"THEY LIKE IT BOTH WAYS".........................

Well here goes with another update, and I hope I remember what has been going on the last couple of weeks, as it can become a blur at our age................

Last weekend, not the one just gone but the one before we had Jo and John fly in for a visit to the "outback".  They had a 2 hour delay which did not start their weekend off well, but I am sure they made up for lost time when they got here.  I darted out of work on the Saturday to pick them up and they had the arvo to do a bit of a drive around.  Sunday we worked so they were left to their own thing and did all the touristy things - doing the rock both ways!!!!!!!!!
Sunday night we had a night out at the "Outie" with a bbq tea and a bit of a dance.  We never stopped laughing the whole weekend - you know how it is - a simple comment turns into something major and the double meanings flowed.................
Monday saw us doing the Walpa Gorge walk at Kata Tjuta and into town for a quick lunch before we took John to see the stuffed animal display.  Monday night was Sounds of Silence Night, which is our third time, and I must say disappointing this time - the food was not up to par which is a shame when you take your guests to such a special place.  It was Janas birthday on the saturday so we all went together with Candices mum and dad Sharon and Geoff and had a great night.  We got the "special" bus home as none of us were capable of the drive home that is for sure.  The poor driver certainly earned his money that night as we were a rowdy lot.

It seemed to be the theme of the weekend really, that if there was noise - laughter - being hugely silly - it would be our group.  Is that a surprise!!!!!!!!!!!

We have this area at our van spot called "one tree" and John and Tone would go over there and try and solve any world problems - notice any change? NO!!  Firstly John thought Tone was taking him to meet a "local" called one tree not literally a one tree LOL LOL.

Tuesday morning was getting  up at 5.15am to do the sunrise camel ride - which was fantastic!!!!  As you will see from the photos its just amazing - something I would do again!!!

Sadly the time came for us to drop Jo and John at the airport and we hope they had a good time as we had a great time showing them our little bit of paradise here in the middle of Australia.

John is full of one liners but the best for the weekend is...............

If you keep doing what you've already done you will get what you've already got!

We have had another week fly by at work - so busy on the weekend with heaps of school kids on tour - ran out of hot chips, coke, ice creams, chocolates and the odd souvenir......

Enjoy the pics,
Love and miss you all

OUR SLEEPING QUARTERS......

JOHN MAKING SURE TONE DOES A GOOD JOB

TWINS............

TONE, CARO, JANA, CANDICE, JOHN JO, GEOFF, SHARON AT SOUNDS OF SILENCE

JANA AND CANDICE

SHARON AND GEOFF

THE ROWDY LOT!!!

CHEERS........

SILHOUETTE OF KATA TJUTA

US ON CONNOR

FEEDING MALLEE - ORPHANED

JO DOING SAME AND ADOPTED GRANDAD TOM

MALLEE AND TOM WANTING TO KISS ME......

ONE TREE LOOKS DIFFERENT DURING THE DAY AYE JOHN!!!

WE ARE ON OUR WAY UP.....

THE TRAIN

LOOKING AT ULURU AT SUNRISE

BOY RACER

GIRL RACER

DUAL CAB 

Carotone xoxo

Base Ride............

Hiya all,

We now have our working weeks sorted and that is a good thing - so our weekends will be Monday and Tuesday, very nice this week to have the two days off - although I had two days off crok with another bloody cold and COUGH!!!!

We were up sorta early on Monday and took the push bikes out to Uluru and rode around the base.  It was quite windy and most of it we were heading into the wind so a bit hard but certainly a lot quicker and easier than the 10km wall!!

Its funny though, you do not actually ride around a lot of the base, the track is a fair distance from it so I was a bit disappointed at that - but there are some sacred sites we have to avoid.  All in all it was another thing off the list to do while we are hare.  It is amazing all the same.

