Tuesday 26 July 2022 – Onwards and upwards
A pack up day this morning but we were on the road and
heading out of town by about 8.30am. A
quick stop off at the dump point and then it was time to head east. Once we turned that way Uluru disappeared
behind the dunes and hillocks and L only got occasional glimpses from the side
mirror. About an hour of driving got us
to the Mt Conner lookout where we pulled over for a cuppa and look at another
quite impressive rock rearing out of the plain.
I wonder how many people mistake it for Uluru as they drive out from
Alice Springs. We all got some exercise
by crossing the road and heading up a rather steep sand dune for an even better
view of Mt Conner in one direction and a huge salt lake in the other.
Back in the car and Jenny drove the next hour or so until we
reached the end of the Lasseter Highway and turned left and on to the Stuart
Highway. At this intersection is a
roadhouse where we made use of the facilities and bought some hot chips to pay
our dues. Another 30km north on the
Stuart Highway we stopped at Desert Oaks rest stop for lunch which was much
quieter and shadier than the roadhouse had been. We had a leisurely lunch and then spent a bit
of time peeling the stickers from Ayers Rock campground off the front of the
vans. They left quite a bit of sticky
residue so it took a bit longer than it should have. Yet another thing we think that campground
could do better!
Larry back in the driver seat and another hour or so of
driving north. We have been listening to
a talking book Mum thought Larry would like called Long Flight Home which is
all about the flying competition from England to Australia in 1919 from the
perspective of the engineer who kept Ross and Keith’s plane in the air. What an adventure it would have been and I
love the descriptions of the people running out of the houses and hotels across
Europe, Egypt and India to see the plane flying above them and shouting and
waving at what have been a very novel sight!
We stopped at a sign marking the Cannonball run memorial
which marks the site of where a crash had occurred during this famous motor car
race. In the same carpark a bloke had
pulled up to give his dogs and their seven or eight blue heeler (looking)
puppies a stretch of their legs. Very
cute seeing the puppies gambolling all over the place whilst always keeping Mum
in sight and occasionally heading back to her for a quick top up of milk!
Not much longer before we were heading into the outskirts of
Alice Springs. Interesting to see the
huge stockpile of planes out back – many nearby countries have stored surplus
planes here in the dry, desert air during Covid restricted travel.
We checked in to the G’day caravan park and were shown to
lovely wide, grassed and shaded sites where we back on to each other. As we are here for four nights we have set
out mats and awnings and furniture and will be quite happy camped up here for a
few days while H&M make a quick dash
back to Perth for Tom’s graduation ceremony.
Apparently it will drop down to minus 2 degrees tonight so time to pull
out all the winter woollies as well!
Beef brisket, Turkish bread and coleslaw for dinner
tonight. I don’t think we realised when
we were menu planning that we might want something more hearty!!
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