Alice Springs - The Parks, Caravan and Desert - Day 7 The kids have been enjoying their time here at the MacDonnell Range caravan park with a jumping pillow opposite our camper trailer site and fabulous swimming pools. They have been making new friends with other children, and are still writing in their journals each day.
We visited the Alice Springs Desert Park along with Nana and Pa and had a great day learning about the local culture, animals, and terrain. I am so thrilled with our new Cannon 550 camera and we have caught lots of fabulous photo's of birds and animals. Chris captured some amazing shots at the birds of prey show when a black kyte was catching food mid flight.
Jumping Pillow
Journal Time (oh joy they say)
Sunday we joined in the queue at the caravan park for their famous free pancakes - which were deliscious! We didn't break the record of 13 - we thought eating 3 was a huge accomplishment! I must be starting to relax and get into holiday mode because I had a 2 hour nap before lunch while Chris pottered about modifying things on the camper. We went for a drive in the afternoon and were lucky enough to see the Ghan train leaving Alice to go South. I got some great photos of it coming around the bend - the red engine contrasted against the orange cliffs which are covered in green. We cant believe how green it is up here at the moment - the scenery is beautiful! Driving into Alice from Kings Canyon the other day was so much fun driving through water at every creek crossing. At that stage we were just pleased for the water to be washing some of the mud off the car and trailer after driving along the muddy Merenie Loop road. We found out later that they closed off the road just after we went through. We weren't surprised!
In the afternoon on Sunday we visited the old Telegraph station at the original site of Alice Springs. That was very educational for all of us and it was fascinating to learn about the first forms of communication by morse code not only by the overland telegraph line but also to the rest of the world.
Old Telegraph Station
Today we visited the Alice Springs School of the Air- boy was that a treat! Ryan, Mikayla, and Amy were fascinated to learn how the children in outback stations get taught. There are about 130 children enrolled in the school covering about 1.5 million square miles (something like that anyway!) and the biggest area school. We got to join in with the Year 3 & 4 lesson today which had 8 children logged on via computer. The cheeky teacher in the sound proof booth kept turning the camera onto our family and getting the school of the air kids to challenge our kids on maths and spelling questions. It was hilarious and an experience I certainly wont forget. He dubbed us the "Adams" family and it gave his students a fun challenge. We could see them live on screen and they could see us. The ASSOA kids won the challege (a biassed teacher!!) and they all said goodbye at the end.
Then we drove out to Ormiston Gorge and did the walk around the gorge. The kids did well climbing all around the rocks and had a bit of a paddle in the waterhole. It is nice having the time to explore and play together.
We have just had a lovely dinner with Kenny Lechleitner and his family. Kenny was a boarder with Chris at Immanuel college so it was fabulous to catch up with him and his wife Michelle again.
We have been enjoying our time here in Alice so much that we have decided to stay an extra night before we head north again.
Hope you are all well. Love Trudy
PS - Thanks for the comments also, we appriciate the feedback and news
Schrapels (AKA The Adams Family) vs ASSOA (School of the air)
Top of Ormiston Gorge
Ormiston Gorge Water Hole
Kenny Lechleitner and his family
Photos are fantastic....envious of the shorts and t-shirts!
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