It took us until just after lunch today to retrace the Chambers Pillar track, complete the Ghan Hertiage Trail, and arrive in Alice Springs - often called The Alice by Australians. The Chambers Pillar Track had a spectacular example of a bull dust hole. This is an area on a road or track where the soil has turned to dust about the consistency of talcum powder and the powder or dust fills one or more large holes in the roadway making the hole very difficult to see. The last three photos are of our vehicle driving through that bull dust hole.

In the past two weeks or so since we left Hawker we have travelled approximatelt 2500 km (about 1500 miles) and all but 200km of that has been on non paved roads that vary between wide and smooth (occassionally) to (commonly) narrow, rough and rock or sandy. These roads have been either main highways or minor roads that are used regularly by travelling retired people like Nina and I or families on vacation. Travelling vast distances on remote "dirt" roads is one of the distinguishing features of overland travel in Australia so I thought I would include a short video of some of these roads. This is our first attempt at video in our blog so please excuse the poor quality of the editing.

I left the original sound track as the rattle and bangs from the vehicle help communicate the roughtness of the roadways.

While having coffee at Mt Dare yesterday we got a recommendation for a "good" campground in Alice Springs. The name G'Day Mate Tourist Park .. no kidding that's its name.