We actually had a cold night with the temperature heading down to low single numbers. Nevertheless, we had a comfortable night under our doona.
Unfortunately today was the last day we would be spending with our friends who were booked on the 1:30pm QANTAS flight back to Sydney.
So, with our friends packed and their baggage in their hire car, we headed into Alice for a little retail therapy and morning tea at a coffee shop. We said our goodbyes just after 11:00am and after watching them leave for the airport, we decided to head back to the West MacDonnell Ranges to attempt to find the “Ghostly Gums”.
On the way we stopped in the Cultural Precinct to visit the grave of Albert Namatjira. As we entered the car park, we noticed clumps of Sturt’s Desert Pea. We could hardly believe our eyes. We had a quick look at the area surrounding the Cultural Precinct and paid our respects to Albert. His grave site is very fitting for a man of his talent.
We eventually found our missing “Ghost Gums” but it looks like one tree has been destroyed and the other has been badly damaged by fire which we now understand happened in early January. This is very sad as the trees are truly iconic. It is reported that the authorities are still unsure if arson was involved, however, the local police are not investigating any further.
On our way back to the caravan park, we decided to stop at a Clark Rubber store to see if we could purchase something to seal the rear tray door of the Navara in an attempt to make the canopy covered area dust tight. Needless to say, as we parked we noticed more examples of Sturt’s Desert Pea. We spent time looking for them, now they were everywhere. We did obtain a rubber seal that we will try to affix before we return to the dirt roads of Coober Pedy.
We did some shopping in the afternoon before heading back to the caravan park where we were fortunate to meet some other members of the Australian Caravan Club who were camped close to us.
We had pork for tea (we had purchased the pork at Whyalla and the cryovac process had worked perfectly) and we followed that with pancakes and strawberries and cream from the vendor in the caravan park.
We had a scare with the monitor of our refrigerator reporting an internal temperature of 8 degrees. We are still not sure if the door was left slightly ajar or if the unit is faulty. After noticing the temperature, we reset the monitor and ensured that the door was fully closed. The temperature returned to normal within an hour. We will watch this closely.
When we went to bed it was cold and getting colder. Might be time to get the jackets out!