Alice Springs

I arrived in Alice Springs, yesterday morning.

I went to pick up my next campervan. They were very slow serving customers. There were three rentals ahead of me, and it took 1:30 before I was served!

The vehicle reserved for me was having problems, so they upgraded me to a camperized Toyota Land Cruiser. It also has a pop-up top. It drives much better than the Toyota Hi-Lux camper, but it does not have as much space inside.

Toyota Land Cruiser camper, at Alice Springs, Australia.

To compare, here is the Toyota Hi-Lux camper:

Toyota Hi-Lux camper, in Darwin, Australia.

And here is the damage I did to the Hi-Lux:

The nice thing about the Land Cruiser camper is that it drives much better than the Hi-Lux, both on and off pavement. It is also far more capable for 4wd roads.

On the other hand, the Hi-Lux has much more space in the camper unit. It is also more economical on fuel (and fuel is expensive here). Finally, the air conditioner only has to cool the cab in the Hi-Lux, but it has to cool the entire interior of the Land Cruiser, so it is more difficult to keep the Land Cruiser cool in the extreme heat of Australia’s “Red Centre”.

Alice Springs is a sleepy town. The post office was closed on Saturday, so I could not pick up my package of fresh film. I did not have enough film to head out for Ayers Rock without the risk of running out of film, so I decided to go for a short overnight trip east of Alice Springs. Tomorrow morning (Monday), I will pick up the package and be one my way!

Australia has lots of interesting critters. This morning, during the short trip east, I saw this lizard:

Perentie Giant Lizard in N’Dhala Gorge, Australia.

It was over 1 metre long! I walked along parallel to it for a while.

I have found my USB card reader. I stayed in a nice hotel in Darwin, near the airport, since I had a 7:00am flight to Alice Springs. I had half a day there, which gave me time to repack my stuff, and I found the reader. I also got to eat Barramundi for dinner, which is one of the local fish. It was tasty.

I saw a Barramundi earlier in the day, at “Aquascene”, which is place where you can feed fish in the harbour. You actually can put bread into the fishes’ mouth with your fingers!

Oh yeah, here is a 4.5 metre crocodile, from Yellow Water: