Day 8 Kings Canyon to Alice Springs

A long day of driving again today, mostly in the drizzling rain. After not a lot of sleep (the hot water unit in the toilet block kept us awake as it continually cycled on and off noisily), we headed off straight to Alice Springs today, with only a couple of 10 minute stops at roadhouses to fuel up, and grab a bit to eat out of the caravan. That is one thing we do love about our van, the inside ceiling is high enough (when not popped up) to allow entry to grab something out of the fridge, or to sit inside and have some lunch.

So after about 479 kms, and about six hours driving time, we arrived in Alice to brilliant sunshine, and 20 degrees – very welcome!  We are staying at the MacDonnell Ranges Caravan Park (Big 4) which is huge and lovely. Three pools, a waterslide, go-kart hire, shop, tour desk, café, huge jumping pillows, games rooms, massive bbq area seating heaps of people (tonight a free demo on playing the didgeridoo), tomorrow a free pancake breakfast.  The kids are wrapped to have some grass beneath their feet again, and some decent playgrounds and areas to explore. Brendan and I are glad we are having three nights here, so no need to pack up again for a couple of days.

As we drive Lily and Sam have been enjoying reading lots of Jacqui French books – she writes a great fictional series built around some Australian icons (Waltzing Matilda, the road to Gundagai, the girl from Snowy River, etc). They both love them, and it’s a great, fun way to learn about some Australian history.

Of course, as well as the books, each day (on the long driving days) the kids can have a couple of hours to play their iPads. The current favourite is still Minecraft which they can play against/with each other. Brendan (my gadget man), has set up a portable small network so they can access each others iPads (wirelessly), and have access to the many hundreds of movies and music tracks (simultaneously and individually) stored on the tiny hard disk stored in the car, without the need for cables or anything else.

Brendan and I have been listening to an audio book written and narrated by author and photographer Terry Underwood called “In the Middle of  Nowhere”.  It’s a wonderful insight into life on a very remote WA cattle station, and is fascinating and very absorbing. If you are interested in how life in the outback is lived or even just enjoy a good yarn, I thoroughly recommend reading this book - http://www.terryunderwood.com/books.htm  It revolves around the story of two people who fell in love in unusual circumstances (a city girl, a country boy) and  followed their hearts and were committed to building their lives together in the remote outback by building themselves  a home, a family, and a business from nothing. Our kids were also interested listening about how their children were schooled (via School of the Air on the radio), and how when accidents happened, the only option was to fix it yourself, or call the Flying Doctor Service. A  good lesson for us all.

Now, back to Alice Springs. Brendan and I last visited The Alice over 20 years ago, so have noticed a few changes. Alice is a sprawling outback city, surrounded by the MacDonnell Ranges. Almost the middle of town is the Anzac Lookout situated on a small hill providing a terrific view of the town, and the dry, sandy bottomed Todd River. As we remembered from our last visit, lots of Aboriginals still appear to either live or sleep in the river bottom in the open air right in the centre of town.  Alice is well serviced by three shopping centres, the Todd Mall (lots of galleries, and restaurants), and the usual facilities found in most large towns.  There is lots of things to see and do here, and I look forward to sharing them with you over the next few days.