John and I had a wedding to attend in Melbourne in February 2019. In spite of the time of year, we added Alice Springs to our itinerary. I’ve visited every capital in Australia, and with my family – I was 10 – lived briefly in New South Wales, then later when I was 15, we were two years in Queensland. However until this trip, I’d never been to the ‘Red Centre.’
Alice Springs – of Nevile Shute’s A Town Like Alice, and Uluru fame, sits nearly 300kms north of the South Australia border in the Northern Territory. 29,000 people live there and the temperature sat at, or just under, 40 degrees while we were learning about the middle of Australia.
Looking over one part of Alice towards the MacDonnell Ranges from Anzac Hill.
We were booked on a week-long tour, starting with visits to a series of significant locations in Alice. The bus trips around town included views from Anzac Hill in the middle of the town, time at a Reptile Centre, the Historical
Getting up close and personal!
Telegraph Station where the first telegraph communications occurred between Adelaide and Darwin, a museum with info about and relics from the Flying Doctor’s early days, and the School of the Air headquarters.
The School of the Air provides education and communication to the children who live on stations hundreds – if not thousands of miles – from anywhere. A series of quilts created by some of these children were on display representing where and how they lived.
Then we headed south and based ourselves in Yulara to explore the hot dry environs of the Red Centre, and Kata Tjuta National Park where the famous monolith, Uluru dominates the landscape.
Our tour included visiting Uluru at sunset, and the next day we witnessed the first rays painting the rock with beautiful dark purplesBold beautiful colours and landscapes wherever we went. This is walking through Waipa Gorge in the Kata Tjuta Park.The flies were phenomenal everywhere we went! John and I gave in and wore nets over our faces so we weren’t having to spit the things out of our mouths. The nets went over out hats and elastic closed them at our necks. They were really effective and we became so used to them there, we drank our water without lifting the nets.Believe it or not, these are tadpoles. I came across a lot of these dark sludgy masses in depressions in rocks. I was told they dry up when the water disappears but the species of frogs continues to survive – this is just part of their life-cycle in this dry centre.Due to the on-going drought we came across wild brumbies crossing the road, numerous small groups of meandering camels and then, a lizard in the loo, all searching for food and water I guess.Just a section of a large piece of Aboriginal art I spotted in the airport as we were leaving.
