Alice Springs

That night we went to Todd Mall to see the display for the Finke Desert Race. They had freestyle motorbike riders who did amazing jumps in the air, while supermanning etc off the bike. There were 5 race trucks and buggies. 

Chatted to the no 3 guy for ages. It is an extremely rough ride on the roads. They go up to about 230km/h on the dirt. There is no windscreen, so rocks, dirt, cold etc goes straight onto your helmet. They have the rip away covers on them. An American and a bike rider explained about changing tyres. The nuts are glued to the spare wheel ready to go, then get snapped off with the rattle gun while being put on. The biggest race he's been in is the Baja California one, about 2500kms long. Saw the race doco after that. The cars look like they are on a carpet ride with their huge suspension, but inside the cabin, their arms and legs are constantly airborne then smacking the seat hard.

Ollie did his clay animation. Went to the telegraph repeater station, one of the first buildings in Alice. Also found out about the name. 

Anzac Hill has a nice view.

Saturday was at the Prolog. 7.50am and it's still 1 degree Celsius, shivers.

Prolog was kind of interesting watching them go around as fast as they can. They hit then stop, then hit the accelerator, seems weird not to have the power on constantly.

Left: the queue for the guys was longer than this even, while the ladies queue was zero.

Also went to the truck museum, which was kind of interesting to see the luxurious looking rigs.

The boys had a good time running around mainly.

Some of the stories were interesting! For example Joseph Irwin Miller was ahead of his time.

Some vintage cars that were really a sofa in a living room eg the Packard here.










There was a maker of cars and tractors in Auburn, Sydney.

Alice Springs

A large part of Australia was covered by an inland sea with ice on the shores. Large Wollemi type pines and other forest dominated, so all kinds of large animals lived. Can you beleive we had flamingos? Imagine hundreds of those tip toeing in the central sea, along with mega wombats, giant birds, marsupial tapirs, all patrolled by local tiger looking marsupials - large ferocious predators (Alcoota marsupial tiger and Tasmanian tiger type animal).

The Alcoota fossils are 6 to 8 million years old, well after dinosaurs which died out 66 million years ago. There are a huge jumble of bones all mixed together, which could be the result of say washing down a river after they all died. They are of all ages, so must have died all at once, maybe during a flood. There are 32 different species, 17 of which are unique to Alcoota.

Left: Some interesting animals back in the day, marsupial "tiger" types.

The Alcoota fossils are big animals, but not from the dinosaur era. They're comparatively new.

Left: checking out the stab wound and how it's healing; on the big screen, entertaining some other visitors. Their parents had met Dean and Christine, who'd said they'd met some family who is going around in a tent: that's us!

 Went to a very groovy cafe with loads of vego options, then went to the school of the air. For kids who live on remote farms and stations, people who travel for work - like fence contractors, fruit pickers etc, this is their school. They don't go to school.

The kids follow the lessons via web cam. We saw a class in progress. Young students can put up their hand or pop up comments online as the teacher talks to camera.

There aren't any internet cables out to these properties. The access runs via satellite. It costs $18,000 a pop to set up kids with a satellite dish for internet access. The NT government has some satellites for emergency communication. While there are no emergencies, the school gets to use all the available data for class.

They've had some famous visitors like the Queen of England, and Andy Griffiths author of the 13 story tree house series. He drew a bum on a wall with Kick Me on it, and I stink. They say he was very good!

Dalhousie Springs to Alice Springs

The hot springs of Dalhousie are just so pleasant, at about 35 deg C. They offer noodles for people to use for buoyancy s as to not swim and over heat. The kids were rapt. Getting out in the cold needs to be quick!

For dinner, we had several hundred uninvited mosquito guests, and tried to get into the tent as fast as possible. I think we squished about 40 -50 of them during Loot and eating, then doing a hunt. Went to toilet, brought in 20 more on my jumper as I admired the vast milky way of stars overhead. Did some more mozzie hunting, and then slept. The dingoes started howling like wolves, not cool, including one very close to the camp ground.

Next day we all got up at 6 to watch the sun set from the spa bath. Nice. We had a lazy day, the boys on devices.

Left: watching the sun rise over the steaming springs, v awesome.

 Right: standard campsite in the dirt, net protection for the hundreds of flies. There are enough to carry Louis away.

Ollie put a tent pole's spike through his foot.  Him and Lou were seeing how hard they could ram the tent poles, with spike ends, into the ground.  Back car tyre left has a slow leak. We'll need to go to the clinic for Ollie foot, and keep an eye on his foot plus the leaking try to limp it to Alice and civilisation. Looking forward to a breather now things have gone a bit wrong. Oh oh. I'm sure Ollies foot will heal up of with some medical attention.

The leaking back tyre was a concern over rough rough roads. We pumped it up to 33psi, cleaned, disinfected the outside and dressed Ollie's foot. It was a big disappointment as he'd really enjoyed swimming there in the hot springs, and was very much looking forward to doing some more.

We thought about driving to Alice, but Dalhousie Springs is a good days drive from anywhere. We decided to head off in the morning.

Left: At Mount Dare, the last dunny for a while, so make use of them. The people at Mount Dare rang ahead to Aputula(Finke) to book him a spot in the clinic.

