The Big Surprise

We drove back into Alice after having a lazy pack up and a walk around the rockholes and lookout of John Hayes.  The ‘surprise’ or ‘mystery event’ was to happen on Saturday.  Glenn knew something was happening, and more so, knew that we were going to have visitors.  Given that, there was a bit of discussion about which site to setup on for the week.  Where we were allocated was apparently ok, but not great.  We would have to fix that.

We had been in 38 – 40 degree days up until now.  That night however, a big storm rolled in, not much rain, just a few drops, but it definitely brought the cold.  We were camped right under a tree, so we enjoyed a lot of swaying, swoosing and scratching all night on top of the camper.  Was peaceful.

The next morning, was hot again, quite hot.  Amy had sussed out which site we actually wanted to be in, to be in the most convenient vicinity to our ‘mystery guest’ as she put it.  Amy had never debated and thought through in so much detail which site we were to have.  This stress was not what holidays are made of. J  There was a family on that site, but we’d heard that they were due to leave that morning, if they didn’t extend.  “They don’t look like their packing up” Amy declared after walking back from the toilets.  “The kids are riding bikes and the dad is on his laptop”.  Hmmm....  the suspense.  Will they, won’t they?

A short time later, Amy came back with a “They are packing up!!!!, Whooo hooo”.  Go Mrs Mangles!

After they had left, Amy sorted out the office business, and we had to pack up, annex and all, and move sites.  It was going to be for the best!  Wow, what a process.  We had to move all of about 20 metres, but it was a struggle, and the heat made it even more enjoyable.  It was going to be for the best!

Our relocated site - much closer to our mystery guest...

After the relocation was complete, we then headed into town for some beautification, coffee, and shopping. 

That night in our new ‘pad’, which ended up being quite nice and very convenient actually, another storm rolled in.  This time it brought some heavy rain.  Alice had been without rain for something like 150 days.  We were the drought-breakers.  The rain kept coming and coming, for most of the night.  We definitely hadn’t seen rain like this the whole trip.  Along with the rain came with it something even worse, the COLD.  Geeez it was cold.  The next morning we had to go searching for our winter clothes.  Very strange.

We had a little bit of shopping to do that morning, and Glenn had been let know that we had to be at camp at around 11ish.  So we trundled off and did a small shop for the week.  Glenn was asking questions like, “should we buy some rolls and a chicken for the guests?”, “do we need to find an extra chair”, and “gee that cabin you pointed out that our guest(s) will be staying is BIG.. Hmmm”.  All of this was pretty challenging for Amy, who was struggling to keep everything under wraps.

After getting home and packing away the shopping, we sat around looking at each other.  Soon after mysterious texts started ‘dinging’ on Amy’s phone.  Hmm... what’s going on there?  Has someone arrived at the airport??  More sitting around, more ‘dings’.  Hmmmm.. seems to be taking a long time.... perhaps they’ve gone for some lunch.

All this kept building up, and kept doing Amy’s head in.  Eventually she texted the mystery guests (so Glenn found out later) and said “Where are you, he’s getting hard to contain, AND he’s getting cocky!!!”  Glenn had started digging a little, and acting like he knew what was going on.  He didn’t.

We ended up walking around the caravan park following the girls riding their bikes.  We did a few laps, trying to waste some time.....

All of a sudden there was a stampede behind us.  Amy turned around, saw what was coming, and turned back, trying not to laugh.  Savannah was behind us, and all of a sudden got swamped by a bunch of people she knew.  They all bypassed her and descended, with party poppers going, and cries and laughter on Glenn.

It was the whole bloody family!!!!   Mum, Dad, two sisters, two brother-in-laws, and our niece and nephew.  The whole bloody lot had jumped on a plane, hired a car, sneaked into the park, and jumped on Glenn!!!! 

It was a hell of a racket, lots of hugs, lots of surprised hollers from Glenn, lots of smiles, and one huge relieved sigh from Amy, who didn’t have to keep anything secret for any longer!  “Ohhh thank god that’s over!” she said.  Others in the park must have wondered what was going on!

What a huge effort from everyone, to come and meet us on our trip, and celebrate Glenn’s 40^th.  This will go down in family history, for SURE!