Alice Diary - Day 5

Day 5 - Road Trip - You Are Only Safe If You Are Awake.

This is the day of the first night game. The bulls, in order to alleviate the monotony of an all day sober bull ring, took up Greg & Wendy's (Toddy's management) offer to take their bus to Standley Chasm and Glen Helen Gorge. About 15 of the Bulls assembled about 10:30 and headed off on the bus.

The mood on the bus was up beat, with many stories being told. But just past the 80 sign, many of this hardy bunch of travellers, were soon dozing. Dozing was soon to become a dangerous thing to do. If caught dozing, your team mates would, as a minimum, take your photo, but more likely add something to your person or face to ensure the photo was entertaining.

Standley Chasm was about 30 minutes out of the Alice and is a very interesting example of Mother Nature's creativity and power.

Unpredicta-Bull was suffering that morning, and needed to relieve himself. While he was doing this the Bulls sauntered off to Standley Chasm. Unpredicta-Bull finished his business and took off after the bulls. Only problem was that Unpredicta-Bull took off in the opposite direction at a gentle jog and the trail he took was 17km long and in completely the wrong direction. 40 minutes later Unpredicta-Bull, caught up with the Bulls. His head now clear and his energy levels now back to there normal level (i.e. like a ten year on red cordial).

From Standley Chasm we headed to Glen Helen Gorge. The trip was about another hour and a bit long and provided ample opportunities for dozing and fun.

At Glen Helen Gorge, the bulls ate and filled up on water. We then had a quick wander down to look at Glen Helen Gorge and the Swedish backpackers swimming in the permanent water (yet another example of Mother Nature's expertise).

Glen Helen Gorge seen and done we took in a couple of other local sites. The highlight of these sites was the ochre pits. The Ochre pits were interesting, but the highlight was the ninja demonstration provided by Unpredicta-Bull and Banka-Bull.

The ninja demonstration occurred when the boys walked into the information hut and nearly stepped on a six foot goanna. The boys leapt backwards and up on to the table in the centre of the hut. Zulu (whose head was full of fog from the previous evening) was following close behind, saw the goanna at the same time, heard the goanna hiss but took a good ten seconds before turning on his heel and running away while screaming "Snake!".

Zulu was now spooked and thought every stick looked like a snake. By the time we had seen the ochre pits, Zulu was calmed, but when Bish pointed out a seven foot goanna on the way back Zulu had seen enough central Australian wild life.

After leaving the ochre pits we settled into the journey home. The dozing game resumed. Inkura-Bull commented "you will only survive if you don't sleep". Zulu having got over the shock of two goanna's dozed off. Unpredicta-Bull found a black plastic tarantula spider and while Zulu dozed he placed it on his lap. Zulu woke, touched the spider, opened his eyes (the fog had returned) and 4 seconds later screamed and hit the spider away, much to the enjoyment of all involved.

The bulls returned and prepared for their first night game of the series. Unpredicta-Bull was to pitch, and true to form his energy levels remainded like a 10 year old on red cordial.

We were playing the Cubs from Sydney. A detailed match report could be provided but in the interested of web site space (and we played shit) we will give you the box scores only. In fact the box scores make us look better than we were (as the game reverted).

	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
Bulls	3	1	0	0	-	-	4	6	5
Weasels	1	2	4	x	-	-	7	8	3

The game was dominated by errors, wild pitches and passed balls. Unpredicta-Bull pitched well but could not get the bulls over the line. Offensively Consta-Bull batted a 1000 with 3 hits from 3 and Texta-bull also produced (2 from 2) but that was all the highlights.

Coach Watts was not a happy camper and offered "No comment" to all questions from the press.

Stay tuned for more Alice News...