Australian Outback Adventure - Day 4 - Alice Springs

Monday, October 22, 2012 - A Day in Alice Springs

Our Way Outback Itinerary for Day 4 is:

A day at leisure to either relax or explore the Red Centre township of Alice Springs. All activities and meals are at your own expense. Accommodation in Alice Springs is included (hotel room with ensuite).

Our day of leisure started with a 7:30 sleep in.  As much as we have seen and done in the last couple of days and enjoyed all but the heat and flies, we are looking forward to a quieter day.  We have decided to visit the Royal Flying Doctors Service RFDS and the Reptile Center.  Both of these sites are  two blocks from our hotel and within walking distance.  We set out walking while it is still early.

Royal Flying Doctors Service - Past and Present

Tea Cozy in the RFDS Cafe

The RFDS has a nice cafe where we ate breakfast, before touring the facility and watching the videos of these doctors who have loyally served the outback, providing much needed emergency service and evacuation to Alice Springs hospitals.  We couldn't help but think of our daughter  Cpt. Abby, currently serving a stint in the middle east as a mobile forward medical air physician.  

Hats off to you, Abby and all the flying doctors (medics and nurses, too).  Thank you for your service.  We buy a little something to send to Abby - a camouflage neck cooler.  This "cool" neck wrap gets soaked in cold water expanding crystals inside, resulting in a cushy cold wrap that lasts for days as it evaporates.  It would probably work well wrapped around a soda or across the eyes as well.  We post it later in the day and wonder how long it will take via military post to the USA first.

After our morning visit at the RFDS, we wandered across the street to the 11:00 reptile show at the Reptile Centre. 

Snakes and reptiles are an important component in Aborigine Dream Time creation mythology.  I don't really like snakes and am not too fond of lizards either.  They are interesting and intriguing especially if they are behind glass.   I knew we would have an opportunity to handle the reptiles, but I thought it was if you chose to do so. I hadn't planned on doing so.   What a surprise to find out, that it wasn't really a choice, but an expectation.  

A dozen of us sat in and air conditioned room in a semi-circle, where a darling young woman expecting her first child pulled one reptile after another out of lidded boxes and started to pass them out to us.  Oh Geez!  Where's the door?  "Sorry," she says sweetly, "the door is locked,"  "I've got a box of tissue here if you feel like screaming or crying."  And she looked so sweet.  Nobody was let out of the room until we faced our fears and held Barry the 7 foot python who wrapped his body around us several times around and gave us each a hug. 

Russ held Barry first.  

Russ looks a little tense here

After a few Minutes, Russ and Barry are More Relaxed

Barry wrapped himself all around Russ, and I took photos, reaching out to stroke his mid section while Barry's head was pointed away from me.  His skin did feel silky.  I thought that little touch might save me from actually having to hold Barry, but that wasn't the case. "While you are up here, you may as well be next," she said and quickly transferred the reptile to my shoulders. 

Before I knew it, Barry was wrapped around my neck and middle.  His head came up to mine and he flickered his tongue across my face.  "Keep smiling," she encouraged me.  

Breathe Roz!

Okay, but then he started to crawl under my shirt. Geez!   The snake handler told me to just relax and to breathe...I didn't realize I was holding my breath!  She coaxed Barry out from under my shirt and had me turn slowly around to help unwind him.  Everyone in the audience thought it was pretty funny, and there were lots of nervous giggling.   Just wait folks, your next.

I guess I can now check facing another fear off of my list. Russ seemed to enjoy it.  For goodness snakes, Barry was kind of cute!   One of the women in the group was white and shivering.  The snake handler hugged her harder than the snake would have and just draped Barry over one of her shoulders. She did it!  I don't know how she felt about it, but she did it!  This was a safe snake, and we learned a lot about reptiles (snakes, lizards, and legless lizards).  We would recommend this experience.  Really!

