Anzac Day today and I dreamt that the Aileron man on the hill was where they were having their anzac service- I'm sure I heard bagpipes in the early hours of the morning.
We are back with the bore water again and the sulphur smell in the shower is really off putting. We still have full containers of Alice Springs water so tonight's bush camp and riding over the next couple of days should be no problem water wise.
Lovely fresh morning today, not cold but the breeze is fresh. Looking at the flags out the front of the roadhouse, it looks like the riders might have a bit of a cross wind but it will be coming up from behind them.
Morning tea was at a little town called T Tree which contains (of all things) a winery and a mango farm. Jane stopped in for some ice cream and said it was to die for. Kirsten has done a gear cable leading up to the break ans as it was being fixed it was discovered that her gear lever was broken. An emergency call to the bike shop in Alice and they say they can supply the parts for $350 for a pair of levers plus transport to Renner Springs. In the meantime she is able to ride her bike in a fixed gear fashion while the wind is favourable. She thinks she will try out the spare bike when we get into camp tonight.
Wild flowers appearing today, not a lot but enough to add a lovely splash of colour to a very arid background. There are 4 main colours out here:
Azure blue for the sky
2. Black for the road and some of the dead trees.
Red for the dirt and termite mounds.
Green for the scrub
and then if we are lucky we get splashes of yellow/purple/white/pink.
Lunch is on the side of the road. Kirsten has 2 gears to ride in at the moment and is putting off using the spare bike. Gareth ended up with a puncture after lunch.
It took us a couple of trips down some dodgy dirt tracks before we find the best spot for a bush camp. It is a track leading off from a truck stop and therefore very little amount of wood around. This didn’t matter too much as tonight I only had to cook the rice and heat up the chilli con carne which I had pre-made and frozen. Dessert was fresh fruit salad with custard and cream (so no cooking). I must have got the portions right this time as there was nothing left over and a few got to have seconds of both courses.
Jerry was the quiz master after dinner and we were split into 3 teams. It was a music quiz so I requested to be on Collis’ team but Jerry said we would argue too much but I was pretty sure we wouldn’t. I know when Collis will shine and that is anything to do with music (except playing it of course). Of course Collis’ team won but amazingly Jane, Gareth and I came a close second. It was fun.
Lew was paranoid about the fire due to all the dry spinifex around even though we were in a large clearing and he had built a great wind wall. He was constantly making sure we kept the flames to a minimum and he stood guard until he went to bed. Before bed he even questioned who was taking responsibility for putting out the fire for the night.
The wind picked up around 10 pm and everyone was in bed but Lew had made me so paranoid about a fire that I had to get up again to make sure there was absolutely nothing glowing in the fire place before I could settle for the night.
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