After dropping of the German Bike rider ( Sven), we spent two days looking around Alice Springs before moving on. Stooped at Devils Marbles on way down – if you look really close you can see Peter and me on top of rocks – yeah right, probably more mad Germans.

Old Telegraph Station – Alice Springs

We left Alice Springs fairly early and headed into a stiff cool breeze bound for Curtin Springs. Due to the headwind we decided to camp at Curtin Springs Station and leave the van there while we made days trips to Uluru and Kata Tjuta (the Olgers), and Kings canyon.

The free camp at Curtin Springs Station is about 78kms from the Rock and 120kms from King’s canyon, sort of in the middle. They provide a camp ground and toilets to travellers for free. The Station in 1,029,000 acres and they have a Roadhouse, Bar and basic accommodation at the site as well as a Café. All up we stayed four nights while we tripped around seeing the sights. It was very peaceful, nothing like being lulled to sleep at night with the sound of a horny bull calling to his girlfriends and howling dingoes.  Spent one day waiting for the wind to drop – it had changed from a westerly to an easterly so we would have been heading back into it. At 2.24am on the second night we were here the wind picked up considerably and appeared to be blowing straight from the Antarctic. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees in five minutes.

We took about 300 photos while we were here between us, including some interesting ones of an emu that lives in the camp ground. Some of the pics of Ayers Rock and the Olgers are spectacular (if I do say so myself), but I have only included some of the best. We got up at 4am to watch the sunrise over the Rock and also got pics of the sunset. I have inserted these in a separate section – Dawn to Dusk. If you enlarged the second photo below it shows the climb – bloody steep.

We did not climb the Rock – I do not think either of us would have made it – any besides the climb was closed as the temp was above 36, way above 36 degrees. Even so I don’t think I would have chosen to climb out of respect for the traditional owners (the Anangu) wishes. Must be getting more sensitive in my old age.  I climbed the Rock 38yrs ago when I was out here, but this was Peter’s first time seeing Ayers Rock and he was suitably impressed with both the Rock and the Olgers.

From here we are bound for South Australia and eventually Adelaide where we hope to pick up a bit more work before Xmas. Hope you all enjoy the pics as much as we did taking them and seeing the Rock. I have been sure to include some pics of Peter and some of us together as I have had some queries as to Peter’s well-being. Really, do people think I would do away with him – who would hook the van up!!!

Well –  all did not go so well on way back from the Rock – a wheel came off the van – all six bolts appeared to shear at the same time – most unusual. We were very lucky that nothing serious happened. Had to get van towed back to Alice and repaired. The repairer thought that maybe when we got new tires they may have over tightened the bolts or perhaps the bolts were damaged when we went over the rough road to Lawn Hill. The other side showed no damage, but we had the bolts and hub replaced as well to be on the safe side.

As we had some down time in Alice we did a bit more sightseeing. Went to see the Ghan Museum and the RSPCA just happened to be down the same road – you guessed it, we ended up with a dog!  She was a rescue dog form an indigenous camp and would have been put down within the next week. Having a dog will make life on the road a little harder, but how could we resist. We have called her Bessy.

After picking up Bessy we headed to Coober Pedy and will likely sped 4-5 days here unless Peter gets Opal Fever, then it may be longer. We put on a post of Coober Pedy just before we leave – and photos of all our great Opals (wishful thinking).