This is the view of the MacDonnell Range as we departed the Tropic of Capricorn this morning, where we are headed, eventually, to the Ross River Resort, 85km east of Alice Springs
which is a bush style camp, sounds nice.
We stopped off in Alice springs to replenish he larder and fuel etc. but had a small problem with the drinks department, with the Aboriginal drinking problem, you can't buy take-away alcohol until after 2pm, bummer!!, it's only 11.30am, never mind, we will look after our non reflective brothers of Australia and come back next week to purchase our drinks, we have some to keep us going for now. We left the shopping centre after this wondrous news and finally found our way to the Ross Highway, the path to the camping area.
We stopped for a while at Emily Gap, (picture on the left) which is a gap in the MacDonnell Range with cultural significance to the local Aboriginal People with some art work to be seen. We spent a few minutes checking our email on the Internet as there won't be any coverage at the resort, no mobile phone either.(Buggar!! out of reach again)
Onward we went, the road is good but we managed to sustain a blowout on the trailer, (S#&t!!) Oh well, get out and change the wheel. Problem !! can't undo one of the wheel nuts!!, thank goodness for Jim's ingenuity, he managed to rig the wheel so that we could continue without ruining the wheel completely.
We travelled the next 30-odd km at about 20km an hour, stopping to admire the scenery at one stage with this beautiful sight of the MacDonnell Range, the hills and rock formations are something to be seen so far and looking forward to seeing more when we get to where we are going.
Finally we arrived at the Resort about 2pm. The manager very nicely pointed out that we had a flat! very considerate of him, but he seemed more concerned about the flat than we were, He took us inside for beer, very much appreciated too!!
After enjoying a nice cool beer and a chat and paying for 3 nights accommodation at the camp area, we made our way to the site and set up camp. Another day tomorrow when we will worry about fixing the wheel on the trailer and sort out what we are going to do from here.When taking Yip and Dot for a walk, this photo opportunity of our rig on the first day here presented itself and I couldn't help it. I think I am going to enjoy the East MacDonnell Range, lot's to see.
Catch you later.
