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Day 50 - 53 Alice Springs to Ayers Rock
After recharging our batteries and getting a few items like the fridge and battery fixed on our camper we are ready to hit the road again.We are getting in a little routine in our camper.Up around 7am, breakfast and then I wash up while Lil makes the packed lunch.After all the meals out during Asia we are loving our simple sandwiches and our evening meals of pasta or rice.Sun sets around 6.30pm so we try to get to the next site by 4 - 5pm so we can set up camp, and have dinner ready so we can enjoy a sundowner.Each day we are covering between 200 and 500 km although there is plenty to stop and do on the way.We thought we might have done some more hiking but unless you go at the start or the end of the day it really is too hot to do more than a 45 minute walk.Flies are the main pain and we have some nets to wear on our heads.
Our first stop out of Alice is the old historic Telegraph station which is the reason why Alice and most of the rest of towns through the outback were originally founded.Then we get on the road out west through the West MacDonnell Range mountains which form the main tourist route down to Ayers Rock which is about 500 km from Alice.The tourist infrastructure means progress is easy and we stop off at a number of waterholes, gorges, and chasms on our way to the Glen Helen gorge where we stay the night.
From Glen Helen we were originally planning to take an eight hour off road track to join the main road to Ayers Rock but based on local advice about forecasted storms in the next 24 hours which would make the track inaccessible we do a mini 3 hour round trip to Palm Valley in the Finke National Park which turns out to be the most challenging driving so far as it is along a rocky river bed and involves inching along so that the bottom of the camper does not get stuck.We also stop off at the site of a 400 million old crater site which is 5 km in diameter and which would have had an impact of a million times a nuclear bomb.The last 200 km to King's Canyon where we are staying the night is on an unsealed road where it is possible to do 80-100km/h however it requires a lot of concentration to stay on the road as it is all loose gravel and sand.At the campsite we take part in a quiz night - our performance was hampered by the bias in Australian questions but we still manage to win a bar of diary milk.Lil was not too impressed but I smuggled my box of wine in my rucksack for regular tops ups as we answered our questions on Australian wildlife and prime ministers.
We woke up at 5am to walk the 2 hour rim circuit of the King's Canyon during sunrise.This is the first place where there have been a lot of other tourists.Normally we might see 5 - 10 other campervans but there are a number of coach parties out of Alice who do most of the sites in 1 to 2 days.
Our Aussie animal count is going quite well.So far we have seen a rock wallabie; dingos; camels (including camel road kill); a big lizard that we ran over; crocs; and regular wallabies.No kangaroos or koalas yet though.We will keep looking.
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