To Broome and Back!: Day 23. Alice Springs 3/06/2015

Had a sleep in this morning before heading to the laundry for a big wash. Beautiful sunny day with temperature about 22 early. Drove to the Golf Course and caught up with Rod and Jude and George and Julie on the 9th green for a photo shoot. A short drive away from the golf course there is a very flash Casino, the Alice Springs Convention Centre, a number of flash hotels and resorts. We then drove into the town to have lunch and settled on buying a subway that we could take to a park area to enjoy the surroundings. The town has many lovely grassed areas with beautiful gums, wisterias, bouganvillias and vines lining the streets and the Todd Mall which is the centre of Alice Springs. We had lunch in the area of the John Flynn (pioneer of the Royal Flying Doctor Service) Memorial Church and Adelaide House, the first hospital in Alice Springs both famous historic sites.
Whilst strolling down the Mall we found the Finke Desert Race promotion, John was very impressed with the bikes, buggies, and more particularly the Grid Girls, lovely, lithe, svelte bodies!
The Finke Desert Race is celebrating it 40th year and is believed to be the largest desert race in the world. The course roughly follows the former Ghan Railway Line along a winding corrugated track which snakes through typical outback terrain of red dirt, sand, spinifex, mulga and desert oaks. The race is over 440 kms and this year 600 motorcycles and 140 cars (Buggies) will compete and over 12000 people camp beside the racetrack sleeping under the stars in their tents and swags. The race starts in Alice Springs and goes for 220 kms on Saturday to Finke and returns to Alice Springs on the Sunday. Pity we won't be here to see it. A must do for any racing enthusiasts that are reading the blog.
We then did a tour around the city area that included the Alice Springs Race Track, and then returned to the caravan park for Happy Hour followed by a lovely barbecue dinner with George and Julie as guests.