To Alice and beyond part 2

Not really sure if anybody is interested or not but here goes with the next part. We arrived at the entrance to Alice Springs happy, hot and pestered by flies. We had our photos taken at the entrance sign then made the final few klms to the turn of to the club. To say I was a bit buggered is an understatement but we decided to see where the club was. After travelling a few klms down the road we stopped and I could smell the familiar smell of hot Diff. oil a quick check revealed the rear drivers side wheel bathed in shiny new diff oil. I had very mixed emotions ranging from thoughts that can't be printed here to feeling really grateful that I was here and not somewhere that didn't have a name.
 We drove in to Alice and found our home for the next few weeks. We were staying with Geoff & Lee-Anne Edwards who had moved to the NT a few months earlier, Geoff had been the branch score recorder. The temp was 44 degrees and you realy have to like flies. The pesky little critters get in your eyes up your nose, never to be seen again and stick to the back of your throat. If you are really lucky you can feel them buzz as the descend into your tummy, oh joy of joys. About 95% of the homes have 6' high fences around all sides some with barb wire and a few with razor wire across the top. All of them had dogs usually at least 2. One yard had its front gate open and three very large German Shepherds' sitting just inside it was a bit like "Please come in we are hungry and haven't had anything to play with for a few days" Nobody entered. The next day we found a mechanic who said he could fix the car. I was a bit worried when the workshop foreman and the mechanic looked at the back wheel with its liberal coating of fresh oil and asked "Is this the wheel?" 8 hours and $680 later we were back in one piece. Have I mentioned the flies and the heat. I am afraid the outback hasn't really got the idea of creeks & rivers. The basic premise of both is that they have water, not so in the outback, creeks have narrow beds of sand whilst rivers have wider beds of sand. No water, well not whilst we were there. As most of you no we get our TV from the NT so we new a lot of the shops etc from our adds. We found it interesting to actually see the businesses whose adds we have watched for 4 years.
Next instalment will be the National Safari.
Cheers Teabag