Three Cornered Jack

The heading gives you a hint of what the last couple of days has revolved around. Saturday morning we wandered into Alice Springs cbd. It has a few historical buildings and a lot of indigenous tourism. A couple of malls and supermarkets. It was the biggest town we had been in for a while. Our first task was to get plumbing pieces to finally fix our water leak. We found an amazing camping store who could help us out. Regan spent more time under the caravan on his yoga mat with great success.

Decided on a bike ride in the afternoon so headed up past Alice Springs Desert Park. The cycleway is wide and fully sealed. We stopped for a photo op and I parked my bike off the track. Big mistake. The tyres got a few jabs from this noxious weed called three cornered jack. Continued on for another 20km. At about 5km from home I noticed I had a soft front tyre so straight home as fast as possible. Had to walk the last kilometre. Mended the front tyre then Julie noticed my back tyre was also flat. So more time finding 4 thorns and punctures in the back tyre.

Woke up this morning to both tyres flat again. Being a Sunday we only managed to get one new tube so spent more time replacing tubes and pulling out all thorns from the tyres. We first experienced three cornered Jack on the Birdsville track and have stood on it a few times and dragged in inside the caravan. Guaranteed to curse when you stand on one of these bare-footed and must be careful to get the complete thorn out as well.

Today we went for a leisurely drive to Simpson's Gap then Standleys Chasm. Amazing rocks and just spectacular when you discover that these rocks are some of Australia's oldest rocks . And of course the rocks and the dirt is so red. The main birdlife were budgies. Hundreds of speedy noisy characters darting between the branches. We managed a couple of walks which we enjoyed after having a few long days sitting in the car. The temperature is cooler than Mt Isa but we are further south. Today was a pleasant 20 degrees and sunny.

As we haven’t managed to see all we wanted in Alice we are staying an extra day before we head into the tourism Mecca of Uluru and Kings Canyon.Read more