The internet is restored!

At long last we have been reconnected! All hail Telstra!! (I think that is right.) It has been an interesting trip back into time. I wish I could say I made good use of all that time I was "saved" from the web. Yep. I really do.

I've decided that I should just bundle up a collection of photos from the rest of my traveling (and the second group of family visitors) and jump back into the present. I don't think playing catch up with JULY is going to work.



So- here goes. (By the way- don't you think this toy is a bit sick? Especially to be selling it in an airport gift store? Can you put the busted up plane back together? Can you find all the missing body parts?)



I guess I've been working backwards- so first Alice Springs (Northern Territory). Alice isn't a very big town. There isn't that much going on. We, in particular, didn't find much to do. Elaine really wanted to go on a camel ride but that didn't work out. Instead, we visited the museum of women in the outback (That would be the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame.) Lots and lots and lots to read. A very hard life in a very isolated and harsh place. Interestingly, it is housed in the old(e) gaol (that is jail in American). Coincidence??? We also saw the original hospital set up by John Flynn who founded the Royal Flying Doctor's Service (RFDSA ) and "The Residence" where the representative of government lived- and the royal family visited- including Prince Charles who got food poisoning there! There is a pretty amusing photo there of Queen Elizabeth's first visit there in the 50's with a fly crawling across her face. (Outback flies = bad. Fortunately, they are less common in the winter.)

Any visit to Alice should involve a hunt FOR Alice Springs- which is pretty, pretty, pretty small. (I'm posing with it. It is the puddle beside me.) It is right off the Todd River (in which Elaine is drowning) - the site of the annual Todd River Yacht Race (Henley-on-Todd )



Scenes from our Outback Adventure. We drove from Alice to our home away from home at the Curtin Springs Wayside Inn and Cattle Station. The idea in and of itself worried my mom and Marianna. They were very pleasantly surprised by the accommodation and friendly "inn keepers". Anyway, we got there about 2 and ate a quick lunch and then got directions to Kings Canyon. They looked at us like we were crazy. It was about a 2 hour drive...and darkness would fall be falling by 5. It isn't a good idea to be driving across the outback in the dark ESPECIALLY in a rental car for which it is verboten! Kangaroos, cows, and camels- oh my! But, it was so, so, so worth it. We were came upon a whole herd of wild camels and saw a pair of dingos! Elaine and I took a quick hike through the lower portion of the canyon in the warm light of late afternoon. And we didn't hit anything on the way "home".

The next day we drove to the park and viewed The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) and Ayer's Rock (Uluru). OK. Maybe I manipulated a couple of the photos of the rock paintings at Uluru.

P.S. I make no apologies for my love of the white barked gum trees.



Finally, a quick recap of the second wave of visitors:
Australia Zoo; The Glass House Mountains; Sydney: Darling Harbour, Touring Sydney harbour by water taxi, The Sydney Opera House, The Maritime Museum, The AMP Tower; Brisbane: Whaling in Moreton Bay, Various Museums