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Published: September 7th 2012
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In typical style it has been WAY too long between blogs! This one finds us settled down in Alice Springs, working our tushies off and saving some dough to continue our adventures.
But first we should tell you about our journey down from Mataranka to this beaut town of Alice.
Firstly we have been absolutely amazed by the amount of thermal activity in the top end of Australia. By this we mean natural hotsprings, thermal pools, basically pockets of hot water just popping up out of the ground. As you probably guessed we fell in love with Douglas Hotsprings south of Darwin, so we were thrilled to discover there were 2 more thermals to explore around Mataranka.
We stayed at a caravan park at Bitter Springs , camped right on the river with a fireplace and Jeff threw in the yabbie nets. He managed to catch 2 decent sized yabbies, but still not enough for a proper feed so they got to live another day.
It was with much amusement that Jeff wandered down to the waters edge to wash some mud off some of our gear, when next
thing Tab finds him neck-deep in the river. It was only after speaking to a fellow camper (and an underwater photographer that happens to be doing a doco on crocs) that the river there is actually full of crocs! So Jeff’s little “slip” into the water could have ended in disaster indeed. Ooops.
Later that afternoon we walked down to the springs (no crocs here) where the amazing blue-tinged water was a balmy 34 degrees. With the joint being far too packed for our liking we headed off into the scrub and found a nice little spot all to ourselves. The springs flow really quite fast so it was a good workout swimming constantly against the flow…or finding the closest branch to hang onto!
The next day we pulled in the nets and discovered a little turtle had managed to get himself trapped. The cats got to meet their first turtle, have a sniff & a paw, before he too got released back into the waters. Sadly we heard that the following day a guy on holidays died swimming in Bitter Springs. We believe he dived into the water and hit his head, leaving
wife & kids behind. How awful.
Also nearby was Mataranka Thermal Pools, a more “structured” springs than Bitter Springs. This one had full concrete sides, little shelves to sit on, but the colour and warmth of the water was about the same. After a swim & a hot shower we hit the road again, camped on the Roper River at Elsey National Park. Jeff tried a spot of twilight barra fishing, alas no luck, and the next day we undertook the 7km hike out to Mataranka Falls. The falls themselves were quite small, but the surrounding bushland and the walk along the river were spectacular.
After a couple of nights stop at Daly Waters Pub (was only meant to be one night, but as you can imagine, there was no way we were driving anywhere the next day!) we hit the road towards Tennant Creek, where Tabs parents and her Aunty Patti & Uncle Michael were waiting. The girls cooked up an amazing roast lamb dinner on the first night, we did plenty of sightseeing and even managed to squeeze in an early birthday dinner at Wok’s Up for Tab. We also left plenty
Henley on Todd
Alice Springs, Todd River of time to just sit around and have a yarn as we haven’t seen eachother for ages. It was a beaut few days! Then the oldies headed north, while we headed south after spending a couple of nights at The Pebbles. It’s a free camp, Tennant Creeks (much smaller) version of Devils Marbles.
After hitting the road quite late from Tennant Creek we found a small free bushcamp just off the highway where we awoke the next day to Tab’s 33
rd birthday. Jeff cooked up an amazing batch of Nasi Goreng (sooooo addicted since Bali!) and we hit the road down to Devils Marbles, arriving there about 11am. We promptly cracked the top on a bottle of bubbles and enjoyed a lazy, sun drenched birthday, sitting among rocks 3 times the size of the bus! One of the days we were there we strapped on our Gators (Jeffs ingenious ones were his old Moni footy socks with cardboard stuffed down the front!) and headed off into spinifex country, about 4km east of the Marbles. Out here we were stoked to find many other sets of “marbles” that no-one knows about, and just felt free & wild being
It's showtime!
They put on an awesome display at the end of the Alice Show out where there are no defined paths or signs telling you to stick to the path!! A tiring but awe-inspiring adventure.
After spending 3 nights at the Marbles, we hit the road south, spending one night camped next to the trainline that houses the Ghan. We were hoping to get some photos of it during daylight hours, but of course it zoomed by after dark, but at least the driver gave us a toot!
Still on our way to Alice we checked out both the east & west sides of the highway, heading out the Tanami Desert Road (which eventually meets back up with the road we took out to Wolfe Creek ages ago!), then east out to Gemtree, before arriving in Alice to nights of about minus 4 and days of about 17! We arrived just in time for the annual show, where we spent the whole afternoon going on rides, eating crap, checking out the baking/plant etc entries, buying showbags and all that stuff you can only do at a rural show!
The next day we decided to go and explore the East Macdonnell Ranges. This place is just
Honda Race Team
Jeff gearing up as pit crew for the 12 hour Enduro amazing, and all so close to Alice so we can’t wait to explore further. The rock formations have to be seen to be believed and the bushwalking opportunities are endless. We had only planned on being out east for a few days and ended up being just over a week! So having run out of food we headed back into Alice, only to find the Camel Cup was on that day! What a clanger!
So that morning, having decided we should probably earn a bit of money to fund the Western side of Alice (things like Uluru, Kings Canyon, Olgas etc), we jumped on Daz and headed into town to pound the pavement looking for work. Jeff dropped his resume in at both the Motorbike Shop and a small engines shop and got offered both later that afternoon! Tab had arranged a trial at a local café for the Monday, where she ended up working for a couple of weeks until her current job came along.
So Jeff’s loving life getting to work on all manner of cycles, and even got to be part of the pit-crew at the 12-hour Enduro race that was
on a few weeks ago. The two guys that were in the enduro came 2
nd & 6
th in this years Finke Desert Race, so he’s stoked to be helping rebuild & maintain their bikes. Although they are both getting new bikes this year, so some new toys to play with! Ahhh, the benefits of being funded!
Tab is working at a café run to support the Royal Flying Doctors Service. She’s working with a great bunch of girls, getting her hands into both the cooking & coffee side of things and really enjoying it. With both of us working full-time, our adventurous sides have to be bottled for now, but we are earning decent money and saving a lot so that’s good for the next leg of our journey.
We have managed to secure a back-yard to live in, and have been enjoying the company of the elderly lady who lives in the house – our new “roomie”!! She is the mother of Phil, who was our manager at the Station, so it truly is a small world.
Alice itself is a hive of activity, with every weekend having some sort
Our new home
A lovely leafy backyard in Alice of community event or festival. Last weekend we were lucky enough to see the Henley On Todd. Basically it’s a dry river-bed race, where they make all sorts of boats, with no bottoms so they run on the sand Flintstone style! They even had a bathtub race, and the Tour De Todd, a cycling race with specially built “bikes” to go on the sand. Our cheeks hurt at the end of the day from laughing so hard!
So overall, we are really enjoying ourselves here and have no set departure date in mind at this stage. So until then, hi-ho hi-ho it’s off to work we go!
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Alan the irish!
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Gudday Mates
well guys long time no chat sounds like your still getting around that great country of yours just on my lunch break but let me know if you get this and send me your e.mail address and i'll hit you up. take care Alan