It was stinking hot again as we headed back
to Alice Springs. We still didn’t have air-conditioning in the car so the
windows were down as we sped along the highway. This is a minor point of
difference within the family – I like to have windows down with the wind creating
crazy hairstyles for all of us, whereas Bill prefers the coolness of air-con with
windows sealed. But we both agree that air-con rules when driving slowly around
towns in 40+ degree weather or waiting in the car while the other runs errands…
So we were heading back to Alice to get the air-con fixed - and for doctors
appointments and to catch up with old friends who live there. We arrived early
enough to check into the fancy pants Big 4 caravan park - complete with sparkling kitchen and jumping pillow.
Next morning, I awoke
with a seriously sore eye that did not allow for contact lens use – and so spent
the morning half-blind and uncoordinated. So we visited the Alice Springs hospital (not for the first time but that is another story for a different day) and then a local optometrist
who prescribed antibiotic drops every half an hour and a rest from lenses for 4
days. Fortunately the drops seemed to clear up the infection but made me super
sensitive to the sun for a few days... Still, we managed to check out the town’s
reptile park where I watched one-eyed as the kids draped pythons around
themselves and posed for the cameras. Zara was intensely taken with the bearded
dragons with their bobbing heads and grinning faces. The rest of our day – and
indeed the next one – was spent half-blind and waiting for boring things like
the car to be fixed and the washing to be done. All sorts of sightseeing plans
were put off due to the hot weather and eye problems – we were disappointed that we
didn’t make it to the Desert Park which is supposed to be very cool, or to the
School of the Air which would be interesting for us.
Still, we did manage to have a meal with
old friends Sasha and Mike, who moved to Alice 7 years ago and have since produced two
extremely cute red-haired and cheeky faced boys, Pasco and Mishka. They have
recently bought a house on a huge block and we gazed enviously as the kids
hooned around their amazing backyard space – filled with chickens, trees to
climb and even a home-made pirate ship tree-house. We were interested and
tempted by their descriptions of life in Alice – where their kids enjoy a type
of running-around-outside-all-day-every-day and camping-every-weekend freedom
that ours could only dream of and where Sash and Mike can both work part-time
in interesting and challenging jobs. Mike works in a program that implements
sustainable energy in developing communities around the world, whilst Sasha
works for an Aboriginal women’s group. The kids got along like a house on fire
whilst we chatted. What shame we only had the one evening – we could have talked
to them all night, but the kids had to go to bed and we moved on the next day.
Kate was dreaming of a life in Alice
Springs – freedom, warmth, swimming in Big Ellery Rockhole, a big back yard,
hanging out with Sash and Mike, camping every weekend, interesting work… Bobbing
bearded dragons in the backyard would have clinched it for Zara. Bill, of
course, had already lived in Alice as a kid and so we drove past his old house
and school and the kids tried hard to imagine a cheeky-faced 10 year old Bill
hooning around the streets on his BMX…
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