Leaving Alice Springs , we head south ( not a lot of choice really , it's either north or south ) . Stopping at Stuarts Well Roadhouse to top up with fuel , before continuing on . We were informed that there was an accident near the turnoff at Erldunda and the highway was closed while investigations were being carried out - it was a fatality unfortunately. We carried on , there were 2 rest areas we could stop at . We chose the first one and pulled in , finding a spot to set up for the rest of the day & night . There were a couple of cars, and one guy sitting under the shelter - I went over to see if he knew anything about the crash , but he'd broken down last night , someone towed him into the rest area and said they'd get a tow truck to come and get him in the morning . There was no phone service here , so he was stranded . We offered the use of Starlink to make a call for roadside assistance , and within 1.5 hrs he was picked up by a tilt tray truck and on his way to Alice Springs . He was a 32year old German tourist , and was most grateful for us assisting him - he'd been there for about 14 hours before we got there .
The road reopened later in the afternoon and there was a flurry of trucks & cars etc , all in a rush to make up lost ground . It quietened down after dark , but we were only about 30m from the highway and beside a bridge , so road noise was bit louder as a result .
We slept okay and got ourselves sorted , heading down to Erldunda , turning there to get to another free camp spot . It was about 120klm in , and in red sand country . There were some wildflowers out , so I battled the flies and the sun to check things out . Here's some of them .
Next morning a guy pulled into the rest area , it looked a bit strange , he had a motorbike with him , but not on a trailer , it was partly inside the back of his car , with the rear door fully open - would have been great for exhaust fumes in the car !!!
AFter that we packed and headed up the road a bit until we got to a lookout - a red sand dune overlooking a salt lake .
And on the other side was Mt Conner , comically known as "Fooleroo " , as it's the first mountain you see on the way to see Uluru
A first for us was seeing our first feral camel wandering along the side of the road , we were still 60 or 70 kms from Yulara , so it wasn't an escapee from the camel farm . It's taken 10 and a half years to finally spot one in the wild .
With that we kept trucking into Yulara and paid for a very expensive camp site in the caravan park , it's been 9 years since we were here , so I guess we forgot about the extortionate prices for everything . yes I know we're in the middle of Australia , but prices were way higher than anywhere else , they're taking advantage of the captive audience they have .
That's it for today , more epic stuff coming .
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