Tues, 16th Oct, 2018 Bush camp by Alice-Finke Desert Race track, south of Alice Springs to Stuarts Well Roadhouse, south of Alice Springs, NT (4yrs 2mths on road & exploring)

7am 17 degrees, clear sky. Green parrots and ring necked parrots flittered around and sat in the tree beside us – I didn’t have my camera!!

Packed up as the cool wind started to pick up.

Back into town to do our grocery shopping, water, fuel etc and get our other permit to do the Gunbarrel Highway off the WA Aboriginal Communities.

Had a treat of coffee and banana bread at Maccas. Took in my laptop and uploaded by blog, posted on Facebook and checked the emails etc.

Walked around the block to the Information Centre to find out where Lasseter’s grave is. Passed history plaques which we will check out next time. The Residency was open (and free) so we wandered in for a look. I didn’t have my camera so will come back and check it out properly next time.

Got our permit which is free and the lady rang the Community about access to the Surveyors General Corner. Still $100 road tax and $25 each person for the elder to show us the corner – we will give that a miss. I downloaded a photo off the internet instead.

Rang Mum for a chat as we headed around to the old Telegraph Station which is on top of a rise with above the Todd River. It is quite hot now so we checked out the info, $15 each to enter so will save that for next visit. There are lots of walks to do too.

Filled up the fuel tank and topped up the water then drove up the road to the Alice Springs Memorial Cemetery.

Found Lasseter’s grave.

Also Albert Namatjira’s.

Headed south on the Stuart Highway. Lovely clear day. 130kph but Steve is behaving this time conserving fuel – no zooming on the Cannonball Run this time. As we did this road before we didn’t stop to check out anything along the way.

As we neared Stuarts Well Roadhouse we spotted some camels on the east side of the road. There is a camel farm beside the roadhouse so must be some of theirs.

The roadhouse provides accommodation but also has a cleared area for free camping. Another couple had set up under the shade of a tree. As it was nearly 5 we just parked in the open and set up camp which means we pulled out the boxes, chairs and sat down for a drink. We had stopped here on our way to Cairns so I had taken photos and read all the information about this area.

Our route for today.

There is a pool nearby with some quails and a couple of emus with water being pumped in from the bore. Made a nice outlook as the sun set.

Cool evening. Played Skipbo till 9pm when I checked the thermometer and it was only 18 degrees. Only a few trucks rumbling by so reasonably quiet except for the generator for the roadhouse.