Alice Springs Assorted

The trans-continental passenger train, The Ghan, was in the Alice Springs station. A kind employee got permission to give us a quick tour. Shaun definitely wanted to travel in style.

We visited the School of the Air. Children living in remote locations attend school via computer and satellite internet. They used to be taught by pedal-powered radio.

Some years ago the kids made a quilt.

And one of metal.

A few random photos. Mr Fixit is sitting in the cockpit of a display plane at the Royal Flying Doctor Service visitors' centre. Shaun is sitting on the quarantine bin for South Australia. I tired to get a picture of a road train. Needed a panorama camera I think. Massive things. Green tree frog just hanging around. And Mr Fixit assessing possible damage.

Footprints & Signs

Emu and goanna? Me?

Do they get points for trying?

Uluru (Ayer's Rock)

Shaun had his little climb while I enjoyed the amazing scenery of the Mala Walk at the base of Uluru.

Mr Fixit elected to climb the rock - a childhood dream fulfilled.

Sunset viewing of Uluru.

More of this...

Lasseter's Cave

Lasseter was an explorer who perished when his camels bolted and left him without food or water. He claimed to have found a fabulous reef of gold years before then perished when he returned to look for it. But that's not all of the story. Some claim he was a conman who convinced people to fund his expedition to re-find this gold, then faked his death and took off with the money. In any event, it's part of the Australian folklore and we definitely had to have a look since we were right there anyway! Shaun certainly had fun...

You can see the cave was quite small and shallow.

Dry river beds have a certain beauty.

If it had rained we would have been totally stuck in the mud.

A Little Look...

This is a little look at the Superpit and Kalgoorlie.

They turned the statue of Paddy Hannan in to a drinking fountain.

This is our campsite in the bush outside Laverton and then the roadhouse at Tjukayirla.

This is the Giles Weather Station. Very very cool.

It was great to see the weather balloon and how it was all done.

And of course we saw lots and lots of this.

More to come.

This post is dedicated to Helen (no blog).

She is encouraging me to get back online.

Lasseter's Cave