A Town Like Alice....

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Day 8 – Saturday July 7^th – West McDonnell Ranges to nearly Tennant Creek via Alice Springs

It felt like it had been a particularly cold night when we woke up at 7am as the sun was thinking about peeking over the horizon. And when we got out of the tent we found out just how cold. Everything had frozen! The water in the washing up bowl. The water in the solar showers. The water in the billy can. The tap on the sink. Frost over the car, chairs, tent etc. The car told us that it was minus 4. We definitely needed to get the campfire going again to warm up.

We reheated the remaining lamb-chocolate damper rolls and had them with tea and hot chocolate, before heading off on a walk along the Larapinta trail to the Inarlanga Pass. Partly to keep warm and partly for some exercise. Although it was cold, the sky was a gorgeous shade of blue and there was not a cloud to be seen. By the time we arrived at the pass (after around an hour of brisk walking) we had a very tasty picnic in the sunshine. Gorgeous.

The plan was to head into Alice, stopping to check out the Standley Chasm and Simpson’s Gap on the way. Alice Springs was as underwhelming today as it was when we visited in 1996, a pretty sad place. However it is handy for stocking up on provisions and fuel. Filling up with diesel was harder than anticipated as two Shell stations had run out of fuel! We ended up at a Caltex, handily next to McDonalds, where we chose to have a naughty dinner of burgers, chips and frozen cokes.

As we were keen to a) not stay in Alice any longer than necessary and b) to put some kms behind us and advance further North into warmer weather, we decided to have a go at some nighttime driving up the Stuart Highway towards Tennant Creek and ultimately Mataranka. The first three hours of driving were pretty uneventful, just a few road trains on the road. Easy cruising along at 110km with no slow caravans etc to overtake. However, then things got a bit hairy as we passed a bushfire and an aboriginal lady (controlled burning?) by the side of the road and then cattle. Sometimes cattle actually <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">on the road because of the unfenced cattle stations through which the highway runs. So we decided to do the sensible thing and pulled into a rest area by the side of the highway at 12.30. Instead of putting up the tent we snuggled up in blankets and tried to get a little bit comfortable so we could sleep. As far as we could work out we were several kms north of the Devils Marbles and about half an hour south of Tennant Creek.

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