The Trip

Our room in Coober Pedy

again :)

a hallway in the motel in Coober Pedy

playing hat shops in the car

Mitchell took this one, not bad, eh?

the road near the border

bowling in Alice Springs

our house!!

at the base pool

now, if this isn't paradise, I don't know what is!!

At Katherine Hot Springs

Christmas day at the apartments

after Christmas lunch

and again, getting into the lollies...

a friend on our car, New Year's Eve

After a week of packing, organizing, cleaning and catching up with friends for that one last time, we set off on Friday for our trip up North. We left at 6:30 am from our motel in Werribee, and the roads were fairly quiet to Adelaide, so we made good time despite having more stops than usual, and a detour around Murray Bridge, and arrived around 5pm Adelaide time.

It was then that the whirlwind of catching up with friends and family began as our first visitors arrived Friday night. I think it was overwhelming for Mitchell, I know it was for me, but overall he had a lot of fun and we all enjoyed catching up with everybody.

On Monday morning we were up at 5:15 and had left the holiday park by 6 am. It was pretty quiet on the roads and it didn’t take all that long to get out of Adelaide and on to the open road. Michael drove the first leg of the trip, but we managed to share the driving out fairly evenly over the day. The trip to Coober Pedy, around 850 + kms, went pretty well. You know you’re heading into the country when you have to stop to let 3 sheep cross the road J We saw a kangaroo, several cows and sheep and lots of crows. The crows were mostly around when other animals were dead on the side of the road. Seeing all that reminded us why we don’t do these drives at dawn or dusk any more… It’s just so much safer in the light of day, and much more pleasant too. It was surprising really how quiet it was on the roads.

At Coober Pedy we stayed at the Desert Cave Motel in an underground room. It was a little deceptive as the carpark had been dug out of the ground, so we were still able to park right outside the room, and although it wasn’t a particularly hot day (apparently it was 30 degrees when their summer maximums are 35-47 usually) it was warm enough, but the room felt air conditioned although it wasn’t. Apparently the underground rooms are constantly between 23-25 degrees at all times regardless of the outside temperature. For a 4 star motel, the pool was a bit dodgy and I was the only one brave enough to go in. There was also a very suspect “gym” a small room with some equipment that looked fairly ancient and air conditioners that didn’t work. The motel did, however, have a really interesting display downstairs. There was lots of information about the history of opal mining in the town and about how it is done and then how the opals are cut and polished for sale. There were examples of the equipment used in the mines and also in the cutting and polishing so all very interesting. Mitchell was fascinated and asked heaps of questions and wanted to know what every piece of equipment did, so I think it was all pretty interesting for him too.

We ran into a family that were on their way back from Tindal to Newcastle. She was one of those people that love to tell you about how awful everything is. When Michael mentioned he was being posted to Tindal, she started on about how the houses are all hovels and nobody looks after you and that you spend $4000 per year on electricity, etc, etc, etc… Then she says “ good luck” -- yeah, thanks lady… Because we’ve been around long enough to know that there are always stories and you’re lucky in 5% of what you hear it true, we didn’t worry too much about what she had to say.

After a good night’s sleep, we had breakfast at the motel (something we wouldn’t do again…) and then headed off to Alice. We didn’t leave quite so early as we only had 680 odd kms to travel and we knew we would gain an hour when we crossed the border. It was actually quite cold in the morning and we almost regretted the fact that everything other than shorts and t-shirts were packed well and truly in the boot under lots of other things. The first couple of stops along the way we were also quite disappointed that it still didn’t feel all that hot.

That was until we hit the border. The SA/NT border has certainly changed since the last time we were there. There’s a toilet block (not altogether gross) and some information boards about both South Australia and the Northern Territory. The Welcome to the Northern Territory sign was actually very appealing; unfortunately some idiots had removed a plaque from the other side so the South Australian sign was not quite so attractive. And boy was it hot when we got out there, yay!!

