 30C from 10:00 AM onward.

Emma's highlight was conversing with a goat, rather a long conversation was had. She also was quite distraught when passing a number of trucks with full loads of happy chickens on a once in a lifetime trip away from their pens heading to the ingham resort.

The Stuart highway soon became a desolate place with salt-bush and rock replacing the dry grass and spindly trees. A number of salt lakes we visited, Matt collecting his montage of soils and salt into his plastic bottle. We drove out onto a patch of salt lake behind a department of defense restricted area, a number of vehicles were rusted to the core, we were expecting the black-hawks at any time now...

It was a long day of driving Joe struggling to keep upright on a number of occasions, luckily these occasions were when he was near stationary.
Every day now JC has produced an extra piece of luggage that needed to be stored in/on the car. Travel light was the original message to Joe, don't know where all this extra luggage is coming from but rumor has it there is illegal contraband in the form of a pillow, this item was strictly forbidden and JC was well versed in these instructions.

The highlight for today would have to be the accommodation at Glendambo Resort, a place even Google appears to not know how to find or spell. Lets just say they saw us coming... ok We cant stop there, The leaky toilet the missing tiles in the bathroom, fungus, that smell, the algae in the pool, not to mention the gaping hole in the restaurant ceiling.
Its a place much like the Viking at Sea-world that will forever be en grained in our memories in order to gauge the lowest possible end of accommodation  .

  

Day 1 set sail

Melbourne to hahndorf

Temp 11 - 25°

Distance Traveled 720km

MyMap Link1

MyMap Link2

Joe froze his arse off leaving Melbourne 11°. Highlight of the day for Emma was when a little kid threw his pregnant mum's keys down the drain in the KFC carpark. Joe's highlight wind, not his usual gastric issues but when a gust of wind nearly blew him off the bike, let's just say his got some washing that needs doing tonight. Matt finally burst his little friend from its stronghold on his chin, this was grossing Emma out all morning. Emma drove tubby over her first border today, we were going to take a photo of the SA border but we missed it. We tried to get a motel room for the night in hahndorf . in the hole town there were only two rooms with a queen size bed in each, we couldn't decide who was going to sleep head to toe with Joe, needles to say we got a tent site for tonight 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxii4NxO3YcpXzhBbl9EZ3h0OEk/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxii4NxO3YcpOFBYYkhDZXY4Q1E/view?usp=drivesdk