Tonight, we’re in Mparntwe (pronounced m’barn-twa) – the Alice Springs area. The Arrernte (pronounced Arrunda) are the traditional owners of this land, and we’re grateful to be here on their land tonight. We acknowledge the Arrernte elders past, present and emerging.
I was expecting a long, tiring drive today – but in reality, it was pretty quick (relatively speaking), and we were here by 1:30pm! With such a small room in Watarrka (Kings Canyon), it made packing up nice and quick this morning. So we were comfortably on the road a bit before 8am this morning. And in all honesty, there is pretty much nothing between Watarrka and the Stuart Hwy!
I was initially really interested in taking the Ernest Giles track today. It would’ve cut about 150km off the trip back to the Stuart Hwy – the sealed highway journey heads back south to Lasseter Hwy and then across to the Stuart Hwy, whereas the Ernest Giles track heads straight east directly to the Stuart Hwy. More than the the time saving though, there is just so much to see on the track! Having read reviews of it, people have commented at how amazing the drive is, with plenty of things to stop and see! But it’s an unsealed road. And while that isn’t an issue in itself, I couldn’t get any really reliable information from people about what the quality of the road was today. And given it’s 100km long, with no mobile coverage, I really didn’t want to chance it. I do love my Tiguan, and it is an all-wheel-drive – but let’s be honest, it’s most definitely not a 4WD. Nor are its low profile tyres suited to ruts and potholes and rocks (let alone the fact that it doesn’t have a full size spare tyre!). So I erred on the side of caution and looked longingly at the turn off as we drove past it this morning. Chalk that up as yet another thing to do at some point in the 20 year future when Debbie and I redo this trip without kids, with a proper 4WD.
One thing we did see on the drive back down to the Stuart Hwy was some wild camels eating at a tree only a few metres from the side of the road! They initially were completely unfazed by a couple of cars driving past. But we were so amazed at them that we ended up turning around and heading back to see them. As we slowed down however, they all looked up at us… and then bolted! But it was amazing to see them in the wild right at the side of the road.
We stopped in at Erldunda Roadhouse again – good to grab some Shell fuel again on the fuel card! Hopefully that was the only part of the trip that won’t be covered by Ampol or Shell (which are the fuel cards we have as part of the car lease). It was fun for the kids as well to be able to head over and feed the emus again. We noticed a sign at the edge of the fuel section of the Roadhouse that we’d completely missed a week ago – and it was begging for a photo! (Note, to be clear, the Alexander frown is staged.)
Once we had some morning tea and headed off from Erldunda, it was only 2 hours until Alice Springs! All of a sudden, we were actually going to end up having lunch there rather than on the road. There was only one other stop we made as we headed north at 130km/h (oh how I love those speed limits in the NT!), and that was at the Cannonball Run Monument. A few days ago, as I was reading a bit of history on the open speed limits in the NT, I read about the Cannonball Run from 1994. I’ve heard bits about the event over the years, but I was only 10 when it all happened, and I’d never really known the full story. It’s a pretty incredible and tragic story of how it all happened. So I was keen to pause at the monument where the the accident happened today.
We’re at another Discovery Parks here in Alice Springs for the next few nights. There’s a few of these we’re stopping at over the next bunch of weeks – small cabins in a caravan park, but they’re self-contained with a decent kitchen. So it means we can do a lot of our own meals. As soon as we arrived here the kids spotted the pool and the waterslide with much excitement. After we’d unpacked a bit this afternoon, we realised that it would actually be a perfect way for the kids to burn off some energy having not really had any decent stops along the drive. So they had a great time on the waterslide and in the pool while I headed off to Coles to stock up on some groceries (hooray for a return to reasonably grocery prices!).
We’re looking forward to a couple of really good days here in Alice Springs!
