The Name's Alice, Alice Springd

Leaving the Sunshine Band

We set off at 8am for Alice Springs for Kings Canyon, if we had a 4 wheel drive vehicle this could be under 300 km using unsealed roads but for us it means a 250km back track to get on the Stuart Highway at Erldunda, where we were 5 days ago. In total just over 500km today.

We've had to stop for horses and cows on the road but other than that an easy drive. Also slightly overcast so made driving easy, we also had some spectacular fork lightning.
All the driving has been okay simply as we've been on straight roads with very little traffic. It's been a case of set the cruise control to just over 100kph and just steer, watching out for animals though!

A Town Called Alice

We've read about Alice Springs, being a bit scary. In fact the 18th most dangerous city in the world according a recent survey just between Cape Town and Tijuana. In fairness we don't think it is that bad and it has been reading the web that made us over cautious. There were a lot of people hanging around but when I did the shopping there was no hassle so I think the Internet made us more than a little paranoid.

Catch Up Day

We thought we'd get a pub meal for tea at a brewery very close to the camp sadly they had a power cut so it's tea at the van again.

Overnight was rainy and quite a surprise to wake up to wet ground around the campsite. Due to the cooler day It was nice to be able to walk around without the usual crowd of flies or feeling like you're about to melt. We used the day to catch up on arrangements for the next few parts of our journey.

Second Time Unlucky

The pub had power tonight so we went out for tea, what a disappointment. It was a pub and brewery so we were hoping for good things. We had different drinks which although slightly different colours tasted exactly the same. The food was yuck as well I had a cheese burger hoping for nice beef but it was ultra-processed stuff and Karen's mushroom burger was super greasy. During our trip not all the food has been great but we think tonight's was the worst meal when considering cost and tastiness.

We caught up on a couple of phone calls back home after the meal and then another early night, tomorrow we drive to Tennants Creek which is just over 500km.