Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hello Alice my old friend. We love this town and are happy to be back. We take a leisurely drive from Gemtree and arrive around lunchtime. We check into the McDonnell Ranges caravan park and drive to our tent ensuite site - luxury! Surprise, it is right across from the couple we camped next to at Wycliffe Well and Gemtree.
This caravan park is huge, has fabulous facilities (especially for the kids - jumping pillows, parks, pools and a waterslide) and seems to be really well maintained. Both kids love bouncing on the jumping pillow. Our site is 2 spots away and Emily is constantly making a beeline for the steps up to them. This involves crossing 2 roads! She makes it to the stairs and methodically climbs them one by one whilst holding onto the rail and making her way onto the pillow. I the pick her up and bring her back to the campsite where she is off only a few seconds later.
She is well and truly walking now, in fact she's pretty close to running. We are forever saying 'Emily, come back here' or 'Emily, stop'. She keeps us in our toes!
This weekend Mark catches up on the AFL finals footy. It's been a while since he's seen any games and he's pretty keen to cheer his Eagles on.
Saturday morning we head into town for food supplies. We visit Milner Meats which is a local butcher that stocks pretty much anything you could possibly want or need. It is 11 on Saturday and this place closes at 12. I think everybody in Alice is here as the place is chaos and there is no room to move! We buy some borewors which we eat that night. Mark is impressed. We also get Mutton Fillets which are delicious in wraps with some Tzatziki.
This evening there is a didgeridoo performance at the camp. We go and watch it and it's pretty good. William loves it and even dances. Too cute!
Sunday is another beautiful sunny day. We start by joining the pancake breakfast put on by the campground. It is free for any guests. Now this is a well oiled production. The pancake batter is in buckets and one bucket makes 100 pancakes. These are no small pancakes, they are decent sized and pretty darn good. They cook them on a trailer with a giant hot plate. You can go back as many times as you like.
We then head to the Todd Mall market. It is here we find a bread stall called 'The Alice Bakery'. There are quite a few people waiting so we figure it must be good and join the queue. Well this is a great wee find. We buy some bread, a lemon meringue donut and almond scroll. Delicious. Mark then has a Thai butterfly pea tea which is purple and very refreshing on this warm morning. Even the kids love it.
In the afternoon William and I head to the 'School of the Air' visitors centre. We watch a little video about the school and its history and view some of the classrooms. What a fantastic way of schooling for remote kids. We watch a previously recorded class for 4 1/2 year olds and William is enthralled. It is a great experience.
Monday is car day! Our trusty Hyundai has served us well so far this trip doing over 8,000 km and we need it to do a few more. Mark spends the day taking it for a service and then to get 4 new tyres and finally a new battery. The rest of us spend the day hanging around the campsite.
Tomorrow we are off for a day trip to the McDonnell ranges.
- comments