GLEN HELEN GORGE

 
 
 

A quick trip of about 1 ½ hours saw us get to Glen Helen Gorge – we were the first of the Pradopoint group to arrive, so we set up our caravan and worked out which gorges we were going to visit.

First, we went to Big Ellery Creek Hole where we found a water hole. We wanted to go in for a swim, but it was a bit cold and a bit dirty.

We met some of the other Prado people there and they told us to go and look at a place called ‘Standley Chasm’. We climbed over big boulders and under trees. It was hard work and very steep. Coming down was much harder than going up! I really liked walking through the Chasm because there were rocks around me on each side.

We then went to the Ochre pits – Lauren was asleep, so Dad and I ran down to the pit and took a photo. They use Ochre to make face paint. The rocks were very colourful and interesting.

Lauren woke up and we travelled to Ormiston Gorge. It had a water hole, but we didn’t see any animals around. We climbed up a few rocks (James is a mountain goat!) and then got in the car to go back home.

We had dinner at the lodge – they couldn’t find our booking at first, so we had to watch everyone else eat until they could see that there was still enough food for the four of us.

Joke of the Day: Why does a skeleton play a piano at church?

WEST MACDONNELL RANGES

 
 

Today we travelled to a great caravan park- it had a huge jumping pillow and a small one next to it. You can hire bikes and buggies to move around the park and each night they have some entertainment. (Star gazing through telescopes, didgeridoo playing, 4wd information talks etc)

While Mum did washing and Dad fixed the van and car ready for the next few days, we spent our time jumping on the pillows and playing on the equipment.

At night we went to Desert Park on a Nocturnal visit. We got there at 7 p.m. and were given head lamps to wear. The light was red so that it doesn’t scare the animals. I liked seeing the Bilbies, Echidnas, Mala and other animals. To enter the area we had to carefully walk though an electric fence. Our Guide, Pamela, was very interesting and knew a lot of information about the animals, what they ate and how they lived. We saw lots of their burrows and nests and saw them eating plants during the tour. In the middle of the enclosure was a water hole where we found a lot of the animals as they come there to drink at night.

There was a huge full moon and was saw satellites going across the sky.

After the tour we went for a treat to McDonalds for a sundae, then back home for a sleep before we travel to Glen Helen Gorge tomorrow.

ROSS RIVER

 
 
 
 

DAY 1:
On the way to Ross River we went via the Devil’s Marbles. We climbed up really high and Lauren was a bit scared! They are so huge and quite smooth. There are lots of them to see – a few hundred!

Our next stop was Ti Tree where we played in the park – it had a very high slide which was a bit scary, but we had a go anyway!

We finally made it to Ross River where we set up our caravan next to some of the other Pradopoint people and had a steak for dinner. We haven’t played with other children in three weeks – there are none to be seen in the caravan parks – only recycled teenagers, so we are looking forward to meeting other children soon!


DAY 2:
Today a lot of people arrived in the cars towing trailers. There is only one other caravan here. The rest of the people have camper trailers or just sleep in swags on the ground! Finally, some children to play with – about 30 all up. Some of the children we are playing with are named Brittany, Jessica, Samantha, Hannah and Hayley – definitely more girls than boys here. We help set up the red, white and blue decorations as we are helping the two American men celebrate the 4th July. They even had a hat cake and played the American Anthem. We had a Sausage sizzle and Hamburgers for dinner plus some fizzy which was donated by the sponsors of the event. Some of the people got some camp fires going – the biggest one had huge logs so they poured diesel over the logs to get it going!


DAY 3:
We set off early with a long day of 4wd ahead. As there are 30 Prado cars, we split into 3 groups to travel. We were in group C and our leader was Sean. We were the second car in line. We tuned our UHF radio to channel 18 and off we sent. Sean took us to some interesting sites – Artunga Historical Reserve which was Central Australia’s first town – it started from the gold rush. It has many old houses made of stone and two mines.

After a few tourist sites we started into Ruby Gap. It was pretty rough driving and no toilets to be seen (nothing like squatting in the dirt). The driving was great because we went over big rocks and through sand and dry river beds. There are 43 speed humps over the kilometres we travelled so we had to keep the speed down.

Once we got to Ruby Gap we started looking for ‘rubies’ which are really only garnets. Two fossickers came to Ruby Gap a long time ago and thought they had struck it rich. They travelled back to Alice Springs to show everyone their riches but were so disappointed that one of them even killed themselves!

We collected lots of garnets and then went for a walk though the gap. It was beautiful!

We returned home and had some toasted sandwiches for dinner and then sat around the fire until about 9:30. We toasted marshmallows and listened to stories that our new friends told. Mum says we can buy some biscuits and chocolate so we can make S’mores for the next campfire!