Was kind of amusing because while we had looked at the map with Mitchell several times and talked about where we were travelling and stopping along the way, you can never really be sure exactly what a 3 yo is thinking. When we got out at the border, we told him that we were now in the Northern Territory which is where Katherine is. He got excited and took a few photos LOL… Then when we went to get back in the car, he said, “why are we getting in the car again, I thought we lived here…” After we explained that it really wouldn’t be that much fun to live in the dessert with a small toilet block and small tourist shelter and nothing else, we headed off on the rest of our trip.

We arrived in Alice Springs at around 4pm and checked into our motel. This one was really nice and we would definitely recommend it J It was called the Aurora Motel and it backed onto Todd Mall so in the heart of town. There was a lovely cleaner there called Audrey and she was pretty impressed that Mitchell had a friend his age with that name. He enjoyed telling her all about his friend Audrey and how they are both 3 while she cleaned our room one afternoon… The pool and spa was lovely here as was the continental breakfast that was included with the deal that I booked us for. And the weather in Alice was hot and we caught a bit of a storm that first night, so that was pretty cool.

In retrospect, we probably should have only stayed the 2 nights in Alice instead of 3, just to break up the trip. Nothing wrong with the town, it’s very nice, but there’s a limit to what to do to entertain a 3 yo who is extremely energetic and had just spent 2 days couped up in a car. He was pretty grumpy for a lot of the time in Alice, but considering he slept almost the entire trip the day we left, we figured tiredness must have had a lot to do with it. On the first day there, we went ten pin bowling, unfortunately we first arrived at the bowling centre in the morning and it didn’t open until 12, so we had a bit of a tantrum on our hands with an overtired boy who had been looking forward to bowling all night!! Nevertheless we went back at 12 after an early lunch (gaining that 1.5 hours was leaving us pretty out of whack and we’d been waking early for breakfast and then hungry again around 10:30…) and we had a lot of fun playing a couple of games of bowling. I actually beat Michael in one game, which was I think more of a fluke than anything, but hey, I’ll take it!! (for those that don’t know, Michael actually used to bowl competitively and I’m about as good at bowling as I am at any other sport ;) )

There was a restaurant in the mall called Sporties which had lots of sporting memorabilia including a Crows autographed jumper and some cricket gear, so Mitchell thought that was pretty cool, and they made a really nice risotto so I was very happy with that after several days of eating on the road.

The next day we drove around a bit including up Anzac Hill, which I personally found a bit scary (would have rather walked!!) but the view of Alice Springs from the top was worth it.

The next day we left with the intention of just staying somewhere along the way and playing it by ear. However, the combination of driving at 130 kph (which, incidentally, will be the new speed limit from January 1) and there simply not being many places to stop, nor cars or trucks on the road to slow us down, we ended up driving straight through to Katherine in the end and we arrived here about 8pm. In retrospect we probably would have stopped at Daly Waters because although Michael anticipated our arrival around 8, because it hadn’t been getting dark until about 9 everywhere we had been, he had figured it would be light when we arrived. Of course, being the wet season, and we actually did drive in to a spectacular electrical storm, it gets dark closer to 7, so the last hour of our trip was in the dark and through a storm but hey, we were in Katherine and that was pretty exciting…

We did have one mishap on the roads, but considering the trip we have done, we are pretty grateful that is all that has happened. We had a bike rack for the back of the car and Michael and stowed Mitchell’s bike securely on the bike rack. Each stop he checked it and it was always very secure and stable. However, I think that it was probably not designed for such long trips in such heat. We were driving along and Michael slammed on the brakes and said, “oh, no!!!” I naturally panicked wondering what had happened, although I was pretty sure we hadn’t hit anything. So Michael told me that we had lost Mitchell’s bike. It appeared that in the heat both the bike and the bike rack had buckled and it fell off. Naturally at 130 kph it sustained a fair bit of damage, but luckily the roads were pretty quiet and there was nobody driving behind us so nobody got hurt.

