Alice Springs & Lawn Hill Trip - Day 13

Day 13 - 14/6/2016 - Alice Springs

Originally we were contemplating heading back to Cloncurry via the Plenty Highway that we missed on our first part of the trip due to bad weather.  However we had heard that there was another weather system heading towards western Central Australia and western Queensland. Because the highway was still marked as drive with caution and with the possibility of more rain while we would be out there, along with more traffic than usual due to Finke competitors heading back to the east coast, we decided to again skip going that way.  On top of all of that the hinge for our side storage box still hadn’t turned up so we decided to stay in Alice Springs for an extra day to see if it was going to turn up.

Ian and Pieter had a long ride back to Sydney so they left fairly early.  Lisa checked out of the motel and hung out with us at the van park until it was time to go to the airport for her flight.  We went to the airport with her to help with all of the luggage. The boys had offloaded some of the gear on their bikes that they weren’t using to make the trip home lighter.

After seeing Lisa off we did a final shop for stocking up for the next part of our trip to Lawn Hill.  The rest of the afternoon was spent around camp filling water tanks and starting to pack up.

The MacDonnell Range from the roof of the shopping centre carpark.

My Camp helper

The camper beside us was a competitor in the bike category of the race.  That afternoon I had to give him a hand lifting some of his gear into his truck as he was too sore and bruised to lift it himself.  On his way back to Alice Springs from Finke he came off his bike and hit a small sapling.  He said he didn’t remember hitting the tree and didn’t know which direction was the right direction to go in to get to Alice Springs.  Luckily some spectators were close by and helped him lift up his bike and pointed him in the right direction.  He ended up completing the race with bruised chest and rib cage.