Darn Cold

Saturday, June 10, 2017
Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
It seems ages since the last blog. We spent 3 lovely warm days in Mataranka, swimming in the thermal pools. The caravan park had certainly filled up since our last visit a few weeks ago. On Wednesday the 7th we were going to stay at the free camp Newcastle Waters but after seeing that it was on a hill covered in dolomite we decided to drive on to Renner Springs and stayed in the caravan park there. What a surprising place this was on the highway. It is still a working farm but caters to the travellers. Being lazy we decided to eat tea at the pub. Still can't get used to country meals. Friggin huge. We still have the cold wind and unfortunately it is a head wind. Not great for towing a van. Staying at Renner Springs made for a short trip the next day to Tennant Creek. Gosh its still very windy and cold. Time to break out the trackie dacks and ugg boots. We only had 1 night here so we made a picnic lunch and headed out to Lake Mary Anne which is their local water supply dam. Quite large for the middle of nowhere.
Friday saw us on the road again heading to Ti Tree . Jen had had enough of setting up the camper and they decided to get a room for the night. David & I retired to the van after another huge country meal in the pub. Early night for us as it was blowing a gale and no internet coverage. Least we had a powered site and we cranked up the heater.
Saturday we were up early and headed into Alice Springs for 4 nights. Yay we can do grocery shopping and have some mod cons eg TV. It is very hectic here as the Finke Desert Race is on this weekend. The park is full and there sure is some money spent on boys toys.
We went to the Todd Mall Markets (didn't buy anything), did a tour of the Desert Nature Park, that was great and took about 3 hours. While there we bumped into Macca (he has a TV show on camping and 4x4 driving). We have also been to Herrmannsberg. This is an historic settlement about 120km out of Alice Springs where the Lutherans set up a mission within the Aboriginal Community. Albert Namatjira was also born around this area. On we went to Palm Valley. Having been there a long time ago we thought it would be a nice walk for Jen to do as she loves her hikes. It was so rough getting in there and then very windy and cold when we got out of our cars.
Consequently only the short walk was done. Time to go home. Today is cleaning day and securing everything on the van as we will be driving to Kings Canyon tomorrow over some rough corrugated road. This road usually requires a permit from the Aboriginal Lands Council but as they are unable to supply permits, we have been told to just drive the road. So that is what we are doing!!
Just a reminder, this site will close on the 19th June. Those of you with previous blogs may wish to log on and download your blogs. I will try to get Kings Canyon and Uluru on here before it closes.

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2025-02-08

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