Our extended stay in Alice.

We can honestly say that everyone involved since our little accident has come to the party and we are extremely grateful for that. Lifestyle (the van manufacturer) have been excellent and got onto the suspension manufacturer to make up a new left hand side trailing arm and stub axle assembly and they did that on Friday - normally it takes up to 4 weeks! They haven't had a problem like this before so are keen to make amends! The Lifestyle chap has been liasing with the trailer repairer here in Alice springs and he'll fit the part as soon as it arrives. We hope that's Monday as it's been dispatched already (from Brisbane). So everyone is fast tracking the process to get us on the road asap. 

       Anyway, after displaying his wonderful driving skills, Darryl now thinks he can drive a Kenworth!! This is from when the boys visited the truck museum here in town yesterday. 

         

Then RACV have been excellent too and we are booked into this cabin for as long as necessary. So the only thing we've lost is some time - plus maybe some confidence but we'll recover that quickly. The more we talk to people who know about these sort of things, the more we realise how lucky we were that it didn't tip the van over - and it's just one of those random things that should never happen - but it did - through the fault of no one. 

This morning we visited the Alice Springs botanical gardens which was most memorable for the lovely cappuccino we shouted ourselves there. We really loved this emu - wonder if Ticky could make one like this for us? It was made out of bits and pieces but very effective. I'd love one in my garden. 

         

From here we travelled to the East McDonnell Ranges - they aren't quite as touristy as the western side but still we saw some beautiful spots. 

     

This is the Emily Gap - dry but very pretty with lovely trees and we saw some beautiful zebra finches drinking from a little water soak. We read the aboriginal story of this gap and saw the rock art on the walls.

    

We walked around Corroborree Rock which was really quite a spectacular outcrop and we could imagine this being the place of ancient ceremonies. 

      

Lastly we visited Trephina Gorge which was beautiful and also had a lovely campground we've pencilled in for future trips. The trees are amazing as they grow so strongly from out of the rocks or on the river bed. We've read here that rivers in these areas are upside down rivers as even though they are dry, the water is only a few metres underground. 

       

It would be amazing to see these rivers in flood - but then the area would be inaccessible!  We returned to our park after this lovely relaxing day and Darryl Dennis and I braved the chilly pool to have a refreshing dip. We've enjoyed a mixed grill BBQ and look forward to another day exploring this lovely town and area.

Our next blog will hopefully be from on the road again. Thank you everyone for your messages of care and concern - lets hope we don't experience any more excitement like that! 

Love to you all,

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