Another long and hot drive got us to Alice Springs, taking in some huge salt lakes on the way and seeing wild goats and horses on the road. We spent a few days exploring the town including doing a tour of the Royal Flying Doctors. There wasn’t a lot more to see apart from the camel stations and over priced wild life parks. Next stop was heading the 5 hours to Yulura, the nearest resort to Uluru (Ayers Rock).

Unfortunately we didn’t make the destination because of a blow out on a rear tyre resulting in a spin off the road and rolling our van. We were very lucky to walk away with only minor cuts and bruises, but the same couldn’t be said for Bill the camper van. He was damaged beyond repair and due to the remote location was unable to be recovered. Passers by were good enough to stop and help, followed about 40mins later the police who took us off to a medical centre to get checked out. The medical centre was an experience in its self as was in an Aboriginal community not assessable to the general public.

Two passers by that stopped were an Aussie couple Matt and Lauren, they were heading for South Australia and very kindly offered us a ‘lift’. We packed all we could fit into our bags and left Bill at the side of the road. A lift sounds like just down the road but was actually a 2 day drive to Port Augusta.  From there we caught a coach back to Adelaide where Claire’s family came to pick us up and generally took care of us. We were very grateful of having such good (new) friends and family.

Down but not out we started the hunt for a new vehicle to continue our trip. We bought a Holden Commodore Wagon and fitted it out with a mattress in the back and re-bought all our cooking and eating equipment (along with lots of donated equipment from family). The next plan was… head back to Uluru!

Before we left we got to experience Australia Day, very patriotic with flags and temporary tattoos a plenty. Of course there was also much BBQ’ing, drinking and back yard cricket.