Wigley's, no Wiglies, or is it Wigleys?

Jax keeping cool

After all of this time, we've finally been able to get out and about.  I had heard about a nearby waterhole that we hadn't yet been to, from a guy at work, so one evening after dinner we just decided to go see it for ourselves.  The kids got their swim things on and we loaded up and headed out.  To get there, we had to drive a few kilometers out of town and then several kilometers on a 4-wheel drive track.  Now I come to the title of the blog.  We looked up the waterhole online and it is part of the historic telegraph station reserve.  Online, it was called "Wigley's Waterhole", named after a historic figure.  On the drive to the waterhole, there were three signs; one said "Wiglies Waterhole" and the other two said "Wigleys Waterhole".  We had to take pictures of that!  Hilary and I got a kick out of that, but the kids aren't as easily entertained.  We didn't spend a whole lot of time there.  Just downstream of the waterhole, the Northern Territory has a water level monitoring system to warn Alice Springs of possible flooding, since Wigley's is a part of the Todd river, which is the main river that runs through Alice (see our previous blog).  Part of this monitoring system is a small weir.  The kids thought it was fun to play around on it.  The kids got to swim for 15-20 minutes.  By accident they found a huge invisible boulder underwater that dropped off into a deep spot - they absolutely loved it!  Hilary and I were amazed at how fearless they were!  Neither one of us would have ventured into those murky depths!
Hilary and the kids got to go to the "zoo" this week with a couple of families from church instead of school.  The Australian kids are still on their summer holiday, so are trying to get as much fun in as they can before school starts back up in the next couple of weeks.  The "zoo" was a camel farm about 90km south of town at Stewart's Well.  They had a dingo, an emu, a few kangaroos and some injured galahs (a common parrot-type bird here).  They got a camel ride and some ice cream and then drove back to town and went swimming at a friend's (from church) pool.  It has still been about 110 degrees here everyday until yesterday and today, which got up to about 97 both days.  This morning was rather cooler than normal - about 72 degrees at about 7:00.  Despite Hilary applying copious amounts of sunblock on the kids several times during the zoo and swimming, they still managed to get a bit of a sunburn.  We've been treating them several times a day with black tea, which is a remedy that Hilary read about several years ago.  It really works good to prevent pealing and promote healing.  I guess the tea has "tannins" in it, which work as a skin preserver.  We've used it with good success over the last several years.
We went out again today to Wigley's, but we hiked the gorge instead of hitting the waterhole.  It was pretty interesting, but since it was still 97 degrees, we didn't stay out for too long.  97 actually feels pretty good when you've been used to 110+.  I think we are finding that we deal with the heat better when we keep it warmer in the house as well.  We've been keeping the thermostat in the living area of the house set between 80-82.  Hilary and the kids freeze when it is lower, and I have found that I have aclimated pretty well.  After I drink a hot drink, I sweat like a pig - I just have to keep reminding myself that it is for the children!  We do have a separate AC system that controls the bedrooms, however.  We do keep that thermostat quite a bit cooler for sleeping.  :-)
Our car battery has been on the fritz lately.  Not too long after Christmas, we didn't drive the Disco for a few days, and the battery was dead when we went to start it.  Another downside to only having one vehicle is that you have to call someone to help you jump your car.  Some friends happened to be over the first time it happened, so they jumped us.  But as time has worn on, the battery seems to be lasting less and less time after a full charge.  We had to ask friends for a jump two more times since then.  I ordered a new battery last week (for about half the price for the exact same battery in town) and it will take about 5-7 days to get here.  So we have been starting the car every morning and making sure we drive it at least once during the day and it has been holding up ok.  The last time the battery died was the evening right before Hilary was going to take the kids to the "zoo".  I put some water in the battery, and it seems to be holding out ok.

I think that is about all for now!  We'll write again soon!

