Alice Springs: Waiting to head out bush again

Tuesday late night of the 7th of June 2011. I’m sitting in a corner of a fully packed motel room, among piles of boxes, bags and clothes that are waiting to be stowed back into the car. The whole day was grey and cool. Sort of to mark the mood that arises when trying to do a month’s worth of laundry of a four nosed family, currently separated in different buildings, both with hardly any daylight and no natural ventilation. Anh-Dao and Oceane are spending their second night in the hospital, while I am taking advantage of some quiet moments (Laetitia is finally asleep) to catch up with some of the other tasks such as updating this blog…
I am still in the mode of getting a grasp of the past few weeks. No clear idea of how the immediate next lap of our journey will look like in terms of direction, destination, schedule and logistics. It all depends on how long the doctors want to keep Oceane for ongoing surveillance, and how the unusual wet weather impacts on current road conditions and available route options. It is clear that we do want to head out bush again. Our rooftop tent is our home, and it works best outside of town. Also, we do want to see more of the Red Center including the Ayers Rock before heading to the Kimberleys, but in respect of the current weather situation (TV News just announced another couple of days of cold and windy rain for Alice Springs – while the surrounding rest of the continent appears to be rather sunny), it takes some imagination to motivate ourselves and also feel confident that this is going to be suitable for Oceane’s current condition.

Anyway, let’s not think too far ahead yet. Tomorrow is car servicing and cleaning day. By the way, the mouse of Lake Eyre is still hiding in the car. Let’s see how long she’ll stand it without food nor plastic bags to keep busy nesting…