Happy 6th Birthday Ariel :)))

Ari woke early to her birthday morning and was pretty chuffed to see streamers and balloons decorating the caravan.  This morning the kids were being treated to a sunrise camel safari.  It was well dark for our 5am start, but we were starting to get used to waking up pre-dawn.  Sandy decided she had had enough camel loving in her lifetime, and chose to stay in bed.

The camels were ready and waiting for us and the crew were already sprightly and firing off jokes.  We all got to ride up the front of the camel train, Ari and Rich’s camel was called ‘Trevor’ and Dylan and Kel’s was called ‘Murphy’.  

We mounted the camels and headed off under the purple sky across the dunes, stopping to watch the sunrise spill across Uluru.



Stole this image from the camel photographer..thought we might pass it off as ours

Then onward across the dunes back to the camel station for breakfast. 

The kids also got to make friends with some baby camels back at the ranch.  



Dylan and Milkshake



Ari, Milkshake and Scruffy

Kel and Dylan were chatting to our cameleer, a girl from Epping who took the job a couple of years back ‘because it would be funny’.  She ended up falling in love with camels and this year won the Camel Cup at Alice Springs.  Kel decided there was a lot to like about camels.  We all had a fun time.

  

After returning to the campsite and Ari opening more presents, we got to packing up again. 

Kel was demoted from driver seat to being squished between the two kids in the back - not based on driving ability, but purely on size :(. Completed the same journey in reverse, returning to the same caravan park much to the delight of the kids.  Due to the Furby failure, Ari's present was upgraded to a bike to match her bro.  They received the joint gift of walkie talkies, which is possibly the best thing they have ever received.  They spent the rest of the arvo riding around the park with friends and chatting via walkie talkie.  Come dinner time, you guessed it, Kel got on the CB and called them in.  Awesome!!!!!  Had dinner out in town to celebrate the kid's birthdays, topped off by a self-decorated birthday cake (who knew the cake making palava could be so easy!).