Open Day Trip to Arltunga, Hale River Homestead and Ruby Gap - 14/15 March

16 Mar 2020 by Bernhard Kuepper

One day trip leader James O’Connell
Overnighter trip leader Bernhard Kuepper
Day 1

Day Trip Group
13 Vehicles met at Heavitree Service Station for a 10.30am depart. We drove east along the Ross Highway, a wonderful reminder of the amount of rain we have recently received. At the Arltunga Tourist Drive turn off we all stopped briefly to air down. The ARB crew were in fine form, with Dan taking the term “airing down” literally, and not leaving any air in, and shortly after setting off, Mike decided to go one better by shredding a tyre. We stopped off at the Arltunga Historical Reserve Visitor Centre, where Brenton, after having surging issues, carried out a routine service in the car park. Once team ARB had all vehicles operational again, we carried on to the old police station ruins, then on to Hale River Homestead. Everyone had an enjoyable afternoon at the homestead, where we had a few refreshments at the bar, BBQ lunch and a dip in the pool. The spot prizes and raffle were drawn. Congratulations to, Rhys, Brenton, Dan, Jess, Neily and Angela. Those of us returning to Alice bid farewell to the happy campers and set off for the evening drive home. Thank you to all who came along, and we welcome our new members. Also, thank you to the people and businesses who donated such generous prizes.

End of day 1
Before dinner a group of three vehicles with Kate, Mark, Jess, Brenton, Annette, the kids, Will and myself drove up to the sunset viewing point and farewelled the sun for the day. The colours and views were amazing.
After return we were served to another fantastic Burger Dinner at the homestead. After that we had a great time with lots of laughs and good conversations.
We all had a good night sleep, some shorter and met at the à la carte breakfast. At 10am on Sunday a group of 6 vehicles left towards Ruby Gap. At the turnoff Ian and Peta went straight home. We continues at a low speed to assess how the VW Transporter would do. It did very well! The scenery was as green as we never had seen it and there was water flowing in the river.
We tried the first part of the park, but the sand was too soft. I made 150m and needed a few sand boards. After dropping the tyre pressure to 8psi the Cruiser made the turn around and back to the other trucks. There I found that the 4WD didn’t lock in to start off with and I did it all in rear wheel drive.
We turned around, had some lunch on the way, cleared half a tree of the Binn’s Track and finally aired up at the Ross Hwy.
From there we dove back to Alice and parted.
We all agreed that it had been a great time, lots of laughs and memories made. Old and new club members were keen to continue doing the next trips.
Thank you everyone for coming out.
Bernhard



Location

Ruby Gap, Northern Territory, Australia

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