Day 28 & 29 , Alice Springs ( Friday 24th July & Saturday 25th July)

Friday

Got off to a pretty good start this morning after a very mild night, waking to a beautiful day.

On the road by 0900 hrs we headed for Alice, arriving there at around 1100 hrs,we had decided we would try a CP that we had not been to, the"G'Day Mate" CP, it was pretty much across the road from the Big 4.

The park was almost fully booked and all they had were site on pebbles which we didn't really like much, we over the road to the Big 4 and booked in there, it didn't start off well with the lady at the desk allocating us a gravel site instead of grass which we asked for, when I went back I was informed that there were no un-powered grass sites and if we wanted grass we had to get a powered site at an extra cost of course.

By that stage we couldn't really be bothered looking for anywhere else or arguing for that matter so we just took the powered site.

After setting up we went into town to get the Shock Bushes I had ordered, and get the tyre I had ordered fitted, we got the bushes but the tyre place was flat out so I booked in for the morning to get the tyre done.

Back at camp it looked like rain on the way so I put up the annex which we haven't really used up until now, hopefully it wont rain. 

Saturday

This morning headed into town to get that new tyre, left the car at the Local Bridgstone dealer and was told it would take around 1 1/2 hours.

I spent a bit of time looking at the shops close by including Supercheap where I found a small 15cm UHF areal which might not break, I had some lager items to get so I decided to go back later and get it once I got the car back.

When I got back to the tyre place the bloke had just finished getting the new tyre on but was having some trouble putting the wheel nut covers on so I offered to do it for him to save him some time, luck I did that cause it was then I noticed that they had put the wrong size tyre on, they had fitted a 225/65/17 instead of a 255/65/17,no problems though they soon put the right one on.

Back at camp Joanne and I spent the day catching up on chores like washing, repairs, tidying and general maintenance, while the kids enjoyed the Jumping pillow with friends they had made.

In the afternoon we went into town to the supermarket to stock up, and while we were there went back to Supercheap for that aerial,you wouldn't believe it, they had sold out of the short ones, must be a lot of travelers with broken aerials.

With the car and trailer tidied up, the pantry stocked, a new spare tyre, replacement shock bushes at hand we were ready to tackle the Tanami the next day.

Going into Alice and staying for two nights was a necessity because of some of the things we needed , otherwise we would have pulled in for fuel and food and headed straight off again, our experience with the Big 4 was not that great and if we went back would most likely stay across the road at G'Day Mate CP which was cheaper and friendlier, unfortunately it was booked out when we arrived. Anyway we did what we needed to do and tomorrow morning we head up the Tanami.

Our plan was to do the Tanami over 4 days, our first stop being Tilmouth Well then playing by ear after that, reports from other travelers regarding the road condition have varied from worse road ever to like a highway, I guess we will find out tomorrow.