DAY 75 - 03/05/2010 - Alice Springs, NT

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary and it is also May Day, a public holiday in the Northern Territory. We are going to celebrate it at the Alice Spring Races. Today is important race meet. It is the Alice Spring XXXX Cup. The girls have never been to the races before and are very excited.

As soon as we arrive, we put a bet on Spacattack, who comes third and we only really get our money back. Its a good start to the betting day. We don't win anything on the next 3 races but the drinks go down well.....for Waz that is. I am designated driver. It is really hot here today and we are in full sun.

We put a bet on the last race, the main race of the day. The horse's name is Granzig. I am confident that we have picked the winner. Its a real winners name. At the start of the race Granzig was coming last then it started to speed up and came in first. It was a great feeling and ended our day on a high note. Our winnings almost covered what we had spent during the day.

Granzig

We finished our great day with some yummy pizza for dinner.

DAY 74 - 02/05/2010 - Alice Springs, NT

Today is the day the girls have been looking forward to since we arrived. Pancake day. The pancakes were yummy and generous in size. They just keep on serving them until everyone is full. The record for men is 13 and women is 8. They encourage you to break the record. Waz got to 6 and I pathetically got to 2. My form wasn't too good this morning. I think the girls ate more than me.

With full bellys we head off to do some siteseeing along the West Macdonnell Ranges.

We visited Standley Chasm. It was a 1.5km walk from the carpark. Some parts of the walk were a little tricky for Lilly. At one stage Warren had to put her on his shoulders and he accidentally walked her into an overhanging gumtree branch. She let out a big cry, the poor little thing. Warren felt terrible.

Standley Chasm was beautiful. We walk thru a small gap between two steep gorges. The best time to visit here is during the middle of the day when the sun is shining right down on it creating a orange red reflection up the gorge walls. We got some great photos here.

Tree hugger

Our next destination is Ormiston Gorge and waterhole. This gorge is also situated on the West Macdonnell Ranges but its a fair drive from Standley Chasm.

Its supposed to be the most spectacular scenery in these ranges.

We could only walk as far as the waterhole and view the gorge from a distance. It had recently flooded here and the walk to the gorge was inaccessable. We sat by the waterhole and relaxed. It was very peaceful here. Alicia and Taylah sketched some pictures of their surroundings and Lilly played in the sand. Even though it is a very hot day the water is icy cold and too cold for us to swim in. There were others who did swim but they looked like they were freezing their buts off.

DAY 73 - 01/05/2010 - Alice Springs, NT

Today I had another lazy morning. There are lots of things for the kids to go off and do here which they are happy to do.

Off to Woolys for a full grocery shop and bottle shop for some grog.

The natives are out in full force today. Saturday must be their big drinking day because all bottle shops are closed on Sundays and Monday is a public holiday here so they will be closed on Monday also. So, they are making the most of today. Police presence is very obvious.

I try not to let them bother me and go along my merry way.

Tonight Lilly enjoys a bubble bath

DAY 72 - 30/04/2010 - Alice Springs, NT

Today I woke up feeling a bit seedy from the night before. Bacon and eggs fixed that and now I am ready to take on the day.

We had a really lazy day today. No one wanted to do much but the kids had to do some school work this morning.

After school work we drove into town to pick up some mail and get a couple of things from Woolys. The town of Alice Springs is quite pretty and not at all what I expected.

There were quite a few Aboriginals hanging out in front of the Woolys bottle shop which we're getting used to. They are all trying to get their mates to buy grog for them because I think they are on daily quotas. The security guard out front of the bottle shop keeps shooing them away if they get too close.

The didgeridoo presentation is on this afternoon so we hurry to get back in time for that.

The girls enjoyed the didgeridoo presentation. They each had a turn to play it or better still attempt to play it. They each received a cd for their efforts.

On our way back to the van after the presentation

Had a drink and a good laugh tonight with new friends we have made during this trip. Chris and Leigh are from Gosford and are also travelling the country with the hope of settling down in Broome. We are both going in the same direction and we discussed some future journeys that we may encounter together.

DAY 71 - 29/04/2010 - Kings Canyon, NT & Alice Springs, NT

We left Kings Canyon at 8.30am this morning which is early for us. We drove straight to Alice Springs, only stopping for short breaks at various rest stops along the Stuart Highway.

We have checked into the Big 4 park called the Macdonnell Range Holiday Park. It is such a family friendly park with multiple pools, multiple jumping pillows and a large playground. Almost every night there is something on such as star gazing, 4wd shows, didgeridoo performances which are all free and best of all free unlimited pancakes on Sunday mornings.

Just before you drive into the park itself there is a dry river bed and lots of Aboriginals of all ages hang out here drinking their VB. They are either sitting in the dry river bed itself or on the side of the road just watching people drive by. It feels pretty safe in the park itself but we were told its probably a good idea for our own safety to not wander outside of the park at night. We havn't driven into town as yet so that will be interesting.

We keep bumping into the same people that we saw at Yulara and Kings Canyon. Its seems we are all travelling in the same direction.

We are really enjoying this trip. I am so glad we didn't chicken out.

Planning on having an early night tonight. Had a few wines to help me get off to sleep. So on my way to the toilet to brush my teeth I bumped into Mel whom I'd met in Kings Canyon. She was another that got dragged up on stage the same time as me. She was half cut and kidnapped me and took me back to her campsite for some yummy wine. They were drinking with owner of McClaren Wines and they had lots of wine to drink. I ended up going to bed late which is not what I had planned but had a great night anyhow. I will pay for it tomorrow, I am sure.