Tag Archives: Travel

Day Thirty-Two – Alice Springs – New Year’s Day

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The last thing I did in 2014 was get pissed and the first thing I did in 2015 was he pissed. This is a sad truth for many people across the world.

I woke up with a pretty banging headache so headed to the pool with Ed, Angie and Josh. A little tradition of ours family’s is a New Year’s Day swim so it felt right to continue it. I spent the morning repenting from the night before and soothing the headache with the water.

After a hungry jacks we all took a New Years nap before heading out for dinner for my last night in Alice Springs and my last night in Australia. We went Tempo a tapas bar in the casino. It was pretty good and showed me that there are nice places to eat and Alice isn’t all as bad as Ed and Angie make it out to be.

Although we were all exhausted, it was my last night so we decided to played cards against humanity As there were so few of us we picked a random card to put in the mix named as ‘Bailey’s’ and in ashamed to say she nearly beat me. Clearly the lack of sleep meant I was not on form.

I slept well: happy, sleepy and with a full stomach.
A good start to 2015.

Day Thirty-One – Alice Springs – New Year’s E

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I went to work with Ed and Angie again in the morning which isn’t something I minded doing because the use of a proper compute was definitely needed. I met some of their customers who were both English and it made me really think about what it would be like to move here, what kind of work I would be doing and the possibilities of staying here for at least two years. There are some really interesting people here in Alice Springs and most of them are here to make something of their lives which is a really great thing to witness. The prospect of being one of those people isn’t too bad.

By the time we got home it was time to get the BBQ going. Craig and Shannon joined us for camel kebabs, kangaroo steak and jerk chicken before having shots of rum, Kalhua and baileys. It’s tasted pretty rank but it sure gets you drunk. It’s probably the first time I’ve ever pre-drank for New Year’s Eve but it saves a lot of money, hey.

We arrived at the Lasseters at around 11.30pm and it seemed the whole town of Alice was there. It was a huge mixing pot of people and cultures and really amazing to see. We ran to the bar to get some drinks and then make it outside for the fireworks. As usual on NYE the next half an hour after the clock strikes is spent messaging/calling/emailing every person I know to tell them how much I love them. When enough liquor had been drunk we made our way to the dance floor and managed to make some friends as I always seem to do when I’m enjoying myself. This just reiterates the fact that people are drawn to happy people and reinforces the power of positive thinking. I can safely say I started 2015 in a really great way and I have a good feeling about this year.

Day Thirty – Alice Springs – Creek Swimming and Indian Feasts

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I decided to make an early rise today so I woke up early and went with Ed and Angie to work so I could see exactly what it is they do there.  As soon as we arrived we had breakfast and I was given my uniform!

Ellery Creek Big Hole

Ellery Creek Big Hole

I spent the morning catching up on my blog posts.  Sorry I don’t write for a long time and then they all come at once, that’s something I really need to get organise but I’m just starting out.  By lunchtime there wasn’t much else left to do so we went home and had lunch before driving out to Ellery Creek which is about an hours drive from Alice Springs. It’s an amazing big hole in the middle of the desert filled with water.

We took Bailey (Ed’s dog) and Bernie (Ed’s friends dog) down there and they really enjoyed swimming in the pool until someone jumped in and made a sound like a firework which freaked Bernie out.  So after about half an hour of trying to calm her down we decided to leave her in the car for a bit just so we could enjoy ourselves and to keep her away from the sounds.  We managed to do a bit of rock jumping but scaling the rocks to jump in involved putting our hands into spider filled hand holes so there wasn’t too much daringness.

After the long drive home we quickly showered the pond water off us and got ready for dinner down at Hanuman’s, a really nice Indian and Thai restaurant.  I thoroughly enjoyed the meal and by the time I got home my belly was full and I was ready for bed.

Day Twenty-Eight – Adelaide to Alice Springs – Breakdowns and Ghost Towns

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The route from Melbourne to Alice Springs

The route from Melbourne to Alice Springs

We had been driving through the night and by sunrise we had arrived in Adelaide.  We stopped for fuel and kept driving.  The car seemed to be going quite well until we got out of Adelaide and problems started.  The car kept shuddering when it accelerated at high speeds. We were approaching the heat of the day and the car was struggling with overheating.  We hadn’t had a problem with overheating before now as the Bellarine Peninsular was pretty cold and driving through the night we couldn’t keep warm it was so cold.

We stopped a number of times along the way trying multiple strategies to cool the car down. We changed the coolant, we wired the fan to be on all the time, we wired the A/C fan to cool it down but nothing worked and the car continued to shudder and overheat.  We had to continuously turn the car off and on again to bring it back to speed.  We were all starting to get really tired having been swapping driving shifts and only sleeping in the back of the car and the problems were started to wear us out.

While trying to fix the car under a tree at one of the very few roadhouses a guy came over and tried to help us out but not much else came of it.  We got back on the road driving and had to stop again to try and fix it again.  One of the cars that stopped to see if we were okay happened to be this guy who lived in Coober Pedy which was about 150km down the road.  He and his friend offered to drive us in convoy in case anything should happen to the car then they could tow us.  It was really nice of them and good to know that if we were to break down then someone would be there.  But we made it to Coober Pedy and said our ‘Thank Yous’ and ‘Goodbyes’.

We were so tired by now that to cheer ourselves up we bought some hot food at the only place in town which seemed open and started again on the 7 hour drive from there up to Alice Springs.  By this time the sun was going down and the heat of the day faded away and the car seemed to be going well so I cracked on trying to get as close to Alice as we could.  We stopped at the South Australia/Northern Territory border for a quick photo and driver change and pushed on through finally making it to Alice Springs at 3.30am, 29 hours after leaving Melbourne.  We all crawled into bed exhausted.