Day 60 Temple Bar RV Park

Last night was COLD! It’s definitely time to put the fleece back on the bed over the sheet. This morning as I lay in bed under two quilts The Barista informed me it was 4 deg. outside, the “feels like” rating was .5 deg. but long-term resident, Bob, was outside in shorts watering his lawn!

Bob told us that the Ringneck Parrots here have special significance for the local aboriginal women.

Fergus wasn’t making a sound, still snug in his quilted “igloo” as I drank my hot chocolate in the camper with the heater on. He did consent to a walk along the dry riverbed though.

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Our first task today was to go to the Alice Springs Library to see if we could get our SA Border Permit printed because one of the problems at the border has been people not having available documentation. It was a simple process and we now have a hard copy to show. After that we felt we’d earned brunch again at Stumps Cafe.

This afternoon we decided to drive out Ilparpa Road beyond the campground to see what was there. Stunning escarpments, of course, including one that reminded me of a Stegosaurus and surprising road signs. Although part of the Larapinta Trail is out that way you can’t see much sign of it and the countryside looks harsh. It’s impossible to imagine kids crossing the road or walking beside it out there.

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Eventually we saw a sign to Standley Chasm and although we knew we couldn’t walk in there because of Fergus we decided to drive in and around. It brought back memories of a previous visit when our very young grand-daughter, Amber, was the first to spot some “kanga-ooos”.

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On the way back we noticed a fun station marker while managing to miss Ilpapa Road but that did mean we passed John Flynn’s grave. It was interesting to read that the big boulder initially placed on his grave was taken from Karlu Karlu (The Devil’s Marbles) a sacred site for the local women there. It took over 20 years for an agreement to be reached whereby the boulder on the grave was returned to it’s original site and a replacement came from a sacred site of the local Arrernte people. John Flynn’s contribution to improving the lives of all Central Australian’s is acknowledged.

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