The Alice to The Rock

Wed. 28th: Up at six and on the road at ten to seven. There were only fifteen of us on the bus as we set off on our six hour journey. The first thing I noticed about N.T. (Northern Territory) was that the speed limit is 130 km. Up until recently there was no limit until there was a bad accident during a ‘Cannonball Run’. I saw quite a few road trains some three and some four carriages long but none more than 55m.
The place is very un-desert like due to the rains. There was water flowing in most of the rivers and everywhere was so green. In a normal year they would expect to get 70 mls of rainfall but so far this year they have had 570mls! There was a noticeable absence of road-kill as the animals do not need to come close to the road to get the nice grass. We even saw two tractors cutting the verges! Seemed a little pointless as there was hardly a house within 100k. When we asked the bus driver why she replied:
“…because they can! It has been ten years since they have had that novelty.” Another highlight of our day was the two (and only) right turns we had to make. Other than that it was all straight ahead. We had plenty of stops for photos and food so the journey was not long in passing.
We passed through two or three cattle ranches each about 2,500 square miles in area. They supported about 8,000 head of cattle. Gives you an idea of the scale of the place.

Signs from Alice

Leave a comment if you can make sense of the above.

Alice Springs

Tue. Sept 27th: At last some heat though there was much evidence of recent rain in the greenness of the land and the puddles of water. Strange to have heat in the mid-twenties accompanied by a ‘cool breeze’. Alice Springs has grown from 125 years ago when it was just a station on the Overland Telegraph Line to a small town which now has about 28,000. 2,000 of these are Americans who have a secret base at Pine Gap a few miles outside the town. I could tell you what they do if it wasn’t a secret! You can see the Yanks driving their left-hand drive cars in town. 33% of the population is what my Canadian friends call First Generation. They are more in evidence here than anywhere I have been in Australia. The money they get from the Federal Government is called ‘Sit Down Money’ and you can see a lot of them doing just this in Alice. They call it ‘The Alice’ here and it is the main jump-off point for ‘The Rock’. It very easy to get around. I stayed at The All Seasons which has four stars because of the swimming pool which was being refurbished: I would have swum but there you go. The rest of it is a little ‘tired’ but it is clean and breakfast is included! I was able to walk to the Old Gaol and RFDS. The former was nothing spectacular except it had a ‘National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame’. This celebrates the first European women to brave the elements in the Outback up to 170 years ago. What they had to endure before ‘civilisation’ came in greater numbers was awe-inspiring. Sisters were doing it for themselves long before the song was written. The latter is The Royal Flying Doctor Service: you have seen the TV show. They bring medical aid to isolated communities in an area within 600km radius of Alice. An area as big as Western Europe is serviced by medical aircraft and radio consultancy.
I hired a bike for the afternoon and rode into town. It was only about five minutes away. Got some souvenirs and postcards and visited Anzac Hill which has panoramic views of the rugged Mc Donnell Ranges. Went for something to eat and found an Internet Café before returning for the sunset. I had to get off the bike as the hill was a little steep and then by the time I got to the top the sun had set. Other than that it was a great day. Early to bed as I have been up since four this morning and have to get up at six tomorrow. I will need a holiday to recover from this lark!

The Brownlow Medal

Monday Sept. 26th

Drove to Melbourne to stay in the Quality Hotel. $115 for the night with a free shuttle bus to Airport and able to leave my car there for four days for only $20. Good value when it would have cost me $99 in the Long Term Car Park. Have an early start so intended to go to bed very early. Unfortunately started watching the voting for the Brownlow Medal.

Each round, and there were 22 of them, the umpires vote on the three best players each match. The best on ground gets 3 and the others 2 and 1. The voting is like the Eurovision or like it used to be when somebody gave a toss. This was riveting viewing, the voting being interspersed with great moments in footy this year and in years gone by. At the halfway stage the favourite, Dane Swan (Collingwood) was way down the list, as was Gary Ablet (Geelong) the second favourite. Chris Judd (Carlton) took the early lead which was amazing considering he was suspended for the first three games. The players and their girlfriends/wives/partners were all sitting around dinner tables like it was the GAA Allstars. Setanta got one vote and Tadhg got two.
Jim Stynes was especially honoured. They showed clips of his career for five full minutes. They even had clips of him as a teenager playing for the Dubs. He had won the Brownlow in 1991 but he has done such great work for charity (The Reach Foundation) since then. He holds the record of the most unbroken competitive games over ten years. He has had cancer recently and continues to inspire those around him. He was elected Melbourne Person of the Year recently. “Many sports people inspires greatness but Jimmy fosters it.” He appeared at the ceremony to accept a special award and got a standing ovation which went on and on, from everyone in the hall. He still has the Dublin accent and he spoke very well. You could hear a pin drop in the hall everyone hung on every word. Twenty minutes all about Jim. He was given nine months to live fourteen months ago. Scary. Huge moment. I shed a little tear. His mantra: Do whatever it takes! WOW!
Some of the commentators there said that his story is the greatest story in the history of football.
Dane Swan was two votes behind with four rounds to go, Chris Judd was still leading. He is a class player who has already won the medal in 2004. He eventually won with 30 votes, Gary Ablet was second with 26 and the favourite Dale Swan was third with 24 votes. Chris mentioned Jim Stynes and his achievements as being greater than what any footballer does. Great excitement. Who needs the Eurovision?!

