Thread: The Alice...here we go!

We did the Alice trip last year about the same time and we drove to Adelaide the first day and stayed for a few days then onto Cooberpedy where you can see everything in a day that is worth anything, I recomend the bus tour and the caravan park that is in town behind the servo near the water filling point thingy.

From there we drove straight to Alice but would recomend that you go to the rock first as we ended up driving to and from and back to Alice, about 5 hrs or more per trip as I came down crook and we took the Ghan home.

We stayed at the mcdonald ranges caravan park just outside the gap at Alice springs and I thought it was great.

It was our honey moon and as I was crook the whole time we stayed in cabins the whole trip except at the rock where we stayed at the sails which was way too expensive to be fun.

Stay for a while at alice as there is heaps to see and have your walking shoes on as you cant drive to the best spots but you can get close.

Drop the van in the van park and drive out to palm valley and out to ross river resort for a look but leave about 1/2 a day or a day for each as they are worth a good look.

We didnt get to go to Kings canyon but I hear it is worth it for a day or 2 and if you like corregations your going to the right place as there are some great roads around the area that will rattle your fillings out.

I hope you like it as much as we did, we are dieing to get back there again to see what we missed out on and spend a bit more time traveling around alice.

By the way, work out how much fuel will cost you and add about 25% as it is quite a bit more exy up there than down here, we went through $1800 worth for the trip and we only drove back from Adelaide not the whole trip but we did do a tonne of K's traveling around looking at everything.

Just take your normal spares, hoses belts and fluids as well as plenty of water and a bit of food for if something happens and I recomend a good set of valve caps or at least make sure they fit tight as I lost 2 that caused a slow leak in one of the tyres of all things that and a wire on the dual batts burned it self and the fridge stopped working.

Hope you have fun

2 things in Alice that are good are the Desert Park and Reptile House.

I'd also recommend McDonald Range CP

On the way up make sure to stop and Woomera and look at the museum and the rocket park.

And the truck Museum, dont forget that, they give you 2 days for the price of 1 as you cant take it all in in 1 day, I could have spent a week there but Mrs Mc only wanted 1 day.

I wouldnt bother with the Old Ghan rail trip, It is interesting for about 10 to 15 mins and then boring for the next 1 1/2 hrs.

The railway museum was really good though, I wanted to go to the Desert park but didnt get around to it, another thing for nest time.

I'm sure Big Jon will chime in also.

I must admit, I rarely ever stop between Port Augusta and Alice.. there's really not much I want to see on the way. Though, the underground church in cooberpedy was interesting (I'm not religious, but it was interesting).

As far as Alice itself (people who live there dont call it 'The Alice', its just Alice, usually the prefix is an expletive :-)

I'd see:
The reptile house
The Desert Park, make sure you stay for the bird show.
I'd climb to the top of Mount Gillen, but take plenty of water and wear boots.
Drive past some of the camps to see what people are talking about not through the eyes of ACA/TT
Check out the western and eastern mcdonnells.
Go to palm valley
Boggy Hole (follow the finke right round of you can)
Rainbow Valley is easy to get to most of the time.
Ellory Big hole is worth a look, and Ormiston Gorge (out to the west).
There are a bunch of tracks to the eastern side as you head out past the golf course estate, some of which offer good sunset vantage points.
The old Ghan line is worth checking out by car, and you may be there at the same time as the Finke desert race.
The transport hall of fame is worth a look, make sure you also look at the outside cars, especially the old white landy and accompanying story. I've never seen so many blitzes.

Best advice I can give is good boots, good hat and always carry plenty of water.

cheers

Dave

I might be heading to Alice in July and was going to post a question about which caravan park to camp at while there so thanks for that tip regarding McDonald Range CP to those two blokes.

We will be coming in from the west so any other tips we'd be grateful for re campsites, preferably unofficial. I know that this sort of thing is not encouraged in aboriginal permit areas but we like to minimise stays in official caravan parks where possible. If there are official areas you can recommend that would be helpful too.

And I'm loving the sound of the truck museum and so will the farmers I'll be travelling with. Thanks for that too.

What is this McDonald Range you are refering to?? We have the MacDonnell Ranges here!

There are lots of good places to see in the Alice Springs area. Plenty of good day trips and overnighters as well.

Thanks BigJon.

BTW Am I right in gleaning from various posts that your place in Alice is Sutton Motors? If I get to the Alice I'm hinking that the old Defender would prefer an oil change half way through my annual big trips rather than waiting until I get home 8000-9000 kms later as Ive done on previous years.

Was out to Alice Springs (by air) last year. The Desert Park is a must-see, and I'd allow a couple of days for it so you don't have to hurry. The Reptile centre is very good but only 1/2 a day. And they have a Perentie there - the genuine article (yes, there is a trick to that). The gorges are beautiful, and would be peaceful if it weren't for the tourists.

I didn't get too far afield (was there to see people, not sights) so can't comment on anything much else.