We had another excellent night’s sleep due to it being very cool (the roof hatch was unfortunately left open) and we arose for the day at 7.00am.
Our intention for the day was to relax and have a look around Alice Springs shops. We were ready to depart at 8.30am but struck a problem when “He” attempted to reverse the van off the levelling blocks with the rear stabilisers still extended. The end result was both of the plastic feet on the stabilisers breaking. We both learnt from this mishap as we were not following our normal departure routine. In future we will follow our standard routine and this should remove the possibility of this type of problem. We spoke with our daughter-in-law who provided an address for a local caravan accessory shop.
We purchased new feet and they were installed on the van later in the day. We now have a couple of spares.
Our first visit was to the local Reptile exhibition. We spent a couple of hours there and were able to have close encounters with several lizards and a python. After lunch we paid a visit to Coles and restocked for the next couple of days. We also purchased an Albert Namatjira print and will have it framed when we return home. Whilst purchasing the print, we took note of the weather forecast that was being broadcast. Rain is coming and they expect a wet weekend. It looks like the rain is about 2 days behind us as most of the places we have visited have had rain since we left.
After arriving back at the caravan park we emptied the grey tank, refilled the fresh tank and watched National Treasure 2 (was released today). Chicken and pasta salad for tea.
Tomorrow we head into South Australia with an overnight stop planned at Marla. We don’t have a booking and it is first in, best dressed.
STOP PRESS – Extract from the Advertiser Adelaide, Australia – 2 Jun 2008
Estimated to be about six metres wide, they say the object passed the vehicle with such speed that its slipstream forced their Mazda sedan into the middle of the road.
They were travelling in a westerly direction and were about 55km east of the Threeways roadhouse when the incident occurred.
“It was about 4pm when suddenly we saw a dark, silvery flash and heard a loud sound as it passed,” Mr Fuchs said.
“It was travelling at a terrific speed, very bloody fast, and there was no warning at all.”
WE DROVE ON THIS ROAD THE DAY AFTER THIS SIGHTING……….