After camping one night at "the rock" turnoff, some 200km back, and about a million mice, we set sail for "The Alice"
It was about this time that I stepped on my computer. This is why my blog is so far behind.
The weather is very much on the improve with near zero mornings but 20oC days
On the way into town we went straight to the truck museum, where, as we had been told, we could stay for at least a month for only the cost of our electricity use as long as we worked 10 hours a week eack
We had just finished makin enquiries and had turned to go to the bus and Maureen tripped and fell on a raised paver in the path. As she went down her head hit the bricks and her glasses cut through her eyebrow causing a nasty gash which required 5 stitches.
Since I last wrote, We had camera trouble, I stood on the laptop, breaking the screen, rending it useless and I had motivation problems, so this pretty much brought my blog writing to a standstill.
It wasn't until I bought a new computer and received a severe phone castigation from Alan T. that I managed to pick up the thread.
On arrival at "The Alice" we went straight to The Road Transport Hall of Fame about 8 km south of town just off the highway where we understood that in exchange for 20 hours volunteer work per week and paying our own electricity, we could camp on the grounds.
This facility is really huge. It incorporates the Ghan Museum which details the history of the old train that used to run to Alice.
The truck section contains pretty much every truck ever made in one form or another
The original first road train in the world(an Australian invention)
A pavillion containing only Kenworths
A shed of Macks
Ford model "T"s
Heaps of rare vehicles and engines
plus 8 rooms of "walls of fame"
We had met John and Suzanne at Port Augusta and they arrived the same time we did.
Teamed up with them to explore East and West Macdonnell Ranges.
We were in awe of the landscape all round the town.
visiting such places as Simpsons Gap, Standley Chasm, Herrmansberg, Palm Valley, Emily Gap, Jessie Gap is all I can think of just now
The town itself is about 30,000 people,very prosperous and has a high cost of living. It has most of the large stores and good facilities.
There is a big number of aborigines here and to us it may appear that they look pretty hopeless. The alcohol problem is bad as it is the cause of a lot of domestic violence. 4 litre wine casks are banned from sale and there are a lot of other regulations covering sale of alcohol.
Maureen is set up with clerical work and manning the front desk, while I have been making ladders for top bunks for sleeper car carriages which were converted into B&Bs
Since our arrival, we have been treated to visits from Noel and Beverly, Ian and Sue, Steph and Duff and Daryl and Coleen who stayed 3 days.
I would like to give rave reviews on the local bakery as their stuff looked sensational but at $4 each, there was no way I was going near their vanilla slices.
Can't download pix from camera to new computer yet . Think it's lacking software but I promise to try to remedy that Alan.
