SUNDAY, MAY 4

At 8 a.m. when we left the campsite, it was already 20 degrees. We stopped at Kings Canyon to do the Kings Creek Walk – a walk up a dry creekbed to a viewpoint at the end. There were a lot of people starting off on the 4 hour Kings Canyon loop – some of them probably should not have been. They were having difficulty with the first part of the trail and were having to pull each other up.

This is the start of the Kings Canyon Loop

The Kings Creek walk was mostly in the shade – and not too bothered by flies until we were almost finished. It was the first walk we’ve done that has had signs along the way, explaining what you are seeing in the creek bed.

This area must have huge flash floods – there were large trees washed up against other trees. You can see the water markings on the rocks – they are black in places where the water washes over them. The viewpoint at the end was pretty – and you could see hikers doing the Kings Canyon loop on the rim of the canyon. Another reason I wasn’t going to be hiking there.

After the 45 minute hike, we headed for Alice Springs. Our original thought was to stop at Erldunda again – but we were there about noon and it seemed to early to stop. We decided to continue on to Alice Springs and look for a campsite at the MacDonnell Ranges campsite – even though we were here at 3 p.m. we were lucky to get a spot – this is a huge campground and it was almost full. It’s a nice spot for families – there are lots of kid activities. They even had internet access so I managed to upload all the photos and blog entries. After dinner, I decided to take advantage of the on-site laundromat – they even have clothes lines for drying. (Actually all the campsites we’ve stayed at have had clothes lines).

On the road outside Erldunda – we spotted a thorny devil (a lizard) on the road, sunning himself (no, he wasn’t flat – he was bobbing up and down). We wanted to turn around and take a photo but figured he’d be gone by the time we got back *g*

This is John’s favourite road sign – too bad the vehicle we had wasn’t capable of doing that speed.

One of the local radio stations in Alice Springs is Sun FM – now I know of 3 of them.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Alice Springs Desert Park and the National Road Transport Hall of Fame before we return the van. We stay Monday night at the Best Western in Alice Springs and then fly to Cairns in the afternoon on Tuesday.

The campervan has been fun – but definitely costly. Fuel for the 2,664 km has cost $437. Actually it’s a little more than that as we don’t have to fill it up when we return it as we prebought a full tank (at 1.64/litre which is definitely cheaper than we’ve been paying). We thought the propane had run out but John checked it over and discovered the tank wasn’t hooked up properly and it was sucking air so he fixed it and then the stove worked well again. It’s been great being able to cook our own meals – and the best purchase we’ve made has been the frying pan (so I don’t use one that might have had eggs cooked in it). We did well with the food buying and don’t have much leftover – and only had to buy one loaf of bread after we did our initial shopping.

Temperature: 29 C – sunny

MONDAY, MAY 5

Didn’t do too much today – when we got up we cleaned out the campervan and then went to the Alice Springs Desert Park. It’s a fantastic place and well set up – we ended up spending 3 1/2 hours there and decided that we didn’t have enough time to spend at the National Road Transport Hall of Fame. They have an audio tour (free of charge) that you can use in the park. The park has various areas including Desert Rivers, Woodlands and Sand Country. There were a number of enclosures where you could see animals (mostly birds – except in the nocturnal exhibit). We really enjoyed the park – and were amazed that there weren’t many tourists there. One thing that I really liked were the signs on the various trees and plants, explaining what they were and what the natives used them for.

John got to see a thorny devil up close (and not just sunning on the road) – they are really strange looking.

We finally got to see kangaroos too – and this guy looks like the card I got from work.

After we left the park, we headed to the Best Western Elkira Inn at Alice Springs to see if we could check in there before we returned the van. We were in luck so we left all the luggage in the room and took the campervan back to the Maui dealer. We had to wait quite a while for a taxi back to the Best Western, but once there we went out for a walk.

The town itself seems to be the size of downtown Duncan – and with the same sort of problems. Lots of aboriginals on the street – some asking for handouts, others just looking “down and out”. One thing that’s noticeable is the security in all the stores and a lot of the homes – there are screens on the windows or high fences or guard dogs. It was really quiet in town, and then we found out that it’s a holiday – May Day. There were a few stores open in Todd Mall but we’ll have to go back again tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we’ll try to get out exploring in the morning before we have to check out at noon but the hotel has a luggage room where we can leave our luggage until we get the shuttle to the airport. The flight to Cairns leaves at 5:10 p.m. and we’ll arrive at 7:45 p.m.

Temperature: 30 C – sunny