Adventuresome Bunch

Saturday we headed out to Ruby Gap with some friends from work.  "Gaps" around here are usually places where a seasonal river runs between the mountains or in a canyon.  Ruby Gap got its name for being the first "ruby rush" site in the Red Centre when a prospector thought he found rubies in the sands of the Hale River.  The prospectors later found that they weren't real rubies, but garnets.  Thus ended the ruby rush, but gold was soon discovered approximately 40km away in Arltunga. 

The kids were excited all week to get out and do some climbing at Ruby Gap.  We packed up our lunch and dinner and a huge jug of water and headed out at a quarter to eight in the morning to meet up with friends from work at a nearby park and head out.  Our friends were all going camping overnight, but since we haven't gotten our camping gear yet, we decided to make a day trip out of it.  We had four 4x4 SUVs and a two-wheel drive "Ute" (which is what they call pickups here) in our caravan.  The road out to Ruby Gap is paved for approximately 80km, some of which is a single lane of bitumen with gravel along both sides so that when oncoming traffic is approaching, you can drive half on the pavement and half off!  After 80km, it turns to wash-boardy gravel for another 20km until Arltunga.  Arltunga is a historic area, so we stopped and looked at an old gaol (jail) and mining equipment.  After Arltunga, there is a sign that says "4x4 required beyond this point", and the road becomes a VERY rugged single-lane track with wash-outs, big rocks and steep grades.

After about 1 hour of driving (only 12km out of Arltunga!), we hit a large "dip".  Our Land Rover has "air springs" that are basically glorified balloons that hold the rear of rig up off the axle.  Well, as you have likely guessed by now, when we hit the dip we heard a very loud "pop", kinda like the sound of a heavy-duty balloon popping.  Hmm... I wonder what that could be...  I was hoping it was a tire (because we did have a spare), but alas, it was the left rear air shock!  So now we are sitting directly on the axle out in the middle of the bush, and the Land Rover has a self-leveling system, so the right side went down as low as it could to try to match the blown shock.  VERY luckily, nothing was rubbing so we were able to drive out.  It was very slow going, and we were jostled to death until we got back to the pavement!

The guy we bought the LR from had installed the front portion of a lift kit and so had given us actual springs for the rear, but said he preferred the air springs so left them in.  He also gave us an old air spring that had a leak, so when we got back home, I replaced the blown air spring with the old one - it only took about 20 minutes (don't I wish we would have brought the old air spring with us!).  The air system is able to keep up with the leak in the old spring easily while driving, but after the LR sits for an hour or so it is back down to the axle again.  I've ordered a couple of inexpensive parts for installing the actual springs, so I will remove both air springs once we get those parts.  I have since read online that serious off-roaders never keep the air springs, but replace them with real springs for obvious reasons.  Sometimes that is just how you learn!  We did purposefully go with several other people because this was the first time going 4x4'n with the LR, so glad we did that!  They were very helpful (thanks Roger!)

So it was an adventure for the books, but God kept us safe.  The kids were very disappointed, and pretty much had to just sit in the LR the whole day.  We did stop once on the way back and did a bit of treasure hunting in one of the river beds we had to drive through.  We plan to go again once our suspension is up to snuff so we can finally conquer Ruby Gap (oh yea, and maybe do some hiking and climbing too)!  :-)

Trent

Local Wildlife

Here are some pictures of the local animals that we have seen so far.  God is amazing in His variety of creatures on this Earth!


Australian Ringneck Parrot on Our Fence

Lizard on the House

Galah Cockatoo on Power Line Over Driveway

Crested Pigeon in our Front Yard

Black-footed Wallaby with Joey Peeking Out

Picture Catch-up

Simpson's Gap with Pools

Rocky Crags on Beautiful Australian Mountains

Kids Running in Dry Riverbed to River Gum Tree

Beaux and Jones Rock Jumping

Kings and Queen of the Rock (Simpson's Gap)

