Near the center of Australia is the marvelous town of Alice Springs. 
Here are some pictures that show the town and the MacDonald range beyond.
   
A river, pictured below, runs through town and is the site of the most famous river race in Australia.
Competitors build their own craft but since there is no water most of the time they can't paddle them.
Instead the teams hold the boats with their feet sticking out the bottom and run the length of the course.
On rare occasions the race has been canceled because the river has water in it.

Our hotel was on the outskirts of town and was visited by rock wallabies each evening.
As you can see they were quite tame.
 

Later in the evening larger kangaroos came by.
Not nearly as tame.

While we were there we visited some shops where we saw an Energy Drink that you won't find in the US.
According to the label it is a "Highly Enjoyable Magic Potion".

Another had an Aboriginal carving that would easily pass for some of the Kentucky folk art from our area

Another had a opal nugget nearly 2 feet across.

One evening we took in a performance of Red Center Dreaming.
We were told about the Aboriginal heritage.
The first picture shows a fighting/hunting boomerang.
When thrown it didn't return but when it hit its target it would break ribs or legs.
The second was taken while the dancer was being a goanna lizard.

Here they have become Emus.


We also were taught how the Didgeridoo is played.

We visited the largest classroom in the world, the School of the Air, more than half a million square miles.
Originally classes were conducted by radio but now students attend school via internet and satellite links.
They come from all over the outback of the Northern Territory and a few others in neighboring states
The map has pictures of the current students and shows where they are located.
The studio has two way links to the kids.
A fourth grade class was underway when we visited. 

The Royal Flying Doctor Service Provides medical coverage for the folks in the outback.

Another stop we would recommend is the Alice Springs Reptile Center.
A good place to get to know the cold blooded denizens that you might see.

This spiny lizard wasn't nearly as prickly as he looks though you can see a little concern in the young visitors expression.

The Perentie is a member of the goanna (monitor) family.
It is the largest lizard in Australia.
They can be as much as 8 feet long though this one wasn't quite that big. 
   
Both ends of this one look enough alike that it is referred to as two headed lizard.

Two Gidgee Skinks.

And a couple others.
 
A visit to the Telegraph Station where we saw the equipment used in the original telegraph line across Australia.
When the line was being constructed water was found here permitting a base of operations to be established.
It was thought to be a continuous spring but was later found that it flowed only following rare rain storms.
Our guide showed us some of the original poles for the line.

We saw some of the buildings including the stationmasters home, a blacksmith shop, and tack area.

And the telegraph station proper.

Equipment on display included batteries, a potentiometer and what is believed to be the oldest working electrical instrument anywhere in the world, a galvanometer

The first train line crossing Australia was the Gahn.
The dining and bar car seemed well appointed.
Of course in the summer without air conditioning I don't suppose it would have been very comfortable.

If an engineer needed to leave information for the following train he would put it in a box like this that was located along the track.
It was secured with a "puzzle" mechanism but provided limited security.

These are what passes for pigeons here. 
With their crest they look more formal then the ones we have.