Alice Springs... Again!

Our second stay in Alice is as busy as our first. This time around we visit the Royal Flying Doctors Service and School of the Air museums; take a day trip into the MacDonnell Ranges; attend a didgeridoo lesson that is so encouraging, we buy a didg for ourselves; tour the many galleries of aboriginal artwork (before snapping up a canvas from an artist exhibiting her wares on the sidewalk); Sam and Rikki enjoy another girls outing – this time cycling into town early one morning to stock up on fruit; and the Saturday Todd Mall Market and Sunday morning pancake breakfast both get an encore performance.
Meanwhile back the caravan park we treat ourselves to an ensuite site; treat Sam to a new premium juicer as a belated birthday gift; treat our tastebuds to the magic of using tempeh for meat-free spag bol and tacos; the kids – with their bulging wallets - treat their unsupervised selves to a few games too many down at the park’s Games’ Room (near-empty wallets henceforth confiscated by mum); and in what is arguably the greatest treat of all, Sam discovers an adult bath on site and manages to sneak away for a long, late night soak.
Less auspicious is time we lose Jack in the shopping mall - about which we won’t say much – and the time that Budge’s nasal congestion forces Sam to sleep in the car – about which we’ll say even less. Neither drama comes close to casting even the smallest shadow on our ace Alice experience.

Impromptu jam session at the end of our didgeridoo lesson. No prizes for guessing which Bihary student showed the most aptitude on the didg.
At the Royal Flying Doctors Service museum.
Every new kid we meet has their own shtick. This kid's mum was a facepainter. Terrific! Of course the kids tired of their new faces waaaay too quickly and snuck into our ensuite to wash themselves clean, leaving a grey, soggy mess of toilet paper, finger-prints and foot-prints in their wake. Not terrific in the slightest.