Jun 22, 2018 - Day 21. Alice Springs.

Day 21. We have arrived at our last day in Alice Springs. It has been a momentous week and we are really happy with all we have achieved in filling the gaps left from our previous visits. This morning we are cleaning and sorting the van out in preparation for departure tomorrow. Very boring really and I’m sure you don’t want to hear about it! Later in the morning we went to the shopping centres and did some essential shopping. i went shopping Rosemary said it is essential. Just love wandering round Targets looking for things!!! Had a drop...

Jun 21, 2018 - Day 20. Alice Springs. 101Ks.

Day 20. You know when you thought you had done all you wanted to but then another one pops up, well that happened today. We have been told about the Rainbow Valley and how pretty it is. So, we went off in search of said valley. Heading south on the Stuart Highway for about 75 Ks, almost to Stuart’s Well roadhouse, spot the road sign pointing to Rainbow Valley and turn left. It is an unmade road and 4WD is recommended. After letting some pressure out of the tyres we trundled off at a sedate pace the 24 Ks to the valley. We are lucky, it is a...

Jun 20, 2018 - Day 19. Alice Springs. 160 Ks.

Day 19. Off to the East Macdonnell range today. We have been through here before but didn’t look at the gorges. First off was Emily Gorge. About 15Ks from town and close to the road. A very pretty Gorge, not large but with character. A dry River bed of coarse sand and the usual jagged rocks with varying colours but predominantly red. There are some rock paintings depicting the dream time story of three caterpillars. We didn’t take long to explore this Gorge and being quite early and the sun was still to get into it , the air was fairly...

Jun 19, 2018 - Day 18. Alice Springs.

Day 18. The day began with a bit of a worry. Firstly I got up early to go to the supermarket to get some bread to make Sanger’s for lunch. When I returned I was informed that the water would flow out of the tap. All the fittings were fine and there was no problem to be seen. Then I realised what was going on. The lady on the checkout at Coles told me it was minus 5 degrees this morning. The line was frozen. Utter relief, I don’t need any more problems. After a while the water began to run and all was right with the world. Today we are...

Jun 18, 2018 - Day 17.Alice Springs NT. 280 Ks.

Day 17. Another tick on the list of things to do. This one was Rosemary’s choice. Over the years we have heard so much about a place called Gemtree. Today we made the journey there. It is around 140 Ks from Alice Springs mainly on bitumen but some of it is developmental road. That means just a strip of bitumen down the centre with hard dirt shoulders for passing traffic coming in the opposite direction. Gemtree is not a town or village. It is a working property. It is in the heart of gem country reonowned for garnets and sapphires. Our plan...

Jun 17, 2018 - The Road to Alice

We travelled 762 miles down the Stuart Highway from the town of Katherine to Alice Springs situated in the center of the Australian outback. It’s a narrow two lane road that sometimes seemed more like a single lane road. The traffic is light and mostly motorhomes, caravans, and the very long truck “trains”. About half way there is one town with a population of 3000 people. Other than that the main attractions are the roadhouses. A roadhouse will always have fuel and usually a few motel rooms, camping sites, restaurant and a convenience...

Jun 17, 2018 - Day 16. Alice Springs NT. 305 Ks.

Day 16. Wow, what a day! We decided last night to go to Palm Valley which is about 130 Ks from Alice Springs. So an early start was desirable. We agreed on 0800 as we both needed fuel before going too far. Once that chore was done we turned onto Larapinta Drive and headed west. Not long, after leaving the built up area we came upon a lot of vehicles parked on the left side of the road with about 50people standing on a bank in front of a memorial. Or is the John Flynn memorial of RFDS , Royal Flying Doctor Service. John Flynn was the brains...

Jun 17, 2018 - The Red Centre

We left Alice Springs and headed southeast for about 300 miles on another narrow outback road to the national parks in the area known as the Red Centre. It’s named this because the soil is very red as are your clothes after a day of hiking. We spent a couple days exploring Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park also known as Ayers Rock and the Olgas. The Park is a World Heritage site on lands owned by indigenous people and is a very sacred site. Uluru is a massive red sandstone “rock” over 2 miles long, 1.5 miles wide that rises 1142 feet from the...

Jun 16, 2018 - Day 15. Alice Springs NT.

Day 15. Not much to report today. Spent the early part of the morning cleaning the top of the awning, lots of bird droppings. Went into town and bought a loaf of bread, how exciting is that. Things really picked up after lunch. We went grocery shopping, yay! I must say the supermarkets here are as well stocked as any in the country. That doesn’t mean I enjoyed it. Well I did a bit, it was nice to get out and do something ordinary. Tonight for dinner we did our version of chow mien in the camp oven. Turned out rather nice. It is always a...

Jun 15, 2018 - Day 14. Erldunda to Alice Springs. 200 Ks.

Day 14. After a very peaceful night we are ready to move by 0900. First stop Erldunda servo for fuel and toilet. Then hit the highway heading still further north. The road is fairly quiet as we trundle along at our sedate 90kmh. Morning tea is at Finke River rest area. This is a good overnight spot if you are coming through this way. Had a chat with another coup,e who are heading cross country to Marble Bar in WA. We will call in there later via the bitumen. On we go stopping to pause at the “ Cannonball Run” disaster in 1994. We arrived in...

Jun 14, 2018 - Day 13. Ayers Rock to Erldunda. 270 Ks.

Day 13. As much as we enjoy Uluru we only booked one night. The field of lights being the only reason for the more than 500k detour. So we are out of here today. We stopped at the Shell servo on the way out where fuel was $2:15 per litre. Fortunately we didn’t need too much. On the road a little after nine o’clock and cruising along nicely. We made a coffe stop at Curtin Springs which was very welcome. Apart from 15 kilometres of road works it was a very uneventful journey. We arrived back at Erldunda around lunch time. So, this made for an...

Jun 13, 2018 - Day 11. Curtin Springs to Yulara. 81 Ks.

Day 11. Away from Curtin Springs by 0900. Taking a nice easy drive as we haven’t far to go. We aren’t able to book into the caravan park before 10:00 as it is. We are only spending one night here, the attraction being the “field of lights”. This is a display of many thousands of LED lights in front of the famous rock. We are taking a tour which will give us the sight of the sunset on the rock,an aerial view of the lights,the opportunity to walk amongst them and some refreshment in the way of wine, beer and canapés! All very exclusive!! That...