Alice Springs

Morning! We are one of the last to leave (as seems to be happening a lot lately) but we still manage to roll out of the park by 9:30am.  Ready for another 5 hours of desert, low shrubs, red soil, occasional bird in the sky, and numerous caravans being towed north.  Kate Winslet’s narration of the “folk of the faraway tree” surfaces for the second time on the trip.  Thank goodness she is easy to listen to.  We have 14 hours of Enid Blyton story time to be entertained by.  I am a little concerned about Ben though.  He appears to be tired of the four finger wave to tourists headed north, and has begun to tip is hat to them, just to shake things up a little.  Is this normal after 6 months on the road Nat and Dunc?  I have a confession to make also – when driving I often forget to wave to folk passing by, as a result of my total concentration on driving.  Does this mean I am rude?  Ben thinks it is most unfriendly, and tries to make up for it from the co-pilot seat.  

cute clouds to watch as we travel into Alice

On arriving at Alice Springs, we became extra grateful for our delivery of warm jackets, and new purchase of hot water bottles.  It was amusing to watch all three children become so excited by wearing their thermals to bed and cuddling a hot water bottle.  Nights here are expected to reach 2 degrees.  Ouch!  After our first night we woke up having slept really well, and congratulated ourselves on being prepared and getting through the tough 4 degree chill.  We later found out that it had only reached 10 degrees, and the 2 degree night was expected tonight.

Sunday morning, we attended a church that sounded similar to those back at home.   You might know of “Life Church”, or “Real Life Church” etc.  Well today we attended “Desert Life Church”.   Sam and Nick have not been too interested in attending Sunday schools at visiting churches lately, but to their credit are wonderful at sitting through a service they are unfamiliar with.  It was good to sing a few songs we knew from home.

We made a visit in the afternoon to the Royal Flying Doctors Service – and were very impressed.  We tried to talk the boys into wanting to be pilots for this service, rather than flying the fighter jets, but I am not too sure how convinced they were.  They got to board a RFDS plane and sit in the cockpit of the plane, playing pretend for a while.  It has been interesting to listen to Sam, Nick and Larina talk about what they might like to do when they “grow up” as we meet different people and visit different places.  While recruitment to the defence force often stands strong, others of interest have been:  museum man, gold miner, caravan park owner (because they seem to get a lot of money all the time), hotel owner, motorbike racer, helicopter pilots, park rangers, bookshops, crocodile hunter, artist, jeweller, tour guide, water slide manager, prospector, navy diver, waiter, geologist, superhero and by the process of elimination, apparently not a pearl diver!

Day 3 at Alice Springs and we headed out to learn how to play the “didge”. The Sounds of Starlight theatre was our destination, Mandy and Larina shopped and had a hot chocolate / baby chino and us boys went for our lesson.  It was great and from very humble beginnings we were all able to produce a sound that sounded like a didgeridoo should.  We covered the basics of breathing while continuing to play and with some practice each day (that Mandy will love) we might just get a bit better. The truth be told Sam seems to have got the knack…. A true muso in the making.  We were all starving after the lesson so a shout of pies and sausage rolls was in order, the first time since Esperance WA. I also could not resist a Vanilla Slice (which we shared as they were six bucks each) that turned out to be the best Vanilla Slice of the trip possibly the best ever….. The balance of the afternoon was taken up with a few chores and picking up some second hand books for the kids.  Ben and Sam have another practice of the digeridoo in the afternoon - and comments from our neighbours flooded in... "the young fellow seems to get a better sound..."