It is sad to be leaving behind the people of Redgum. But necessary. We have very itchy feet to be back on the road, but most importantly, Redgum life was not great for Lola. Far too isolating and lonely for her, so off we trot, back down the Stuart Highway, again.

Having not driven the bus for a while, very high NT temperatures and suspicion of the need for a new radiator, our plan was to get down the highway as quickly as possible, without blowing up the motor in the bus. We stopped in Alice a for a week or so, splurging on dining out. Being out in the desert bush, working long hours every day, the one thing we wanted most was to go out to a nice dinner, or order in a Saturday night take away. So we went a little crazy, out for breakfast lunch and dinner in Alice. Spent a fortune, time to to leave.

Leading up to Christmas and no hope of a bus radiator in Alice, we have sourced a fella in Adelaide who will replace our radiator of the Christmas/New Year period - awesome.

With the temp guage far too close to 100 for most of the way, we nursed it along. Stopped to help some locals broken down on the side of the road all night wanting to get to Coober Pedy for Christmas celebration purposes. We stopped for the afternoon until it cooled down then kept on travelling in the cool(er) of the evening.