Alice Springs

Our last night in Alice we had a video call with Chuck and Sue, Lisa and Russ as they were locked down in Sydney. It was crazy to picture what's going on in Sydney, yet here we are in Alice free as birds.

Afterwards we went across the road for pizza at the Alice Springs Brewing Company.  It was crowded with no masks or social distancing going on. It was an enjoyable night out and the pizzas were amazing.

We had our caravan serviced in Alice Springs. The caravan repairer (JC's Caravan Repairs) is the only repairer in Alice and are also the Agents for Simplicity Suspension, which is what we have in our van. They also build caravans, so you would think they'd be ok.

The wife that runs the office there is so rude, we wonder how they remain in business. Telling us straight out lies and bagging all other repairers of caravans Australia-wide. Not a good start, but the service was due and more importantly we needed a wheel alignment on the van and who better to do this than the Agents for Simplicity Suspensions? After all, by their own admission JC's knew everything!

Afterwards we drove 138kms to the dirt road into Palm Valley and stopped to let down our tyre pressures. The road in was reportedly terrible and the first 50 metres were shocking, so it had to be done.

I got to the last tyre on the van and just happened to notice this:

Now I've no knowledge on how quickly wheel nuts that aren't tightened enough can unscrew. But I would have guessed longer than 138kms? So does this mean that these nuts were never screwed in more than this? If they unscrewed themselves and got to this point then it looks like we had about another 2kms before we totally lost these two wheel nuts!

I would normally check wheel nuts tensions about 500kms after a service. I'm changing that to 50kms now.

The other nuts on the van wheels weren't tight either, in fact some had hardly any tension on them.

Can you imagine what would have happened if we were doing 95kms/hour just before this and the wheel came off? A 4 tonne van would have made a big mess.

$480 for the service and wheel alignment is about right, but a little on the expensive side.  Considering where we were, you have to expect to pay more than city prices. But in saying that you also expect the workmanship to be top quality as well.  They know what can happen to vans out here - they told us that many times! They were so rude.

Palm Valley

When we sailed to Antarctica in 2001 we met an English girl Susanne on the Kapitan Klebnikov.  She knew an Aussie bloke Andrew.  Andrew was a geologist and geophysicist of the planets, with an obsessive interest in all things to do with rocks, the stars and everything in between. In 2003 Susanne flew to Australia to join Andrew for a trip around the Red Centre, including a visit to Palm Valley and Kings Canyon  and they invited us along.  So we flew from Sydney to Alice Springs and joined them for an extraordinary few days.  Palm Valley was such a beautiful area, Jayne had always talked about going back. 

Considering we were just up the road at Newhaven, we decided to go in, despite the terrible road conditions we'd experienced with Susanne and Andrew. 

We managed the 22kms of rough, stony, corrugated road in without issue, and at least no wheels fell off!

Palm Valley Campground

Kalarranga Lookout view of the campground

Sunset from our campsite

This female dingo was so thin, but no feeding!

Day temperatures were perfect around 25°C but very cool nights, down below 5°C so our diesel heater got a workout.

It took 35 minutes to drive the rough 4.5kms into Palm Valley, but the extra height on our LandCruiser paid dividends and we managed all the dry creek crossings without issue. 

A smooth portion of the 'road' in to Palm Valley

Palm Valley is a really beautiful place.  The walks there are easy with a different view everywhere you look.

Palm trees lining the escarpment

Stopping for our picnic lunch

Is Alan on a bit of a lean here?

 A beautiful ghost gum growing out of the escarpment

Jaynie, push that rock back into position!

Just up from our campsite is Kalarranga Lookout. We can see these rocks from our campsite so did the walk to the top. We wish Andrew was with us to explain how these rocks ending up balancing here, because the young park ranger had no idea. 

Interesting rock formations

Alan cooling down in a little bit of shade

Jayne in front of one of the spectacular rock formations

Hermannsburg

We were going to head east into Queensland from Palm Valley, but due to the continued Covid lockdown there, we decided another day or two in the West MacDonnell Ranges around Alice Springs was worthwhile.

We left Palm Valley and spent a while wandering around the old township of Hermannsburg, an Aboriginal mission founded in 1880.  Europeans came across the world to these tiny communities around outback Australia to give Aboriginal people a better religious life and to teach them the ways of the modern world. The old buildings were fantastic, including the tannery where animal hides were such good quality that RM Williams used to get his leather from there.

Growing congregation in front of the church, 1940

After morning tea and apple strudel (it is German heritage after all) we went to the local football oval (no grass out here) and found the dirtiest, dustiest place to inflate the tyres and fill the van with water. 

Hermannsburg football oval

Neil Hargrave Lookout

For the night we wanted somewhere with a view. So we headed to Neil Hargrave Lookout, a free camp within the National Park. It had a ripper of a view, and we enjoyed a small fire and the sunset.

Views from our campsite at Neil Hargrave Free Camp

Just as we settled into bed, the wind picked up a bit. This initially wasn't an issue, but we put the satellite dish and mobile antenna down and all was good.

However, with every minute the wind got stronger and stronger. The van was certainly rocking, and by 1am neither of us could sleep. So we decided to pack up and go down to the bottom of the hill, where the wind wasn't so strong and camped at the entrance to Serpentine Gorge. It was still very windy down there, but at least we were able to get to sleep eventually.

We're not sure how others managed that night, because some people were camped right on the edge of the escarpment, but we were glad to be out of there.

Gemtree

Next morning we went to Alice Springs for more supplies then onto Gemtree Caravan Park which is near the end of the sealed part of the Plenty Highway. From here it's pretty much dirt until we get to Boulia in Queensland, some 600 kms away.

Gemtree is a fossicking area for garnets and zircons, but it's also the last chance we have at good mobile service before Boulia.