From Alice Springs to Lorella Springs

Left: the centre of UFO sightings is hosted at Wycliffe Roadhouse. That's to say there's very little to house.


Note: naming Alice Springs was a mistake: it was just a hole retaining rainwater. Lorella Springs has actual hot springs.



We left Yuendumu sadly. Said good bye to everyone, but I think we were the saddest to leave. They must say goodbye to volunteers all the time.

Got to Alice Springs, played hunt the hotel, Hilton was cheapest, and the nicest place we've been in for a long time. The book shop was open Sunday morning, yee ha. Got the Dog Ear Cafe on petrol sniffing in Yuendumu, but Lou still could not get What If again. The lady now knows him well in the shop.

Rolled north. Met up with John, another traveller we'd met in Kings Canyon and his 3 kids at Alice, before rolling north.

Stopped at Wycliff to see the UFO centre. What the hell? Nothing to see here. The murals outside were pretty cool though.

 ET phone home. Although the out of area charges must be horrendous.

Karlu Karlu (Devils Marbles) is pretty.

 Karlu Karlu

 Karlu Karlu







Could not find a hotel in Tenant Creek at all, except for one with rooms for $210. The El Dorado said they had no rooms.  Marie booked the El Dorado online for $160 via Bookings.com. Too bad for them, they had to put us into two rooms, and lost a fat commission to the website. We did eat at the restaurant. This is the most I've eaten for two weeks by far.


Today was a long long drive to Lorella Springs. The highway rolling north is sealed, but mostly one lane. Each time a truck comes, or road train, you have to get right off the road as they don't. I suppose that's because they'd kick up an storm of stones and dirt. Second point: you want to be travelling at zero to reduce the speed of a stone hitting your windscreen.

Sad to see some farms here have completely wiped out their trees, making it look like a slightly grassy desert. The dead cows are dotted along the roadside, along with dead tyres. When the greenery is allowed, it is lush, thick and not at all like a desert.

The tablelands Highway (image above) is like a roller coaster in places. Feels like it should be getting nearly airborne in spots. At the top of the highway, we arrived at the Heartbreak Hotel just before the dirt. They forgot my order for a long while. Then they said they didn't have what I ordered. Then the manager came out and gave me my money back. The fish and chips was excellent and free. We also stopped here for lunch on the way out again. I told the same guy to be sure not to forget us, and grinned. The lunch was again very nice, can recommend the place.