Going south.......... and 2 nights in Alice Springs...................

 Our night spent in Tennant Creek was very 'interesting' and it was rather late when we got to sleep. The 'locals' were quite vocal, not far from the park and there were lots of crackers going off too. The caravan park was fenced well, with razor wire along the top and the gate locked at night. There has been a lot of media publicity lately from Alice Springs and Tennant Creek about the problems these towns have. Alice Springs recently had a curfew in the CBD. I don't think there are any easy answers to this problem

.We had packed up and left Tennant creek by 9.15am, put fuel in the car and headed south again. The weather has turned cool and windy with a few clouds............

The countryside changed again, and there were more 'hills' as we drove south........

We made a quick stop at Aileron again and snapped a pic of the man and woman from a different angle this time...........and made a couple of purchases at the Art shop there.............

......back on the road again and there were plenty of vans on the road still.........

.....and here is the approach to Alice Springs............

We arrived about 3.30pm and settled into the same caravan park as the one stayed at on the northern journey. I took the opportunity of our early arrival to head to the laundry and put some washing in the machines. Somehow the washing doesn't take a holiday does it?? We cooked tea and I spent the evening on the laptop sorting photos for a Darwin blog post. 

The weather had turned very cold now, and the night temperatures were down to 2 deg, so the heater and the electric blankets are out again. The aircon has not been used for a couple of days, after going non stop for about 10 days!!

I spent some time sorting clothes in the wardrobe. The summer ones are now at the back of the cupboard and the winter woolies have come to the front!!

Next morning the heater was turned on at 4am!!! .......and we did not surface very early. We decided that we would go to church and headed off after putting the address into the car navigation............but once again it let us down, and my phone maps was no better, and we were unable to find our destination at all.........???

I did find this street art near the shopping centre...........

So it was onto Plan B, which was earlier than intended. As we had missed Standley Chasm on our north trip because it was closed, we decided to have another try.............

We headed about 40km west of Alice into the MacDonnell ranges.......

......thankfully, this time the gate was open........

There were many caravans parked here and people in tents, a shop and cafe. It was a very busy place, and the weather was lovely.

Walking access to the dramatic 80m sheer rockface of the chasm is along a well-maintained trail (1.2km/15 minutes each way), following the natural creek bed.

I took lots of photos and can't decide which ones to post, so enjoy our walk through the gorge to the chasm.....................

This photo was taken before the sun was overhead.................

....and this one when the sun was in the gap, which is a bit dazzling......... there were lots of people waiting for the optimum time for a picture..........

This sign was at the entrance to the path, and after we walked the track, I would have to question the statement about being wheelchair friendly, with assistance???

How friendly is this path for a wheelchair??

I loved the chasm and felt it was a beautiful place, very serene, and an amazing part of God's creation.

We had lunch at the kiosk and then drove back to Alice, where we did some shopping and then returned to the park. Barry did some jobs on the van and I did some meal prep for the next 2 days lunches as we travel further south.

Be back with further updates of newsfromjude soon.

We have been gone for 30 days now, so are on the homeward run of what has been an awesome experience.

Blessings,

From Jude

Going south............Day 1 and 2............to Larrimah and Tennant Creek

 We left Darwin about 9am, on day 27 of our journey, to head south again. We were homeward bound,  and mostly retracing our northern route.

It was a day of driving, only stopping for a couple of small breaks and fuel top ups as we had our packed lunches on board. 

We detoured off the highway at Pine Creek for a look around and rest stop. We were surprised to see lots of caravans parked in the streets as others were stopping for a break too. 

We kept going south and the next stop was at Katherine for fuel. This is a much larger town, and the centre of business for many of the large cattle stations in the area. It was a sunny day with no clouds and a temperature of 31deg. This was the painted wall at the fuel station.

The Katherine river runs through the centre of the town, and this is the bridge over it.....

............and if you can see how far below the bridge the river is.........

...........a few years ago, the river flooded and came up over the bridge and flooded many of the shops in the main street.................

After we had refuelled, Barry wanted to show me a spot he had stayed at many years ago............called the Lower Level Park, which is just on the outer edge of the town.................

                                    ...............the Katherine river runs through this area................

...........and they are doing some renovation work at this site...........

........and I loved these flowering white bushes, but don't ask me what they are!!

We had intended making a stop at Mataranka and staying at Bitter Springs caravan park, after a friend had recommended it...................but good intentions don't always work out, and when we arrived found out the park was booked out!!!! So it was onto Plan B, and we kept going to the next place which turned out to be Larrimah, where we had stopped on the way up.

After booking into the park there, we enjoyed another meal at the Pink Panther Hotel and were entertained by a country singer again.

The next morning it was back on the road again, and we were surprised to see just how many caravans there were on the road..............

The weather had changed and this was the first night we had not needed the air conditioning on at night and the morning was very chilly.

 I took this photo of 4 vans ahead of us, and there were 2 behind us that you can't see in the photo. 

Just after I took this another 4 came around the bend travelling toward us. !!  It was certainly the caravan brigade!! But it is the peak holiday season for this part of the country. The grey nomads all head north for warmer weather, from June to September and dodge the cold weather in the south.

Their were also many triple road trains on the road, with loads of cattle heading north. We saw a lot of cattle in Export yards at the Darwin Port, so presume that a boat load of cattle were due to be exported overseas soon.

I loved these yellow flowering shrubs all along the road side, and sorry it is a but blurry, but hard to photograph as we are driving along. Not sure what they are, but have to say some sort of wattle as I could smell them as we drove by.

We stopped at Dunmarra for fuel, and and rest stop at Elliot. Renner Springs was another little dot on the map. Banka Banka station caravan park was full with a queue of vans waiting to get in. There was a rest stop at Attack creek with many vans camped by the side of the highway there. It was 30deg, blue sky and not a cloud in the sky.

The roads are long................

....and in many places have been damaged by recent rains, so repair work is underway.

We made a quick stop off the bitumen to The Pebbles. The car and caravan were covered in red dust after a drive on this road..............

 The Pebbles are similar to the Devil's Marbles that we had seen on the north journey..........but I didn't think these were as stunning..............

It was back onto the Stuart Highway again and our next stop was to be Tennant Creek. We had not booked ahead her either so wasn't sure whether we could get a space.........

....but it was ok, and we had soon got settled, leaving the car hooked up ready for take off in the morning.

That's all for this post. I will be back soon for the next edition of newsfromjude.

Blessings, 

From Jude