Alice Springs

Snake, Bake, and Shake

 

July 1,      2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 In Alice Springs we cleaned up and had a good meal and enjoyed the Snake, Shake and Bake show.  The Snake part was a reptile man called Rex.  He showed us lots of local reptiles and snakes, then he let everyone hold them.  Top picture is Edy and Paul holding Olive the Olive Python.  The snake then slithered onto Karen in the purple blouse and Callum, the boy in the yellow shirt.  Olive the snake then made some personal appearances with Colleen and Nic.

 

 

 

Jeff and Jean found Matthew.  Matthew is a Sleepy or Stumpy Tail Lizard.  His tail end looks just like his head end.  When a predator attacks , sometimes he gets confused and hits the wrong end.  This beast was also extraordinarily lazy.  Below, Nina made a huge breakthrough in reptile relations and held Jake, the Bluetongued Lizard, for a full 3 minutes 26 seconds, despite my efforts to delay taking this picture.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bake part of the evening was more like a grill with Baramundi fish, boiled sausage, and grilled kangaroo for dinner.  This was becoming a very good evening.  Then the Shake part started.  Scotty Dawson is the bloke with the guitar.  He is a local performer and songwriter.  He had the entire group up and clapping and singing along.  Below is Colin the Truck Driver again tearing it up with a truck driving song dedicated to him.  Colin cleaned up very nicely for this night.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some pictures where Scotty got the group up and dancing.  Robyn, in the red shirt, Edy, in the grey shirt and kaki slacks, and Laura,in the black shirt and blue jeans, dance to the lyrics of "Home Among the Gum Trees."  The next picture shows more actions as they relax in their "old rocking chairs."   Edy on the left, Katrine, Laura, Robin, and Robyn, yes there are 2 Robi(y)ns.  

 

 

 

Nellie has the black shirt and the pink scarf and refused to take a decent picture when she was up on stage performing in a song I don't remember.  The last picture is more of the group enjoying the show.  Erwin is on the right, Bill is in the blue jacket, Noel is in the red shirt, Laura is in the black shirt, and her mom, Caroline, is in the white top.  We all had lots of fun this night as: we were inside, no washing of the dishes, and there was a good show.  Most of the group slept in upgraded motor rooms this night.  A few die hards slept in their tents and enjoyed a record breaking -6 C as the overnight low temp.  That would be about 18F.  I enjoyed the walls and gas heat of my room.  The next day we had a free day in Alice Springs.  I posted this web page and, well, it took a lot longer than I thought it would.

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