Sally & Brad hit the Outback

Hi guys -- Sally and I just got back from a trip to the Outback.  I met Sally at Alice Springs after a work field trip.  She joined up at a work meeting I had at a cool little rustic resort on the headwaters of the Finke River (about the size of Barton Creek on a good day...if it's running...).  We took about a week driving back to Adelaide stopping to visit Ayers Rock and Dalhousie Springs, one of my field sites.  And it rained.  A lot.

We took a little field trip to Palm Valley during the meeting at Glen Helen.  First thing we had to air down the tires to get better traction in the sand.  Work sent me to a 4x4 course for my field work, so I was pretty stoked to put the skills to use!

Of course, somebody got stuck!

We took time to take a dip in the coldest spring-fed swimming hole ever -- Elery Big Hole (best said in a Texas accent).  

We took the tourist bus to Ayers Rock from Erldunda, about 3 hours south of Alice Springs.

Sally's Texas name for me (in the form of T. Boone Pickens, J. Walter "Bubba" Walberg, and others...) is B. David "Dirtball" Wolaver because I always manage to get dirty when we are out and about.  Here's my dirtbag of gin-u-ine Central Australia red dirt.

Ayers Rock (or Uluru) is sacred to the Indigenous Peoples.  Here is a sign for a women's fertility site.  Those of you who speak Spanish will get a laugh out of the name.  HHHHHAAA!

Sally got this great shot of a clearing storm on Uluru.  Wow.  Nice work.

I really like the waterfalls.  We were really lucky -- rain only 2% of the time does this!

After Ayers Rock, we drove through Finke Community (where I've been working on surface-groundwater stuff after a huge Finke River flood last November) and on to Dalhousie Springs.  On the way is Mount Dare Hotel (no mountain), but they have lots of cattle ranches and gates to crawl through.  Sally is going to follow with an Australian Cowboy blog after our visit with Donny at New Crown Station for "a cuppa" en route to Mt. Dare for diesel.

We went for a swim at Dalhousie Springs -- where I'll be working a bit.  The main pool is hot-tub temperatures and pretty nice swim.  This place is the largest spring complex in Central Australia, so I'll be working on sorting out where the water is recharging from to protect the area from too much groundwater withdrawals.  It's such a unique ecosystem, it is located in Witjira National Park.

The rain followed us to Dalhousie and we spent an extra day waiting for the roads to mostly (kinda) [not really] dry.  This is the road out of the park back to the Oodnadatta Track -- sort of a main highway of dirt roads.  The antenna is our CB radio.  Low range, 2nd gear and slog through the stuff.  In addition to pools of water, we also slid our way through some pretty deep mud.  I washed the work truck today and the guys charged be $15 extra for all the dirt that fell off...   It's generally not a good idea to ride on wet roads here, as it ruts them up really badly (not fun to drive on when the mud finally dries), but the rangers opened road up, so we went for it...

Before returning to pavement at Coober Pedy, we stopped for more diesel at the Pink Road House in Oodnadatta.

They have fun hats there... 

More puddles on the track to Coober Pedy from Oodnadatta.  The road finally dried out -- it forms ruts in the pebbles.  The larger tracks can have 4 separate paths.  This medium sized track has 3, so you share the middle with oncoming traffic.  Not bad on the open stretches, but you have to scoot over on corners and hills, or just bump it out on the left-most path.

They mine opals in Coober Pedy.  The name means "white man in a hole" in an indigenous tongue.  We stayed at The Underground Motel.  Kinda cool!

Last day of drive we stopped for afternoon tea at the Port Augusta botanical gardens -- all native desert plants.  And a nice cafe where we had quandong cheesecake -- it's a native, tart fruit a bit like a peach in flavor. YUM.  

HOME!  More later.  Lucky for such a great trip.