A Truckload of Trucks hits the Alice (Alice Springs Truck Parade and Show – August 2010)

Posted August 30, 2010 By admin

A lovely old Bedford truck

Before last weekend, I’d never considered a truck to be a thing of beauty.  Sure, I’ve looked on some of the enormous outback road-trains with a sense of awe, or should I say terror, as they loom towards you in an all-engulfing cloud of dust along a rough dirt road.  But the enormous gathering of trucks, old and new, large and small, in Alice Springs for the National Road Transport Hall of Fame re-union changed all that.  I’m now in love with trucks.  I want to be a truck-driver when I grow up!

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Categories: Northern Territory, Travel Blogs

Henley-on-Todd Regatta, Alice Springs 2010

Posted August 22, 2010 By admin

The regatta gets underway.

Forget all the hype about the Federal Election, there was something far more important and exciting happening today in Australia– the Henley-on-Todd Regatta!  Today marked the 49th consecutive year for this annual event held in Alice Springs.  The Henley-on-Todd is unique among boating regattas in that it is held on the dry, sandy bed of the Todd River.  Indeed, when the river flows, as happened one year, the regatta is cancelled.   After all our rain this year, organisers were nervous in the lead-up to this weekend, especially with rain forecast.  They needn’t have worried – the weather was perfect and the regatta venue suitably sandy and dry.

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Categories: Northern Territory, Travel Blogs

Spring arrives early in The Alice

Posted August 15, 2010 By admin and has no comments yet.

Zebra Finch (male) gathering nesting material, Alice Springs

Spring has definitely arrived early this year in Alice Springs.  Everywhere you look, native shrubs are in flower, the birds are building nests and the hills still have a greenish tinge after consistent rainfall all this year.  It is gorgeous.  We are even getting a few days now above 20 degrees, although the nights remain cool.  Who would be anywhere else?!

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Categories: Birds, Marsupials, Northern Territory, Reptiles, Scenery, Wildflowers

Owls and Nightjars

Posted August 8, 2010 By admin

Barn Owl, Alice springs Desert Park

Owls and Nightjars are more common in the Australian bush than most of us realise.  Most are nocturnal – active at night – so we are largely unaware of their presence.  We may hear the hooting of an owl in the early hours of the morning, or see a dark shape fly silently overhead if we are outside at night, but otherwise we are unlikely to see them.

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Categories: Birds

Honeyeaters

Posted August 1, 2010 By admin

Golden-Backed honeyeater, Alice Springs Desert Park

If my memory serves me correctly, Australia has around 60 species of Honeyeater, native Miner and Spinebill.  And that’s not even counting the Wattlebirds and Friarbirds.  Needless to say, we have struggled with our identification of the many and varied Honeyeaters encountered during our adventures. We have both been heard to comment at times that “these Honeyeaters are doing my head in”.

To make the task more difficult, Honeyeaters are supercharged on a diet consisting mainly of nectar.  Like five year olds on too much red cordial, Honeyeaters don’t stay still for very long, making the task of identifying their species, or of taking a half decent photo, all the more challenging.

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Categories: Birds