After Kings Canyon we drove to Alice Springs via the top half of the Mareenie Loop stopping at Glen Helen Gorge along the way. This was a mix of beautifully graded, smooth dirt road and quite rough, corrugated, potholed and sandy dirt. Driving through this landscape was (WARNING: Cliché Alert) once again, breathtaking. We really did feel like we were in the middle of the desert. We arrived in Alice Springs in the early evening very tired and quite flustered, so our normally well organised set up routine didn’t work nearly as well as it usually does. There was blood, sweat and many, many tears involved. Mind you, I was able to prove to the hordes of van park locals who come out to gawk at the new city boy arrival as he reverses into the near impossible site assigned to him (the site reserved for new city boy arrivals late in the day for the entertainment of the locals) that when the “Reversing Caravans Through an Obstacle Course With Small Margins of Clearance In Near Darkness In Front Of Critical Audience” event becomes an Olympic event, I will be a strong contender for the Australian team. My reward for entertaining the locals with my excellent reversing and then arguing with wife over caravan setup technicalities late in the day skills was to be directed to a local club for dinner. Club dinner with beer and Karaoke with the locals was just the tonic we needed.
And so, it’s off to Darwin tomorrow, via Tennant Creek and Katherine along the way. Stay tuned.