Trent

Beaux's camel ride

Heading down to Wigley's Waterhole

One of the waterholes at Wigley's

Jones' camel ride

Mama's and Jax's camel ride

It's obviously summer in Australia...

110 degrees is hot, but 116 degrees is hotter!  We've been in 110 before, but we've broken our heat record now.  Australia has been having some record high temperatures, and we are getting to experience them first hand.  I had to go outside at work for a half hour on Friday when it was 116 and it felt like my eyeballs were melting out of their sockets.  Good thing it was overcast too - I can't imagine what the sun feels like at 116!  Australia is welcoming us to our first summer here in the best way it knows how!

It seems like it has been hard to get on and blog lately.  Hilary and I were talking about it yesterday, wondering why that was.  I guess between getting ready for Christmas, having Christmas and the heat, we really haven't been doing a whole lot.  We mostly just stay in and survive.  We are getting a bit of cabin fever lately though, so hopefully we can get out soon.  I guess we have more things to write about than just our adventures, but it does seem to get the writing juices going when you sit down to blog.  BLOG - who came up with that word anyway?

Christmas was good.  Everyone here asks us if this was our first hot Christmas with smiles on their faces.  It is very different.  It never completely felt like it was the Christmas season.  We had glimpses that felt Christmassy, like when the had carols in the park, or when we decorated our (fake) tree.  Christmas eve and Christmas day were also pretty good.  Some friends of ours that are here from Texas said that it isn't that much different to them.  They got here in December when it was still 80 degrees in Texas.  It just makes us miss the Northwest all the more!

It was great to Skype with the family on our Christmas day.  The kids were a bit distracted, having already opened all of their gifts, so it was hard to keep them focused - but that isn't too much different than normal for Skype.  They get much more interested in watching themselves on the screen than talking!  We will have to do a better mix of phone calls and Skype in the future...

Hilary and I have been waiting until after Christmas to start planning our "big" trips that we want to take while we are here.  Price is a big factor, but I don't think we are going to get away with anything cheap no matter what we do.  We aren't quite sure what we are doing yet, so we'll keep you posted on that.  We'd obviously like to see some places we probably won't get the chance to see again.  We want to do a bit of camping, and it would be great to see some friends and family sprinkled in there as well!  Decisions decisions!

Yesterday I did a 34km bike ride with some men from our church.  We left at a little after 6am to try to beat the heat.  It was a 17km ride one-way, then we had breakfast and rode back on the same trail.  One of the men from church who couldn't do the ride due to a bad knee, volunteered to do breakfast for everyone and met us at the turn-around point with food and water.  We had quiche, bananas, some kind of bread pudding with blueberries on top, and some trail mix.  The ride back was tough, as it was about 95 degrees already at 8am!  I made it back without issue, and I actually beat my time on the first leg by 10 minutes!  I don't attribute that to the great shape I am in, just the strong desire to be done and find some shade!  I took a nap after I got home, but that was due to having to go into work early a couple of days last week - it had nothing to do with the fact that it has been YEARS since I rode 21 miles on my bike!  We'll see how sore I am tomorrow, but right now I am doing good.

It rained for about 15 minutes today during dinner.  The kids love it when it rains here, but unfortunately they had missed all of the action by the time the were through eating.  They still went out and splashed in the puddles for a bit before bath time though.  Unlike Idaho where the temperature drops 15-20 degrees when a thunderstorm rolls through, our temperature in Alice dropped from about 106 to 102.  It is still 90 degrees right now as I am writing at 10pm.  By the way, did I ever mention how hot it is here?  Oh, ok - I guess I'll move on...  :-)

We don't have many pictures stored up, but I'll post some that we do have.  Google appears to be acting up and won't let me post any pictures right now anyhow, but I will keep trying, so come check again for some new pics.  Take care and we'll talk to you again soon!

Trent

Christmas morning

Legos Christmas morning

Laser tag!

More laser tag

Strategizing

A bit warm...

New rope ladder (for future fort)

New swing (for future fort)