This is just a quickie to tell you all that
we arrived into the Northern Territory and it proceeded to rain for the next
4-5 days, so much for going North to follow the weather!! Thankfully we hadn’t ventured off the beaten
track, we were instead in G’day mate Caravan Park 4 km out of the centre of
Alice Springs. So although it got pretty
wet and muddy it didn’t impact on us too much.
As some of you will already know Alice Springs sits on the River Todd (which
is usually dry) but with all the rain it actually flowed (for the first time in
about 3 years I think) so we could hardly
begrudge them it. However it made our trip into town a little
interesting as we tried to wade through the floodways, the trip was called
short due to saturated shoes and clothes.
We spent the first few day consequently
confined to the park and had lots of time to think about our next plans,
everyone we spoke to said that there was so much to see and do in Alice, and
how much of a fabulous place it was that we decided to put out some feelers in
regards to work. The busy season
(tourist-wise) starts after Easter so we had a look what was about and were
pretty excited when we found out that the Hilton were looking for cleaners or
Room attendants as they are now apparently called!!. However I received my
thanks but no thanks email the other day along with the one from Woolworths for
service cashier assistant!!
Lyndi however has bagged herself a job at
the caravan park we are staying in working at reception, with a little bit of
cleaning at the weekends!! So she is super happy as that means she doesn’t have
to cycle 4 kms into town every day!! I have a job in the Emergency Department
here in Alice which starts on the 19th May, so I have 2 weeks to
cram some serious learning in about adult conditions, as it is a mixed
ED!!! I am really excited about the
challenge, if not a little scared!! So
as it stands at the minute I am signed up for 6 months, so we will be here till
the beginning of November. So if any of
you are interested Tiger airlines flies from Melbourne and does some good deals
if booked early!!!! Not sure about Sydney & Brisbane, but would love to see
anyone who fancies a trip away!!!!
Consequently we have an address, so if
anyone wants to send us anything you will be able to. Its G’day
Mate Tourist Park, PO Box 8421, Alice Springs, NT 0871.
We have had plenty of time to have a good
look around town in the meantime wandering around some of the galleries and
shops. The 4 km into town is via some
great cycle paths, the only down side is that there is a lot of broken glass
about and I have had to fix one puncture for Lyndi already. We went out to the Old Telegraph station and
did a couple of walks and cycles out there.
It was one of 11 staffed repeater stations on the Overland Telegraph
Line. Which consisted of a single strand
of iron wire on 36,000 timber poles, stretching 3000 kms across Australia from
Adelaide to Port Darwin. From here a
submarine cable beneath the sea to Singapore connected Australia to the rest of
the world. News from Britain which prior
to 1872 had taken 3 months to reach Australia by sea, now arrived within a few
hours. We saw this incredible centipede
looking thing too!!
We went to the National Transport Museum
(the main reason being was that it was free as part of heritage week!!) There were lots of big trucks (road trains),
but personally the most interesting part was the history and photos of the
cameleers that came over from Afghanistan/Pakistan/India to help guide the
explorers around the centre. They also
had an old carriage from “The Ghan” (the train that goes from Adelaide straight
through the centre, up to Darwin) along with a heap of old posters.
We even made it into the local paper the The
Centralian Advocate, when we were asked what we would be doing for Anzac Day!!!
We will leave it there for now or else I
will get distracted and this post will take another week!!
