We looked at the calendar and map together - 31 days until the Brisbane departure of our cruise to Papua New Guinea. 31 glorious days to weave our way across the isolated country of outback NT and QLD. 31 days of discovering new places, smells, sights and special camp spots.

Firstly we zeroed in what remained on our bucket list that was close to Alice Springs. Our map showed that the tracks to Chambers Pillar, Rainbow Valley and Finke were rough and little used - just the sort of roads we like to go exploring on.

Disaster struck 25 kilometres short of the 160 kilometre track into Chambers Pillar Historical Reserve. Bumping along the rutted dirt, Avan noticed the camper aerial on the roo bar fall forward and immediately braked to a stop. Unbelievably the heavy steel roo bar hung off the front, attached only by the spotlight cables and a few remaining bolts. It looked like a child's loose tooth when it has nearly wobbled out and hangs only by a thread. Even though it was late afternoon it was still 40 degrees and in the heat we swatted flies and surveyed the un-driveable vehicle, pondering our options. Avan checked out the few remaining points the hanging bar was joined to the vehicle by, and decided the best option was to remove it, hide it in the bush and collect it on the way back.

The low angle of the sun increased the urgency of the task as one of the best times to see Chambers Pillar was at sunset. Sans bull bar, we made it into the Historical Reserve just in time to enjoy the ambiance of a startlingly beautiful landscape totally on our own. October is a good time to travel it seems as it starts to get too hot for the winter grey nomads.

Chambers Pillar was first recorded and named in April 1860 by John McDouall Stuart, heading north on his earliest attempt to cross Australia. The pillar of sandstone towers 50 metres above the surrounding plain. Sandstone deposits were laid down in the area 350 million years ago and since then, wind and rain have eroded away the softer material, leaving this solitary column of pebbly sandstone.

After viewing the Pillar in the morning light, we set off to retrieve our roo bar from the bushes, squeeze it into the camper with the utmost difficulty, then headed straight back to Alice Springs to begin the process of warranty arguments and subsequent repairs.

Four days later we again set out to accomplish the rest of the places we had planned to go when we had to change plans on our Chambers Pillar outing owing to the roo bar debacle.

Heading South then East we camped in the Rainbow Valley Conservation Park. The main features of the Rainbow Valley area are the scenic sandstone bluffs and cliffs. These free standing cliffs form part of the James Range, and are particularly attractive in the late afternoon when the rainbow-like rock bands are highlighted. There were two other vehicles camping and we all joined together and shared camp oven cooking before going our separate ways the next day.

We headed towards Finke, but, before getting there, we found a small sign on a sandy track saying to "Lamberts Centre". We had read about how the Lambert Centre was calculated as the "centre of gravity" of Australia, the real and true centre. It seemed almost impossible to find, as once we turned onto the four wheel drive track it split into many tracks and all we could do was keep going on what appeared to be the most used set of wheel tracks. Eventually we had picked right and were excited to enter a clearing with a large flagpole in the centre. Found! - Lambert's Centre. In fact we had also found the most isolated flag pole in all of Australia so the sign told us. I think it was also the most highly populated place in Australia for flies!

The old historic railway town of Finke was next, with the whole population it seemed having a Sunday afternoon siesta. Not a person or dog in sight and the only sound was the hum of the houses air conditioners. Heading leisurely down the rough old Ghan track, we stopped at all the interpretive signs along the way telling the history of making the famous Adelaide to Alice Springs Ghan Railway, late afternoon we found a perfect campsite. Whilst enjoying a wine by the campfire we realised that we had not seen a single car since leaving Lambert's Centre - Love the outback.!

Time to leave Central Australia now and begin our journey East.