Regular Alice

Ah Saturday in Alice, 12pm. I just melted taking the washing off the line, so it's time to stop, sit down, drink a nice cold bevvy and recap on the week that was.

Mum and Dad have just visited for a few days which was awesome. They came up with their 4wd on the Ghan from Adelaide last Thursday. Unfortunately I couldn't get out of the office at the right time to wave them in with my white hanky. Next time maybe. We had an action packed weekend with them, getting out to see a few of the sights closer to town. Saturday we drove out through the East MacDonnell Ranges visiting Corroboree Rock, Trephina Gorge, Arltunga and (almost) Ruby Gap. Sunday morning we spent a few hours at the Desert Park, and then in the arvo took in a concert at the Telegraph Station. They started the drive back to Canberra Monday morning, and I believe are currently getting rained out in Mildura.

The rest of the week was fairly standard, but was highlighted by 3 not-so-standard occurances.

#1: Giant Flying Condom. Unfortunately the GFC doesn't show up too well in this photo taken from the office window - it's the tiny white blip top-centre. Supposedly it was a huge weather balloon that was being built for ages here, and launched that morning from out near the airport. The skys were pretty calm that day so it took ages to float away out of view. Also, it looked 'used'.

#2: The Traick. The only way to get around the bush. ..as long as you only want to go North or South. I spied this speedy beauty the other morning whilst out riding. I just hope they timed it right (to miss the south-bound freight train)

#3: Exploding beer bottles! While loading the shopping on to the treadly at Coles the other night, I had the pleasure of having 2 beer bottles thrown at me. The first exploded just in front of me, the second flew passed and hit a parked car behind me. Nothing to do with me - they were meant for a porky white dude standing next to me. The exchange:
(Probably racist) white dude: "You drunk!"
(Probably drunk) black dude: "You racist!"

Rolly rolly

I was lucky enough to see my first roll cloud formation this morning while out riding Ross Highway. A pretty rare occurance for anywhere in the world, except over the Gulf of Carpentaria where the famous Morning Glory forms pretty reliably.

Remembering Willo

Last Friday was Willos funeral in the Southern Highlands. Unfortunately Po and I couldn't make it so we thought we'd do something special for him up here. Jumping on the bikes we went for an awesome 3hr night ride on the east side trails. We found a beautiful little elevated spot with views south to Alice, and on all sides to a gathering lightning storm. There, planted in the red earth, we both left him a candle and a message.

See ya Jimi. You were an inspiration.

Santa Teresa

So unfortunately, I've been getting pretty bored with the riding around here lately. The mtb trails were good. Great, even. But a combination of unsuitable terroir, unsustainable trail works and shite loads of rain have played havok with the singletrack, leaving behind either deep rocky ruts or rivers of deep deep sand.

Rideable? Barely. Enjoyable? Nope.

There's work being done of course (it has to be - just 4 shorts weeks away is the 5-Day Red Cenna Enduro!), but as far as I can tell it's been concentrated in one small area and has generally been of the create-new-trails-to-bypass-the-eroded-ones type of trail work. Sustainable practice?..

(Geeze, I didn't mean this to turn in to a rant now!)

Anyway, the short of it is, I've been venturing further afield for mtb riding pleasures. The other weekend Po had to drive out to Santa Teresa to drop off a TB patient, and so I put my hand up to keep her company on the return journey by riding out there in the morning. The ride promised somewhere between 80-100kms of fireroad, of unknown condition, through some scenic country, with the reward of a sports carni at Santa Teresa and a free lift back to Alice:)

I got lucky on the first one - it was only 80km - but lucked out on the second, the corrugations, but I now have a much tougher arse to show(?) for it. The scenery was great with beautiful rolling hills and barely a blade of Buffel grass in sight.

The ride did drag on a bit. Running out of water and food an unknown distance from Santa Teresa probably didn't help, but passing 2 fellas sitting on an esky full of tinnies under the 'Prescribed Area' sign certainly told me I was close. They gave an awesome wave too!

I got to within 5km of ST when a white 4wd pulled up along side and the driver tried, and succeeded, in picking me up. Luckily it was Po:) ST, and the carni, were great.

The famous church in ST.

"Carn you bloody Hawks!"

The drive back to Alice went smoothly at first. We did manage to convert one of the tyres to a low profile version. Unfortunately it was just the one, and probably a little too low profile to impress the chicks outside Bojangles. There was a slight hiccup in changing the tyre as the jack handle was playing hide-n-seek somewhere in the car, but we weren't far from Alice so a rescue by Po's boss was relatively quick and easy.

jarrad writes notveryregularly at the moment

..yep, it's true, and so its recap time! Hooray! I think i'll start with the most recent and work back as far as my memory will take me.

Kings Canyon.

What a rad place to spend a few days over Easter. Po and I piled our selves and our extraordinarily large esky in to the back of Jess and Geordies Suby and we hit the road. It's about a 300km drive SW of Alice, the middle 100 being dirt, and G kept us suitably entertained with his awesome driving (and Jess on the way back - thanks guys!). After arriving mid-arvo on the Saturday we set up camp and went for a drive to check out the deal-i-o. We managed to squeeze in the Rim Walk on dusk, which proved a magic time to do it. No flies, no tourists (except a few buzzing around up top in them whirly birds), perfect temps and magic light. (Damn, 'magic' twice. Ah well, it's a rad word).

The unfortunate flipside to this was that we had now exhausted our legal options for Kings Canyon.

Bring on the 'stealthwalk'!

I won't delve too much in to the meaning of our newly-coined pursuit. Suffice to say, Kings Canyon is a massive massive park with some amazing amazing things to see, or so we hear..



Now, with that done and dusted, it was time to hit up the town! Bring on $40 steaks and toneless renditions of 'Home Among the Gum Trees'! Yeehoo!