Fossicking with the Folks

Windmill near the Mud Tank

This one has been a long time coming - it has been over a month since my parents first arrived for a visit, and we are just now getting around to blogging!  We had lots of fun when Mom and Dad were here, and the grand kids were very sad to see them go.  We showed them around the area and even did a whole bunch of stuff that we hadn't done before, like Standley Chasm and Tom Hill.

Of course, we had to take them to feed the wallabies - that is a must do when in the Outback.  It is always fun to see those little fellas and their joeys, give'm some dietary pellets and send them off with a pat on the head.  We were also surprised this time to see a young kangaroo come down the hill and get a drink with the wallabies.  We got a picture to show the size difference.  The kangaroo is actually a very small one - probably one of the smallest we've seen here, but it shows the size difference quite well.  Earlier in the day we did a visit to the memorial on Anzac Hill.  We had never been up there before.  It gives a great view of all of Alice and also has a veteran's memorial.

The Reptile Center was fun.  Mom and Dad got to see several of the most dangerous snakes in the world, which live right here in Central Australia, although we've still never seen any in the wild.  They got to pet a Goanna, and hold a Bearded Dragon, Blue Tongued Lizard, and an Olive Python - all of the lizards live around here as well.  I think the Olive Python is more of a Darwin (jungle) kind of snake and doesn't live in the dryer regions.

We walked around at the Desert Park and went to their bird show.  I hadn't been to the show before (Hilary and the kids had), but it was a very well-done show.  It is totally outdoors.  They have birds come flying in and out as the speaker just keeps a continuous dialog.  It is pretty well choreographed.  We did have some uninvited visitors though - a crow attacked the barn owl, who wouldn't come back out after.  And we had several wild kites come sit in the show's perch right in front of the crowd.  They stayed there for several minutes until the kite that was doing the show chased them off.  It was all very exciting!  I think we did Flynn's grave, Simpson's Gap and Standley Chasm all that day as well.  I can't keep the days straight anymore - not sure when we did what we did.  I know we had one or two days that we just hung around the house and played games, etc.

We hadn't yet been to Gemtree, a local "fossicking" area, so we decided to head out that direction.  On the way, we stopped at the Tropic of Capricorn - just so we could say we've been there.  Fossicking is kind of like prospecting - it means non-commercial digging/looking for gems and/or precious metals.  At Gemtree, which is a station (ranch)/campground, we bought a couple of gallons of dirt - yes you read correctly - DIRT.  They give you a large bucket of water and a couple of sieves and show you how to find gems.  The kids all found garnets (low-quality rubies) that were suitable for making jewelry.  We then drove to the "mud tank" where we did some digging for zircons.  Zircons are the naturally-occurring version of the man-made zirconium.  We were ill-equipped for digging in the mud tank, so didn't find anything there.  But we did have fun.  We brought the Coleman stove/grill and had hot dogs for lunch out in the mud tank.  Fossicking can be strangely addictive.  Every place we go now, we always keep one eye on the ground in the hopes of finding something nice!

On Friday night, we stayed up late to go to a Didgeridoo show, but when we got to the studio, the man was waiting for us and told us he couldn't get his other musicians together so the show was cancelled.  He said we were the only ones he didn't have a phone number for, so he just had to wait for us to show.  Luckily, Alice is small, so after a short demonstration and a free CD, he gave us our money back (we had pre-booked) and we were home in five minutes.  We never ended up seeing a show...

We've written about Tom Hill on our blog several times before; the first time we went up for fun after a coworker told me about it.  The second time we went up there to get firewood and I believe the third time was in our previous blog when we were practicing with our new winch.  In all three of those visits, the furthest we went was to the top of the hill and back.  I had been told that the track wanders from the west side of town (where we usually start from), makes a big loop, and then comes back to the north end of town.  We thought we'd give it a go with Mom and Dad, just so the could say they did some 4 wheel driving in the Australia Outback, and maybe see some cool sites.  Well, Tom Hill ended up taking several hours and was the MOST treacherous 4 wheel driving any of us had ever done!  There were several areas we had to scout prior to attempting them!  We never got stuck (or damaged) and the disco got us through everything with ease, but there were definitely some stressful moments.  Twice I found myself alone in the disco as all my passengers emptied out, preferring to get out and walk and watch from a safe distance (except Jax was brave and wanted to ride with Papa on the second, most treacherous rock descent).  All in all, it took much longer than anticipated, but we all had fun.  We did get some good pictures and videos!  Afterwards, we washed Tom Hill down with some dinner at the Juicy Rump, a local restaurant.

I think that is a good quick summary of all of the stuff we did with Mom and Dad, most likely in the wrong order!  We've more to write, but that will have to be on another day!  This would be so much easier if we just kept up!  :-)

Until later,

Trent

Atop Anzac Hill

Feeding the wallabies

Jones

Beaux

Jax 

Young kangaroo on left, adult wallaby on right

Same kangaroo

Galah

The folks even got to see a perentie lizard (goanna) in the wild - this is only the fourth one we've seen since moving here! He was a big one!

Walking to Wigley's water hole

Jones at Wigley's

Jax at Wigley's

Beaux at Wigley's

Trent at Wigley's

Wigley's (somewhat dried up) water hole

Spinifex pigeon

Barn owl at the bird show

Wild kite stopping in to have a look at the bird show

Two wild kites

Simpson's Gap

Climbing at Simpson's Gap

Simpson's Gap

Duck at Simpson's Gap

Lounging at Simpson's Gap

Standley Chasm

Jones at the Chasm

Jax at the Chasm

Beaux at the Chasm

Boys at the waterline

Peeking in the Chasm

Tropic of Capricorn

Tropic of Capricorn

Tropic of Capricorn

Looking for garnets at Gemtree

Mud Tank zircon field

Windmill near Mud Tank

Beaux at Mud Tank

Jax at Mud Tank

Jax throwing his boomerang

Jones throwing his boomerang

Camel farm - we never saw any people - only camels!

Tom Hill

Tom Hill

Riding alone - this is a lot steeper than it looks!

Checking out the footage

Mom and Dad in front of the Alice sign north of town