Bit behind now! A day hanging around in Alice, turned into one of those serendipitous moments when, with absolutely no planning whatsoever, you find yourself in the middle of memorable time!
We hadn’t even planned to stay the night, but reckoned that by the time we had picked up our camper van, worked out how to use it, stocked up with groceries and not crashed it getting out of the car park, it would be far too late to drive the 500km to the next settlement. The Northern Territory is filled with, well…nothing much. Certainly not people. But so beautiful.
So reluctantly we decided to book into a camp site in Alice, meaning our first day’s drive was about 2km! Just as well we booked though - for the reasons that will become clear it turned out that its virtually the busiest weekend of the year in Alice. Not only is it Territory Day on 1 July - which meant we got to see the free fireworks and a "famous" Australian rock band (Rough Traders? no we hadn't either), alongside thousands (ok, hundreds) of other locals, but it is also the 22nd Beanie Festival! Knitters from all over Australia descend on Alice for this annual jamboree of wool and conversations about knit one, pearl one! The array of hats was amazing - some of them even wearable!
And here is Nareesa proudly modelling her purchase. Even better you get to feel good as all proceeds are split between the maker and local Aboriginal charities.
And so to bed... But by the time we retired to our camper van at almost 10pm, the temperature had dropped considerably - it does that in the desert! This was not the best time to find out that the duvet provided with the van is a pathetic one-tog thing that would have left you chilly in a heat wave. We shivered our way through the night and went straight to Target department store in the morning to buy a better one. Probably be wasted as we drive north into the warmth - but better than another night like that!
Tomorrow we head for Tennant Creek, via the legendary Barrow Creek Hotel. We will see how it warrants it legend when we stop for lunch!