Judy & Brian Tour Oz

One of the reasons for coming back down the centre and staying at the Alice was to check out Ormiston Gorge, but idle chat from fellow travels, the distance out there and not feeling brilliant, we sort of let it go. At 1130 today we decided that on spur of the moment that we really ought to drag our sorry butts out there, and so we did. We filled up and headed west out along what will become know world wide as Red Centre Way. You drive out directly west between the ranges that make up the West Macdonnell Range, and spectacular it is. Its every bit as good as the Kimberly, and it's just here. (well, you have to get to the Alice first of course). This is a truly ancient and inspiring land. I can't describe these ranges, you'll have to check out the pictures. We had been out here 2 years ago and been to Standley Chasm and Simpson Gap before taking the turn off to Hermansburg (see our blog from 2012), but this time we took the other leg of the Y toward Glen Helen. At about ...

Fairly big day today (well yesterday actually) but easy driving for 370 something kilometres. First stop was Ti Tree Roadhouse for fuel, a cuppa and some raisin toast. At first glance this looks much like any other (mostly daggy looking roadhouse up this way, but out past the tills and tack and shop part, is a really nice little cafe eating area, not a plastic table cloth in site! Well done them. Then it’s on down to Alice which we reached in good time and despite having to fiddle about with the van and jockey wheel again due to the car being much lower on the road than the van on the grass, we got settled in OK and strolled up-town for a late lunch and a coffee.  Sad to say, but Judy beat me comprehensively at indoor lawn bowls, must be my lack of bias… Two days for the cost of a single click! Slept in today before giving the couple of shops in town the benefit of our patronage. Judy found a Millers so all was right with the world. Actually, on the way out we went ...

Hell's bells - now there are only 10 weeks to go, time to get serious about some of these things i guess! What we have done: Changed the dog'n bones to Telstra to get the better coverage 'out there', not to mention a rate pre-paid 15% of whet we were getting from our provider of 19 years. Too bad for them, eh? Put a complete new set of top-of-the-line Michelins on the X5 - ouch that hurts Had the X5 fully serviced including the chassis and the towbar Booked Coober Pedy Finished the CD's - then culled the 3300 tracks down to 1200 Bought a used ipod from ebay and loaded the music to it - 1200 songs, some of which are later than 1969 Don't really know what else to do in the way of preparation for the car and van - we've used it extensively for 2 years and feel comfortable with their performance and reliability - maybe we'll just take off and see how it all hangs together. Sometimes we are keen and excited to be going, other times we are just ...