Kurtis plays Under 9 cricket for West Cricket Club (The Bloods). Somehow I ended up as coach. I am loving being a PE teacher, but as soon as people know, you end up having to coach your sons cricket team, organise games nights and forever "looking after the kids". I hope I have the umpire stance right. The kids love it when I do my Billy Bowden impressions. I finally got to signal a 6 on Saturday....crooked fingers and all.Kurtis bowling
We let Elijah play the last game of 2008. He loved it, but has not been back to a game since.
Classic Modlin cover drive. He has not been caught on the boundary as much as his old man. He bowls with as much venom though.
Belinda and I still love to dress up. This is before the staff dinner 08. Not too sure about my receding hairline though....must be the dust.
Ellery Big Hole.Cool to icy cold the whole year. You don't know where the bottom is and I not sure anyone does. Quite a refreshing dip. The boys love the mud slide in.
Ormiston Gorge. Joseph is in the baby sling. Had a great debate with Belinda, Gregg and Erin on this trip about the difference between a valley, gorge and canyon. Riveting stuff out in the wilderness.
Sorry Gregg and Erin. I know this is from YOUR camera, but I love this shot. It really does look like they are standing in front of a painting, but I can assure you that is the real thing in the background.
The next photos are from our day trip to Palm Valley (our first REAL 4x4 adventure) and the community of Hermannsburg (Ntaria..pronounced Ndaria). Worth a read of the history behind Hermannsburg or a viewing of the episode about Central Australia from the SBS series "First Australians" (I also have the book). Set up by the Lutherans, it is a lovely town and was the home community of Albert Namatjira. A large number of Yirara students use to come from there, but the school on the community has really done a good job and now has most of the kids doing their schooling on the community. Only 20-30 students in 2008 and apparently now up to about 150 students are continuing their schooling. Some say it is a result of the government's intervention, the support of the businesses not serving school age kids during the day and perhaps the linking of trialling Centrelink payments to school attendance. Something is working and it seems to be positive...funny how the media doesn't pick up on it???
The Lutheran Church area in Hermannsburg is now a historical site and museum. Fascinating reading the history all the while the Hermannsburg Church Women's choir CD plays in the background.
Before we went to Hermannsburg we thought we would visit the picturesque Palm Valley. After heavy downfalls in November, the flowing of the Todd River and surrounding areas made many places unreachable...But that is just a challenge for the Modlin brothers! So we headed off with an esky full of food, no real map, borrowed a Yirara troopie and took the Challenger as well (remember Joseph is only about 4 months old). As you can see, Gregg was always willing to give me some advice.
Kurtis and Elijah love the troopie and spent more time in the thing than out of it.
On the way out to the idyllic and picturesque (apparently) Palm Valley, we kinda got.....bogged. Well and truly stuck in jelly like sand at a the very peaceful and quiet Cycad gorge. Yes, with a 4 month old, Kurtis, Elijah, Belinda, Gregg and Erin. Ok, so there had been a bit of rain. Ok, so the road was closed (apparently.) Who moved the "road closed" sign? Who didn't ring the ranger to find out if the road was open? So many questions.Now it is not for me to say whose fault it was, but I was driving. The Ranger said, after Gregg and Erin trekked 2kms back to the Challenger and then drove to the Ranger's office, that we were lucky to get as far as we did. His test for opening and closing the road consists of dropping a 1.5m star picket into the sand to see how far it goes in. The "jelly like" sand enveloped the star picket, therefore, road closed...easy.
Yes Gregg, we are bogged.
Still bogged mate, thanks for the help.
The Ranger saving the day.
Me, Gregg and the boys giving the Ranger some advice on how to get us out.
Just a photo of the boys if you are getting bored of my stories.
Still coaching basketball. Laying down the law. I think they are listening.
"And then, what I do, I take the strong rebound in my rugged manly hands, and put the ball back in the hoop. Easy. Ummm, fellas are you listening?"
Cute photos of Joseph if you are still being bored.
Erin, Gregg's wife, bought us a quad biking adventure tour at Undoolya Station. A massive property(I can't find the actual size of the place, but believe me, it is BIG) just 20 minutes east of the town. Undoolya Station is the oldest working station in The Northern Territory and the buildings themselves are still lived in today. The current owners have lived at the station since 1907, the previous owners having built the property in 1872. An awesome time. We even had a tourist sent back home for unsafe behaviour on the quad. He was given 4 water bottles and told to walk home the 5-10km back to the base. This tourist made one of the girls fall off their bike, so that was the issue. Our guide has had 4 fights over the years with backpackers/tourists. Hasn't lost a fight. He told me and Gregg, "I just take off my helmet, win the fight, and say "Welcome to the Territory"". Enough said.
