Battling Bureaucracy in Alice

The kids were disappointed that we missed the Regatta by a couple of hours, but cheered up enormously when they realised that the campground did a free pancake breakfast on Sunday morning. We duly attended this morning, where we met up with Ukulele Laurie, from Kings Canyon. We invited him to come busking with us, but he was off to Hermansburg. After a good scoff of pancakes, we got organised to go busking.

Despite the fact that we had booked in with the Market Organiser, and had made four phone calls to the Alice Springs Council to confirm permission, the Ranger had not been notified and he would not let us busk. The Markets were pretty busy too as it was a big weekend in The Alice, so it was a real shame.

However, we did learn a few things while getting into our 1930s costumes. Marcus forgot his boots. Ella has almost grown out of her new dress made so lovingly by Gran. I forgot my 1930s hat. I also forgot to organise footwear for myself. So we have a few things to do before our next attempt.

We trundled back to camp and spent the rest of the day here. The kids had a swim and tried to trick me into getting in, telling me that it was the warmest pool they had been in yet. I cottoned on to the fact that none of them were actually in the water when they told me that, so I didn't fall for it! Lachie and Ella had a great time on the jumping pillow, Marcus took the harmonica into the van to learn a break, Jackson, Dave and I started learning a couple of new songs and the day disappeared.

Tomorrow we head north on our way to Darwin. We are looking forward to the hot springs along the way after all our icy pool experiences lately. We are also looking forward to the temperatures warming again, as it is freezing sleeping in the tent since the cold change came through!

Stay tuned ...