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After flying into Alice Springs we picked up our campervan rental and were pleasantly surprised to learn that we’d been upgraded for free from the older cheaper campervan that we’d booked to a brand new much nicer campervan. Some friends of friends in the area were kind enough to let us camp in their drive way for our first night in Alice Springs and they took us to a place where the locals feed the resident rock wallabies. They also warned us that there might be a problem with mice due to all the rain that they had this year, but things seemed fine in town so we just crossed our fingers that all would be okay. How bad could it be, right? Surely they can’t get into our fancy new campervan?
The next day we set off early on the 500km drive to Ayers Rock (Uluru). We made it to the park by mid-afternoon, checked into the campsite and then drove to the sunset viewing area to find a good spot. It was a great way to end the day as we enjoyed a glass of wine and some chips and dip while we watched the sunset light up
the big rock out the back of our camper.
That night Kathie shook Jordan awake, “I think I hear a mouse!” On went the lights as we scrambled to find it (with frying pan in hand, just in case). Next we did the most logical thing we could think of at one o’clock in the morning. We shoved everything smelly we could think of into the fridge/freezer and microwave. Okay, back to sleep, hopefully he goes away. The next time he woke us up we caught him poking his head out of Kathie’s daypack…zipped up the bag and chucked it outside. Gone, right? Nope. Let’s try sleeping with the lights on, wrong again. So that was sleepless night number one. Night number two had a similar script that included Jordan bumping his head on the door of the camper, knocking off his glasses, and then stepping on them while stumbling around swearing in the dark. Night number three, this time at Kings Canyon was also sleepless. We had asked around at all the shops looking for mouse traps. They were all sold out – go figure!
Despite our sleepless nights we had a great time exploring the sights
in and around Ayers Rock. We elected not to climb the rock and instead did the base walk at sunrise. We also stopped by the Olgas and walked around the rim of Kings Canyon, both of which were spectacular.
We then drove back through Alice Springs and on to the West MacDonnell ranges where we spent two nights camping at the beautiful Ormiston Gorge. On our way through Alice we finally got our hands on a few mouse traps and were ready to wage war! The campsite at Ormiston was probably the most infested place that we camped at. As soon at dusk set in, you could see the mice scurrying around the campsite circling the campervans and trailers. We decided to use the BBQs provided at the campsite to avoid having any cooking smells in our camper. The mice loved the BBQ area and while we were socializing with the other campers one mouse actually sat on Jordan’s foot, and was promptly sent to the moon. We went to bed that night hoping that our mouse had gone looking elsewhere since we had hidden every possible food source and smell. This time we awoke to mr. mouse running
across the bed and up the curtains! We set the trap, turned off the lights and within 5-10 minutes heard the glorious SNAP! Got him. Finally we were able to sleep and had no further mouse problems.
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cabochick
Andrea
Wow what a stunning photo!
Love it and loved the Olgas. Much greener than when I was there. Hope you and your mice are well.