Kylie and Tina are travelling with their family from Cairns to Alice Springs as part of the Follow the Sun Relay. This post is about the section from Gemtree to Alice Springs.
We need to be at the front of the park at 8.15am and for once we were on time. Here we collected our fossicking tools, and headed 30km out of town in search of garnets. After a short demonstration of what we needed to do, we were allocated a hole to dig in and we were on our way searching for a big gem. The girls enjoyed sieving the rocks and searching for the sparkly red gems!
Time went by quickly, we spent four hours in the red dirt, all struck by gem fever (some more than others). Kiahna and Eliana took some time out and played in the dirt and reconstructed a scene from Jurassic Park. Even though the girls were orange from head to toe, it was refreshing to see they were having a great time, getting along nicely and using their imaginations! We returned to the park to have our collection sorted and graded and were happy we found 3 x 3mm and 2 x 4mm that are able to be cut for jewellery and a big bag of garnets that have blemishes or bubbles which will be used for the girls show and tell.
We were all feeling dirty and dusty, but eager to hit the road to Alice Springs. Along the way we stopped at The Tropic of Capricorn and the girls soon realised we also stopped at the same marker in Longreach.
The next obligatory photo was at the Welcome to Alice Springs sign where the girls were happy to stretch their legs, climb the sign and pose!
Soon after we arrived at BIG4 MacDonnell Range Holiday Park and escorted to our site where the kids quickly realised that the local birds (Australian ring neck parrots) like to eat Jatz crackers straight off the table! Whilst the parrots had very few table manners we ensured the children were bathed and used theirs for an early dinner and bed after a long day.
Early the next day the kids woke to an epic challenge of Skipbo topped off by pancakes topped with fresh strawberries, icing sugar and golden syrup. Life’s tough on the road, but someone’s gotta do it!
We had an easy day enjoying the facilities of the BIG4 MacDonnell Range Holiday Park, which included the slides, swimming pool, go-carts, jumping pillow and for the parents a coffee cart, gym and TV room (Kylie really enjoyed the laundry, getting ready for Uluru and our last chance of washing).
That afternoon we attended “Happy Hour” in the Kangaroo Shed where our gracious host Brendan and his team put on a great spread of wine and cheese followed by live entertainment by singer-songwriter Barry Skipsey.
-Tina and Kylie
Check out more Follow the Sun Relay posts here!
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