To Alice Springs – 1/18/2013
Jan 20th, 2013 by admin
We’re ready to at about 8:00 when Rowan comes by with a stack of news clippings and photos. It’s an amazing random glimpse of the history of Curtain Springs. Running the cattle station. Fighting the bush fires with a shot from a video showing a spiral of flame reaching almost a 1,000 feet in the air. A chart of the average rain fall over the years. A regular data dump.
But we have to go. Back east to the Luritja Road cut off to the north and into the MacDonall Range. There’s a hike that we want to do, King’s Canyon, and, farther on, a gravel road that goes through a series of gorges. And then onto Alice Springs for the night.
It’s 53 kilometers to the turn off and then another 128 kilometers to King’s Creek where we are going to stop for fuel. The road is a pretty good paved road and there’s not much traffic. We’re on the lookout for camels. Rowan said that there are an estimated 2,000,000 feral camels in central Australia and we haven’t seen a one yet.
The road goes back to gravel and we start seeing ‘roos, cattle and horses. Then, finally, we’re crossing a crest in the road and in the distance there’s a camel just standing in the middle of the road (just like Kazakhstan) watching us approach. Unlike Kazakhstan, it runs off into the bush as we approach.
There’s more vegetation here as we move closer to the mountains. It even appears to have rained over night. The sky is overcast and it looks like rain to the north. It’s not raining here yet but the overcast is keeping the temperature down. That’s a relief.
As we approach King’s Creek we start traveling through a recent burn area. It smells like it has just been burned. When we get to the resort at King’s Creek, we can see hat the fire burned right to the edge of the property almost getting the reception center and destroying the campground. We were later told that the fire had been in the last week.
Fueled we head up the road towards Glen Helen. Just before Glen Helen we are turning off to the north onto a 4WD track that will take us through Redbank Gorge, Ormiston Gorge, Serpertine Gorge, Hugh Gorge,Standley Chasm and finally through Simpson Gap and back to the main road, more than 200 kilometers.
It’s about 180 kilometers to the redbank Gorge cutoff and the road is steadily rising in elevation. The area obviously gets more rain and the vegetation is dense and green. We haven’t see green since we left Adelaide. The road is mostly gravel and the surface is smooth and fast. It doesn’t take us long to get to the cutoff.
The cutoff quickly goes from paved to gravel and then from smooth nto washboard. Ugh! I just hate washboard roads. We did hundreds of kilometers of washboard in Kazakhstan and it didn’t do either us or the Cherokee any good. We just hope it smooths out.
We’re only in about 5 kilometers when we hit a bump crossing a dried up stream bed and there’s a serious clunk. A few more feet and a couple more serious clunks. Uh-oh. John’s driving and he quickly stops. We check the roof rack and the gear on it. All secure.
I look under the car and there’s the left rear shock dangling from the chassis. The lower mount had completely broken off from the rear axle. Crap, crap, crap. John climbs under the car and removes the shock from the chassis. There’s a gaping hole in the bottom mount where the shock mounting pin is supposed to be welded. Put the tools away. Put the parts in the car. Turn around and head back to the main road and head for the roadhouse at Glen Helen. Maybe they have a mechanic. So much for the gorges.
It’s only 24 kilometers to Glen Helen and we pull in for fuel. We never pass a fuel stop out here without topping off. And, yes, they have a mechanic and he does have a welder. He comes out and looks at the problem.
He says he can weld it but he doesn’t want to because he isn’t confident that he can keep it aligned correctly while he’s welding it. He’s afraid that if it’s not aligned correctly, that the fix will be worse than the rproblem and we’ll destroy the shock along the way. You have to admire his honesty.
He recommends that we go on to Alice Springs where there are shop that would do a better job than he at welding the pin back on the axle mount. He looks up some names and addresses and we’re off again on the Namatjira Drive to Alice.
The road is fine and we start htting small rainshowers. We’re still in the desert but the tropical monsoon is starting to move farther south bringing with it these small showers. They’re not much but they are responsible for the greenery. We get to Alice in about 2 hours.
We’re looking for a welding shop that the Glen Helen mechanic recommended: Sno’s Engineering on Elder Road. While we’re arguing with the GPS about the existence of Elder Road (the GPS says it doesn’t exist) we see the left turn on to Elder Road. We also realize that it’s 4:45 on a Friday afternoon and most of the shops on the street are already closed.
We find Sno’s but the office door is closed. The yard gate is open, though, and we find a way into the shop behind the office. There’s three men back there, one of them works for Sno’s. There getting ready to close up with a ritual ceremonial opening of Miller Time. (It’s always 5:00PM somewhere.)
He comes out to look at the Cherokee and he’s not sure he can fix it so that it won’t fail again. WE tell him that we’re not on holiday and we’re not from Oz. That we’re trying to drive the Cherokee around the world. That changes everything. Yes, he can do it. Pull the car into the shop. How can you say no to a couple of old Yanks driving a car around the world?
A half an hour later, he’s got the welding done and deemed that the mount is cool enough to put the shop on. One of the other men who works next door at a custom auto shop clicmbs under the car to mount the shock. The third keeps the first 2 supplied with a steady stream of beers. It’s now after 5, well and truly Miller Time. It’s fixed in less than an hour and while the car was jacked up, he checked the right side mount and declared it fine. Here’s hoping.
By now the guy chatting is in full swing. They offer us some beers but we refuse. Violation of our first rule “no drinking until we’re done driving for the day”. We ask for a hotel recommendation, a hotel with secure parking (Alice is a bit on the wild and wooly side.) The suggest one and draw us a map. We thank them and leave. That would be today’s miracle.
We find the hotel and check in. Another Ibis hotel. This time an Ibis Styles. We ask the first question you always ask at an Ibis Budget: are the rooms en-suite (toilet in the room?) It’s a standing joke and the Ibis people know why you are asking. The Ibis parent company Accor bought the old Formula 1 budget hotel chain and they don’t have en-suite rooms. Whenever we ask, they know exactly why we are asking. “Oh, don’t worry. We are all en-suite.” Usually said with a grin.
It’s a nice comfy room. Check email. Upload a blog post and some pictures. Off for some dinner.
We end up at a table next to a table with 2 Irish women. We have a nice chat and they tell us that they were at King’s Creek when the fire was approaching. They were evacuated before the fire got to the campground. A scary time for them.
Finally, the day is over. To bed. Tomorrow we head east on the Sandover Highway, another desert track. We’ll find out if the welding repair worked.
Obi-wan