Another Week Down Under

Former grog running car

wild roses in bloom now...sweet

Yeah, they catch the grog runners now and again. They are almost always driving a Holden car like this one here. This one is parked in Yuendumu, a bush community about 3 hours drive northwest of Alice Springs. The weather is pretty warm these days, but thankfully no bushfires lately (knock on wood). The road was on the way to Papunya. The fires had gone through some time ago, so things are getting green again, although the trees won't be back just yet. The wildflowers are starting to come out though, like these wild roses just down the street from me. Things seem to flower all year long here in central Australia. And the grasshoppers know it. Where there are flowers, there are bugs to eat. This guy jumped on my work car (Toyota Land Cruiser aka Troopie) while I was driving back from one of the town camps. He hitched a ride for a few minutes and then decided I was either going too fast or too slow and hopped right off again.

bush road post bushfire

bloody big grasshopper hitched a ride

sandstorm coming into Alice

     While the bushfires have settled, we now have sandstorms like the one in the photo. This one wasn't too bad, and didn't last long but looks pretty intimidating as it approached Alice Springs. The riverbed is still dry, so there aren't really crocodiles in the Todd River like these drinks might imply. We don't have crocodiles in central Australia....no real water sources other than a few waterholes. The drinks were quite tasty though if you can handle the sweetness of liqueurs. My friends F. and K. plowed through enough of them after K. won on the pokies (VLT's). The only bummer this week was my flat tire. I had picked up an Allan key in my tire at some point, and it was in there awhile I think because I had a slow leak and pumped my tire up once with my air compressor but then after I parked at my friend F.'s house, the key must have been on the bottom and all the air leaked out. So I had to change it out and take it into Bridgestone to have it repaired. Can't have a bum tire when I'm going on a road trip next week!
     So that's the week...next week will be full of excitement as my daughter lands in Alice on Monday. She is flying as I write this, jetting her way over the Pacific Ocean for the first time ever. She lands tomorrow in Melbourne, and overnights at the airport hotel before catching a flight to Alice in the morning. I'm so excited I could scream. I think I will scream. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Croc Attack on the Todd River

flat tire...booo