Monday, 1 September 2014

Oodnadatta-Marla to Alice springs


It was a beautiful morning so we were up before the sun again and soon had brekky and cuppa's organised so we could make quick our escape from our hidden location behind some jump ups not far from the Dalhousie springs turnoff on Todmorey station.
A quick refit of the light force driving lights and its cabling that had rattled loose over the last 18 months , so with my trusty ratchet 15 mm spanner then my cable tape and ties it was all as good as new with the exception of being aligned which I will fix in a night or so as we don't drive much of a night up here 
We had about 190 Kms to go till the Marla junction with the Stuart hwy and we only pulled over to have a quick stop and drop 20 litres into the tank to ensure we would be in range as the fuel use was a little heavy the last few days .
I was a. Little dissapointed that there wasn't a lot to see or do in this northern section of the Oodnadatta track I guess mostly owing to the Ghan running further up north and no more springs close to the road , mostly just bores and dry creek beds and a few cattle mustering yards.
Still it had been quite an interesting trip.
At Marla I had an argument with the air compressor at the servo and it took many attempts to get all
 6 tyres back to road pressure after getting error codes and false readings ( several around 67-72 psi ) which was scaring the shit out of me but with persistence and a few resets I got it going .
We motored on up the national highway with perhaps the intention of pulling into rainbow valley for a night or so but after making good time and only a quick stop at Stuarts well. And another roadside area we decided to push on to Alice springs to relax for a few days and get supplies .
We got to town about 530 and made a bee line for the macdonnell ranges caravan park as we had heard good reports about it , although it was pricey it was well setup .
Once setup we got some more fuel and ate tea at Monte's  a quirky little place with an old carnival style theme to it , not particularly cheap but was very delicious although over run with backpackers working here the one who served us could do with a good dose of manners and hospitality but you get that !
Back to the park and in bed we all slept e restless dream filled night I'm guessing due to eating late and excitement .

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