West Maconnell Ranges and Alice Springs

Dear Grade 4,
Sorry I haven't written for a while. I've been having so much fun that I forgot. I"ve also been off line out in the West Macdonnell Ranges.

I hope you all have been having fun, because I definitely have been because it's my sisters birthday.

We went to Ellery Big Hole. It is a narrow gap in the rocky range where a creek runs through and you can swim in it. No Crocs.

We visited the Ochre pits which is a place where Aborigines found the clay that they used to paint their bodies for ceremonies. In the photo below I'm holding a lump of yellow ochre and I've painted my hand with it.

We spent 2 nights at Red Bank Gorge. This was also a gap in the rocky range where a creek flowed and you could swim. I found a Grasshopper at our campsite. It is VERY well camouflaged. See if you can see it in the second photo.

We did a BIG walk around Ormiston Gorge Pound. (Like a dish). There is Rocks there that have the ripples from the bottom of the ocean or a river on them.

Yesterday we went to the School of the Air. The students only see their teachers once or twice a year at Open School Day, where they travel hundreds of Km to Alice Springs for school sports and to meet their teachers and other students. Their lessons are done over the internet and used to be done with a radio.

From Tom

Walk swim bbq

Dear grade3,
Yesterday I went to see Uluru sunset. I sat on top of my car to watch it. It was very orange. In Uluru there is LOTS of red sand. Lots of aboriginals, ants, festivals, centerpeeds, and flys (soooo annoying!) My favourite animal the  blue tongue lizard. I also went to a walk with my mum, my dad, my grandparents and some of you know my big brother Tom. I also had a swim at the caravan park. Today i am traveling 400 km to Alice Springs and thats also were I'm having my birthday on the 30th of april.

Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park

dear grade 4
Yesterday I did a walk around Uluru. The walk was called Kantju Gorge. The walk bought you to a small lake the wall had black stains from water dripping down it. We learnt that aboriginals would hide in the trees near water and when emus started running of after a drink they would only spear the last ones. They would only spear the last ones so the others would not get  scared of the river. We also learnt about the blue tong lizard man. he is an important aboriginal because of his story and what his story teaches people one day he was walking and He found a wounded emu he new it he new some other people were going to finish it of but he killed it any way. He made a fire and cooked the emu then some hunters came along and said"have you seen our emu" 'no' he said so they walked of in disappointment. The hunters new he was lying so they followed the trail of meat he dropped. they found his cave and cooked the meat he dropped he choked on the smoke and started falling down Uluru leaving flesh behind him.
From Tom.  

Coober Pedy to northen territory

Dear grade 4
Yesterday we arrived at yulara in yulara theres something if never seen in my life and that's Uluru [Airs Rock]. It is much bigger then i expected. Today were going to get really close to it so close that we can touch it. Have a grate genies day.
From Tom

This is the photo i took of Uluru.

Port Augusta to Coober Pedy

dear grade 4,
in this picture i am on top of the roof of the apartment we are staying in i know it may look like i am on solid ground but that's because i am.I am on the roof and on the ground because we are staying UNDER GROUND!Where in Coober Pedy and its so hot that people live under ground or in a mountain. Coober Pedy is a name made by aborigines it means white mans burrow. Coober Pedy is famous for its Opal. Opal is a type of gem stone that is worth alot of money-more than gold. Yesterday on our way to Port Augusta we crossed the Murray and it is much smaller than i thought.We were not allowed to bring fruit into the state because of a fruit fly that they don't want. One more thing that we saw today was a dead kangaroo we saw the top half but no bottom half
from Tom  

Our trip up to Mildura

Dear grade3,
Welcome back to school! I wish i was with you guys for the first day back at school  yesterday i got up at 6 o'clock  i didn't have breakfast at home i had a bacon and egg muffin at maccas. We saw HUGE piles of salt. My dad (brendan) pointed out big tubes called silos that are full of wheat ready to be taken by truck to the flour mill in Kensington to be crushed into flour.

Going to Mildura

Dear g4
Yesterday we were driving for 5 and a half hours. We did have some breaks at McDonald's wedderbern and ouyen.dad is going to do dad school for the whole trip but some times he might forget to do it.i hope you enjoy your first day back at school and i also hope that you hade the best easter ever. yesterday dad showed us (grace and me)where they  put the wheat after harvesting after it gets stored for a while then people in Kensington order  the wheat and  turn it into flour. If you go to the library then can someone please bring my book back.
From Tom