ALICE NOT IN WONERLAND

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After returning back to the resort for a couple of hours sleep we were soon back on the road and on our way to Alice Springs. The plan was to find somewhere half way to camp for the night and finish the other half of the journey in the morning. We ended up making such good time that we arrived in Alice Springs at 5pm. Andy had read about an Indian Restaurant in the guidebook and even though his last choice of eatery was, well shall we say awful, we decided to risk it and eat dinner there before finding a campsite. When we found the restaurant it didn’t open till 6pm so with some time to kill we found a supermarket to stock up on water. When we walked out of the supermarket with our belly rumbling we were greeted by the sight of Hilda with an ever increasing pool of coolant under her. Tired and hungry this was the last thing we needed. Try as hard as we could we just couldn’t see where it was coming from. After about 30 minutes of investigation we found a split in one of the radiator pipes. We were relieved that it was something minor, but the engine was so hot and we had no spare pipe. There was only one thing for it - Andy had to bodge it - or “Fulcher it” as it’s otherwise known. (A phrase derived from our friend Mr Clive Fulcher who thinks that there is no task on earth that cannot be successfully completed with a hammer and a large enough supply of jubilee clips. Also leading to the term for the completed task - “quality bodge“) After another 30 minutes under the hot van, laying on the hot tarmac Andy emerged looking very sweaty and covered in coolant. The quality bodge was complete. Now we were not only tired and starving but we were too filthy to sit in a restaurant. We found a campsite and went to bed with empty bellies - tomorrow would be a better day.

After a good nights sleep things seemed allot better. We spent some time relaxing in the sunshine before heading off to explore Alice Springs. It was once a dusty outback town with character, but now we found it to be a town just like any other with high street chain shops and people rushing about. After the wide open spaces and peace and quiet we were not that keen. Looking at some of the activities available we thought that maybe the Date farm would be just a little too exciting for us. We decided to leave for the East Macdonnell Ranges tomorrow.

Bad planning meant that we had run out of beer and wine. Normally this would mean a trip to the supermarket or off licence. In Australia it means a trip to the drive through. Yes you read correctly, you drive up, point at what you want and someone collects it for you, puts it in the boot of your car and takes your money then you drive off. For the indecisive drinker there is normally a browsing lane. Just how much alcohol does one nation need to drink before someone thinks of a drive through bottle shop! No seriously how much??

Boxes of wine are our normal choice of tipple. They are cheep and easy to transport. 5 Litres of nice wine is normally about $16 (£10). We soon found that it was not so easy to buy in Alice. By law they can only sell boxes of wine and bottles fortified wine (if that’s your thing) between 6 - 9pm. The maximum purchase is 2 litres of wine or one bottle of fortified wine per person per day and you must provide photo ID. Obviously there are issues that they are trying to remedy, but this makes it somewhat tricky if you’re unaware and trying to shop for wine at 5pm. It also meant that just before 6pm there seemed to be an awful lot of people hanging around outside bottle shops - now I’m not saying these two things are connected but its certainly an interesting coincidence!

That evening we sat out till late as the temperature was still over 30 degrees. Just before bed as I was getting out of the van Andy told me to stay where I was as he had spotted something crawling on the back of his chair. On closer (not too closer) inspection we found it to be a spider about the size of my fist! I kid you not it looked just like one of those Aliens that attach itself to your face in the Alien films! Locking myself In the van I watched through the window as Andy got a big stick and batted it away……. My hero!

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