In this internet sparse country, it is difficult to maintain the blog. But even in Alice Springs, the company that runs the wifi service at this otherwise very good Van Park, prohibits access to my own blog. So I will put most of this together in MS Word and try to access my blog at Uluru. (Update – I am switched on to Internet at last.)

Gosh, it seems ages since I updated things…

Our stay at Mount Isa was very pleasant, though probably too short. We saw some of the main attractions – Bunnings, Woolworths, the Mine Tour, Underground Hospital, and a quite pretty lookout affording a pleasant sunset view of the city with the lights of the mine taking over as the sun settled down for the day.

Our destination after Mount Isa was a rest stop about 40 km shy of Barkly Station. This was our first attempt at free camping. It went quite well except for the fact that I overestimated the amount of water in my tanks, and we ran out of hot water, and thus were obliged to have cold showers. The camp area quickly fills with other travellers criss-crossing our big country. Most people seem to be heading East after grey-nomadding in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Unusually for me I managed to be around for both sunset and sunrise and got pics of both.

We stopped at Barkly Station for fuel (caffeine for us and diesel for LeVan) though the cost of the diesel is a bit off-putting at $1.78 a litre and coffee even more alarming at about $12 a litre. The proprietors justify the cost of the fuel by reporting that they use 500 litres of diesel a day for power generation. I did not see much evidence of solar generation despite the seeming excess of raw material.

We were a bit amused at the cattle warning signs and were very glad not to encounter these giant car-eating bovines.

It was a shortish trip to Tennant Creek where we encountered the Territory’s rules about alcohol service. The bar service needs ID and records the number of drinks served to each patron.

Next stop was Wycliffe Well, a road stop about 133 kilometres south of Tennant Creek. It was a very easy drive, even though it was our first experience of a major head wind which buffeted the motorhome about and chewed up fuel. Wycliffe Well is purported to be Australia’s UFO sighting capital, and legend has it that sightings are so common that it would be unusual not to see a UFO. Well, we did not encounter anything and the strangest being we actually encountered was John Mann (and Anne) who dropped down from Western Australia in their Jeep and caravan. John is strange in that he openly admits to being a Richmond Tigers supporter. For all that, we welcome the Manns to our fellowship of travellers.

Wycliffe Well to Alice Springs is about 380 kilometres. We travelled in convoy though I discovered after some while I was following the wrong vehicle, not realising until I followed a complete stranger into a rest area. The Stuart Highway has much more traffic than we have encountered for quite some time.  I had been inclined to think of the landscape as being constant and unchanging, but in fact the landscape is alive with variety of vegetation, hills and plains, rocks and sand. The Devils Marbles is an astonishing outcrop of granite boulders looking for all the world that they have been carefully placed by some giant hand – perhaps a monstrous alien playing with the pebbles on his way to Wycliffe Well.

Finally we arrived at Alice Springs. We have seen some of the iconic sights of the area: Standley Chasm and Simpsons Gap. The Manns and Langs went to church on Sunday morning at the Flynn Memorial Church. Flynn of the Inland will be remembered by those of us schooled in the 50s and 60s as the founder of the Flying Doctor service and the Australian Inland Mission. It was a pretty good service: the minister Dr Steve Bevis is a skilled musician and songwriter, and not a bad preacher either. However we did not linger but went in search of caffeine and a slow walk along the Todd Mall Markets where we bought some Indigenous art.

The Olive Pink Botanical Gardens at Alice Springs afforded us the opportunity for some lunch and a walk up a very precarious path twisting a rocky way up a steepish hill. The 360 degree views from the peak were excellent. I did feel a bit vulnerable to a fall, as my vision does not seem to cope with estimating depth. Nevertheless  we all returned unscathed – at least for the moment.

Recuperating from the excursion exertion I was sitting outside enjoying a coffee and newspaper, until I moved to stand up and was hit by the most excruciating pain in my knee, which refused to straighten. I was unable to stand or walk. We were too late to be able to see the after hours medical service, so decided to see if we could get help and advice from the hospital. Unfortunately there had been a major incident at the burn-out session of the hot rod rally where a dozen or so attendees were sprayed with flaming high-octane petrol. My injuries being non-life-threatening were deemed low priority, so we limped home with a view to seeing a doctor in the morning.

That night was fine, as long as I did not need to stand or move – as I had to when needing to use the bathroom at 3.00am.  It took about 20 minutes to shuffle one-legged the 3 metres and back. Miraculously I woke at 7.00am absolutely pain-free. However Jen insisted we still go to a doctor who prescribed some high-octane painkillers, a knee support and a walking stick. We are enormously grateful to John and Anne and Rob and Pauline for ferrying us around.

Our motorhome is best left moored at the Van Park. Our brand new LeVan has motored along very well. For those interested in such things, we are averaging about 11.5 litres per 100 kilometres, a result I am very happy with. It is a pleasant vehicle to drive, and sharing the driving with Jenny makes it so much better when driving long distances. Tomorrow (Tuesday 5th) we are off to Uluru for a few days. Jen has promised me a helicopter ride around the red rock in celebration of Father’s Day.