Day 83 - YaWannaBuyAboriginalArt!

So if you are sitting eating a Camel Burger….(Tastes like chicken!) & a smelly bloke comes up to your table & shows you a painting… Do you A. Talk to him about the painting, ask him it’s meaning & be amazed at the story behind it…. B. Buy the painting because it is a fraction of the extortionist costs that the galleries charge….. or C. Tell him to bugger off my Camel Burger is getting cold!

Happened to us today… And the table next to us & the table next to them.

Now I am in two minds about this…. If the artist was genuine & this was what he did why could he not set up a stall, rent a shop, have a tent where you could buy his paintings at a reasonable price & do the galleries out of business? I would go to a place that I knew sold good cheap artwork.

And why did he have to come up & leave his smell with us & the other café customers?

Or is he really desperate enough & lacking the support to survive so he tries to get by by selling paintings in cafes & on the street? & what does he do with the money? Smokes? Grog? Anyway just my thoughts.

Hey I really did have a camel burger, it was massive…. A zillion calories but yummy as! I did notice however that the three of us had meals that typified our personalities. I had a Camel Burger because I’ll try anything once, Ness had Eggs Benedict with salmon as she is cultured & loves nice food & Brad had a Tandoori Burger because he knows it just tastes good. See you can tell a person by what they like to eat! And Annie had a bit of everyones….

You know how Coles has the Liquorland chain of bottle shops? The one we went to today had a policeman permanently stationed outside & two uniformed security officers inside! You sure Alice Springs is in Australia?

Another day here tomorrow with Brad, this place has really matured him, he likes his job, is staying in a house with a mate, cooking & looking after himself & enjoying where he is! I’m proud of him… oh & he has really enjoyed spending time with Annie, he pushed her pram all day today, helped bath her & even fed her some dinner. I got some pics that I’ll get Ness to post later.

Reader’s replies

Special mention to my Mum tonight, it is her birthday….Happy birthday Mum it was great to speak to you on the phone, Brad really enjoyed speaking to you too. Oh and my niece Braidy shares a birthday with her Granny…. Happy Birthday Braidy, hope you got spoiled!!!

Gee you all have been busy…..Got a heap of replies tonight.

Edward, can you tell your mum that Naff is a naughty word & she should not say it! And to punish her for saying the naughty word you can scream really loudly all day tomorrow…you have my permission.

Norm suggested I slash the taxi drivers tyres…. Norm I’m sure there are others ready to take his place & even if we put other measures in place people are going to find ways around them. Clever creatures us humans! Oh & the Henley on Todd is on this weekend! We have to be in Coober Pedy by Sunday so won’t be staying for it, but we did see them setting up for it.

Dave R sent a message, good to see you are still trying to perfect the art of Soft Pork Crackling mate, you would make a fortune selling it!

Arama you have to bump Alice Springs up your list a bit…. You would love it here. Go buy a Camel burger & pick option B above!!!

Liz P is trying to send me broke!!! Thanks for your suggestion Liz!....NOT!!!

Celeste & Ashwin messaged too, yes we are looking forward to getting home C, but also looking forward to going away again. I might take your advice & still blog occasionally…It makes me laugh some days when I am typing it!

And Tereasa said she was in Alice this year….Or was it last year? Or was it some other year? Don’t worry T when we get home we will get you to the doctor for a nice little check up! Oh & the Finke is something I want to see now, especially after Brad went this year! Awesome.

Annie’s Blog

My Dad ate a Camel, I have seen pictures of camels & I even have a stuffed toy camel,(thanks to my friend Chelsea in Dubai) but today my Dad had some Camel on his plate! He even gave me some!!! I reckon it tastes like chicken! I am beginning to realise that we can eat some animals. Which got me thinking what I might like to taste, I think when I get home I’m going to visit my friend Jack & his Pig is in trouble!

A man tried to sell us a pretty picture today, it was pretty & colourful, I wanted Dad or Mum to buy it because the man needed the money to buy some soap because he smelled badder than one of my stinky nappies!...Poor man, he should come & play in the bath with me, I would make him smell good!

My brother Brad pushed my pram today, he is not used to it & he went through lots of bumps, it was fun because he said “Sorry Annie” every time he hit a bump, I didn’t tell him but it was fun, I’ll miss him when we leave the Springs place.