As Mitchell was asleep at the time, we were dreading having to tell him about it as he loves his bike. Well, we needn’t have worried. When we arrived at the next stop, I braced myself and calmly told Mitchell what had happened. Well, apparently he thought it was hilarious, had a good look and a good laugh and it was all fine and we went into the shop to get a drink. On the way out was a bit of a problem. Mitchell decided to have another look at his bike and this is when he discovered the horn was broken. Oh dear, apparently that was the most precious part of his bike because he was soooo upset about that…

Unfortunately because we weren’t booked into our long term accommodation until the next day, we had to find somewhere to stay for the night but being the wet season, it was pretty easy to find accommodation, although we found out afterwards that the place we stayed at would have given us discount if we told them we were up here with the RAAF. Never mind, we’ll know for next time…

So the next day we thought we would see if we could check in early at the apartments, seeing as our car was packed so full it was quite uncomfortable to sit in the back, we were fairly desperate to offload, not to mention with laptops and dvd players (which, incidentally, turned out to be less than useful, don’t know what made us think our boy that isn’t interested in watching DVDs suddenly would be in the car, but never mind, you live and learn…), we didn’t really fancy leaving it parked anywhere while we got lunch or anything. When we got here though, although it said reception was open from 9am, there was nobody there at 10am, or 11am… There was a phone outside that said to lift if office was unattended but this was just going to voicemail.

So we decided to find somewhere to have lunch a bit out of town where we felt it would be safer to have the car there for an hour or so. We managed to find a place where the restaurant was leased by a RAAF spouse, so we had a good chat to her. She was lovely and much more positive about things than the lady in Coober Pedy. They have been here 2 years and when her DH was asked if he wanted to go somewhere he said he and his family were quite happy so they put his file away for now. The lady’s 13 yo daughter was there too and she was lovely and positive also. They also have a 5 yo boy so were able to tell us a bit about the preschool situation for Mitchell as well as the schools. She also talked to us about how to keep your electricity bill down with the air conditioning, which was nice.

And we went to check out the base, had a bit of a drive around the houses, thinking how cool it would be to live there, and then we went for a swim. A more beautiful pool I have never seen. There is an Olympic sized pool as well as a kid’s pool, which is 40cm deep in one half, the other half is 80cm which is just up to Mitchell’s neck so really the perfect size for him. As the lady had said earlier that day, the base is like an oasis, there are palm trees everywhere, bike paths, and everyone rides their bikes to work on the base or to the pool and gym. Well, technically, the houses, gym and pool are all outside the actual base where you need your ID to get in, but you do need ID for the pool or gym, although you can bring friends too…

Eventually we managed to check in, it turned out the guy who would normally be there was out of town, and the phone goes to his mobile which would have been out of range, which was why there was no answer. So we finally got to empty the car for the last time, yay!! We can do as many trips as we like to move it to our new home later.

The apartments are nice enough. There’s enough space and we have all our own facilities for washing, cooking and dishes, although with the size of the fridge and the quality of the cooking utensils, it’s not as easy in reality as it is in theory but we’re pretty keen to get into our own place and to have our things and be able to fill the fridge and pantry and cook real food.

So on Monday we went to see DHA about a house, but nobody was available so we had to come back at 10… When we went back, we asked the lady (who was really lovely) about a house on base, but she told us that with the upgrading (they’re redoing all the on base housing to modernise them and stuff) there is no housing available on base and everybody wants to live on base. While we were there 2 other people came in asking about on base housing and got very rude to the poor lady and one guy asked to see the manager, who then came out and told him the same thing… In the end we were offered 2 homes, one at Michael’s rank, which was nice enough but would not have fitted all our furniture, not to mention that it didn’t have a shed or garage so no idea where bikes, tools, etc would have gone, and one 4 bedroom home at the next rank. Now this place was completely beautiful, definitely nicer than any other place we’ve lived in. And with a (small) shed, 4 bedrooms, ensuite and lots of cupboards, we’ll have lots of room to store everything and space to play… The 4^th bedroom is a bit bigger than the 2^nd and 3^rd so that will be Mitchell’s playroom (family room) and I think we’re going to really like living there. And because they didn’t have 3 houses to offer us at Michael’s rank, we only have to pay the lower rent so yay for that!!

And there is a preschool and primary school around the corner and we have put Mitchell’s name down from the afternoon classes starting on 31 January. He is very excited and definitely ready. After next year, we can either continue him at the primary school where he will go to preschool, or there is also a fairly inexpensive private school within walking distance too, and it’s not difficult to get into any school you like around here, so we’ll have time to check it all out.