We are still settling in and getting the van, annexe and our area set up - we now have a triangle shade over the car and it can double as our outdoor entertaining area - very posh!
Tone and I were putting it up yesterday and a lizard got stuck in the chicken wire so he had to cut him out and the little buggar kept trying to bite him - no appreciation for being saved from certain death from the horrible minor birds!!!

There is this dog at work - he is so cute and now he gets all excited when any of us turn up for work - he is a real scardy though - living out at the community and not treated well, but on sunday when we were leaving he wanted to play and was running mad around the garden and then dunking his whole head in the bucket - not seen that before - he was wired for sound thats for sure.....He is called dog dog by us.

Today just chilling, I had a defurring and that felt good - TMI  I guess but its good not to be totally ferrell even if we do live in a van! (Trailer Trash).

Hoping all dads had a great day on sunday.

Oh well not much more news this week but off to "town" for a nice lunch in the sun..
How could I forget - to thank my friend Wendy from Shepparton who sent me my T Bags - I think I will be stocked for quite some time.  Mmmmmm

Love and miss you all

Carotone
xoxoxo

Two Months in Uluru NT

Hiya all,

Well we have now been in Yulara NT for two months and where has the time gone - we are working a lot but have still managed to have Lauren and Nik for a visit and Tracey and Andrew here for a week as well.

Next visitor will be Jo and John - looking forward to their visit and hope they enjoy this magical place.

Of course you are all welcome to come visit and take in this amazing place.......

Well it is starting to warm up - all of a sudden - this week is in the 30's but not so bad at work - its amazing its heaps cooler outside the van is like an oven!

I have had my first experience with a snake (a dead one).  It was in the carpark at work a little 5 ring brown snake (very rare), now even rarer.....It had a bad headache! Chez picked it up and put it in a bucket and took it to the park rangers office. BRAVE WOMAN!!!!
It was funny on the weekend - Tone and I were on our own on the arvo shift and this Indian family came in to get a well desserved ice cream and there was screams and oohs and not me...
It was a mouse a bit splattered on the floor in front of the cafe counter - NOT A GOOD LOOK AYE!!!
Tone had to do the scrape up and mopping up, then I was over serving at the souvenir counter and I look down and its mate was dead right under my feet.  I had to continue serving the customer with "that" thing under my feet....Oh well I better get tuff being out here in the outback aye!

We have our austar on now so when it is hot we can veg in the van and catch a movie - that will be nice.....

Not much other news this week - only I have a cold back again and have been to the doctor to get drugs as I don't want it to get to my chest again and head down the pnuemonia track again.....

Tone and I are negotiating with work and will be having Mondays and Tuesdays off as weekend which suits us as we find the 6 days straight is quite tiring as we both run all day, which we like but we need also to recoup to take on another week.

SSSSHHHHH.................
I am showing you some pics of our work place but don't tell anyone...............
Love and miss you all

Enjoy the pics

Love

Souvenir Shop

Tone standing at counter - souvenir to left - cafe to right....

Upstairs dining area with view of uluru - will be for sunset dining soooooooonnnn....

Brekky servery area

Looking down at souvenir shop from store room

The Kitchen where the gals and wilson prepare great food....

Back carpark 

The view from upstairs dining room.....

Carotone xo

Kata Tjuta - Amazing Place.....

Hiya all

It was our day off today and we ventured out firstly to Mutitjula (aboriginal community) to fill our gas bottle and it was very different how they live out there...No wonder there are heaps of signs saying do not enter - its a bit of a dump and they want us all t have mutual respect - well it should start with themselves....

We spent 3 hours doing the valley of the winds walk today and it was an amazing place to take time out to soak up the wanders of how and why this formation and its "serenity".

The pics will not really do it justice but hope you enjoy them as we marveled at this place.

Once we arrived back at civilisation we got all the upcoming birthday pressies and cards sent and as we are in the middle of australia - have to get these things done when you can..

And yes the austar dish is still not working even though we have now spent another $100 on a you beaut finder but to no avail so I reckon send it back - too hard - can't be fagged with hassle - oh well see what happens.....