Ok I’m going to bed…. I want to get up early tomorrow & see what my Dad eats, I hope it’s a Emu, I reckon they would be tasty as! Bet it tastes like chicken!..... Me cracks myself up sometimes…

Have a fun night

AnnieInAVan….XXXX

Day 82 - Alice & her Springs

I really don’t know how to accurately describe this place, it is a real hotch potch of people & cultures, sure it’s easy to focus on the indigenous people and their way of life in the Alice but there is so much more than that. This place is a mini city, there is everything here that you would need, it has a coles & a woollies, all the fast food chains are here, all the franchises, then you have the tourists, from no star to 5 star, backpackers living & working here & then Mr & Mrs average & their average kids. And it all has to work in a desert where it gets below freezing overnight & very hot during the day!.... so it’s a really interesting place! Get up here one day.

Have a listen to this for a business idea, my son Brad told me this today. Obviously in some indigenous areas alcohol is a major problem, and to overcome it the local community has tried to come up with ways of “Controlling” alcohol sales. So in Alice Springs you cannot purchase alcohol at any drive through bottle shop unless you arrive & leave in a vehicle. So guess what…. A taxi driver came up with the idea to offer to pick people up, drive them through the bottle shop to buy their grog & then drop them off around the corner! I’m not kidding….Brad said that some days the queue waiting to get in the taxi is huge, they wait up the street from the bottle shop & the taxi just drives around & around & around… He charges $10 a head to drive them through the bottle shop! And then drop them off around the back of the bottle shop!

Not much else to say tonight, spending a couple of days with Brad & then on to Coober Pedy for the last week of work for this trip……Yaaaaayyyyyyy!!!!

Reader’s Comments

None, zilch, Nadah, zero, you all must be busy?

Annie’s Blog

I’m in training for the Lympics, today I did heaps of laps of the Box on Wheels park! I crawled to the bathroom, onto the footpath, into the camp kitchen, I even got up this big gutter today all by myself! I face planted on the way down but that doesn’t matter! I reckon I’ll be the fastest crawler in the world in 2030…..Crawling is a Lympic sport isn’t it????

Saw Brad again today, he picked me up and carried me….he is soooo tall, I hope I grow big like Brad one day….. I don’t want his hair though, he has hairy back & chest & legs…I hope I don’t get that!

Tomorrow we are going out for the whole day, I’m going to tell Mum to buy Dad’s Fathers Day present here….I reckon he needs a good hat, I’m going to look for one with crocodiles tooths in it for him….I reckon he would suit it. What do you think?

Sleep well peoples

AnnieInAVan….XXXX

Day 81 - Catching up on bloggin

“Sally called when she got the word. And she said “I suppose you’ve heard….About Alice!” is it just me or do you think of this old Smokey song when you hear about Alice Springs? I have no idea what you are on about…must be the generation gap again.

Hello Bloggies…. I’m Back! Had a few issues with no internet, no power & to be honest no idea! I had a couple of days with mental switchoffedness, and just didn’t write a blog.

So where do we pick up? Last we spoke we were in the bush with a van full of Bulldust (Tereasa don’t you dare say it is always full of Bull when I am in it!) which Ness did an excellent job of cleaning. We then hightailed it across some of the roughest & prettiest tracks we have yet to take the Car & Van on….. and I’m happy to say it came through really well, we did have another window pop open, but luckily I spotted it before the dust got in.

For those of you with a map book we went from Top Springs to Dunmarra, will work on updating the map, have had a few issues doing this then stopped overnight at Three Ways, got a bit of a crude story here to share, I woke up early & needed to go to the loo, so I went down to the amenities (Which were filthy by the way) & got on the loo… there was no wheelchair toilet so I had to leave the door open with my wheelchair sitting in the doorway. I’m happily doing my business & this guy comes in & he just stops in front of the cubicle (there was only one cubicle working in this bathroom) and he just stood there!..... he just stood there and waited, now he wasn’t staring at me but he didn’t look away or anything!!! I’m not a shy type of guy but I don’t think I could stand there & watch another bloke take a dump! He even stood there while I wiped my bum & pulled my pants up! What is the world coming to! The things you have to go through honey…

So we left Three Ways & passed through Wycliffe Well….. Now you have to stop here, apparently this is the UFO sighting capital of Australia….the service station & Caravan Park is a crack up, there are life size green aliens out the front!

Made it into Alice Springs and pulled into the MacDonnell Ranges Holiday park, now this is a caravan park, it has great sites, all with grass areas, the bathrooms & laundry are spot on & there are heaps of things here to keep kids amused, I reckon we all head to Alice Springs for a get together one year, for those that don’t want to drive you can fly here & book a cabin! Ness & I will definitely be back to this place.

