Alice Springs Discovery Park

It's a hot week with temps in the low to mid 30s, so we're happy to be somewhere with a great pool.

Wednesday morning was spent doing what felt like dozens of loads of washing, cleaning out rocks and sand from every nook, cranny and bed in the van, and planning our next week or so. In the afternoon we headed into town for icecreams, a grocery shop and a few tech things. As we were moving through the supermarket checkout we noticed a long line had formed outside one of the other shops. When I asked the teller she said it was the bottle shop, which was meant to open 30mins earlier at 3pm but hadn't. As we walked past the line to get back to the car with the shopping, there were at least a hundred or so people waiting for the bottle shop to open, a sign of the total disenfranchisement of so many here in Alice. A quick stop in the phone shop for a new screen, a pooey nappy change in the car park, and we had earnt ourselves a rest and swim back at the caravan park, so we headed back to relax for the afternoon.

Thursday we checked out the reptile park in town in Alice Springs, which was interesting but pretty run down and tired - having been to the Canberra reptile zoo relatively recently and had a fantastic experience it was hard not to compare unfavourably. The staff did mention they've been really quiet as tourists are avoiding Alice because of the bad press it's been getting. We got a mini show from a staff member with the opportunity to hold a few lizards and snakes - Mil warmed up after a short while but Eva was not keen at all.

From there we headed to the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens for lunch, then a wander up to the 'river and range' lookout, with beautiful ranges in sight but no sign of any river at the moment whatsoever, it's much too dry right now. We dropped into an op shop on the way home, then more pool time for the afternoon. We had an early dinner, then treated ourselves to dessert from the onsite Strawberries and Icecream van. The owner has apparently been coming for 21years, spending 5months of the year there while living the rest of the year in Adelaide and traveling around to regional shows. The pavlova was delicious! We then got about 30mins in of a sing along show by singer-songwriter Barry Skipsey with accompanying photo slides of Central Australia before the kids turned into turnips and we called it a night.

Friday we headed out the West MacDonnell ranges for the day, and did 2 shorter walks. First we did the 2km Trephina Gorge walk, with a climb up the rockface first up then along the top of the cliffs with stunning views of the red cliffs all around - a really enjoyable and interesting walk. We took a break for lunch in the picnic area, then drove the gravel track out to D'Nhala gorge for another 2km walk, the closest we've been to 4WD thus far. The kids weren't so keen on another walk but we convinced them with the promise of jelly snakes, and carried them most of the way. A nice trail that I imagine would have been easier to enjoy earlier in the season in milder conditions and with a little more water to fill the waterholes.

We headed back to the caravan, and the kids and I took advantage of the pool once again while Ben went in town to grab some groceries and an inverter to run our Starlink internet when off-grid, to hopefully give us a bit more freedom around my work.

We'd booked to have dinner across the road at the brewery, a bit of an Alice institution. We had no trouble finishing off our pizzas before taking the short walk back home.Читать далее