The rotation of neighbours in this park so far has been fascinating, not only from the perspective of families coming and going, but the bizarre booking procedure the park seems to have adopted that if anyone books for extra time they actually move them to another site. Two people around us in as many days have been required to move from one site to another - one couple particularly unhappy because their second site was less than ideal. I suppose one should be grateful for a site at all and the fact that you are on holidays when many others are not. It's a place to sleep afterall.
Since we had washed everything else yesterday I thought probably the dog should have a good wash as well since she was making everything orange shedding all the Yulara dust throughout the caravan. In an effort to make the process a little less stressful on my back we came up with a scheme to put one of the small camping tables inside the shower and rig up an additional shower curtain with holes in it so that I could spray her from the outside without actually washing the inside of the van at the same time. Despite a $5 shower curtain from Mad Harry's not being the best choice in quality (actually it was about the consistency of tissue paper but somewhat more waterproof) it did the job and my back and knees were eternally grateful. She was standing like a turtle, but it was good to see the healthy shine back on her coat.
We set off to have a good drive around Alice as the last time we visited our primary focus was the dog shows we had entered here, and although Shane did go for a bit of a drive around while I tended to two dogs, we didn't really have much time in between to look around. With an estimated population of just over 29,000 it is only slightly smaller than Warrnambool but it is hard to gauge that by merely looking at its town centre. Shops and malls are tucked away, parking is a nightmare, and it seems as though the centre is crammed in to a few short blocks giving the impression it is in fact much smaller than it is.
One of our first stops was the famous Todd River, which of course for 95% of the year has very little or no flow of water at all, used - judging by the amount of footprints over every inch of its bed - as a footpath by hundreds of feet.
The industrial areas around the edge are huge and quite diverse and planning for future growth seems to have been a bit hit and miss. The saddest part is the huge gap between the more affluent areas to those clearly inhabited by indigenous people, many tucked away in far corners surrounded by industrial buildings or vegetated areas.
Lasseters Casino - another of our regular adverts in days gone by - was fairly low-key and not really on our radar to visit after we happened across it.
Just up the road, the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens named after Olive Pink - an Australian botanical illustrator, anthropologist, gardener, and activist for Aboriginal rights - looked interesting so we turned in. It is just another thing I love about travelling - the challenge to what is "your normal". We anticipate Botanic Gardens will be beautiful green grass, plants thriving in lush surroundings, none of this was the case for this area which had been created to inspire people about having gardens in remote arid areas with low rainfall. In fact sadly, a number of the shrubs and trees were struggling at best. Having Miss Kitty in the car with us and the temperature increasing we were reluctant to move far from the car and didn't go in to the cafe and information gallery, choosing to just drive through and take a few shots of interesting structures and artwork.
This particular sculpture was fascinating as the "intent" of the figure appeared to change when viewed from different angles.
It appears too that this type of garden edging has taken off in the popularity stakes as we saw a number of examples at various locations!
Back at camp, Shane dropped Kitty and I off and headed out to get some sunset photos from Anzac Hill while we enjoyed sitting outside again under the awning, reading and soaking up the relaxing atmosphere. We truly have been blessed so much with the weather, it is hard to believe that at home temperatures have been cold and rain plentiful.
38 km
Total - 3,436 km
Top today 23°c - expecting overnight 3°c
No comments:
Post a Comment