Caught up with my son Brad today, it was awesome he is really enjoying the Alice, he lives with a mate of his in a house in town, Ness, Annie & I went to where he works today, what an amazing leisure centre, Ness and Annie spent a couple of hours swimming & I got to chat to Brad while he was working. We will see him again over the next few days, great to see you mate.

Reader’s complaints!

Just kidding….. its great that you all miss the blog….Do you miss me/us too?

Norm & Marg can relate to our last trip, looking forward to the new rig Norm….I’m going to work on Ness for a camper trailer with heating & air conditioning! For the more adventurous trips…..although after this trip my admiration for Trakmaster has grown, it has handled it all with ease.

Meredith has been too busy stacking wood & cooking to miss the blog

Tereasa has sent a message…..Phew I thought I’d upset you T

Kirsten’s Edward sent a message saying his mum played up but has been asleep since! You are not 18 any more Kirsten!

Brad A gave us all a lesson on insulation & he talked his wife into getting signatures for his petition!

Arama is a Kiwi that now wants to front the Aboriginal council to claim her aboriginality!

Rob has sent me through the scores for the Collingwood V Sydney game, thanks Rob

And Pete A is off to Thailand again to sell Rubbers! What a job you have Map Man!

Happy Birthday to Cousin Marc…you know what you can do with your XXXX.

Keep them coming people, we only have two weeks to go!

Annie’s Blog

Hi everyone, boy oh boy my bottom is soooooo sore, we drove & we drove & we drove for the last few days and we didn’t stop for anything except to get into the box on wheels & sleep. Mum even got in the back with me & read me stories when I was bored or sick of driving. I’m so over the silly kids songs that Dad plays in the car, has he not heard of Cold Chisel, U2 or The Killers? Gimme some rock & roll Dad!

We came to this Springs place today, it is a nice caravan park and has pools, bouncing pillows, a games room, pedal buggies, heaps of stuff to do. I reckon we all come here one day for a big holiday.

I saw my brother today, he is so big, and he has these funny furry things in front of his ears, Mum said they were Sideburns…..but they didn’t look burnt to me! He also has this silver thing coming out of his nose…I so want to grab it but then I might get his boogers.

I went to Brads work too & he has the best job, he works in this big bath place, there are indoor baths & outdoor baths, a spa bath, water slides, kids areas & adults areas, oh and Brad wears this orange & yellow uniform like they do on Baywatch, My brother is a life guarder! How cool.

Ok I’m going to sleep now, I still feel about 90 minutes different than last week????

 Catch ya later

AnnieInAVan….XXXX

Day 79 - Three Ways, NT

The last 2 days we have had no internet and tonight we have had enough(virtually none) to post Days 77 & 78 and to let you know that we will post Day 79 tomorrow.

We are currently in Three Ways, NT which is 25kms north of Tennant Creek...where you think they would have internet coverage...but alas I think we are getting the last transmitting waves from Tennant Creek.

For those of you who have been worried about us and not just having withdrawals about not having a blog...we are all good and loving the outback.

From all us in AnnieInAVan xxxx

Day 77 & 78

Hey peoples, we been in the bush for a couple of days…. No internet or phone & plenty of dirt & dust.

So we left Broome, had an overnight stay at Fitzroy Crossing, then it was into the real outback as we headed to Halls Creek. It was all on sealed road and the landscape was quite pretty, there were lots of areas that had been “Burnt off” either in controlled burns, by lightning strike, or deliberately lit by some of the Aboriginal communities (same as controlled burning) but Ness & I both agreed that the land was “Managed” very well, sure there were patches that had been recently burnt off & other patches that were recovering from a burn off, but all in all it was a very nice drive. Why can’t we seem to “Manage” the land as well in the eastern & southern states?

So we made it to Halls Creek, the start of the rough stuff, as we had over 400km to travel with no fuel stops we decided to fill our Jerry cans which hold 20 litres each (we have 2 jerry cans) as a backup. So picture this….I’m driving the car, I pull up at the bowser so we can fill the car up. But as we also have to fill up the Jerry cans (They are painful to open as they have a locking seal on them) I say to Ness, I’ll get out and do the car and the jerry cans. So Ness goes to the back of the car & gets my wheelchair, I then get out & proceed to fill up the car, by now we have a couple of cars behind us waiting to fill up as this is the only servo in town. I fill the car & then tell Ness to drive forward, I open one jerry can and fill it, spilling diesel on my shoe! And then pull the hose over to the other jerry can (they are mounted either side of the van on the bar at the back) only to find that the hose is 6 inches too short! A couple of expletives later I say to Ness, we will have to turn it around. But as there are people behind us that is not going to happen!

