Alice Springs cont'd

Sunday 30 August 2015

Had an enjoyable time at Dougie and Elaine's place last night. It was our farewell dinner as we have reached our destination.  Elaine had obviously spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking and put on a tasty spread. The kangaroo court caused lots of laughs and of course everyone was found guilty and the fines went to the South Australian Military Museum. Jim and I were found guilty for losing our WA convoy members along the way. (They did rejoin us along the trek when they were well enough to travel!!) Henri, our French trekker,  was the judge and was easily bribed - all it took was a top up of his wine glass. The rest of us were the jurors and we were tough. Some were catching planes in the next couple of days and others were travelling home via other routes.  Jim is getting a  backache from his bed so we decided to go to Bunnings at 7.00am to get some wood and return to the other side of town before the roads were closed.  Unfortunately Bunnings didn't open until 9.00am so we left without the wood. We passed many of the old vehicles which were being driven to the assembly point north of Alice Springs. We selected a vantage point near the turn off to the Transport Hall of Fame to watch the parade of old trucks,  tractors, buses etc. Some great restorations with a lot of time, effort and money involved. My favourite would have to be the old coaster buses which have become mobile homes. We left AS around 10.30am and made a head start south. Our campsite was at Stuart's Well about 90kms south of AS. The boys spied an old pallet so out came the tools to break it up so Jim could have some boards for his bed.  With that achieved we dined at the roadhouse/hotel and had a feed of fish and chips with heaps of salad. They have an area by the pond where there are a couple of emus, a kangaroo, ducks and various birds. In 2005 we called in there and they had a dingo that used to howl when the piano was played. It drew tourists from far and wide who used to call in just to hear the dingo sing. Unfortunately the dingo has since died.