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Tuesday 18th June
Today we awoke to another beautiful sunrise. We need to head back out onto Lassiter Highway and then onto Erldunda again before going onto Alice Springs. The plan was to have lunch and upload the blog while checking for emails. When we arrived the first thing we all did was checked out the menu for lunch. The boys ordered fish and chips and chicken and chips. OMG the portions sizers were huge!! They still managed to get through everything!! We spend nearly 2hrs doing all our internet stuff as well as making a few calls home. We heard from a fellow traveller that they had seen Valerie around Curtin Springs on her way into Yalara. She was making good time.
We hit the road again and noticed plenty of camels and wild horses on the side of the road. They have no fear so you need to be on a constant lookout for them. The landscape was changing constantly, seems to have been plenty of rain recently but nothing flowing into the rivers.
This was particularly evident when we pulled up for the night at Finke River Rest Area. The place was pretty full when we arrived and after a quick setup we wandered down to the barren river bed. It was about 50metres across but as dry as a bone. We caught up with a family of 5 that we had chatted to a Kings Canyon and then headed back for dinner and a fire. Most nights its 10' or below so the fire is very welcome. Chris and Rachel, another family travelling with 3 young children came over to share our fire and a chat. They are from Franklin, Victoria and are on the road for 4 months. Great night, off to bed at 10pm.
Had a light shower of rain on waking and headed for Alice Springs at 8.05am. It was overcast, drizzly and 12'. We have had this sort of weather with us the whole time and are beginning to think we have bought it with us.
The drive to Alice Springs was interesting with lots of hills and interesting rock formations. We followed the Ghan train line all the way into Alice Springs, and I really mean all the way as it runs right through town. I imagined Alice Springs would be dry, red and dusty but it is nothing like that at all. It's a thriving community with all the mod cons! There is however a sad element and that is the alcohol problem is evident here.
After registering at the Windsun Caravan Park (only just got in) first port of call was the hospital to have my toe checked. I wasn't keen on the idea of sitting around a hospital emergency department for hours so asked at the reception about local doctors. Luckily there was one about 400m down the road from the caravan park. We headed off there and were able to make an appointment for earlier in the afternoon. We then headed off to do our shopping and get some more wine. The liquor shops don't open until 2pm so we needed to leave that until after the doctors.
We had a quick lunch then headed back to the doctors. We didn't have to wait long and in I went. My toe looked great but I still need to have it covered and wear the silly sandal for another 2 weeks! I have managed to give the second crutch away for short walks only using it for longer walks. After leaving the doctors with a "clean bill of health" we headed off to Celebrations. The place was swarming with aboriginals getting their quota for the evening!
Back to the caravan to catch up with a couple of loads of washing before a cuppa with our other fellow travellers, Phil and Krys McKinnon and her brother Marion and his wife Sharon.
A lateish dinner and an episode of Game of Thrones before bed. Early start tomorrow as we are off to visit Historic Hermannsberg, a Lutheran Mission with was established in the late 1890's. It was about an 1hrs drive to get there and on arrival we were tempted to have the Devonshire tea on offer. This was provided by the aboriginal women who ran the old homestead and did a fantastic job. Two fist size scones with jam and cream and a make your own cup of tea. We had a wander around the old homestead including their own mortuary. The minister and his wife had 6 children and by what we could see had a happy life.
We called into Simpsons Gap on our way back to the park returning the following day to do the gorges in the West McDoonell National Park.
Ormeston Gorge was our first stop. A lovely waterhole with a nice amount of water for some ducks and a shag sunning itself on a rock. White river sand beach and great colours in the rock formations. I got some good photos of the reflections of the overhanging rocks but couldn't walk to far down stream because the river rocks were more like boulders!
Ellery Creek Waterhole was the nicer of the two. It had more water, with pampas grass around the edge and the flower of the pampas grass was coming away from the top and floating in the breeze. Getting a good photo was a bit tricky because the sun was shining straight through the gorge. Chris took a good photo of Glenn and I with the waterhole behind us.
We called into Sandley Chasm to see if I could do the walk there the following day. Phil and Krys had done the walk the day earlier and Phil didn't think it would be a good idea for me. No, definitely not for me. The walk would only take 20 minutes but involved crossing 3 river stone beds with loose rocks. The boys were keen to do the Ghan and Truck Museum the following day and Chris was keen to still do Sandley Chasm so I went with her and stayed in the car until she got back and then we had a nice serve of beef stew before heading to do the shopping. Glenn and Roger spent about 3 hours wandering around the museum fascinated by the trains and old trucks and cars. One of the open carriages was used to transport troopers from Alice to Adelaide, Roger knew this was how his dad would have travelled, no protection from either rain or sun!!
Glenn and I went to the Alice Springs Catholic Church for the Saturday night service while Chris prepared a nice Prawn and Salad dinner for our return. After dinner we caught up with another episode of Game of Thrones.
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