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

The Countdown is ON!

12 more days and my daughter will be arriving in Australia. Actually she arrives in Melbourne in 11 days, but she won't get into Alice Springs until the following morning. I'm not sure who is more excited - she is thrilled to be coming to Australia for the first time and I have missed her so much, saw her last Christmas. She arrives on my birthday so I'm having some friends over as well to help celebrate it all. I couldn't ask for a better birthday gift!

After the birthday celebrations we'll spend a few days checking out Alice Springs and surrounding area. I'll take her to the desert park, Standley Chasm, and we're going for a camel ride in the foothills of the McDonnell Range at sunset. Then we'll pack up the Rav 4 and head south, stopping at King's Canyon and Uluru before crossing into South Australia and camping overnight at Coober Pedy, hoping for a space in the underground campground to escape the heat. Then we're off to Adelaide, with a possible stop along the way to check out the beach. We'll spend Christmas Day/night at a hotel before taking off for Kangaroo Island to check out their gorgeous beaches. From there we'll be taking the Great Ocean Road towards Melbourne, stopping to do some hiking, cave exploring, and enjoying the beach. She leaves Australia again on New Year's Day and I'll point my car north again and head back to Alice Springs, returning to work on the 4th...

Yup, Christmas is going to be a blast with my girl. Our last travel Christmas was not at all what we planned and ran into snow again and again, and had to forgo camping altogether, particularly when we arrived at the Grand Canyon and it was -27C and 3 feet of snow...I have promised her absolutely no snow this time around. I told her if we run into snow in the desert, I'll be leaving with her!

11 more days!

Sunset at Simpson Gap

 For some reason, Blogger does not provide a function for rotating photos. I had them rotated before I uploaded but it doesn't recognize that. 

Was feeling a little caged in today after spending all weekend at home, playing Wii games and watching movies, so I pointed my car west and headed out to Simpson Gap. I haven't been there since April when I first arrived in Australia, and that was rather early in the morning, so I wanted to see what had changed and how things looked at sunset. I had hoped to spot some wallabies as they come out at dusk, however while I was seeking solitude at the gap, a big group of twentysomethings arrived making lots of noise, hooting against the cliffs for an echo, so that was the end of that. I have to say though, I never tire of the red rock against the brilliant blue sky here in Australia.

That Dundee...aka that little bastard

     Kittens - they can be fun, and often are. Then they are little bastards. Dundee is very cute and loveable but when he gets wound up, look out. He will race through the apartment from one end to the other, leaping over whatever is in the way. He'll fly up the screen door cage to the top and then drop down and fly back through the apartment. And sometimes when he's particularly wound up, he will try to climb up and over the privacy screen I have in my bedroom, knocking it over and smashing parts of it off. Then there are the times when I let him play in the courtyard garden. For the most part, he has settled down a fair bit out there, and can prowl around for hours, usually while I'm out there with him either hanging out clothes, sitting with my friends having a drink, or sometimes I take my laptop out there and write or chat with friends. He often leaps up the fencing after lizards or bugs, and actually caught a lizard some weeks back. The birds will come in and taunt him, chirping and squawking at him, dive bombing and flying away. For the most part, he is pretty good.
    And then there was today. I was about to hang out clothes, and he was playing in the courtyard for a bit while I cooked breakfast, and did the laundry. Except when I went out to hang out the clothes, he was gone. I figured he might have just climbed up over the fence and was in the driveway next door or the carpark where my car is. No, not this cat. He was on the roof of my building. Dumbass. He was prowling back and forth along the building, on the neighbor's roof, and on the pergola of my courtyard and the neighbor's courtyard. I got out the rather ridiculously heavy iron ladder the landlady left here and leaned it up against the fence to see where he was so I could grab him.

     Then of course the phone rang, it was the computer guy coming to pick up my fried computer. Great. Come on over and if you can't find me, I'll be on the roof chasing my damn cat. When he arrived I was on the ladder, yelling at that little bastard to come down. He of course saw it as a game. So I got the computer for the guy and went back to coaxing him. He finally walked within reach of me overhead while I stood on the cooler under the pergola and grabbed him by the legs. He thought he was going to get away again, but I had a death grip on him. I pulled him down and chucked him in the door. Then it started to rain, so back into the house I went with the laundry basket of clothes and just as I was coming in, didn't that little bastard run back out into the courtyard. I had to chase him around and around and around. Little fucker. I was steaming mad by that point and managed to catch him again by the legs and chucked him into the bathroom this time. I was so mad I didn't want him anywhere near me.

     After about 20 minutes in the bathroom, I let him out again where he sauntered up to me as innocent as you please, looking for attention. Reminds me of Stormy. He would be a little bastard and when he came out of his time out he would act the same way. Probably why I love the little guys in spite of their naughtiness. Too damn cute.