Day 16: Bachelorhood is over
Today my three little munchkins arrived along with my darling wife (I had to say that). So before picking them up I went to the footy and did a bit of fishin in the Todd River as any single man would. It is a shame that it was bone dry only filling on the rare flood.
It's funny that I have talked a lot about the importance of water and the springs that allowed the centre to develop. I just realised how Alice got its name. The actual springs from which the town is named lies to the north east. The Alice comes from Mrs Todd, the wife of Sir Charles Todd who was the driving force behind the building of the Overland Telegraph. Ok, history lesson over.
Heading out to the airport I noticed another unique feature of this place. Every second vehicle is a 4wd with their range of appendages including fuel jerry cans on the roof, the obligatory bull bar, aerials, spot lights, camping gear packed to the windows and many with caravans or camper trailers behind. I am sure if all the tourists left Alice at the one time there would be three men and a dog left.
Waiting at the airport I was greeted with two very excited faces (Isabelle and Bethany), one sick one (Adelaide) and one very sleep deprived (Kathy).
So rather than pushing my luck on their first day I took the twins out to see Standley Chasm while the others settled in to Northern Territory time. Driving west of Alice you are immediately confronted with the large red quartzite peaks shaped over 300 million years. The folding, faulting and erosion has created a range of unique gorges that we will be visiting over the next week.
Standley is an easy drive (on bitumun!) 50km out of town. While you have to pay to do the walk for some reason the attendant must of fealt sorry for a lone dad and two children as he let them in for free.
The walk is only 20 minutes but I would have paid for everyone as it is magic. I have heard that the best time to visit is in the middle of the day when the sun is overhead but I have also heard that this is when the chasm is full with bus loads of tourists as well. We arrived late in the afternoon and while there was 2 other families along the walk it was rather peaceful.
The chasm has been formed as a result of a tributary of the Finke (shudder on bad memories of corrugations....) gouging itself through the rock leaving a narrow gully with ghostly white gums and prehistoric Cycads.
On the way out we were all very excited as we saw our first ever Yellow footed Rock Wallaby perched on the rocky outcrop above us. Even more exciting for the kids was their first dingo sighting in the wild. 2 animals in one day.
Their next comment was "dad, what are we doing tomorrow? Dad, I want to see more animals. Dad can we go now"!
My single days are over.
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