Day 48: Return to Alice Springs
Today was a travel day, as we had almost 500KM / 5hrs between us and the Alice Springs Airport. We left the campground nice and early so we could have time to stop along the way – the road to/from Alice Springs & Uluru surprising has a lot of attractions, evenly spaced out, so the drive was rather pleasant.
First stop was the Mt. Ebenezer Roadhouse, where Lindsay was reminded that she hadn’t seen any camels yet. But there was a cool art gallery with some really good paintings by Aboriginal artists (even Igor said they were good, and being a painter himself he’s a tough critic).
Igor set a price limit on refreshments – Lindsay was so excited to find an iced coffee on discount!
An hour down the road we stopped at our second roadhouse, which had a flock of emus
Normally they sell feed to tourists for $2/bag and were all for it, but they were sold out! Igor apologized to the birds since he had nothing to give them.
Another hour down the road, Lindsay pulled over at Stuart’s Well WHICH HAS A CAMEL FARM! They race their camels at the Alice Springs Camel Cup every year, and they trophy display proves they know what they are doing. Too bad we’ll miss it.
Igor just wants to feed animals! He gave our last clementine to a camel
Poor Sparky just wanted some grass, so Lindsay gave her a little treat
We decided to feed Bruce – the big breeding male – some grass as well
So glad got to see some camels before we left the Outback!
When we got to Alice Springs, we made a quick stop at the K-Mart to see if we could return the small tent (yes! AUD$19 back in the budget!), then boarded our flight to Cairns off into the sunset.
Hi/Bye Alice Springs! Wish we had a little more time to explore
A full dinner on a 3hr flight? I feel like we’re back in the 1990s! Delicious frittata & cake, Qantas!