Day 47-49 Western MacDonnell Ranges part 2 & the break down

• With the car just back from service, it is time to explore the rest of the Western MacDonnell Ranges.

• Starting at Ormiston Gorge with a short walk to the Gorge before taking the Ghost Gum Lookout walk up the rim for views over the gorge. It is allowed to swim in the Gorge but with the temperatures there as no refreshing cold bath necessary. There is also a 3h Pound walk but this includes walking or swimming through cold water, so we skipped this one.

• Next stop on the way back to Alice Springs is Ochre pits. A short walk leads to the pits, where the ochre adds some nice color to the red stone background.

• Back at the car park, the big surprise: the car did not start! We asked people at the car park for some help to start the car: first car - did not work, second car - did not work... Other people joined and tried to find the solution to our problem, which was very strange, as the battery had been changed at the Toyota service only 2 days ago... There is no normal phone reception, so Tina offered to call with their special phone the roadside assistance for us, but no luck as no phone reception. She wrote down our names, plate number and the road assistance number and promised to send someone out for us. Well, it is 1,5h drive to Alice Springs to get phone reception and over 1,5h then from Alice Springs to us, so we waited and waited and waited.... As the sun started to set, we started to prepare for a night in the car & cold... Luckily about 1h after sunset a breakdown lorry from Alice Springs arrived, loaded the car and drove us back to our accommodation. Thanks to Tina and her efforts we were safely back in Alice Springs for the night.
  

To look on the bright side, we did not spend the night in the cold, but in the end the next two holidays were only about sorting & paying the car repair as well as trying to see doctors as our colds got really bad.

In the end, the problem with the car was very frustrating for us: the new battery was not properly installed and they didn´t change the  corroded connections at the battery! Well, that was an expensive and not helpful service experience and we hope all our next ones (every 10k km...) will be done considerably better..