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Published: November 8th 2012
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Well as I sit in bed writing this blog, it’s FINALLY raining! Not just a spit & a promise like usual, but REAL rain! I’ve flung open all the doors, and the smell is amazing. After 200+ days of dry, hot, baking weather (we’ve had many days over 40 in the past few weeks), the parched earth, dry sandy riverbed and baked concrete & dust are finally getting a soak. Bring it on! And luckily for me it’s arrived on a day I have off work so too can soak up the event….I’ll just keep an eye on those obvious water marks on Molly’s ceiling, all things pointing to a bit of a leak here & there.
As you can probably guess, Jeff & I have been living in Molly’s house (now Phil’s house, must get into that habit!), which he has generously offered for us to caretake following Molly’s passing. We have very much appreciated being able to sleep under an aircon, as the nights are generally only dropping to about 27 degrees, and last night it was still 34 at about 9pm! In return we keep an eye on the place and have a (growing) list of odd-jobs
that could do with some attention. A termite-eaten beam in the carport, gutter cleaning, sensor lights that need replacing, perhaps a roof leak or two?! So we hope for Phil our staying here keeps his mind at ease that there is someone watching over the house, as well as getting some practical things done, after all it’s been quite some time since Molly was able to get up a ladder.
We are also able to enjoy a beautiful garden, maintained by Molly’s friend Ken. It’s filled with an array of vegies, herbs & flowers, with the next big harvest to be tomatoes. And of course, it’s always great to be able to go into the garden & pick fresh herbs/spinach/lettuce for dinner, and get a vase of flowers for the table whenever you like.
We thought we’d share with you some of the photos we took on our trip down to Old Andado for Molly’s burial, at which time we took a bit of a round-trip journey to check out some of the amazing places in & around the Simpson Desert.
Following Molly’s funeral, we spent some time poking around her old homestead, which is left
"Shortie"
Gardener Ken's new little puppy as a museum for travellers to enjoy. It honestly feels like Molly just walked out the door after having her breakfast one day, and never came back. There’s still tins & jars of food in the cupboards, books on the coffee table, a pen & paper near the (still functioning) phone. It certainly has a lot of personality, and you just have to wonder how she managed to bring up three boys here, particularly in the scorching summer. It’s surrounded by red sand-dunes and is situated right on the edge of the Simpson Desert, almost 350km south-east of Alice. The trip down was just amazing and we hope to get back down there again soon.
After a sausage sizzle & a chat to Phil’s family, we took off in the direction of Mt Dare Homestead/Hotel. We know the owners of Mt Dare, Mel & Dave and their two girls, as they too have a caravan in Molly’s backyard in which they stay when they come to Alice for pub supplies. Most of the time they live in Melbourne, but Dave makes a trip back every couple of months to re-stock the pub with drinks and food.
We met
Guarding Boris
Bailey got himself up here somehow, couldn't get down & cried until Tab got a chair & helped him down...wuss their caretakers, had a drink in the pub, and spent a night in the campground there, just having a beer around the fire. It was a very early night considering we left Alice at 4am that morning to make it to the funeral on time. So we fell asleep to the sound of crackling fire, left the fly off the tent and gazed at the stars until we fell asleep, bliss! The next day we even got to enjoy a solar shower before hitting the road further south to Dalhousie Springs.
While a very slow 4WD trip down (Jeff’s boss was very generous in offering us the work 4WD to take on this trip), we soon found ourselves stripping off for a swim in water that had to be about 40 degrees! It is just unreal. Very deep, very hot, it just bubbles out of the ground like this! Who would think this would exist in the very centre of the country? Sadly the campground wasn’t too flash and there was not a skerrick of shade, so we dragged ourselves out of the spring water and back in the car heading for Finke.
We had to go past
Dalhousie Springs, SA
No joke, this water was HOT! Mt Dare again on our way to Finke so of course we stopped in for a feed &a coupla cold ones at the pub on the way! During the Mt Dare/Dalhousie section we had also briefly crossed into SA, and then back into NT as we headed towards the Finke community. Finke itself is located geographically close to the very centre of the Australian continent, and is quite a large Aboriginal settlement, known as Atapula to the locals. Of course, it is also the camp spot at the end of Day 1 of the Finke Desert Race, run every June.
From Finke we followed the Old Ghan Railway, which also happens to follow the Desert Race track, all the way back to Alice. There’s heaps of remnants of the old rail line, and quite a few ruined sidings to pass along the way. We set up camp out in the scrub right next to the race-track, lit a fire and basically did the same as the night before – joy!
Awake at sparrow-fart time, we kept heading north, through some amazing country, seeing camels, emu’s and roos along the way. The track is pretty rough so covering the
Scooter-Girl
Tab got some new wheels!!! last 100km or so seemed to take forever! Tired and happy, we arrived back home, with still one more day off before we had to go back to work. All in all an amazing journey incorporating a bush-burial (something we will never forget or probably experience ever again), hot springs, big skies both day & night & amazing country. We are blessed to have had the opportunity to head out into the desert, as it’s certainly terrain we would not cover in ol’ Boris!
We also recently had the pleasure of loading up Daz for a long weekend out to the West Macdonnell Ranges (we did the East before we came into Alice for work). Out here are the most amazing rugged ranges, gorges, rocky outcrops and bushwalks we have seen in a long time. And to top it off, we enjoyed a balmy afternoon at Glen Helen Resort, sitting on the balcony enjoying several cold ones to take our minds off the long butt-wrenching ride back into Alice the next day! We also met up with some pals for a bbq at Ellery Creek swimming hole yesterday, and even still after all this hot weather the water was
Lounging Ranga
Oscar enjoying a chill session in the backyard freezing! But as the saying goes, it’s fine “once you’re in”!!
So, life in Alice has certainly breezed into a kind of routine, although we are both finding the work/life balance a little out of whack at the moment (that happens when you generally have 6 months of each year off!) and we are looking forward to doing more exploring after the main heat of summer has passed. We are so lucky to have a roof over our heads, jobs we enjoy and a really nice town to call home. Not long and we will be in Melbourne for 8 days celebrating Christmas with our families and friends, we are looking forward to seeing you all!
(Don't forget to scroll down for more photos on this page, and then click on subsequent pages of pics too, not all of them come up within the text of the blog)
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Kate Simpson
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I love reading your blogs, it looks amazing! Love to you both and your fury kids.