Birthday Weekend (Gosse Bluff)

On Sunday morning, we opted to take the long way back home, so we could drive by Gosse Bluff.

Par for the course around here, more than half the journey is on unsealed road which makes for a bumpy ride.  This particular drive was made a bit more exciting by a group of camels that our little caravan of cars startled.  Of course, camels being the bright creatures they are, when they heard the cars from their safe position off the road, they immediately turned and ran ONTO the road.  Fortunately, we didn't hit any of them.  They are perfectly shaped to crush your windshield.  But we did manage to get a photo or two.

According to scientists, Gosse Bluff is what remains of an impact crater from a comet that hit the Earth about 140 million years ago.  Beautiful satellite picture is available here.

The road into the center of the crater.

However, the locals have a different explanation.  Amazing how similar the "dreamtime" story is to the scientific explanation.

The dreamtime explanation is that women were dancing among the stars and one set her baby down.  The baby fell out of the sky and crashed into the earth.  Very little of Gosse Bluff (Tnorala) is open to the public, because it is a "sorry" place.  Many years ago there was a "family" on "family" massacre so everyone left.  Now, there is no camping, fires or even hiking permitted outside the small park zone.  It is all on the honor system, though, as there are no rangers or fences.  The penalties for disregarding are hefty, so few people go outside the zone.

So tired he couldn't finish blowing up his balloon.

Birthday Weekend

It is still hard to get used to having a summer birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.  I think its one thing I won't miss when its time to head home.  In the meantime, though, we try to embrace everything there is to do here.  Last weekend, a group at Ian's work organized a Thanksgiving Dinner at a "local" resort.  Glen Helen Resort is about 80 miles west of Alice Springs.  The boys and I visited back in May when Ian had to head back to the States, so this was Ian's first trip.

On our way we stopped at Ormiston Gorge.  Still the most beautiful gorge around here... Looks very different in the summer, but the boys actually got to play in the water this time.

Jamie and Gavin jumped right in.  Braden took a bit more convincing.

 We stayed so long playing at Ormiston Gorge that we had to hustle to get ready for dinner at Glen Helen.  It was a bit warm, but the turkey was juicy.

 After our big dinner, we took the kids swimming in the pool just in case they hadn't worn themselves out enough.  Marti then surprised me with a birthday cake (Southern Living Pound Cake - DELICIOUS).

Cake, please. Cake, please.  Cake, please.

Palm Valley (again)

Some good friends of ours are getting ready to leave Alice.  Its one of the hardest things about living here is making friends and having them move away.  Before they left there are a few places left they wanted to see and one was Palm Valley.

 However, Palm Valley requires 4WD and they weren't sure that their AWD vehicle would do it.  So, since we love the place and our truck has 7 seats we all piled into "The Beast" as I call it and headed out for the day.

Having a quick lunch before heading out on our hike.  (It takes about 2 hours to get to Palm Valley, so of course we timed it so we could be there at the hottest time of the day.)

Jamie went with our friends to walk along the rim walk, while Ian and I took Braden and Gavin on the easier valley walk.

Jamie had a great time holding up the rocks and throwing stones into puddles left over from a recent rain.