7th – 12th June

When the cardiologist told Alice she needed to rest for a week one would wonder if he had connections with the weather bureau.  On Tuesday the cold wet weather moved in and there was no point in trying to do anything else but rest.  While the minimum temperatures actually rose from 3 degrees to 11 degrees in Alice springs the maximum temps dropped from 24 to 13 and then finally to 11 degrees on Friday.  With misty rain covering most of the days and a slight breeze coming from Antarctica the chill factor was quite a deal less than the minimum temp.  Hence it was easy to stay inside the van with the heater on.

Friday came along and Alice endured her awaited stress test passing with flying colours.  Her heart was completely cleared and the diagnosis that the lung wall had been affected by a virus was confirmed.  The remedy was rest and apart from that we were free to start back on the road.

By Friday we had been in Alice Springs for 10 days and Alice had not seen any of “her” town.  We chose to set out and see more of the West MacDonnell Ranges.  Let us share some of the beautiful scenes that we saw.

Alice springs back into touring mode

The Organ Pipes - Glen Helen

Ormiston Gorge - MacDonnel Ranges

Ellery Creek Big Hole - MacDonnell Ranges

The Ochre Pits - Aboriginals used thesecoloured materials as ceremonial face colouring.

Unusual mountain structure

At Glen Helen 120 klms west of AS there was a folk festival for the weekend.  There must have been a few hundred people there in caravans, motor homes and tents.  To see so many people so far from a remote city like Alice and on a road almost to nowhere was a sight that we did not expect.

Alice Springs is really quite a modern city but it does honour the history in the area.  We visited the Old Telegraph Station which was the very first point of European civilisation in the centre.  It has been maintained beautifully and open to the public.  The centre is surrounded by great picnic grounds, a wonderful asset used freely by the townfolk.

I bet you cannot believe that Alice is on the line!

The Telegraph Office

Part of the Telegraph Station Complex

It was a very interesting tour for us.  We did not know much about the morse code transmission systems used in that era and how they managed international communication in this method.  It was a real eye opener for us.  The centre was only used for this purpose until 1932 and then was used as an orphanage for the stolen children generation for some time.

 It is a long weekend here too and the Finke Desert Race is being held.  The town is filled with mud splattered utes loaded with trail bikes. The race has been run annually for over 30 years and this year there are about 600 competitors.  Day 1 (The Prologue) is a time trial for competitors over a 8 klm track to decide starting positions.  On day 2 the race resumes over a distance of about 230 klms to Finke, an old town on the old Ghan train route south of AS.  It is all rough dirt road and sand tracks all the way.  Then on day 3 they all return to the Alice. 

Finke - Buggies awaiting start

Some of the hundreds of bikes on the line

They are away

The race is run over many categories from off road race cars, super trucks, quad bikes, sidecars and bikes.  All start at different times lead by the cars.  People camp out along the dirt track all the way to Finke – too cold for us.  The whole town is turned on its head for the event though and some of the machines are really amazing.

 

Our stay in Alice is coming to an end and we are heading north.  It will be good to be on the road again and in particular heading to warmer climates.  We will probably regret that statement but for now it is something we are looking forward to.