Today we went to the springs at about 8:30am. There were a few people there when we got there. We then came back and had breaky. We were starving. Then we went to have a look at the Mataranka thermal pools. it was more like a made swimming pool then a all natural spring. We Then went to the re-constructed home stead. The verandah was really wide. The movie We Of The Never Never was made at that place. Next we went to the place were the original house was that the author Jeannie Gunn lived. We went on to the cemetery where several of the characters from We Of The Never Never were buried. It was very interesting. Next we went to have Barra and Chips for lunch. While we were waiting for lunch we went to see the Barra feeding. It was fun to watch. The feeder had this fishing rod looking thing which they put the fish (food) on the end and give it to the fish. The fish grab the food and give their head a big shake to get ride of the scales so there is just a clean bit of fish. After lunch we came home and went for another swim at Bitter Springs then sat around for a while and had dinner. Then we sat around a fire with some other people.

We only had a short drive to Mataranka today. On the way we stopped at a place for morning tea. It was a funny place and the owner was a character who’s name was Fran. When we got to Mataranka we set up camp in a caravan park near Bitter Springs. It is a nice caravan park. They grow mangoes at the place we are staying and they gave us a taste of dried mango. It was quite yummy. Once we were set up we walked down to the Bitter Springs thermal waters. It was fantastically warm and very natural. We hired some noodles. On our noodles we just floated down the springs. On the way down the springs there were lots of spiders, they were really big, we are not sure what they were but they were cool! If you look closely in the photo, you might be able to see one. It takes about fifteen minutes for the gentle current to take us to some steps where we have to get out. It is a very quick walk back to the start to do it all again. It is fun! We did that a couple of times before we came back to the van and had dinner. Now that we have crossed the tropic of Capricorn the weather is a lot more tropical and warm. It has reached high 20s!
Tara

Today we came to Daly Waters and on the way we saw Brumby horses on the road. We sat down for a bit after we set up. We went for a swim in the pool after that. It was cold. We went to the pub for tea. Mum and Dad had barra and beef on the BBQ that was on. Tara and I had nuggets and chips. There was a show on that night. It was sort of a music and joke thing. The pub is a historic pub and it has been there since 1930. Inside the pub there were lots of undies and things hanging on the walls with things written on them. There was an airport there that was used in WWII and before as an international airport with flights coming in from Singapore, Perth and Queensland.
Tess

We left Alice Springs early in the morning and drove to Devils Marbles. When we got there we went for a walk. On the walk we saw some German Astronomers. They had all their telescopes and things set up to watch the Transit of Venus. It had already finished but they showed us some photos and through the telescope they showed us the sun spots. It was cool! They had come all the way to see the Transit of Venus. We were walked around the devils marbles then around the road. The walk was about 5 kilometers. For dinner we cooked chicken on the camp fire in the camp oven. It was very yummy!
Tara

We went to the Alice Springs school of the air. (ASSOA) the ASSOA is the biggest classroom in the world. It’s 10 times the size of England. The students of school of the air all have a home tutor as well. The home tutor is either one of their parents or a person who comes out and is their tutor. They have an hour and a quarter of lessons using satellites with their teacher in Alice Springs. The rest of the day they work with their tutor.
After dinner we saw the partial lunar eclipse of the moon. It was a clear night so we saw it. There was like a shadow on the moon.
Tara

In the morning we went to a free pancake breakfast that the caravan park put on. Yum! The record for a female pancake eater was 9 but I could only eat 3. We went to the telegraph station afterwards. Before the telegraph station opened in 1872 it could take up to several months to get world news to Australia and from Australia to the rest of the world because it had to come by ship. There were 3000 kilometers of telegraph wire on 36000 poles from Adelaide to Darwin! From Darwin there was an under sea cable that linked Australia to Singapore. Messages were sent through morse code which is made up of short and long taps. There are about 7 of the original sandstone buildings left at the telegraph station. We then went to The Royal Flying Doctors Services. (RFDS) The Alice Springs RFDS provides medical services to remote areas of Australia. They currently cover 7,150,000sq km, which is an area larger than western Europe. Before it opened in 1928 many of people died that, if they had of got a doctor soon enough, would have lived. We went inside a model plane. It must be very hard to work as a nurse in the plane, you can’t stand up. Something like 90% of the patients they help are Aboriginal.
Tara

Today we left Kings Canyon and drove to Alice Springs via the Mereenie loop and this was a dirt road. It took us about 4.5 hours to travel about 350 KMs because the road was so bumpy! Our only stop was at Hermannsburg. We saw the house that the famous aboriginal artist lived in. His name was Albert Namatjera. At Hermannsburg we went for lunch at a cafe in the old building. We then went for a look around the old Lutheran Mission buildings. There were old maids rooms, a church, an infectious diseases room which was an old tin shed. There was also an old school house as well. When we got back to the car we tried to unlock it but the battery was flat because we didn’t unplug the fridge. We had to get some people to help jump start our car! It was hard because we have a aVW and you have to do something different to jump start it. When we finally got the jump start cords in the right spots we had to wait for the battery to charge a little bit before we went. We stood around talking to the people that helped us and they told us that there was a place to fossick for gems in Alice springs . We then went to Alice Springs.
Tess