Living Life: ALICE SPRINGS (STILL)

What a rude shock this morning - we had to set the alarm!!!! (OK it was 7am which is not really that early but - think about it - we haven't had to have the alarm set for a looooong time!). We were to have the caravan to the caravan repairer by 9am but by the time we got everything packed away, dismantled, sorted, locked up etc etc etc we didn't get there until 9.30am.
The good news is that the door locked last night! Yeah! and it locked again each time we wanted it to today.
We left the caravan, had a coffee and then toodled off to the West Macdonnell Ranges. It was a beautiful sunny day with very little wind and ideal for being adventurers.
Our first stop was Flynn's grave, which was interesting.
A bit further on we visited Simpsons Gap. This was a lovely spot and we spent quite a bit of time there.
Next stop was Standley Chasm. Unfortunately this one cost $16 ($8 each) entry, but it turned out to be well worth it. There were 3 different walks available and, naturally, we opted for the one described as "easy". Bloody hell - I would hate to see the harder ones. Despite all that we managed to get to the chasm to catch the last rays of the sun on the chasm wall. The best time to see it is apparently midday but we were a bit late getting there. Again this was a lovely spot and well worth the money. We had some lunch there and then moved on to Ellery Creek Big Hole. We didn't swim there but many people (mainly young ones) were swimming. The water is apparently pretty cold. This looks like a really good spot to camp sometime in the future.
We had to make sure we were back in AS by 5pm to pick up the caravan so we debated about going on to Serpentine Gorge but thought we should have enough time so off we went. To get to Serpentine Gorge you have to turn off the main highway. The other roads we travelled were really good. This one was signposted as 3km but shortly after getting onto the road (and I use that term in its most generous sense) the sign said it was 5km! The road was abysmal and I would have thought it should be 4wd only. A couple of kilometres along we got caught behind a small van travelling very very slowly and managing to get along with a lot of difficulty. It appeared they may have decided to give up and were going to turn around when we came up next to them to check if they were OK. They were a young German couple and we worked out they would leave their van and travel the rest of the distance with us. When we got to the parking area we decided not to go for a walk - the shortest was 15 minutes one way and we figured as it was getting late in the day and we were feeling old and tired it would probably be 30 minutes one way for us and we just didn't have the time available. The German couple headed off promising to be back in 30 minutes and they were true to their word. They said it was very disappointing and we didn't miss anything. We dropped them back at their van and headed back to Alice Springs post-haste! We were going to cut it very fine and thought we may make it with a minute or two to spare. We had no phone service so couldn't ring them. We were not too far from AS when a very large wedge taile eagle flew across the road ahead of us and landed slightly off the road on our right. Because we were running late we couldn't chance stopping and trying to take a photo which was a bit disappointing.
We made it back with seconds to spare (but the repair people were really nice about it). The new legs looked good and work really well - much easier than our old wind downs. They did discover some problems at the back end of the caravan with the framework and it is something we will have to have looked at some time but they didn't think we needed to panic about it just yet. It appears water has been getting in and some of the timbers have rotted (similar problem to the front of the van).
Got the caravan hitched up and came back to G'Day Mate Caravan Park and we were really lucky to still have our site. They were fully occupied and spilling over onto the roadways etc. There was barely enough room for us to get our caravan through.
Set everything up and then decided to wander over to the Heavitree Tavern and have their $10 special for tea. Tonight was Beer battered fish and chips. It was dished up wrapped in paper and was quite enjoyable.
We will be leaving AS tomorrow morning and heading off to Gemtree for a couple of nights and then on to who knows where! Not sure when our next blog will be because we have no idea when we will have internet access over the next few weeks.
PS: does anyone know the difference between a Gap and a Chasm?

A beautiful tree near Simpsons Gap