Tilmouth Well to Alice Springs, NT

Saturday 23rd June 2018
Well to say the temperature has changed in the last couple of days is an understatement. We have gone from a consistent 19-35° to -1.2° this morning to a top of 16°. Ouch!! David is not happy, we all know how he loves the cold, he is ready to drive to Katherine and do Kakadu instead. We will see what develops.

We struggled to get out of bed, what with the time change and the cold air it took us until 8am to get out from under our goose down doona. Once we managed to get up and move the car in to the sun to have breakfast, we started the day with a big drive to Alice Springs (170km). At least it was on bitumen, we didn’t realise it was only a single lane of bitumen, but at least it was bitumen. It was an interesting drive, as you came across oncoming traffic, someone had to give way, usually the cars to the big trucks, well that was what we did anyway. The scenery changed a little along the way, going from plains to a few mountains in the distance. It was a pleasant drive. We arrived at Alice Springs around midday, a bit too late to try and get a rego check on the car, so that will now be a job for Monday. Hopefully it passes otherwise we may have to drive straight home before Friday. We will worry about that one on Monday. After a look around the shops, we headed to our campsite. Not one for staying in the city centre, we headed out of town a bit. As the temperature was not to our liking we had an early dinner (5pm) so we could get in the car or up in to bed before it got too cold. A very good idea.

We then spent the rest of the night planning our hike along the Larapinta Trail. A tricky thing to organise as you need a drop off and/or pickup to get you to the start and back to your car at the finish. All available at a cost. David’s favourite thing, spending money hehehe. We have an option of 4 or 6 day hike. 4 day drop off is $540, 6 day is $260, not sure what the pickup cost will be we are hoping we can have our car at the finish but not sure if we can wrangle that one. We are running out of time so may have to suck it up and pay the bucks. EeeeKK!! Will let you know where we get to with that one after the rego check.

A bit of a lay day after our drive, so not much to report and some somewhat boring pics. Sorry!!