Looking forward to having Jo and John visiting next month and showing off the sights of this amazing place.

\Love and miss you all

Enjoy the pics
Love Carotone

Setting off into the Valley

A rest by the billabong

The colours are amazing

A hidden valley

Being artistic

The sign says "Helicopter Pad No 2"

Aaawh pretty aye................

a cute bird and the made a nice sound too...

AMAZING PLACE

Hiya

On our way home...

xoxo

The Week that Was in Uluru - Tracey and Andrew Visit us!!

Hiya all,

Well we have had a great week here in Uluru, the photos will tell most of the story but I will give you a briefing.......

Both Tone and I had just finished a 7 and 8 day straight stint at work and were really looking forward to a few days off that is for sure.

We were up earlyish on Monday the 15th as it was arrival day for chook and AJ!  So we got some chores done and into town and back to get ready to pick them up.  Boy it was good to see them step off the plane - even though AJ had scared me and got me a good one - saying he had gone to work and was now racing to the train to get to the airport with NO CLOTHES - I believed it until he was actually in the terminal - yeah of little faith - I was a bit devo that he had forgotten he was coming to visit!  But I figured he was a busy boy and anyway they both made it here with all clothes in tact.  Tone and I had been up town to try and get him some clothes at least - lucky we did not go overboard - seen as he had a bag ful!!! LOL LOL....

Well off to Alice Springs so Tone could get some supplies for work and drop some things back to suppliers.  We all had a turn at driving and AJ got pulled up at Mt Ebenezer by the police for a random check - all ok and off we go.
Alice is not a place you would spend a lot of time in but we got supplies and decided to head back to Yulara on Tuesday Arvo instead of Wed morning.  We had got on the road about 2.30pm after the grog shop opened at 2pm and we got some supplies and we were about one hour into the trip south and we stopped for a bush fire which had been burning for already 4 hours.  Lucky we only had to sit for an hour and we headed off again......
Not too happy about the fact that we would now be getting home in the dark - not good to do so around here with camels and cattle wandering around.  The only thing we hit were mice running across in front of us.  But we did see a dead camel and boy it  STUNK!!!!!
Home to get unpacked and cooked the kids favourite meal of tuna voulavants for tea.....
Wednesday and we headed to our work for brekky and tried to get the climb in but too windy.....
Gave AJ and chook the tour of our town and back to the van to get ready for our sounds of silence dinner - FANTASTIC again!!!
Back to work Thursday and AJ and chook had the car so they could do their thing around the area.
They tried to climb the rock but chickened out and so chook came back to the shop and AJ decided to do the base walk but as you will see in the pics he took a wrong turn - lucky his is in training.  Bad chaif and a bit knackered he was last night!!!!

Today was hometine for them - very sad - but a most enjoyable week for all of us!

Oh by the way how could I forget - we have renamed Tone "George" as he was trying for days to get the Austar to work but to no avail -  can you picture the scene - him on the roof and AJ mostly down here trying to communicate the signal figure - very funny - but funny how Tone (George) could not see the funny side!!!

And we still do not have the austar running and it is now in the lap of the gods - or an austar technical man to come and do his thing.


Well its now the end of our story and hope you all enjoy the pics as they tell more of the story.

Love and miss you all


Carotone
Oh there goes the SOS bus...........................

Mungrel leave Ma Alone

I showed 'm who is boss

Sunset on way to Alice

Chooks better side

Road Block for Bush Fires on way home from Alice

Aj Having a "Roady"

Us

Hot Stuff hey

Mmmmm Look at the chins 

Kuniya Water Hole

Baby Camel -Mallee

Tone "George" installing Austar Dish-Still Not working

Chooks turn to drive (Oh Shit)

Waiting for SOS bus

Who does the bloke on the Right look like ???

Cheers to Uluru

Cheers Again

Great Night out 

I Got as far as the chain

Sweaty Palms kicked In (Better go back down)

Green-Uluru Track,Purple-Aj's Track,Orange-(LOST)

Dont Touch Me