Beam me up Scotty......

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Hello to you all again and isn’t time going by quickly.

It’s the start of our third week on the road and there is so much to do and see. Unfortunately we didn’t get to Kings Canyon and a few other places recommended to us by other travellers but this just means that we will need to come back sometime in the future ( keep your long service leave accruing babe).
Well in Alice Springs we’ve had a lovely time. The weather has been great during the day with tops of approx 20 degrees, beautiful sunshine and a limited amount of clouds with a dress code of tees and short pants, but the nights are BLOODY COLD!!!!!!!. Ski gear would be more appropriate at night, but I did listen to The GMan when packing (Na ya don’t need that...It’ll be fine). We have been having lows of -1 & -2 degrees, with lots of blankets and extra clothing on the girls to keep them warm overnight and Graham in his thermal boxes (sheepskin with diamond cuffs, noice look).

We can't understand how others are coping in their tents and camper trailers. We are living in the Hilton by comparison to some of these people. Graham keeps pointing out that..."As long as it's not us". The people we are meeting are wonderful and friendly. Everyone is happy to chat (coz we ran out of chat ages ago in the car) and all are willing to advise on places, whether to stop or not to bother.

On Sunday we started our day with the free pancake breakfast at the caravan park which is put on every weekend. They cook about 20 pancakes at the one time on a huge bbq & the queue was really long but it gave everyone a chance to chat and get to know each other and compare notes. There is no limit on the pancakes and apparently the record for women is 9 and for the blokes it was 14. We just settled on a couple each and continued on our way to the Alice Springs Sunday market in town, where the girls just wanted to spend money on anything and everything. Finally they settled on a really expensive $3.50 necklace each as they wanted one earlier in the week when we went out for dinner.

After the market we decided to go to an Aboriginal Art Gallery to have a look around but as we all know the Vanin girls just can't look and leave it at that. I thought I would have a problem but just decided not to look. Graham found it hard deciding on a painting that he liked. He found one, then he found another and then he told the girls to look for one for them to keep as a memento of this trip. After a while they all found what they wanted and it was wrapped for us to bring home.

After our wallet was emptied and substantially lighter we went back to the caravan park for the girls to go on the playground and jumping pillow. This has been their first chance to meet and spend time with other kids and have a great time. I’ve made the pool a no-go zone coz it is freezing and we are all still suffering from various stages of colds. Graham spent time relaxing back at the caravan and reading or researching our future plans and chatting to our rotating neighbours (everybody’s gotta have good neighbours- thanks Baz Crocker).

Graham adds: On Sunday afternoon a couple with four kids stopped at the site next to us in a campervan and started chatting. As they were flying home the next day they proceeded to give us all their food, spaghetti, noodles, marg, tom sauce, etc. Very generous of them to do this. After chatting to him (Daniel) the next morning we discovered he was a doctor so obviously had plenty of cash anyway. Then we found out he was the team doctor for the Port Adelaide Power so proceeded to give him all the food back for fundraising for the club..............

We went for dinner to Bojangles which is a saloon and themed restaurant, not a 1980's bar in St Kilda....... It has heaps of old time stuff hanging from the walls, ceiling and various other locations like the benches made from recycled railway sleepers from the Ghan railway line or the seats made out of horse saddles . Graham had the mixed grill for dinner which consisted of roo, venison, croc, buffalo and camel. The girls were good and tried croc spring rolls which Scarlett enjoyed and asked for more and both had a sampling from Graham’s plate. Some made the grade but others were quickly rejected; good on them for giving it a go. Charlize had prawns wrapped in spring roll paper with a tangy dressing, while Scarlett ordered spag bol as usual which she ate half of. I had a beautiful chicken dish stuffed with roo, brie and spinach on a bed of mash with an unusual pomegranate sauce. WOW!!!!! Even Charlize was impressed and helped me consume every morsel. We finished with Death by Chocolate which was three small chocolate desserts on a huge plate with kahlua sauce, cream and berries. Graham opted for a sampler of more beer, more beer and then again more beer (can you tell who is driving), while the girls and I shared the one dessert.

