The HayRiverTrip 12-21 July A new morning and a new trip with a new group of travelling companions. We all met at the Birdsville Bakery for our pre-departure meeting. A quick trip inside to buy our lunch for later on the day: a curried camel pie and a kangaroo and claret pie. We were a bit dismayed to find that there were to be a total of 10 cars in the convoy. This would mean more time to get anywhere, more possibility of problems with cars (or individuals…...

No-one much seems to go the East Macs; all the action is around the West Macs with its more famous attractions and of course the Larapinta Trail. The road in is not so long and with a couple of days to spare before meeting up with the group to tackle the Simpson, we took to the road again. At the end of the tarred road is Ross River Resort - well, like Glen Helen Resort, the word 'resort' is used very loosely. It's really an old homestead on a working cattle s...

It has been about 44 years since Russ worked up here in Alice Springs for a year. He worked for Connellan Airways, later to be Connair, later in 1980 to be no more. He was a Qantas cadet back then getting his hours up before returning to Sydney to train on the big jets and fly with Qantas for 40 years. So one stop was the Aviation Museum, set inside the old Connellan Airways hangers. The inside of two hangers was stuffed with old radios, maps, photographs, ai...

Our night in the creek bed leading to Roma Gorge was an example of true quiet. We heard no sounds during the night - not a bird, not a dingo, not a cow. We could have been a thousand kilometres from the nearest life. Namatjira Road is littered with gorges and canyons, splits in the backbone of the West MacDonnell Ranges. All are part of the Larapinta Trail, a long trek across the West MacDonnells starting in Alice Springs now so popular with hikers. Our first ...

Our night in the creek bed leading to Roma Gorge was an example of true quiet. We heard no sounds during the night - not a bird, not a dingo, not a cow. We could have been a thousand kilometres from the nearest life. Namatjira Road is littered with gorges and canyons, splits in the backbone of the West MacDonnell Ranges. All are part of the Larapinta Trail, a long trek across the West MacDonnells starting in Alice Springs now so popular with hikers. Our first ...