Around Oz with the Munchkins: Fluffy dogs in Alice, cooler weather and body paint in Ormiston

It was a mega-drive to get from Davenport Ranges to Alice Springs. Somewhere along the way our air conditioning gave up the ghost and so we sailed along with windows down, sweaty knees an wind-blown hair. By the time we rolled into Alice we were incredibly dusty and windswept. But we were also starving hungry and not keen for pizza or the other usual quick fixes and so we decided to brave an Indian restaurant despite our ragged appearance. With a quick change of t-shirts in the car park, an attempt to drag a comb through our hair and a dash to the toilets to wash hands and faces - we managed to look vaguely like normal town folk and to avoid being turned away. We munched our way through samosas, aloo palak and butter chicken before rolling onto the first caravan park we spotted - which turned out to be the local pet-friendly park which meant every grey nomad and their fluffy dogs were set up there.

When we emerged from the ten the next morning, all the men were up taking fluffy white dogs for a walk before polishing non-existent smudges from the exterior of their fancy caravans. Our rather dilapidated trailer looked a bit sorry amongst their fancy vans - but that just made us love it more! Still we had lots of friendly and chatty neighbours and Zara was in seventh heaven with all the dogs to play with. We spent a day in Alice doing all sorts of practical but uninteresting things. We realised that the next few days were going to bring a reprieve from the stinking hot 40+ weather and so we decided to hightail it out of Alice towards the West MacDonald Ranges, Kings Canyon, Uluru and Kata Tjuta. We were keen to do some hiking around these places and knew we would enjoy some cooler weather in which to exert ourselves! Before we left Alice we went to the Post Office and picked up a package from Bill's parents which was full of lovely books and clothes. It seemed impossible that Zara would wear a cute fluffy tracksuit until we got back to wintery Melbourne - but little did we know she would have it on before the week was out!

So we said goodbye to Alice almost as soon as we had said hello and drove to West to Ellery Big Hole - a fabulous swimming spot remembered fondly by Bill from his Alice Springs childhood and by Kate from previous trips. We splashed around in the cool water and felt pleased not be on a organised tour as we watched several groups come and go with their guides allowing them 5-10 minutes in the water before they were marched back to their buses...

When we had had enough we drove onto Ormiston Gorge and set up in the lovely shady camspite. That evening it started to cool down. It had been so long since we had experienced even slightly cool weather - that we sat outside and felt incredibly refreshed and pleased with ourselves and the world. A gang of other kids were at the camspite so Zara and Sash were soon fighting with sticks, playing footy (note to self - must teach kids to kick a footy...) and other shenanigans. Next morning we celebrated the cool weather with a long hike into the Pound and up through the gorge. Too cold for swimming - can you believe it??? In the afternoon, the kids played and played and played - and then played some more. The other kids had visited another gorge that day and brought back some different coloured ochre stones so they mixed water with the ochre and painted each other all over. We got chatting to some of the other parents and listened enviously to stories of their travels all around the world - China, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Europe then back to Australia for 5 months camping! Fantastic. Lovely people with lovely kids. We would have liked to have stayed longer and hung out more, but it was time to move onto to Kings Canyon.