Cadney Homestead to Alice Springs

We were on the road by 8.30am, Will having watched a few more road trains go by while I sorted the van. Neither of us could wait to catch up with the friends in Alice so we were both moving pretty quickly.  The day flew by – only 450 km until our destination.  Two more fuel stops and a top up from the jerry can – not because we needed to but because it was full, we were within easy reach of Alice and the fuel price was around the $1.60 mark!  This top up happened at Erldunda – we’d been past there last year at about 4pm as it’s right on the turnoff to Uluru and there wasn’t much action or many vehicles around it.  Today, at midday, was a totally different story!  It was like the old days of the Benalla Road house – two tour buses with all their guests lined up to buy lunch, about 30 cars with vans or campers etc  and half of them lined up to use the same few bowsers because of the side of their petrol tanks.  Luckily the good old Patrol has her tank on the opposite side to most modern vehicles – no queue for us!

After bemoaning the fact that whilst we had seen more eagles than last year already they were all gliding so I couldn’t get a good shot of them. Will asked, “How many photos of a bird can you really need?” “About as many shots of road trains I guess,” was my reply, “have we reached our limit?” “No way, keep taking photos,” Will smirked.

2.45pm came around just as we rolled into the volunteer’s gate at the Transport Hall of Fame.  First person we spotted was Sandra who told us Benalla is in flood – hope all are well with family and friends up there!  Then around the corner we went and spied Disy and Pete.  It took a few minutes then then saw us – their faces broke into huge smiles and Disy came running with her arms out for a hug.  It was so nice to see them again.  Di offered to help us set up, Pete assured her we’d be better off with her out of the way so I kindly took Di to the nearby table, poured ourselves a drink and watched the boys put the annex up together!  We did pop down to say hello at the front desk first.  By the time the annex was up Graham and Vonda had arrived back from their shopping and the response was the same all over again!! That was it, the chairs were out, the drinks were poured and we were in for a wonderful evening around the camp fire.  “You’re not cooking tonight,” said Di “Vonda’s got us all organised, we knew you’d be tired after the drive so we’ve got silverside sorted.” It was a feast and a wonderful catch up. Many hugs and ‘Geez it’s good to see ya’ mate’ throughout the evening, it’s lovely to be back.  Liz and Sherrill came by too and Liz said to take today off to get settled – so we will do as told, stock the fridge, restock the wine and maybe fit in a little bit of four wheel driving!  We’ll see.

Facts and Figures: 534km day, dearest fuel $1.659 Eldundra,