Rainbow Valley

I was walking thru the mall oneday, and i came across an auction. The Salvation Army hold it every year to raise money. They had some good things up for auction so i stuck around. Emu Run Tours came up, a trip to Rainbow Valley with a barbeque dinner, so I put in a bet. Blow me down, I got it. $96 for 2 people. They usually sell for around double that price. They picked Mike and I up at 4.00pm and we headed to Rainbow Valley, its about an hour south of Alice. Its yet another rock formation, one of the youngest around here. Only around 20 - 80 million years old. On the edge of it sits a big clay pan, they say not to go onto the middle of the clay pan because it can be soft and you sink into them. We had a look around and found sitting on a rock a little dragon, we would think its a lizard. Mike got a photo then it took off, and it ran on its back legs standing up. It looked so funny. We had a wander around then headed back for some drinks and a very yummy barbeque. It was a very pleasant afternoon, and alot better for Mike than getting beaten at Chess again. Ha ha haha.(I was on a roll).

A mixed Christmas!

This christmas was not going to be like any other for me. I was in the middle of the desert, with none of my family around me. No christmas carols, no christmas eve drinks with my sister. No littlies trying to stay up as long as possible, not getting to sleep till after 11pm. There was no doubt i was going to be quite sad for xmas. But not to be a christmas kill-joy, i still went out and put up my xmas decorations in the van(including a very little xmas tree). Mike took a little while to get into the spirit, but before i knew it there was a santa present under the tree. In Germany they open there presents the night before christmas, they call this the holy night because its when mary and joseph went to bethlehem and had jesus. So as you can probably guess all day i was saying to mike "is it time yet? can we open them now?" It was a terrible wait for me. I almost couldnt bear it. But when the sun went down, mike rang the bell(car keys) to say it was time to open the presents. He had candles lit all around the room, it was just perfect. I got the most georgous gold teddy bear, he is so soft, and is so good to cuddle. I named him Jack. I got mike a shirt with "mother" written on it(its the name of his band in Germany). And also a stubbie holder with a photo of himself on it playing the guitar, he loved it. So we had a very cosy little christmas with just the 2 of us. We both were talking to our family but i guess its just not the same as them being here. So a very mixed christmas, but also one of the nicest.

Hot Air Ballooning

Well im pretty sure now that i have done just about all i can in Alice. I have now been hot air ballooning. 3.00am we got picked up by downunder ballooning. Yep, that is 3 oclock in the morning. we had a few more pick-ups to make then off we went to find a launch site. We stopped on the side of the road and the pilot let off a balloon, this had a light in it so you could see which way the wind was blowing. After watching the balloon we headed for our launch site. Waited, waited, waited... then got told, sorry the wind is to strong, we're not going. But we'll try again tomorrow. So at 3.00am the next morning we were up again, looking worse than we did the first morning. Picked up more people and once again found ourselves looking up at the sky watching a little balloon with a light in it. Headed for a different launch site, and waited... every now and then watching yet another little balloon rise into the sky. We're Going!!! So out comes the balloon, it is massive. on goes the basket, in goes the hot air. The basket gets laid on its side, we all jump in sideways and before you know the balloon has raised the basket, with all of us in it, to a standing position again. This is the quick version of course, all together this would have taken a good hour to complete. Then with help from the ballooning team, we had lift off. Yeah!!! It was very peaceful floating across the sky, except for when the burners went off. We only got to a 100mts up, and unfortunately the only thing we saw were cattle. No big red kangaroos. So half an hour later and after hitting one tree we bunny hop to a stop. I think the best part of it was the setting up of the balloon. The packing up of it was a bit of hard work. It was all worth it tho, we got back to find a very nice breakfast waiting for us. Yum yum yum...