Local Grand Final Day

Today I went along to the Reid Oval in Warrnambool to watch the Grand Finals. There are a total of nine competitions in the Hampton League between netball and Football: Underage, Reserves and Senior. The day started at ten in the morning and continued until five o clock. Koroit were in two finals Senior Netball and Reserves (Resies!) Footy. Entry was $12 (about €8.50). On the way in I was asked if I would like a ‘Record’ which turned out to be a programme. It listed the times and 18 teams. The Hamden League has eight teams and the top five had gone into a playoff which favoured the league winners to produce two finalists. They don’t have ‘play-offs’ but rather ‘elimination finals’ with the first and second teams in the league getting a favoured draw. The exact same format is used for Netball. The finals run concurrently and they try not to have a clash by having the same clubs on at the same time. Not always possible so they had a large screen at the footy match showing the live netball matches.
It was a great family occasions and all bar one of the eight clubs had a team in one final or other. This is a great set up because it ensures a good turnout.
The crowd was still less than you would see at a County Final in Páirc Tailteann. They let cars into the ground and allow them to park on the hills on the three sides without a grandstand.

They even reserve parking spots for special needs and the elderly.

I met Di Looney who introduced me to Howard’s dad who was in a car in a special reserved space (he is 93 and still goes to matches). Food stalls and beer bars abound.
It rained on and off and was quite cold. I wore my Irish rugby jersey and it was the only green in the place. I did not bring my jacket as the sun was shining when I left the house, and I am in Australia! I was freezing and wet. I still can’t get into the mindset to prepare for winter conditions. I heard yesterday that it is wet and miserable in Uluru (Ayre’s Rock). I better bring a jacket and wellies with me next week!
Teenagers acted as water boys. At the end of each quarter loads of young fellas come on to the pitch to just kick around. When a goal was scored those in their cars hooted their horns. At half time they had a competition sponsored by Toyota. Six people who had won a draw tried to kick a ball from the 50 into the back of a pick-up (they call them yutes). It was worth five thousand dollars. No one succeeded. Then Jonathon Brown, a famous local lad who plays for the Brisbane Lions, tried for charity and he missed also.
Carmel, the DP in school was manager of the netball team who won a cliff hanger against Camperdown. They were five goals up at the end of the second half and five down at the beginning of the third quarter. Exciting stuff. I must learn the rules. Peter Mc Elgunn, Principal of St Pius P.S. and member of Koroit FNC gave me a present of the club track suit top which kept me warm and which will be a nice souvenir to have. He is coming to Ireland next year so I will get to return the compliment. I wonder would he prefer a Galway football or hurling top? They all headed back to the Clubhouse in Koroit with two wins out of two under their belt. I mentioned in an earlier blog that the match between netball and Footy was a match made in heaven, especially for the country clubs and it is. It was supposed to dilute the drink culture in the club, but I have seen some of those netballers drink beer and they can certainly keep up with the guys! I presume that instead of ‘Mad Monday’ they will have a ‘Mad Sunday’, and I have no doubt that those gals will pub crawl with the best of them!

Holidays

Friday: We got the holidays today and everyone was in great form. It was also Jersey Day. I was the only one in Maroon and White but all the kids had their club colours on. There was no dominant team and every team was represented. You would think that as Geelong are the closest team and had been champions two of the last three years that they would be the dominant colour, but no. There were just as many supporters for Richmond, one of the bottom teams this last while.

Staff Night Out

Thursday 16th: Did I ever tell you who was joint winner in the footy tips at school. Well the presentation was made at the staff do. There was a great buzz and atmosphere and plenty of people wanted to know what my strategy: I could tell you but I would have to kill you! The $150 dollars will come in handy next week in Uluru and Adelaide.