I wake up from our sports neighbour. He indeed told me that they will be doing a sunrise camel tour. Up at 5 am, tour starts at 6. With bedtime before 9.30 pm I am rested and can’t fall asleep. I watch Marjo sleeping like a baby. Her breathing slow and regularly, a smile on her face, must be a pleasant dream.
Then I’ve had enough and start making breakfast. An early one. As long as it’s with an egg, no one complains.
Then we pack up, our plan this morning is to utilize the $25 pass once more for me to visit Ayers Rock (if you hadn’t worked it out, that’s a synonym for Uluru) and the Olga’s (synonym for Kata Tjuta) while Marjo minds the dogs at the campground. Indeed I visit Kata Tjuta.
And then drive to touch Ayers Rock and bring some red sand for my mother which we will mail.
Then we take fuel at Yulara (thieves) and drive back east to go to Kings Canyon. That is halfway between Yulara and the turn off back to a town called Alice.
Then the bus starts to wobble. At first we think it’s the road. Then I stop and check the tyres and find nothing wrong. We drive again and suddenly a siss and a bang and we have a flat. We stop the bus on the side of the road and start with swapping tyres. Never known that on the passenger side the nuts have counter thread and when Marjo suggest that I say “naaaaaay”. Well of course she was right and finally we get the tyre undone, lift the bus with the help of blocks and put the spare on. I now see that it is a retread. A tyre where later a new profile is glued on. Also it is a different brand and the side wall doesn’t look great. It’s all we have though and we start the journey again.
As there is no service station between here and Kings Canyon that could help fix the tyre (it needs a new tyre as the original one has a jagged hole the size of Marjo’s fist). We therefore decide to leave Kings Canyon and head straight for the Stuart Highway. The roadhouse at the junction 130 km further looked very modern and is also had mobile reception. While Marjo is praying to the angels we float back like carried on a cloud (well not quite but her prayers helped). At the roadhouse they could help at 50% premium but not that day. We arrived before 4 pm and they close at 3.
So we decide that Marjo says a few more prayers and we continue towards Alice Springs, 120km up the Stuart Highway. We book in at the Truck Tyre service and because it is getting late pull into the Desert Oaks rest stop. It is not a bad place but has millions of very big bindie’s (very prickly for both us and the dogs) and of course Desert Oaks (tree that can withstand the desert well).
We are treated on a very nice sky.
Posted from Ghan, Northern Territory, Australia.
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