East Side

After 2 days in Alice Springs, it's time to head south. Alice Springs is an unusual town, it's flat, it’s a bit like Sunbury, a few main streets, petrol, Pizza Hut, McDonalds and even a Harvey Norman. But there are the beautiful MacDonnell Ranges that surround the town.

I had heard about the crime in Alice Springs, so I picked a place outside of the town, a Double Tree with secure car lockup. The crime is mainly theft, assault by the local indigenous population. Reading the news, business is complaining about the crime, that something needs to be done, as it’s scaring away business.

I was sad to turn south, instead of North, as I really wanted to do Katherine, Darwin, and North-western Australia, but looks like that’s going to have to be a May/June/July trip in the winter.

Aslan and I made the trip back down to Coober Pedy today after a 7-hour drive, 130 kmph helped things along whilst in NT. From there we will head to Port Augusta then the long trip over the Nullarbor to Western Australia. I look forward to camping on the cliffs.

Interesting Coober Pedy fact. They didn’t have any fresh bread, but they had Frozen bread thawed for a 1-day expiry. No fresh bread until Tuesday. The guy in front of had a trolley full of frozen vegetables no fresh food and he was covered in red dust. Life as an Opal miner in the desert.

Aslan prefers hotels then sleeping in the car, he is more of a Dez's bus/hotel kind of kid instead of a camping kid. Still scarred from Candle Bark School rough camping, I think.

Petrol was $3.05 a litre for Diesel, so I pick the bigger towns for fuel where I can, with Alice Springs $2.35. It wouldn't matter in a normal car, but my car takes 180 litres, so a $400 fill up is not unusual.Read more