So I roll into the service station & wait in the queue of locals buying soft drinks, smokes & fast food (the servo is also one of the few “Shops” in town) and pay for the fuel.

Then I go back out & we have to wait for the pump to free up before Ness drives the van in the opposite way to fill the 2^nd jerry can, I go inside & wait in the queue again and pay for my 20 litres of fuel.

So approximately 45 minutes after we arrived in Halls Creek we have filled up the car with fuel!

Out of Halls creek & I am getting excited, dirt road here we come! Off the tar and onto the gravel, now the first couple of kilometres was reasonably good, but then it got progressively worse & worse! To the point that the corrugations were shaking the crap out of car, van & US! I didn’t say anything to Ness but I was ready to turn around…. I love the Land Rover & Trakmaster too much to punish it to 400km of this! But wait it got worse, there were patches of Bulldust, dust so fine that when you hit it the dust almost explodes around you! Now we had been told by fellow travellers that the first 40km was bad but after that it gets better…. So we decided to continue. And we are glad we did…. Because we then drove through some more absolutely beautiful country. There were creek crossings, natural springs, rock escarpments, and plain boring cattle stations….but all of it had its attraction…. Man we are so lucky to live in this place!

All right so now it is approaching Dusk, the road had improved & my navigator advised me that there was a camping spot on the map just after the WA/NT border, so we decided that would be it for the night. Crossed the border & we drove…..and drove….. and drove ….. and drove! By now it was dark & we were on a cattle station in the middle of nowhere & had 500kg plus cows wandering across in front of us! This rest area was nowhere near where it showed on the map! I’m writing to complain!

Eventually we found it & the 3 of us were happy to get into the van & call it a day!

Ok so that brings us to today, now we were 200km away from the next fuel stop, but we knew that they closed at 12 midday. So no problems I asked Ness to set her alarm for 6am & then we would be able to get up, have brekky get ready & then cruise along the dirt tracks at 50-60 km/h. But once we got going we realised that we had crossed the border last night & were now on Central Australia and we had to put our clock forward 1.5 hrs!!! so we had just lost 1 & a half hours of travel time!

Time to put the foot down to make sure we made it to the fuel stop! But between bulldust, corrugations & cattle grids we pulled into the service station at 1130am….Phewwww! or we would be staying there till Monday morning when it reopened.

We decided after we fuelled up that we would stop there for lunch, Ness went into the van & came back almost white! During our rough road trip one of the windows had managed to work its way open & the inside of the van was now coated in fine red dust!.....NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Now for those of you who know Ness she is a clean freak, she is very houseproud & enjoys things being clean. So you can imagine her disappointment when she saw the inside of the van today!

But I have to say I was very proud of her, after her initial shock she said we would just have to clean it out when we stopped this afternoon! Well done honey, I’m very proud of you not “Losing it!”

I promise we will get the van detailed when we get home!

So we arrive in Top Springs, fill up with fuel & Ness goes to arrange our site for the night. Annie & I wait outside and are amused by the locals coming from all of the “DRY” communities to buy their grog, and they are quite freely walking around drinking or over sitting under a tree, some have driven hundreds of kilometres just to buy grog! (Sounds like something Brad A would do!)

We get our site & Ness spends the next few hours taking everything out of the van, cleaning it all & then putting it all back together again….. Awesome job!!!

Now all of you close your eyes & think of this. Build a pub & a bottle shop in the middle of Australia, chuck in a bloke named Marty & his missus named Pauline, add in half a dozen staff to run the bar, the kitchen & the accommodation, throw in some rooms for people to stay in if they get too pissed to drive (at a cost of course) & a small caravan park out the back for travellers. And then every Friday & Saturday night just wait for all the local station hands & jackeroos & blackfellas that can’t buy grog anywhere else to start rolling in & spend their money. Sound like a good idea?

Well you are too late because someone has already done it & we are here tonight. We went to the bar for a drink, had a Parma & some lamb chops for dinner & watched 20 or so local farmhands all hand over their hard earned dollars ($6 a beer!)

But what a great atmosphere, you could easily sit at the bar & just enjoy watching the people roll in & stagger out. So another one to add to your bucket list…. Top Springs Pub

Readers Comments

No idea….No internet for 2 days!

Annies Blog

Mum tried to keep me awake tonight for some reason…. But I was tired! It felt like it was 1 & a half hours later than it really was????? Did I miss something?

Dad wrote too much tonight so there is no blog space left for me.

Love you all very much

AnnieInAVan…XXXX