Tennant Creek

 
 
 

DAY 1:
We left early to start our journey to Tennant Creek but unfortunately we broke down and NRMA had to come and help us get our car better. He towed us to a Toyota dealer where we got an ice cream while Dad and Brian the tow truck man talked to the Toyota dealer to see what was wrong with the car. They thought it would take a week to fix it, so we would be missing out on Pradopoint. It turns out that it was only a petrol problem and after we filled up we were on our way. I was a bit scared being stuck out in the middle of the outback, but we played eye spy and I felt better.

We arrived at our caravan park and ordered pizza which was delivered to the caravan park! At night, because it was the 1st July, Tennant Creek have their Fire Cracker night. We sat outside and watched the beautiful fireworks - I especially liked the green, purple and red ones. These were the biggest fireworks I have seen except for on TV.

DAY2:
This morning we went and bought a new Gerri can to help us store fuel in case we run out again. There are a lot of Aboriginal people here – they didn’t have many clothes and most did not wear shoes. We saw young children pushing babies in prams and lots of dogs with them.

After our quick trip to get the Gerri can, we went to the Battery Hill Mine where we met our guide – Ray. We got to touch every mining vehicle. It was so cool. We got to wear ear muffs and a hard hat so that if a wall fell in we would be O.K. We were able to carry torches too. The best thing I liked in the mine was touching all the machinery – especially when Ray turned it on.

When we left the mine, we panned for gold but didn’t get anything. Ray told us where to find the gold and we started noodling and found heaps! (Not the noodle that you eat!) We were given specimen bottles to store them in.

After coming home and grabbing a quick lunch we swam in the pool – extremely cold. We had fun and at least we can say we went swimming in a pool in July!

Mount Isa

 
 
 

Answer to the joke of the day is:
A mouse on vacation ( sorry it took so long - esp for Uncle Craig) we have been off line for a while.

Today we went to the Underground Hospital. It was build in case the Japanese bombed Mount Isa because of the mines. Inside the hospital we saw bed pans for people to go to the toilet in, beds for new born babies, beds with a straw mattress, old glass bottles, a bed for people who had injured their backs (it could rotate). We even saw some children’s play toys which were tiny soldiers made from wood which the children would bowl over with a marble.

The passage way was narrow to walk through and was forked into two passages – one lot of beds for men and the other beds for women.

Outside the hospital, we saw lots of different types of plants that the Aboriginal people use for medicine and eating.

After that we went to a park which had a man-made lake in the middle of it. We saw lots of different animals – eagles, kookaburras and peacocks. We had some lunch there and also played with the vortex and the football. We really enjoyed watching the eagles swoop and soar in the air around their nest.

Winton - the town, not house

 
 
 

For the two nights we stayed at Winton we watched an Australian Bush Poet called Melanie Hall (This is the area where Banjo Paterson wrote Waltzing Matilda). On the second night she asked Lauren and I to do a play which needed 4 children. No one else volunteered, so she dragged up Mum and Dad to help. I was the Shearer, Lauren was the red back spider, Mum was the Speeler and Dad was the Sheila. Mel dressed Dad up in a wig, a skirt and a shawl.

As Mel recited the poem, we had to act it out. The story was about a drunk shearer who fell asleep and the Sheila and Speeler were going to take his money. As they were about to steal his money, the red back spider (Lauren) went up behind the Sheila (Dad) and bit him on the bottom! We had lots of laughs and a great time.

The owners off the van park also provide a 3 course dinner each night and a musician before the poet.

Other things we saw in Winton were a green tree frog that lived in our power box – we named him Fred!

Lark Quarry was interesting and unique because you could stand where dinosaurs had walked millions of years ago. It is the only display in the world that shows a dinosaur stampede where the Aussie T-Rex chased a group of smaller dinosaurs for his dinner.

Other bizarre things we saw were the musical fence and Arno’s wall where a man has cemented lots of recycled junk into his wall – eg sewing machine, car wheels, engines and motorbikes.

Everyday now, I am going to put a Joke of the Day up on the Blog and see if you know the answer (put a comment on the blog). I’ll give the answer the next day if nobody gets it.

Today’s Joke of the Day – What’s grey, has big ears and a trunk ?

The Stockman's Hall of Fame

 
 

So far on this holiday we have been looking at everything BIG! Today we went to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame and saw everything OLD! We saw things to do with horses: saddles, stirrups, whips, boots, spurs, horse shoes and their bridles.

We played with interactive maps which showed where the early explorers went throughout Australia.

We saw how the settlers lived in their wooden homes with no mattresses’ on their beds, a dusty cooking area, rickety chairs and benches to sit on. It was a very difficult life for them and makes me realised how blessed I am.

Communication was also different – old telephones and Morse code.

We watched movies about the history of Stockman, droving, ways of transporting goods (road trains, horse, camels). The people also had to deal with the difficulties of drought, locusts, mice, floods, poor roads and doctors that were far away.

The Hall of Fame was worthwhile as it showed me what life use to be like in Australia.