Mount Loufty and Greyhound
As usual, I had to check out from the hotel in the morning. I choose to make it an early one, leaving me enough time to take the bus south to Crafers. Nature called. My ambition was to make it to the Gully waterfall. That didn’t happen. Online, I had red it would be a 4km hike to get there. The local maps here made clear that is was about 13km. I wouldn’t have enough time to be back for the bus back to town. The bus was scheduled only three times a day. With the first, I came down here, the second I needed to go back to Adelaide. The third would be to late for my bus to Alice Springs. But no worries! I found another hike, that suited my framework perfectly. And I was spoiled! Great path. Plenty of butterflies and birds. And at the top of Mount Loufty, even a koala and at the other side of the hill a Kookaburra and parrots.
I had a snack at Mount Loufty and started my decent.
Back in town, I walked a bit a d-tour from the busstop to the hotel through the main streets of the city center. At the hotel, I changed in my travel clothes and, finally, hit for the busstation.
Never have seen a more dull bus station than this one, I have to admit. Almost completely empty. Just a few more passangers for this one bus. The bus driver lying under the bus, somebody else assisting with some quick fixes. Didn’t asked… The difference between the advertisement and reality couldn’t have been bigger. Nothing to complain about, just … different. Except, for the wifi, missing on this some ancient bus. Seats were comfortable, even for a 20 hour ride. We stopped about every two hours. I missed the stopps between midnight and 6AM completely. At Coopers Pedy, we had some more time, for a coffee. The busdriver was dropping mail at the post office. Yes. This tour has some trades from old times. Except for the scheduled stops, you can asked for almost every other location along the route to get picked up or dropped. The bus still is the mail deliver and pick up system along the route. After 11 hours of driving, the driver changed. The next driver had ‘only’ a 9 hour shift. No back up. No stops longer than 30 minutes. And in this time, he had to take care of passengers, the mail, filling up with gas. Certainly no European work standards.
The landscape along the route kept changing. Mostly flat, often green, otherwise red sand. Dessert, savanna, bush, some hills, some farms and villages. By 2:30 PM we arrived in Alice Springs (Northern Territory). Surprisingly enough, I got a taxi to the motel. Took a power nap, did some groceries, some itineraries for the next day and prepared for the two day tour to Uluru. My phone keeps springing back to Adelaide time (South Australia) – 1 hour difference. Not funny! Had to get up by 5AM, picked up by 6. Through the night I kept checking the clock and alarm time if they were still together in the same time zone.
