Finally, we were excited to be heading down the Old Ghan Railway track into the desert country, hoping to be able to camp at Chambers Pillar. There wasn't much information about whether you could bring a caravan in, so we stopped at the aboriginal community, Titjikala to ask and they seemed to think it was okay - a few sandy sections and one 'jump-up' that was a bit steep.

The road from Alice was initially quite 'chopped' up due to the race spectators, so lots of dust, and the Finke race track mostly runs parallel to the main track, so you can see the rough conditions the competitors face! Driving in to Chambers Pillar was good with no worries up and over the ridge. You can see the pillar from the top of the ridge as well as some other amazing rocky outcrops. This area is of historical significance both for the local aboriginal people and for European explorers as it was used as a key navigational point for the telegraph line linking the outback to the cities.

The Pillar looks amazing jutting out of the landscape - white, yellow and red colours which glow at sunset. You could walk around and up to the base and view the surrounding desert country as well as see the names of the explorers carved into the sandstone of the pillar!

We were camped about 500m away in the park amongst the desert oak trees with only one other family. Two other groups were at another site further away and joined us around our fire in the evening when the ranger came over to talk to us about the history of this area. The rangers do a talk one night a week at different locations in the NT and then stay the night - great job if you love the outback!

The following day we continued back on the road to Finke, however after about 10km, the road became very sandy, with sections of soft bulldust holes and we noticed a 4wd bogged about 200m in front of us. At this stage, we contemplated on turning around, however, after bypassing the 'bog hole' and speaking to the people ahead of us, we decided to continue on and keep an eye on each other along the way.

And we're glad we did, as even though the road was slow going, the scenery was very picturesque with historical railway ruins to stop at on the way. We arrived at Mt Dare before dark and decided to stop there for the night and enjoy good outback hospitality.