After a really S...L...O...W... start to Monday we left the van and visited the Alice Springs Reptile Park. This was a great outing for the girls and we all found it really informative. We learnt what we should do if we come across the slithery little suckers on our travels. They kept Lizards, Gecko’s, Frog’s, Snake’s and we even eyeballed Terry (the Croc) in an underground pavilion. I’m sure he was watching me thinking “Mmmmm this one is pudgy with a bit of meat on her bones”. They held a short presentation with a few of the reptiles and then we all got a tongue kiss on our cheek from the Blue Tongued Lizard. After the talk, Scarlett had cuddles with the lizards while Charlize (our girl with no fear) waited patiently in line to hold the Python. Scarlett was not receptive to this idea until she could see that her big sis came back alive then she was willing to give it a go with dad on hand for support (no pressure from us but mum was behind the camera ready and waiting).

We left the Reptile Park feeling all warm and fuzzy (ironic that they are cold blooded) and went to the Ghan Railway Museum.....Graham found some interesting facts while reading about the train in the museum but the girls tired of this pretty quickly and it was not one of their favourite visits. I think you need to have an interest in this sort of museum and I sided with the girls on this and was pretty happy to hang with them until daddy was ready to leave (what a dork!!). We were going to purchase some arvo tea at the Ghan Railway Coffee Shop until we found out the prices and the man behind the counter informed us that they had closed the kitchen for the day. They had signs posted everywhere that the money raised from the kitchen went back into the coffers of the museum but they were not wanting to serve us more than an hour before they were closing, seems a bit silly to us city folk. It was $5.00 for an iced cupcake, like one the girls could make at home and he wouldn’t even make the girls a soft drink spider (how hard is that) to take away (young dorky looking thing he was). We all poo-pooed this and had our own arvo tea in the car with stuff we had packed for the day. Back into the car we go and decide to head straight for the van for a bit more playground action for the girls. After a beer for Graham and a Cruiser for me, dinner was what I would call average and second rate but quick and a little homework and packing of the van was completed before bedtime.

At 9.38am today, we left Alice Springs heading north. We stopped for gas (11.38am) at Aileron and this has been the most expensive so far. It was $1.40 a litre and petrol was $2.00(nice pub but = GS). We are heading to Wycliffe Well for an overnight stay around 3.00pm...not too sure about this one. This township is apparently known for its alien and UFO sightings and they have gone all out in their decorations (Scarlett got spooked at the mannequin dolls staged in the Old Timers Mine at Coober Pedy, so not sure what she will do here). We will keep you informed should we get beamed up into a UFO, Graham gets an anal probe or I end up preggers with a slimey green alien babe. (Watch this space....) (On the plus side it has a great range of beers – GS)

By the way have we mentioned that the forecast is 29 degrees today with a low of 10.....not bragging or anything.

Update: OMG and WTF, we have arrived. One night too many in my book. This husband of mine does get me into all sorts of situations.... Maybe or hopefully we will see some skywards action coz it’s about the only thing going for it. Sorry , my mistake it’s that and the indoor pool (yet to be seen). Will update you on our overnight experience in next blog. (Wanted: One travelling companion, must have open mind and can tow caravan......GS)( You forgot to mention...must be willing to stay in shitholes....LVS).
As you can tell this blog just keeps on going as we didn’t have any WiFi (or any) service at Wycliffe Well. Yesterday we left pretty early (to avoid any alien encounters). To top off the night Lisa went to make a phone call at the office to find there were about 20-30 drunk ‘locals’ out the front which obviously capped off her day nicely.

Anyway, we left early and headed to the Devils Marbles, which like just about everything in NT just seem to pop up out of nowhere and are equally spectacular. After a look around and the obligatory funny photos we headed north again, not sure where we’d end up. We stopped at Tennant Creek for an early lunch and kept driving. Tennant Creek is a fairly large town however it looks quite depressing, plenty of vacant lots and very dirty etc, so no real reason to stop.

