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Published: September 17th 2013
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The time has finally come when we get the wheels rolling onto the next leg of our adventures! Boris is packed, fuelled, the bar’s full, larder stocked & one last job to update this here blog & then cheerio! Heading westwards then looping around to Kings Canyon and then onto Ayers Rock. After which we hope to get Boris into Molly’s old station “Old Andado” for a week or two. Road condition dependant……but by the next blog you’ll know if we made it or not!
Since our last blog we’ve had a busy little stretch, first main event being the Finke Desert Race. The desert turned on a treat weather-wise & we camped out under a gazillion stars (with a gazillion other people) for two nights. Taking the south highway we turned left at Kulgera, along the dusty road into Finke (same one we hope to take Boris on to Old Andado). Of all the things to come across on this lonely road we hit a breath-test station just outside of Finke! Poor coppers, what a shitty job! We think the main reason was to let people know to “lock up ya grog” – a great tip as
we found out on the second day one of the Yamaha trucks was raided overnight & every single skerrick of alcohol was taken – up even the light beer! Teach you to fall asleep after a few too many & not “lock up ya grog” I guess!
The buggies & bikes continued to roll into the finish/start line at Finke after leaving Alice earlier in the morning, amid clouds of dust, flies, snot, sweat & no doubt a bit of blood & a few tears. Most of the fellas in our Honda camp had a feed and were crashed out by about 9pm, ready to take off the next day & do it all again back up to Alice, no doubt knowing the road would be much worse through traffic abuse on the way down! God knows how they managed to sleep with the huge amount of fireworks going off every few minutes, the local community holding a dance party in the nearby stadium, RFDS planes coming in to land (no doubt ferrying said locals to the hospital – perhaps the ones that “borrowed” the grog from Yamaha!) and general rowdy liver abuse going on all around.
The question was.....
where are we walking to? Answer, Mt Gillen. Jeff has his happy face on (was an alarm morning!) We even experienced a 5-point-something earthquake that night at about 11pm. Tab thought she had perhaps partaken a little too much grape juice & imagined the earth moving – thankfully there were others there to back up her story!
Despite having to “work” most of the afternoon and early eve, Jeff was really in his element repairing, refuelling & resuscitating the bikes for the guys. Also on the tools was a guy called Chris who travelled down with us, he’d also gone last year so was good to have someone prepared on the team, welcome to the blog mate, hope you enjoy it. Also new blogsters Dib, Mike & Jill & Carolyn - happy reading!
Not too long after Finke Jeff had his last day at work, the team throwing a going away dinner & bevvies at a local restaurant. Needless to say, in typical style, we went out afterwards to celebrate further. Tab had already finished up, so now we could really get started on getting Boris ready for the journey. With the amount of time that took, Jeff ended up back at his old work for another week & a half just
recently….at least it was an excuse to have another going away session!
Towards the end of June we welcomed some familiar faces – Tab’s brother Adam & wife Carmena from Melb & cousin Jacqui from Mildura. Oh, we saw SO many things, all crammed into a short space of time, and the three tourists even managed to bugger off in a little hire car for 3 days to see Kings Canyon & Ayers Rock. Also thrown in was a celebration of Tab’s 34
th birthday, complete with surprise cake & all – thanks guys!! We had such a ball touring around with you all, wish it could have been longer, but stoked you got come all this way while we were still here.
Sadly, Jeff also had an unexpected trip back to Melbourne to attend the funeral of his Nan, Pam. She passed away suddenly early July & is very much missed. Love to all the family, especially Jeff’s mum Colleen, you were so very close, we hope time is helping heal the shock.
We have also been trying to go & see some of the last minute things we’ve not managed
Wildflowers
Alice Desert Park to get to or do since we arrived over a year ago. One of those things was the Desert Park, which is full of beautiful walks, awesome creatures (yes, even spiders in the nocturnal house – Tab couldn’t even look!) bats, snakes, roos, birds, & we watched a “free flight” bird show, which was awesome. All set under the beautiful escarpment of the West Mac Ranges & a carpet of wildflowers everywhere - can’t wait to be seeing more of this as we head into the desert. Well, all except the spiders that is.
We also set the alarm (nearly killed us) and headed off early one morning to climb Mount Gillen. It was an amazing and challenging walk, ending up with view over the whole of Alice and westwards for miles, we are lucky we got such a clear day. Up & back took about 2.5 hrs, the downhill bit probably only half an hour of that! Yes, we admit, worth setting the alarm for!
The rangas are certainly getting excited about our next little venture. They spend all day asleep in the bus, probably think we’ll go without them if they don’t
stay close-by. We even had an additional passenger when we went to the supermarket the other day…Bailey had stowed himself in & we had no idea until we got up the street! Needless to say there was a quick trip home, pulled up at the curb and a ranga came flying out of the bus, casting us dirty looks as he walked back up the drive – maybe we should have just let him tag along afterall.
So all in all we have had such a great time in Alice, have been so blessed to have a roof over our heads, have found plenty of work & enjoyed the surrounds immensely. Thanks again to Phil for giving us the opportunity to stay on in Molly’s house, it has certainly felt like “home” from the minute we arrived. As we are heading into the desert we may be out of range for quite some time, so best of luck to Mick & Bek who will have another bub between now & our next blog, and happy birthday to Tab’s Mum Maria & Jeff’s brother Dave.
Don't forget our email address changed a few months back & is
now
jeftabr@yahoo.com.au Until next time Au Revoir all 😊
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chick
non-member comment
Great photos and love reading your blogs XX chick