Alice Springs

20 May 2012

May 09th – 10th – 11th

Time for another big clean-up: laundry, car interior, hot shower, etc. We then drive around town to find a garage for Troopy’s big service (and replace the fusible link, though my MacGyver trick has so far been reliable), get to the tourist information centre and later find out Walkabout.be has been compromised. A virus apparently.

You may have noticed the blog entries for the past three months, the photos and all your comments had disappeared. Well at least I hope some of you have noticed, it shows I have SOME readers, lol. Anyways, I sincerely apologize for this; I myself had lost all communication means for a month. No email, no blog. We’re back online now (May 19th) and it’s business as usual.

So anyways, back to Alice. After a nap and a quick drive to Alice’s famous Todd Mall, we decide to have dinner at Bojangles. Now, this is an institution. Sadly I have no pictures to show you, but you must imagine a saloon bar very much like the ones in the Clint Eastwood and John Wayne movies, with a touch of Crocodile Dundee. The walls are decorated with bull horns, cowboy hats, crocodile skulls and skins, and all sort of desert artefacts such as road signs riddled with bullet holes or the odd 1950 Holden rusty wreck in the corner. A must see if you’re in town. And the music is just as epic.

Crocodile steak, kangaroo fillet and Pavlova for desert. What could be more authentic?

Thursday, May 10th, it’s been over 15.000k since Troopy’s last major service, I only changed the filters a month ago it’s time for a big one. Half a day later, Troopy’s been greased, fluids have been flushed and replaced, filters are new. On the road again.

We walk back to town to do the Heritage Walk, only to find out it’s all too late at 4PM, everything is closed.

Friday, May 11th. Alice Springs has opened a decade ago its very own “Desert Park” which is a concentrate of what the outback and the deserts have to offer. From wild birds to kangaroos, to emus and nocturnal wildlife, the park is a great experience. We spend all day walking along the animas enclosures and learning about the native plants, which makes a great explanation for all we’ve seen for the past month. A lot more make sense now.

Back to the caravan park, we suddenly realise it’s Friday. This means all locals gather up at the barbecue area, drink a lot and shout a lot more. There’s even a Ted Egan concert next door.
At 3AM, the drunk neighbour wakes us up, while shouting obscenities to his just as drunk wife, who’s hiding out in the bush, obviously frightened by her rude and abusive husband. At 6AM he eventually shuts up and we finally fall asleep.

Nice and quiet caravan park my ass…

Distance to-day: 142km, total: 16567km.