A Week In Alice

“How the hell can you spend a week in Alice?” you may ask.   Well we did and it was great.  We spent the whole time under the bridge on the sand of the Todd River talking about our love for the bush.  Only joking!  We made the 1800km down to Alice from the scorching heat of the north in 3 days staying back at Katherine and then Wauchope, which was just past the Devil’s Marbles,

 and arrived in a nice balmy Alice Springs around lunchtime.   

There was a pretty useless information lady so we got the info booklet and headed across the road to Montes to get some lunch.  There we ran into the Swedosh’s whom we had met in Katherine and ended up enjoying their company quite a bit over the coming week as we were staying in the same holiday park.  We had a rest day first up after free pancakes for brekkie and then watched as our site became surrounded by other vans, we were under the false impression that we had the park pretty much to ourselves.  So we caught up on other families travelling stories and dramas and ended up with the world’s worst snorer behind us.  I have never heard anything like it, it sounded like a cross between horse and feral pig.  So we headed out on some adventures the next day checking out the Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Reptile Centre opposite.  Kirst had the time of her life holding an olive python and the boys continued their fetish for cold blooded creatures.   

The next day we decided on a bike ride to the botanical gardens, an art gallery and Anzac Hill.  The best thing was seeing the solar cars in 2^nd and 3^rd position doing a pit stop on our way out from the park.   We learnt all about them and even got interviewed (my second interview after Maccas) by the ABC. 

The stuff that we had planned to see was all pathetic but the boys made the most of the skate bowl at the bottom of Anzac Hill, 

and we did a bit of off track riding on the way back.  The next day we went to MacDonnells and ordered a Simpsons Gap and a Standley Chasm. 

Then Tori suggested we go visit a Christian based aboriginal community called Santa Theresa.  So we headed out there and felt like we had walked into a western. 

We checked out the church which had some beautiful art, had some lunch, and did a walk up to the big cross on the hill to check out the view if you were nailed to it.  Then we finished off the day with a beautiful dinner at the Swedosh’s camp while an electrical storm lit up the night sky.  The next day we did a big drive (150km) out to Palm Valley and experienced the hardest off road driving I had done.  It took about 20mins to do 4km, with ofcourse Kirst hanging on for grim death, and even a big perentie took us on running straight at and under the car. 

The drive back coincided with us finishing HP6 and we are all keen for the last book, which you can’t download on itunes godamnit.  The following day saw some welcome cloud cover and a perfect opportunity to catch up on some shopping and wander around the Desert Park.  We loved the Desert Park with some more reptile loving and a fun talk with Tammy who kept having all her questions answered by a very enthusiastic  Woodley.  We also enjoyed a great talk with Doug who taught us more about the aborigines and their very successful way of life before the whiteman. 

 On the last day we hit the Telegraph Station with the Swedosh’s and learnt a lot of the history of Alice and the life of Alec Ross, an aboriginal man who had lived at the Telegraph Station when he was 4 and was now taking tours 76 years later.  He had great stories and had been a very good professional boxer so I had to get a boxing photo with him. 

What a great way to end our week in Alice.