Alice Springs, NT.
A short drive from the Devils Marbles is Wycliffe Well - the UFO center of Australia. Since Kylie was here many moons ago, art work has all been updated but the out-of-this-world stories are still happening. Many things have happened that can not be explained logically - and the kids loved the alien statues.
We then arrived in Alice Springs, which is were we will base ourselves for the next few days. We stayed at the campground behind the Gap View Hotel - a little bit of an experience for us all. When you check in, the lady in the office tells you to not leave anything outside, not to leave anything unlocked and if you come face to face with an intruder, not to panic because generally they will just run away.
We did the obligatory visit to ANZAC Hill after we checked in. Always a stunning view. On the way home, Bridie feel asleep in the car. It was about 3.30pm, so we let her sleep for an hour or so, but then when we woke her she was super grumpy and just wanted to go back to sleep, despite being offered snacks. She we let her sleep..and sleep...and sleep. She ended up sleeping til 5.30am the next day. Kylie was panicking that she was sick but it turns out she was just super dooper tired and woke up fresh as a daisy the next day. We have finally reached some cooler weather - about 26 degree days and about 13 degree nights, and we think her body just said now its time to finally rest.
The next day we didn't plan anything to much, just in case Bridie was getting sick, so Kylie did some chores around the van and took the kids for a swim. Saul went for a look at the Truck Museum and really enjoyed seeing some really big and really old trucks, and well as some brand new trucks that have not even been on the road.
We visited the Olive Pink Botanical Gardens. This place was amazing and named after a very determined lady who was very ahead of her times in her thinking. She lived in a tent at the gardens for 18 months as a senior lady in her 70s I think it was, until she managed to build a hut, and she continued to live in and care for these beautiful gardens until she passed away. Bridie still wasn't 100% by this day, and she wasn't keen to walk, so we didn't explore as much as we could have but what we did see was quite impressive.
We spent a day driving to the West Macdonald Ranges - we visited Simpsons Gap,
Standley Chasm,
and Ellery Creek Big hole. We stopped for lunch at the waterhole and the kids were brave enough to go for a swim. It wasn't a super hot day and the water was freezing.
We visited the Megaflora Exhibition which was amazing. It is a collection of fossils and skeletons from ancient times when the megaflora roamed the outback. There were giant birds, that laid giant eggs, early emus (that were actually a little bit smaller than modern day emus), crocodiles that had much longer legs than modern crocodiles and giant marsupials.
They had a skeleton of a giant bird and then a recreation of what it might look like with feathers etc. The recreation reminded Kylie and kids of the giant paradise bird from the movie "Up".
There was a little window in the wall where you could look through to the "prep lab" which is the work room where the scientists clean, preserve and study the fossils.
There was also a digital microscope out on display and we were allowed to look at the some interesting bones including the skull and jaw of a microbat and a shark tooth. Saul enjoyed looking at these.
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