To conserve fuel (as we not too sure about the availability of gas in some towns) we have been driving with the aircon off. Mostly this has been fine however it’s now getting pretty warm and we’d all had enough so at one stage we all stripped off and changed into the most minimal clothes we could find and what a family photo that would have been. Talking about gas (and prices) we drove into Elliott and at the first servo were greeted by a sign that said they were out of gas!!! This was the first time we have come across this so were a bit unnerved. However, luckily there was another servo up the road which saved the day. Because the kids had been so good Lisa decided to shout them an ice-cream each; two splices = $9.20 (Jees, they weren’t that good......).

Today, we also got in touch with nature, literally.... Just before Renner Springs a large bird starting to wander across the road. I slowed down and started to move across however there was no way of avoiding it and it crashed into the side of the car (for those reading at work, the work car is fine.....sort of..). After getting over the shock we discovered that the bastard thieving bird (we think it was a lapwing) had stolen my towing mirror, fittings at all. Later on we came across some cows moving slowly near the road but luckily they stayed on the side.

Around 4.00pm we arrived at the Hi Way Inn Roadhouse (and pub, and caravan park) at Daly Waters. We didn’t stay at the famous pub because we’d already heard that it may already be full. This place however is great, a nice park in a beautiful setting. This morning I woke up and walked out the caravan to be greeted by two pigs (no, not two backpackers we met last night....) and some ducks; fantastic.
After arriving the girls and me tried the pool which is still a bit cold, although not as cold as Wycliffe Well then while Lisa had a shower we headed into the bar so I could have my free schooner (which came with the park admission) plus a couple more. In Alice Springs we met a lovely couple from western Victoria who have stayed at the same parks since, so last night in the bar we met up again and decided to head to the Daly waters pub for tea. Radka will know what I’m talking about but it has stuff everywhere. Bras, knickers, jocks, shirts, money etc etc hanging off every available wall. We tried to look for our next door neighbours knickers which she had left on a previous visit but were unsuccessful (although we not sure how many ‘used’ pairs there were amongst the collection so weren’t going to look too close...

They had a singer then comedian on all night. The comedian in particular was great telling non-stop stories; some we’d heard before but they were funny anyway. Everyone was really friendly and we had a great night. As I write this about 7.30 the next morning (still haven’t learned how to sleep in) the sun is starting to rise higher, the birds are singing, the ducks are quacking and the pigs are snorting. And I’m sitting here in a t-shirt and shorts (who needs Ski gear now????) What a great day. I’d love to say I feel for everyone still back in Melbourne.......but I don’t, you have to get up here and give this a go.

Today we will head for a leisurely two hour drive up to the Mataranka Springs for a day of swimming then have a think about what we may want to do. That’s another things, distance has lost all meaning. It’s nothing to see a sign saying 300km to the next town and thinking, that’s not a bad little drive; we’ll make that in no time!!!

Don’t forget to view all pictures you need to click on the first picture and then it gives you the option of going through the rest of them. We would also love to hear from those of our friends who are keeping up with us. Can you please send a message so we know which one are logging onto the blog, coz it doesn’t tell us.

Hugs and kisses to you all and stay warm

The Travelling Van-Royce’s

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Comments

[Linda Taylor]

Hi there Travelling Willburys!! Sounds like you are having the time of your lives. Yes, I have been reading your blogs and having a bit of a giggle. Especially this latest one, made me laugh out loud at some of your descriptions! We wish we there, its still freezing here in Melbourne. The sun is starting to show its face today with a top of 15! And the nights are freezing here too, although not -2! Stay safe and enjoy and cherish all your experiences, even train museums! (I would find that boring too, girls!) Looking forward to seeing all the photos when you get back. We will have to have a family slide night!! Cheers, Linda and the rest of the Taylor family. xxxx