Eventful Days!

As I wrote last time I posted, we left Alice Springs on Tuesday morning, intending to make it as far as the Devils' Marbles.  Before long, however, Philip switched the car from gas to petrol... and nothing happened!  There was no fuel getting through the brand new pump we'd just spent $700 on!  According to our travel books the next place to get gas was at Wycliffe Wells and we prayed that we would have enough fuel to get us there.  We did... but they didn't sell gas!!!  Wycliffe Wells claims to be the "UFO capital of Australia", where there have been many alleged UFO sightings.  The whole place was decked out with little green men and UFOs, and I really didn't like it a bit.  We had another look at the map and at the gas guages and decided to try and make it to a little place called Wauchope (say "walk'p"), just south of the Devils Marbles.  We had no phone reception, no gas and a tank full of petrol that we couldn't use... but we were very thankful that we had somewhere to stay overnight while we worked out what to do next instead of being stuck in the middle of nowhere!  To the children's delight, there even turned out to be a pool, which we had all to ourselves.

A welcome sight on a hot afternoon!

Philip managed to ring the mechanic in Alice who had installed the fuel pump (using the payphone at the hotel) and after trying several options they concluded that the hose must have come unclamped. As it was getting dark by then, he decided to leave it till the morning and we had a meal at the pub instead of cooking in the caravan.  The owner of the hotel turned on a big TV to a program featuring Pavarotti!  It was quite funny to be "stuck" in a tiny outback "town" consisting of nothing but a petrol pump and a pub with some parking places for caravans, listening to Pavarotti in concert!
The following morning Philip was up early working on the car.  The hose had indeed come unclamped and it turned out to be the clamp at the bottom of the tank, not the one near the top, which meant opening the petrol tank and reaching in to replace the hose and clamp it tightly.  What a lovely sound it was when he turned on the ignition and the engine purred to life!

It didn't take us long to get the caravan hitched up and ready for the road.  We stopped to have a look at the Devil's Marbles, of course, but Philip was really keen to get to a service station with gas by this stage and didn't want to stay too long. The children were a bit disappointed when we had to leave. "They're like the best playground in the world!" was Arthur's comment.

native fig

mulla mulla?

Once we had both tanks full again, however, Philip decided not to drive too much further as he was feeling the need to have a rest after all the excitement, so we stopped at Banka Banka Station just north of Tennant Creek.  The manager provided us with a sprinkler for the children to play under... a real novelty after the water restrictions we've had for so long in Melbourne! 

This photo cracks me up!

We were enjoying the chance to relax when Philip, wanting to get something from the car, realised that Esther had been playing in it and had locked the doors. The keys were in the ignition, and the spare keys were also in the car.  Gradually most of the other people in the park were gathered around offering helpful advice.  One woman went around asking if anyone had a criminal record, because they were needed to break into a car!  Eventually, with a lot of patience and fiddling, a few of them managed lever the door open a little way, insert a straightened-out coat hanger through the opening and hook open the lock.  What a relief! It's one way of getting to meet almost everyone else in the caravan park, though!

This morning we were up with the birds and on the road before anyone else was stirring.  We drove all the way to Katherine, more that 557 km further North.  It's fascinating to watch the landscape change gradually.  It's still arid country here, but it has turned from desert to bushland.  We've crossed rivers with water in them, the trees are taller and the climate feels tropical.  Termite mounds are everywhere. 

We booked in for three nights at Manbulloo Station just outside Katherine, but after parking the caravan we decided that we'd stay a bit longer.  We want to explore Katherine Gorge, and there are some limestone caves about 25 km from here we'd like to see, too.  We just like the place, too.  We're parked in the shade of some beautiful rain trees, covered in yellow blossoms, facing an avenue of mahogany trees and mangoes.  I was excited to find a jumbung (tamarind) tree, too- I showed the children how we used to open the pods and eat the sour pulp, and I've been humming our song "We're the children of Milingimbi, we're as happy as can be! We're eating all the jumbungs from the top of the tamarind tree..." The smells and the very feel of the air are so familiar!

Unfortunately the mangoes won't be ripe till October... but we're told they're on sale outside darwin for $15 a box!

It didn't take the children long to make friends with a little boy who lives on the station (His name's Floyd and he's two months older than Arthur).  They have been playing under the sprinklers again, and getting delightfully muddy.

The huge smiles are not so much because of the mud as because they'd just heard that there is a water buffal on the station whose name is "Bum Bum"...

To cap it all off, the farmer had  told the kids he'd pick them up at about six to show them the cattle if they were interested.  True to his word, he pulled up in his ute just after we'd finished dinner and took us for a drive.  Not only did we see the cows, he also took us to have a look at a bower bird's bower.

We heard that Brahmin cattle are well adapted to hot climates.  The flap of skin under their chins helps regulate their temperature when their sweat evaporates, and the hump on their back stores fat reserves to use in lean times in much the same way as a camel's hump does.

I'm not sure what was more fun- seeing the cattle or riding on the back of a ute with the farm dog, Zac!

Hoping for food, the cattle chased the ute as we drove off, to the children's joy!

Every year in the dry season the male bower bird comes back and restores this structure, adding more decorations and repairing the damage done during the wet.  He hopes to impress the female birds with his interior decorating skills. This bird likes green and white and has collected all sorts of objects including pebbles, leaves and little egg shells.  It is not a nest- it is purely used for courtship.

So much fun and we've only been here a few hours!  We're really looking forward to spending a few days here before going on to Darwin.