1^st October

I had booked the car into service on the Monday morning, so it could be given new brake shoes at the front.  We have driven now over 12,000km so some things are wearing out!  I woke up around seven thirty, thinking we had a lazy day, when I suddenly remember I had to get the car in for service around 8am.  So a bit of frantic running around was required!!

Thus I got the car to the Toyota agency here in Alice around 8am, on time.   I then took a taxi back to the caravan park to rustle up Sibba.  We did some washing as all these caravan parks have a washing machines that are coin operated.  As I was setting up the cloths line, the caravan park manager walked past.  I asked him about the fire truck and crew the previous evening.  He told me that one of the guests had some issues with a gas cylinder.  It had been leaking gas and that had somehow caught on fire.  Someone else had seen that and called triple 0.  They had managed to put out the fire using some blankets and turning the gas cylinder off.  Thus when the fire truck and crew arrived it was pretty much over.  No one was hurt and no damage occurred.

As I was having a cup of tea, a man walked past.  I did the usual greeting (G’day), but then we both suddenly realized that we knew each other.  This was Ralph, one of my architecture colleges at work.  He was on leave with his wife and daughter and had just arrived after having crossed the Simpson desert.  They were planning a short stay in Alice and were heading out the following day to the East MacDonald ranges.  I keep saying this; Australia is such a small place!!

Once we finished the washing and the cloths were dry, we took a taxi into town.   I went to Jaycar to get some wire and plugs so I could extend the cabling into my solar panel.  Then we headed out to Todd mall, to visit the BankSA branch to get a new card for Sibba.  That went well, so Sibba now has a BankSA card that works fine. 

We then had a light brunch and around 12:30 they called from Toyota and told us we could pick up the car.  It was a short walk to the Toyota agency, so we headed there and grabbed the car.  On the way back to camp we stopped to have our 4.5kg gas cylinder filled.  The looked at the date stamp and told us they weren't allowed to fill it as it was too old.  It turns out that it was stamped 1992, which is ten years after it was made, so the gas cylinder has been used for about 30 years and it still looked like new!  I then went to one of these “swap and go” places and swapped our empty gas cylinder for a full one.

Back in camp I made up an extension lead for the solar panel.  Mid-afternoon, Kathy and Chris arrived from Cooper Pedy.  They set up their camper trailer next to us.  I finished the extension cable and set out the solar panel to check it was working fine.

We then sat down and had a chat with Chris and Kathy so we could catch up on things.  We also discussed our plan for the next few days.  I also spent some time capturing a picture of a Crested Pigeon that was prancing around the campsite.  We had our happy hour and dinner together and then it was off to a late sleep!

Crested Pigeon

The Aussies and the Vikings!