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Published: September 23rd 2008
Hi Y'all. Turning country up here. Even listening to the country hour on ABC Alice Springs. Can you hear the fiddles? Ran out of power last night, sorry. To finish off, the storm calmed, but the dust turned the sky an eery orange colour. It was much quieter at this caravan park last night and we all slept well.
This morning we left for a day out after Bron had finished fighting with a washing machine. We went first to Ellery Creek Big Hole, which is about an hour out of Alice along Larapinta Drive. It is one of the largest, permanent water holes in the West Macdonnell Ranges. It has freezing water, so there was no swimming, but it was great to see the contrasts of the green water, the blue sky and the red and grey rocks. Stunning gum trees bared their roots as they stretched out accross the water. Next we were off to Standley Chasm. We wanted to be there for noon in order to see the sun shining down into the chasm, leaving no shade. We had a great time climbing the rocks through the chasm. They're mostly made of quartz and are quite slippery,
so we all had a turn at sliding down on our 'buttocks'. Standley Chasm certainly was beautiful, but, I think we all thought, not a patch on Kings Canyon. And we didn't quite get the commercialisation of the place. It should be a national park area. We had lunch at the chasm. Joe and Mima ate theirs in a cave. One family forgot to pack their lunch into their backpack and had to buy sandwiches from the kiosk. How come bought sandwiches always look better?
Hi peoples Joe and Jack.
Today we went to The School of the Air. It was very interesting and we even got to see a teacher teaching people from all over. And the teacher turned the video around to face us and I did some of my awesome dancing skills to show them.
Joe blogging now: We raced on the go carts at the caravan park. A kangaroo jumped past our trailer. My dad tried to take a picture of it but it ran away. We went to Standley Chasm and me and Mima had lunch in a cave, it had two rock benches and four rock seats. It was dark inside and
light outside. We climbed BIG rocks and i climbed a quarter of a tree. Hi Nana and Pa and Gran love Joe.
Bron Here. Bought sandwiches were yummy! Back to Alice from Stanley Kasem (nice play on words) and a car change as Rob and Ro headed to do the groceries for the next couple of days and Jac, kids and I headed to the School of the Air. And it was certainly worth the wait. The kids, I think, finally understand what it is all about. We saw a quick movie and had a chat from one of the tutors. We were lucky enough to see two classes in progress. One, an indigenous community near Kings Canyon (they were naughty apparently), and the other teacher was instructing grade 3 and 4 kids with maths problems, multiplication to be precise. The teacher there kept turning his video around so our kids were being seen by the school of the air kids. It was great, and yes Jack did do a STUPID dance. I think that will come back to haunt him. We saw the old radio studio (now its all computers). Its walls were covered with signatures, for
example Rolf Harris, Andy Griffiths, the Wiggles, Doc Neeson from the Angels, Pam Ayres, just to name a few. We bought souvenirs (again) and headed back to camp and to see what the grocery damage was.
Kids then hired the Go Carts and had races around the Park. Smiles all around. More washing and domestic duties ready for departure tomorrow. Heading to the ufo capital of Australia apparently, Wycliffe Well. Then its Daly waters, mataranka and Katherine. Bring it on!!!
Am absolutely loving this holiday. Forgot to say, the Alice Springs Paper headline this morning was "Hurricane Alice" so our description yesterday was not too far off. Apparently there was 120mm of rain recorded. Star Talk at the park tonight and looking forward to that. Missed the Herald Sun today, hope the Brownlow frocks were up to scratch!!!
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lisa
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wildflowers look stunning, so great to be looking at your photos as you go along. kids look to be having the time of their life, that's so ace. tell Bron not to worry about Brownlow frocks, from the little i saw everyone was playing it safe and classy except for Brent Harvey's girlfriend who thought Buckley's missus needed a run for her money but had neither the figure nor class to carry it off. sad really! keep up the great posts, am loving this armchair travel!