A day of driving and washing.
We left Uluru early morning to do the 500km drive back to Alice Springs. We have been warned that hitting a kangaroo at dawn or dusk is all too likely - and we saw the evidence at regular intervals on the way. Still looking for our first live example, and Nareesa still hoping not to see a snake!
Back in Alice we discover three things:
1. The nearest campsite north is 500km and we cant pick up the camper van tomorrow until about 12 - and we need to do some shopping, and equipping with spare tyres, water, and a full medical emergency kit, and whatever else you need fo this remote place - which leads inevitably to driving at dusk and hitting a kangaroo!
2. So second, it is the winter school holidays, and all the camp sites are fully booked. Luckily, pleading with a lovely woman called Mel in Alice Campers (maybe not its real name), she finds us a spare corner to park our not yet acquired van. She asks us lots of questions about the length, power output and such like, none of which we know the answer to (and probably won’t when we are in possession of the actual van). She quickly works out we are total numpties and books us in - we are bound to be by the bog, but at least it avoids trying to go 500km in 4 hours tomorrow. We are staying another night in Alice! To be honest not the worst thing that has ever happened to us.
3. And third, this weekend its the Beanie Festival!!! No we don’t know either - but we will find out, or I will eat my hat!
More mundanely, I did the washing. And this is what your legs look like after a couple of days in the red desert!
All for now…off to get a camper van and go wild!