Day 15 - Alice Springs

First things first, last night after I had logged off they had a locat guy called Barry Skipsey (Skip) doing some "Australian" Music, mainly country music, but Atmosphere was very good and I think half the caravan park turned up to watch him play.


Well, I hate to say it (No I dont) but another great day was had today. Although it started early, pickup at the caravan park at 5AM, it was worth it. When the bus arrived with the balloon and basket on the back, the pilot got out, and closed the door, and told me all the other people on the bus had paid for 1 Hour flights, so he was going to upgrade me to the 1 Hour flight for free. I had only booked the 30 minute flight @ $265 less a $20 discount voucher I had found in a NT Brochure. The others paid $385 each. HAHA. Anyway, that was my bargain for the day. As for the flight, phenominal, awsome, spectacular, Insert other favourite good description here. It was quite different to the flight I went on in Phoenix, Arizona all those years ago, When we arrived at that one, the balloons were already 3/4 inflated. With this one, we got to see the whold procedure from setup to pack up again. Lots of fun. There were about 3 or 4 of the 16 of us who had been in a balloon before. After that, we got a light breakfast consisting of Champagne, cheese & Crackers, Fruit, Choc Brownies, many other bits and pieces. A nice finish to the morning.

By the time we got back to the van park, I guess it was ~9AM, so I decided to go out and find some caches, totally forgetting the Hendley on Todd was on, Damn It!

The first 2 Caches were very difficult, but the views were superb over the whole of Alice springs. The first was a short climb up one of the hills surrounding alice, not a bad view, but the second which involved scaling some rocks up the side of the hill was awsome, Views all around.I then headed back down via a track I was not aware of on the way up, and got back to the car in half the time. Next I went for a walk around the Botanic gardens where they happened to have a sustainability expo and market with food stalls galore, one was even selling Camel Burgers!. There was also a music stage where they had prople performing various musical acts. The first guy, DJ Somethingotother was from melbourne, and he was doing what he normally does, except using a Acoustic Guitar. Very cool.

Next I went out to the John Flynn's grave just to have a look, very nice Nat. Park, great mountain backdrop. I noticed another cache ~500m away, so I went for a walk to go and find it, this was my first to find, It had been active for a week and still not found, In melbourne if one goes unfound for 6 hours, its a miracle.

Finally last visit for the day was a cheapskates look at the old telegraph station (You could look at the buildings but couldnt actually go inside them), all the buildings in fairly good nick. The park was also very nice. The start point of the Larapinta Trail was also here (Louise: Sections 4-6 are closed due to recent fires).

I then headed to the shops to buy some food and Ice for my Trip along the West Macdonnell Ranges as far as mount Sonder. Maybe 2 Nights then back here, to go a bit further north for a couple of days.

Distance Driven: 38.2km (4467.9km total)
Geocaches Found: 6 (6 Trad(1 First To Find)(120 Total)
Caravan Park Rating: 8/10 (A little on the expensive side, plenty of space, very clean and a nice mountain range nearby)