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.