Leaving Alice

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Day 1 - Leaving Alice

Thursday, 6 September 2012

Well we finally have our beloved Maxxie back. What a long week it has been. We stayed at Stuart Caravan Pk on Larapinta just West of the town centre, but more importantly 15 minutes walk from the Isuzu workshop. Maxxie was dropped off last Tuesday to have the soopa doopa exhaust fitted and hopefully to find out what was making the grinding noise when in 4L and driving through heavy going 'stuff' ie soft sand. They eventually found the reason, after just about everything that could be removed was. Axles, diff lock, etc. (which was dismantled, during which time ARB sheared off a bolt, that then had to be ordered in!). Turned out to be a cross member, running between the 2 chassis rails. PAV remembers the front wheel dropping down a bit of a dip whilst crossing the Pentecost River. Good thing was they also found one of the shock absorbers was very worn and needed replacing - cant replace just the one though! All this time I am feeling very sick about how much all this is going to cost. Anyhow, Maxxie is back, very proud of himself, wagging his tail, so to speak.

Before leaving a quick drive up ANZAC Hill. Looking down over Alice, it is quite picturesque. We could see The Ghan at the station!

Heading south before turning Left to the East MacDonnell Ranges first up was Emily Gorge. The Dreamtime features big time in Alice, the Caterpillar the dominant character, and most of the rock art features this. The rock formation is great and these gorges are easy to access.

We followed the tourist route out to the Binns track and stopped at Trephine Gorge for the night. This is definitely a WOW place. We managed the panorama walk mid afternoon. I was very hot, and struggling, but the view down into the riverbed on one side, out over the distant hills to the north and the gorge escarpment behind us was brilliant. Heading back down the other side, I was stunned firstly by the different scents - I kept having to brush the bushes to find which ones were the scented ones, and then by the variety of flowers - I thought WA was the wildflower capital!

	View of Alice to The Gap from ANZAC Hill [Map]		Emily Gorge [Map]
	Emily Gorge [Map]		Trephina Gorge [Map]
	Windflowers Trephina Gorge [Map]		300 Yr old Ghost Gum [Map]

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