You know you're in the territory when...

you see two camels in the trailer at Tilmouth Well roadhouse and you don't look twice...

At the Show in Alice Springs. Friday 6 July, 2007:

What do you do when you have a winning image and you want to take it out on the road?



The R.M Williams mobile. It can roll into town, unpack a verandah complete with weatherboard cladding and bull-nosed corrugated iron roof. It also has a pop up corrugated hip roof out the top.

Also includes a matching Ford F250. One of the biggest trucks I've ever seen tourists drive around in. I am more scared of them when I cycle because the drivers aren't usually very good at driving this monster.

I can just imagine an emergency call to R.M Williams to have this thing dispatched around the country. Coming to a fair near you...

Random Entries that I've Forgotten

Earlier this year

Sometimes I forget to make entries and going back through stuff I see what I haven't blogged. So here is a little show of some of the pictures from earlier this year.



Earlier this year Alice had all the rain she would have for the whole year so far. This is a video from my phone (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6BGcOdwAtw).
The road was washed out for three day. It basically split the town in half. I was trying to ride to a house inspection on the other side of the river (which is where we live now). A reconnoiter for a bridge was necessary. Or I could just try to ride across but I did see one guy get swept away so there were second thoughts.

When the tide came down a little we could once again cross on foot.

This is us crossing over. The water was so nice. Here is what it looks like normally:

Naomi hates this picture but I assure you the umbrella was necessary due to the summer sun (and making Naomi look like a dag).

The water did good things to the landscape. The grass under all that water would grow like crazy afterwards.

Lots of crazy critters came out to feed on the sudden increase in bugs. Here is a cool lizard. Don't know what the heck it is but his head would turn red when I tried to catch him:

He was probably trying to get a piece of this:

When these guys are in town don't wear a head torch because they could take an eye out if they flew into your face.

Thats all for now.

Ciao.

The valley of the Palms and the Lutheran Mission

26 August, 2007

Naomi's father and his partner, Jenny, were up this weekend before shunting off on a road tour of the local sites.

They were kind enough to organise a trip to Hermannsburg and Palm Valley with Naomi and I.

Hermannsburg used to be a large Lutheran mission out from Alice Springs and the old church was kind of cool.

The church interior is great with no one in it. Austere and made from stone so that its nice and cool inside. The benches kind of hurt to sit on but I suppose it would keep you awake.

Jesus. Still looks white even though he was from the middle east (sorry, can't help but point out stuff about religion that we don't question). Some local folk don't kill donkeys because they call them Jesus horse.
My favourite building, the morgue.

It was so tiny. The slab took up much of the interior space.

This place also is the birth place of Albert Namatjira who was a famous water colour artist in the area. Go look him up.


Then we all piled back into the bus and rode out to Palm Valley. Some great shots out here.

This was a young Butcher bird that raided our rubbish and was altogether to nosey for his own good so I tried to catch him. He was was too quick though so it became quite apparent who was the novice at this rubbish stealing business.

So much information was just living in the rocks in this area. This was a fig tree that had grown on bare rock with roots hanging off looking for water. It was a natural bonsai tree due to the harsh environment. Best rock climber I ever saw.

We all stacked back in the bus and went home. Easy weekend up here in the top end.

Food. Glorious food.

17 August, 2007

Ragonesi Road; A small property with a feral rabbit problem. Who you gonna call?

I have been in the Alice Bow hunting club for 6 months now and it was about time I got some practice in.

We got a call to come out and help deal with a feral rabbit issue at a property just outside of Alice Springs. The owner wasn't allowed to shoot them as the area just got classed as part of town so you are not allowed to discharge firearms within town limits. So to the bow mobile we went.

We set out Friday night but it got dark too quickly to really have a good go. I broke an arrow when I shot at a rabbit at thirty yards as it began to move away from me. The arrow bounced where the rabbit had been and hit a bull dozer that the owner of the property had in his yard (the 'yard' is huge. It's almost 10 acres. Large considering the Australian dream is a 1/4 acre block). The bull dozer was okay but my arrow was a wreck.

The next morning Ben set out on his own (I went to a party Friday so there was no sunrise stalking for me).

Ben had no trouble with his crazy fast bow in the increasing daylight.


It was a good shot. The rabbit did not suffer for long.


Ben then had the good grace to bring me this on a Saturday morning to wake me up with. I said he was like a house cat.
He has eaten a fare share of rabbits in his day and gave this to me so I could try it.
Oh well. If I have to skin something I prefer the morning.


Here is the sequence for anyone interested. Make a small cut through the back of the rabbit skin to create a hole.

Get both your hands in there and pull apart. Done. All over in 5 seconds.

Remove head and fur.

Cut the stomach lining trying not to cut the innards. Roll onto side and shake it all out.


Butcher and cut up as you like and cook. Cook it in a recipe where you have to boil it for a while as there are a few things that could give you some trouble if you eat raw food. Especially game meats. I made a curry. Delicious.

Maybe next some KFC style rabbit. Naomi loved it also and mentioned that, although she didn't enjoy the fact that this meat was not anonymous, it was good to eat.

Bon Appétit. Good hunting.