Around Alice

One of the river crossings.

An Icy Dip.

Morning Wash

Finke River Campsite....AMAZING!

Tree Hugging

Taking a Dip

Taking in the view.

Chilling out by the river.

Saturday 17th July

I’m sitting here in one of the most beautiful campsites I have even stayed in. Right on the Finke River in the middle of the McDonnell Ranges just a few hours from Alice Springs. The sun is setting; I can hear the creek as it flows in front of me, and the birds are all starting there calls as they get ready for the cold of the night, I think I have found a little pocket of paradise.

It’s still getting very cold as the sun sets. The sun during the day is really, really warm and toasty but as soon as it disappears the chill sets in and we are both pretty quickly kitted up in ugg boots, beanies, trackies and a big jacket or two.

Thursday and Friday night were spent in Alice Springs at G’day Mate Caravan Park! We had to drive through the Todd River to get there which doesn’t happen very often as the Todd River is generally very, very dry.

Our first night we were given some first class local entertainment. Our Campsite was right on the Todd river so as the sun set a few locals rocked up, beers in hand, yelling and carrying on about…Well really we were not to sure. Bob sits up quite high and very easily clears the fence of the caravan park so we had front row seats to what was going on. It appeared one of the local lads had been sleeping around and Mrs Local Ladette wasn’t too happy about it when she found out. To throw a spanner in the works Mr Local was also threatening punches at another Local Lad so maybe he was sleeping with the Local Ladette???? Not really too sure??? It took us quite a while to figure out what was going on as the only words in English were the vulgar ones, so it was pretty hard trying to decipher the whole scenario! The Local Ladette felt she needed to show the young Casanova what she thought of him so in between some very colourful language, spitting, sand throwing and eventually a beer can to the head, she managed to draw blood and felt a bit better about the whole situation.

Eventually the Entertainment slowly finished, however we did get a little sneak peak into the next nights show when yet another Local ruffian decided he didn’t like the look of a bush, so decided to set fire too it. Unfortunately we have left the dramas of the Todd behind; The Finke is much more peaceful but no where near as entertaining.

So we saw the sights of Alice Town, the Todd Mall, Billy Goat Hill, Anzac Hill and The Reptile Centre. The highlight of the trip however was when we had to order a new very expensive tyre! So hopefully we don’t go though too many of them! We’ll head back into town too see a few more of the sights in a few days time.

20th July
So we are back in the big smoke of Alice Springs! The last few days have been spent in the West Mac Ranges walking through canyons, crossing rivers and scrabbling over rocks. The massive amounts of water the “Centre” (as they call it) has been receiving over the last month is huge, so most of the walks now involve river crossings as does driving from place to place. The whole area is so green it is nearly as if we haven’t left home yet! Most of the stories we heard before we came was how dusty and dry everything was going to be and like I mentioned earlier we had to drive through the Todd river the other day just to get to the caravan park!

Last night we ventured out to Dessert Park to do a Night Tour to try and see if we could find any of the creatures that are meant to be living out and about Alice springs, but don’t anymore due to People, cats and Foxes. We saw Bilbies, a few different types of Wallabies and Bandicoots, Echidnas, and this Strange noise making Bird which sounded like someone being murdered! You could imagine if you were out in the dessert by yourselves and you heard one of them in the middle of the nights you wouldn’t be getting much sleep!