13/10/16 Update time

 Hi folks , it's been a busy few days and time is flying past . I have played 3 games of golf with another to go on Saturday , so far so good , I came 12th in a pairs game on Sunday , 5th in a singles comp on Tuesday , and further down the list today . Had a good time and met some nice people , still one more day to come though .
 Sundays game was played in 35 degree dry heat and it took a bit of steam out of me , so Monday we didn't do much at all , Lyn amused herself with the swimming pool , her bike and some shopping and also watching some hockey . Today she watched some beach volleyball & hockey again before joining me at the golf club .
 Yesterday we managed to have a look at the Old Telegraph Station and Trig Hill , both are just a short drive to the northern side of town , and about 3 klms off the highway .
 The Telegraph Station is in great condition and have organised tours through it - we missed the tour times , so we wandered around by ourselves .

  This is where Alice Springs got it's name - one of the surveyors in charge of finding the route for the telegraph line found the springs , and named it after the wife of the Superintendent of Telegraphs - Alice Todd - hence Alice Springs !! The water that's here isn't actually a spring , it's water that is sitting on top of a large granite layer below the sand of the river bed - it still had some water in it !!

 Across the river is an outcrop of granite rocks with a few trees poking out of them .

 From here we headed to Trig Hill - an outcrop like the photo above , that has a survey point on the top of it . The views back down over the Telegraph Station and the East Macdonnell Ranges are pretty good .

 Looking west toward Mt Gillen was good as well .

 Just a little bit of trivia for you - on February 1st 1878 , the surveyors put a trig point on top of Mt Gillen one day and went up Mt John and established one there the next day - Mt Gillen is 956m above sea level and Mt John is 789m above sea level , quite a feat for the middle of summer !!
Views in the other directions showed how rugged and desolate this region can be .

  Heading back down the hill we passed more rocky areas - it's a spectacular landscape here !! There are mountain bike trails that run from here in loops returning to the Telegraph Station , and you can hire bikes here as well !!

  Back to the park for lunch and a relaxing afternoon . We have been here for 3 weeks now and apart from golf we've barely scratched the surface here - there's so much to see and do .
 Alice Springs is a town of about 25 - 27,000 people , and has so many sporting facilities . Sport plays a large part in the lives of the residents here - there is more participation in sport here per capita than probably anywhere else in Australia !!!
 Here's the location of the Old Telegraph Station :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pRfO2-xAwGGKMEpJwfrB3irPsHM&usp=sharing