We set off for Mt Dare first, for a tea/coffee stop. The people kindly let us call up the clinic to book in. Got to Aputula(Finke). The lady medic checked the foot, said she'd seen worse, cleaned it up, dressed it, and gave us some spare stuff. She was super nice. She said 'you're not going on that road with all the crazy riders on it?'

We took that into account, but decided it would be better to go straight ahead. Probs a bad idea, as it was a total jackhammering for about 150kms.

On the plus side, while going through narrow cuttings, and hammering along the table tops, we worked out Old Ghan Historic Trail we were rolling on is the Ghan rail line. We were on the old train tracks! The views of slopes with stones, vivid green shrubs, and trees was just a gorgeous garden of colours. You don't seem to get these amazing elevated views on regular roads.

 Pulled into Alice around 6pm, and headed directly to the hospital to get Ollie seen to. Me and Lou had a beer and dinner, while Marie and Ollie waited to get seen. They finally got out at 10pm. The nurse apologised and said she would have put us up the list if she'd have seen the exit wound, and realised it was a full piercing, not just the visible upper scratching.

The next day we took off school as well. I went for a jog in the morning. Trying to cross the street is not great. Packed up at 10am after showers for everyone. Reparked. We went for a walk in town, through the Todd Mall, to the tourist info office, then rang around for a place to stay. Nowhere had any places left as The Finke Desert Race is on. We got a spot 14 kms out of town, and it is just beautiful. Set up and cooked before dark.

Left: the lovely Temple Bar Caravan Park.

Temple Bar Caravan Park has the mountains right behind, and some marvelous white ghost gums.

Driving to Dalhousie Homestead

Drove out of Oodnadatta. Hit the turnoff at exactly 17kms, as the map said, v good, happy to know we seem to be on the correct road.

Lou felt sick so we stopped, decided to have lunch. No need to pull off the road - we ate in the left lane. 4 cars came by but slowed dsown not to get dirt in our delicious wraps. Rolled along with alternating gibber plains and mulga bush country.

Left: at Dalhousie homestead, with hot wheels track out, and tonnes of flies.

Saw Dalhousie Springs homestead. The farmers of yesteryear were nuts to try it on out here. They tried to turn this place into agricultural land, but the isolation was depressing and the endless droughts drove them away.

The landscape here is pretty spectacular.

Oodnadatta

Roll into Pink Roadhouse, waste an hour or two trying to upload on hopeless Optus connection. A room is $180. Down the street at the optimistically named Intercontinental Hotel, a nice comfortable room can be had for $100, plus we drink a few rounds and eat dinner, so the owner has definitely got the right idea.

The main street and highway through  Oodnadatta.

Clare and Phil tell us about Clare's father who was in the Warsaw resistance of WW2, gets captured by the Germans. A bomb hit their jail killing everyone bar him and a guard who won't let him move.

Left: the picture theatre.

He understands that the guard is injured enough to die. so simply waits for him to pass out, then escapes. Goes to Lviv (formerly in Poland, now in the Ukraine). Gets captured by the Soviets who send him to Siberia on the train. He smuggled a knife, and he and a colleague burrow into the train floor, and escapes the train on the way to Siberia.

Right: you need to pay for drinking water.

Her dad spends 6 months in the Russian winter getting back to Lviv. Gets captured again by the Germans, and sent to a labour camp in Germany. At wars end, he eventually gets to Italy. Spends years there, gets asylum status for Canada, the US, Australia and somewhere else. Chooses Australia to get as far away as possible.

Left: the rail and general museum.

Clare and Phil live in Geelong. He's a retired Obstetrics and Gynaecology specialist, it turns out, after Marie says she's all for a home birth, since women have been doing it for years. I argue that things can go wrong, and then he mentions how you can bleed to death in about 10 minutes, so best have the modern equipment at hand.

Right: the buried rail tracks that made the town, then took it away...

Oodnadatta used to be the end of the rail line. After that, Alice was supplied via camel from here. It used to be a very important town. People cried when the last train left the station. The tracks are still here in the dirt, but along the rest of the line, the sleepers and rails have been dug up for other uses. During WW2, Oodnadatta was also a major fuel stop for fighter planes. They had about 400kms of range, so needed to refuel many times in order to cross the country.

Following in their footsteps. Turns out we've been following the old Ghan railway the whole time. This follows the explorer's routes, which followed old Aboriginal routes, which followed available water: the springs, water holes, the holes that held water after rain etc. The ancient lines continue.

 Nearest petrol.

Marie at the glamorous Intercontinental. We always stay there when in town.

I went for a jog, but got scared by the street dogs. They roam around parts of town in packs. Left Oodnadatta after uploading all the school work, thanks to v good wifi. Was a very satisfying stop, productive.

The painted desert

riday pack up, kids play some more with Aaron today. Get rolling around 9.30, go for a big long walk along the inspiring ridges of the painted desert.

The views on the top are so terrific, you could just sit here all day. The kids appreciate it too.

We stopped for a game of Loot on the ridge.

The earth at the bottom is soft and black. Wonder if it's fertile?

Lou goes parkour style.