Shopping, Bathing and Steady Drinkers

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We had a lazy day today and I left Barry to sleep until he woke himself, around 10.30am. He still has the runny nose, headache and sneezing so we dosed him again and went into town as he wanted a haircut and I had some grocery shopping to do. He didn’t end up getting the cut as the queue was too long and when he went back later, they’d shut. Never mind, I’m sure they have barbers in the Alice (he won’t go to a hair stylist – it has to be an old-fashioned barber!).

We did stop in to a local market, very small, but it mainly sold crafts and jewellery and the only three produce stalls didn’t have anything I needed. We got back and put everything away and had lunch. Then Barry went for a lie-down (“I won’t sleep – it’s just a rest”) and was soon snoring. I did the blog.

I woke him at 5.15pm to come for a cooling dip in the Thermal Spring but he was too dozy so I set off myself and he came down later. There were lots of people there but not our friendly kids. Many people, both men and women, mostly non-indigenous, were standing in the water drinking beer – despite the No Alcohol; No Glass Bottles notice. It’s terrible to me that so many people seem unable to enjoy simple pleasures like a Thermal Pool without alcohol. It must happen all the time because another man came on a bike with lots of big black bags and went through the bins collecting bottles and aluminium cans to collect the deposit money or sell for recycling.

There was also a group of mid-teenage males who decided it was fun to race as fast as possible and then jump a small wheeled bicycle into the stream over the steps. They didn’t care who else was there and only waited briefly for some young kids who were coming past but still got swamped by the wave produced. We were very glad when they moved further away. I hadn’t liked to move too far from our towels and bag as a man had sat near them to drink beer from a large plastic bottle and smoke profusely. I didn’t really trust the boys either. This was my least favourite time of being in the thermal springs but at least it was still very refreshing.

It was 6.30pm again when we left the springs and walked back to our van and the sunset was pretty but not spectacular. We didn’t get hot again either, which was good.

After a nice strong shower, I cooked dinner with the air conditioner on so we stayed comfortable. We turned it off after and were soon both falling asleep in our chairs.

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Photos

Colourful Flight
This really belongs in tomorrow's blog but I don't have space and I like the photo. It's a Red-Collared Lorikeet that had just taken off in fright when someone walked past. It was such a lovely flurry of colour.

A Female Magpie Lark
We have several pairs of Magpie Larks around the camp. The males and females have slightly different markings. I really like the females ones as she looks as if she is a black and white target. Some areas call these birds PeeWees or PeeWits because of their calls.

More Unusual Termite Mounds
These ones are becoming more common as we head inland. They are really knobbly and some look as if they have a round head, like this one. It even seems to be wearing a hat.