Gecko in the Bedroom

Last night we had our first gecko in the house!  It happened to be in Beaux's bedroom and looked orange when we first saw it, but quickly changed to a muted gray/brown mottle to escape on the carpet...fruitlessly, of course when we have a veteran lizard catcher in our midst!!  Trent caught it in the air when it jumped off the bedside table.  We put it in a container for a few minutes and had a good look before letting it go outside near our porch light to feast!  It had splayed "fingers" with little round grippys and the start of a new tail, so must have recently had another dangerous run-in.  We have heard that if you let them live inside, they can make a bit of a mess down the walls and on the furniture.  Don't mind them outside though! 
Saturday we tried some of the local lawn sales, but have to say we were not impressed.  Each house had only a few items for sale, nothing was priced, and the hours were very strange!  We didn't even get to a couple of the sales in the paper because they were only open from 7:30-9:30 am.  Crazy!
Then it was pool time in the afternoon, so spent a few hours at the Aquatic Centre in town.  This time the kids got to try the waterslides, which was very fun, but they shut them down after only 20 minutes or so due to staffing issues.  Sigh.  We still had fun, but they wished and wished to waterslide.
Sunday was church at Alice Springs Baptist Church, which was very nice again and we got to talk to lots of people.  They have a coffee/tea time after church in the Hall, and they are quite friendly and make us feel at home.  We even found a couple that was from Idaho/Ohio!  The kids went to Sunday School (which is during 'Big Church') for the first time, and I think they had a good time.  The boys went with Beaux, but we found out afterward that they have a class for their age so next time they'll try that one.  One of the ladies was telling me that at Christmas, you can buy artificial lit trees from Kmart or Target, and that people decorate with snowmen and winter-type decor, even though it is the middle of hot, hot summer!  I am glad they sell trees of some kind, because we didn't bring one.  Can hardly imagine blow-up snowglobes on lawns when it is 115 degrees outside, though!
Then in the afternoon there was a Newcomers Welcome at a very nice home, for all the new employees and their families.  They had a patch of grass (real grass!) for all the kids to play on so it was fun to see our kids jump right in and play games and run around with about 20 other kids for a while.  We talked to lots of people who are all in similar situations to ourselves, living on bare bones for a while waiting for the surface shipment of household goods to arrive.  It was interesting to see what other people have been doing with their time so far...mostly day trips or weekend trips to the interesting sites in the area.  I guess there are accomodations in hotels, dorm style housing, caravan (trailers) or tent camping at many of the popular tourist sites, so people are able to stay overnight at some of these places even before household goods arrive if they are willing to pay to stay in the hotel or dorm style.  We did hear about a few waterholes to hike to and swim in, so we may try that soon.
Next Saturday we will be heading to Ruby Gap on an adventure, 4-wheel driving and hiking around a bit with some of Trent's friends from work.  We will have to pack water and food with us as it is quite a drive, so will be an all day trek!  We missed not doing any "Australia" outings this weekend, so looking forward to next!
Have I already mentioned that in traffic, "Give Way" signs mean yield?  Also, the speed limit signs are white with the number of speed limit with a red circle around it.  It looks very much like our highway number signs in the US.  "Conserve" is jam, and Black Current and Plum are very popular in flavor.  "Capsicum" is red pepper.  "The tap" is the faucet or spigot.  We are finding that Australian foods are much lower in salt than our American tongues are used to, so we have to salt everything here! 
Love to all,
Hilary

More like home

Yesterday marked an important day in the settling process - we received our first delivery of household goods!  Most of what we got was kitchen stuff, computer stuff and linens.  This is one of the things we wish we would have done differently in hindsight.  We were under the impression that we had to give our "welcome kit" back as soon as we received our first shipment of household goods; however, we don't really have a deadline for that, except that the in town services folks would like their stuff back soon after we receive our final shipment.  This being the case, we would probably have packed kids toys, bikes and school stuff for the first shipment.  But alas! We can't change it now!  No, but seriously folks, we'll be just fine.  The boxes and packing paper have actually doubled as play things for the kids the last couple of days.  The extra bedroom is now the "Paper Room"...I don't believe we need to expound on that subject...you can visualize!


Flynn's Grave - Early explorer to the Red Centre
(central Australia). Largly responsible for the Lutheran
presence in Alice.

Saturday we went to a company picnic and met some folks we hadn't met.  Some people were camping overnight, but we just went for the evening.  We brought our dinner and they had a bouncy castle for the kids.  There were also a few swings and a sand volleyball pit or two.  When we first pulled up, the kids were a bit shell shocked because the bouncy castle wasn't up yet and there were very few non-adult types running around... they got over it as soon as the castle went up.  One of the air tubes for filling the BC popped open shortly after all of the kids got in, and it collapsed on them.  All of the grown-ups were brought back to reality with a mass amount of children screaming!  I ran over and tied off the tube that blew and the castle came up again.  Most of the kids were just asking what happened and thought it was great!
We visited Alice Springs Baptist Church on Sunday and everyone seemed to like it pretty well.  We met some really nice people and the kids made some friends, so are very excited to go back next week.  They will try the Junior Church next Sunday, will all be in the same class.  The preacher is actually an American from Seattle who just came two weeks ago!!  We were kinda looking forward to hearing an Australian speaker every Sunday...ha, ha!  The main homeschool contact that we corresponded with before moving actually attends the church as well, so we accidentally met her and talked with her and her husband for some time (not much about homeshooling though!).


McDonnell Ranges (similar view from our house)

We went hiking again at the telegraph station on a different trail that led to an old cemetary.  The kids are actually pretty interested in old graves and how old the people were etc.  We saw quite a few more kangaroos, and they were very close up.  One of them actually got up and hopped between us - I was trying to fit a camera lens and Hilary and the kids walked ahead a little and the roo just decided we were too close and got up and hopped across the trail between us.  The kids are loath to leave the house but always have great fun and actually love hiking and especially climbing on rocks.

Simpsons Gap

This evening we walked down our street (Memorial Ave) to the cemetary and looked at quite a few graves there.  Lots of very old graves and young people.  They have it all divided by church, a couple areas were Church of England, one area was Lutheran and the area that had only a couple of graves was, you guessed it, non-denominational.  We did see the grave of "the most" famous Aboriginal artist.  His name is very long and I can't remember it.  We'll try to get a picture.  We did find that there are "goat heads" here very similar but different from Idaho goat heads.  Our shoes were covered in them!
Well, that is about all I have for now.  Sunglasses are called "Sunnies" here.  Chickens are "Chook".  Hilary and the kids have checked out some kids books from the library, and it is funny how many of them use specific spider species like "Red Back" or "Huntsman" in the stories.  In the US, it seems like spiders are generic.  Tic Tac Toe is "Naughts and Crosses".  Hilary bought "fine polenta" to make corn bread last night.  Graham crackers are "digestive biscuits".  "No worries" means you're welcome/goodbye (usually).

Trent

A few more pics

Beaux and Hilary on flight to Sydney



Trent and Jones on flight to Sydney

Jax on flight to Sydney

Our first Kangaroo sighting

Posting Comments

I know some of you were having trouble posting comments.  I changed the settings so that you don't have to have a Google account to post.  Sorry for that!  This blogging stuff is new to us and that setting slipped through!

Trent