Alice Springs

Sunday 6^th July 2008

Today needed to be low-key after all the charging around we’d been doing this week. Katie was first up, wanting cuddles, getting tickles and generally making enough noise to wake everyone else. Luckily the Hollster wasn’t too upset because she has her new Keys to the Kingdom book to read and in fact we barely heard from her or saw her for about three hours until she’d finished it. It’s great that she loves to read and it certainly keeps her out of trouble but she just gets through the books so quickly.

We didn’t make it to the pancake breakfast due to lack of enthusiasm – it was right over the other side of the caravan park and it was COLD this morning. It didn’t help that Paul hadn’t quite closed the door properly last night and sometime in the early hours of the morning I started thinking it a little strange that there was such a strong draught in here because I’d thought it was at least windproof (while not being cold-proof, sadly). It wasn’t until it got light that I realised why I was having to hide my head inside my sleeping bag.

I had great plans to get them to do some school work today because it has been kind of a while... but once they’d heard that they barely came near the camper all day except to forage for food. Katie had another new friend and Holly was playing rough games on the bouncy pillow with the boys.

I did manage to have a sort out of the boot of the car and found a few things I thought had been lost along the way. We seem to have a large collection of books – mostly ones that Paul plans to read because somehow he manages to find much more time than I do. I think I’ve finished two books since we’ve been away and I started then abandoned another – can’t waste precious time on substandard literature.

A long time after lunch we finally got motivated enough to drag the girls away from their various activities – Katie was determined to stay at the bouncy pillow until the older girls she was hanging around with decided they were going off anyway and Holly was loitering in the recreation room with two likely lads who she very coolly said cheerio to before sauntering away with her hips swishing!

We checked out the Alice Springs School of the Air base and were pretty impressed by how much they lay on for the 90 or so kids under their care within the 1.3 million square km it covers. Of course, it’s all done via computers now – which is a massive improvement on the radio version. And if a child doesn’t have access to a satellite dish and the internet then they do it over the phone.

A last visit to Coles for provisions before we head off into the interior for five days cost us another arm and a leg but should see us safely through to Kalgoorlie. Paul’s bladder caused him a bit of trouble when he had to tour most of the town looking for a public toilet – there were plenty around but they are kept locked and the keys aren’t available on a weekend!

Returning to the park we had to drop the girls at the bouncy pillow to save them the extra walk... what a life! Paul and I unpacked the shopping and squeezed it into the corners of the cupboards before I set out to take a couple of photos of Alice to record our presence here.

I climbed a couple of verges to get a good angle on the Gap in the Ranges before finding a good spot beside the ‘river’. It’s not exactly your typical river – although it is pretty wide, it has large trees permanently growing all the way through it and the ‘bridges’ are only about two feet high off the river bed. At the north end of town there isn’t even a bridge – just a little tunnel under the road.

I took a photo to record the usual state of the river and was abused by two aboriginals sitting under a tree on the other side of the sandy bed – they were shouting something about not taking a photo of them (which I wasn’t) and then went on about permits etc. After surreptitiously checking for signs to this effect and finding them most definitely not in existence (I was between the river and the main road – others were walking their dogs a little bit further up) I stopped worrying and hopped back into the car feeling a bit annoyed with them.

Another interesting view of Alice (which I didn’t photograph) was into the compound areas where rubbish was lying around EVERYWHERE. The rest of the town looks fine so I was thinking the people here have it together but apparently they are no different to the other big centres we’ve visited in the NT.

This (large) caravan park was full again by dinner time – they are kept busy earning their title of best caravan park in the NT - but we are very happy up on our little ridge with only about ten other vehicles and easy access to the ablutions block.