The center had a large collection of reptiles.  The venomous snakes were behind glass...lots to see and many critters seemed content to be held.

Nature's Art - Origin of Aborigine Dot Painting?

My Personal Favorite. 

When we left the Reptile Center, we walked through the down town area

Shopping Area of Down Town Alice Springs

and noticed the Didgerydoo Starlight theater with a special Monday Night Concert...and it was Monday. Yeah!   We had yet to hear a concert of these unusual instruments (long horns made from hollowed tree limbs) played by the Aborigines.  Music always helps us absorb and remember our experiences with vivid clarity.  We promptly bought two tickets for the evening performance. This was going to be fun!

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for snacks and wine for the next leg of our adventure, resting, doing laundry, and working on the blog.  

We returned to theater at 7:30 p.m. and thoroughly enjoyed the show.  There were three performers with slide presentation of the outback accompanying the didgerydoo and percussive music.  None of the performers appeared to be Aborigine which would have made the experience even better.  Perhaps they were, and we couldn't tell.  Nevertheless.  it was a wonderful show.

The music, slides, dreamtime stories, personal outback stories, and audience participation were all well done and quite fun! The special performance was for a high school student group, many of whom were musicians and joined the end of show "log jam".   The evening was a great way to end our Red Center Adventure out of Alice Springs.  We are off to Darwin tomorrow morning,

Australian Outback Adventure - Day 3 - Kings Canyon

Sunday, October 21, 2012 - Spectacular Kings Canyon

In the wee hours of the morning, I felt something small crawling in my ear - ant, spider, not sure as I immediately squished it with my finger.  Ick!  I'll never forget the Start Trek episode when a bug was released in an ear so that it could eat its way to the brain.  

After that little incident, I slept a little more lightly.  The clouds had cleared and I could see the moon and stars for the first time on our trip as I fell back to sleep.  

We awoke to a nearby rustle of crunching sticks.  Was it a camel, a dingo, a crawling snake, what???   I listened a bit more.  I heard it again.  Opening my eyes, the black sky was still twinkling with southern stars.  The rustle continued and then the campfire sparked to life sending an orange glow over the camp.  It was just Dave giving us our 4:00 a.m. wakeup call.  

One lives life on the desert early before the sun bakes the soil and the skin.

We proceeded through our morning routine of eating breakfast, rolling up the swags in the dark, and packing up camp.  We turned in our sleeping bags,  sheets, and pillow case, as this was our last night on this leg of our adventure.  We would return to Alice Springs this evening and have two nights in our hotel with clean sheets, and a refrigerator.  For days now we have been drinking solar heated water from our individual bottles.  It would be a treat to drink water cooler than the ambient temperature of the desert. 

Way Outback  Itinerary for Day 3

A leisurely start to the day before we head off to Watarrka (Kings Canyon) for a mind blowing 6 km walk through the towering walls, crevices and plateaus of Watarrka. We'll visit the Amphitheatre and the Lost City plus a swim in the tranquil "Garden of Eden" if you wish. Later we start making our way back to Alice Springs travelling on a typical outback dirt road. Two nights’ accommodation in Alice Springs is included (hotel room with ensuite). Dinner is at own expense tonight.

• Watarrka (Kings Canyon)   
• Outback Dirt Roads   
• Finke River   
• Jims Place

Question for the day: If  4:00 a.m.  is a "leisurely" wakeup, what would an early wakeup be?   

We did enjoy seeing a desert sunrise as we left camp and headed for Watarrka (Kings Canyon), and the 6 km rim walk.  

We were on the trail by 7:00 a.m.  The views and terrain were spectacular.  The sun was cooperating and the red rocks were on fire....and as it rose in the sky, so were we.  

Here are some of the photos from our hike.

The climb up "heart attack hill" was a challenge, but we were up to it. 

After that everything else seemed relatively benign except for the descent and only because it was so darned hot!  

Up!  Up!

Once on the rim there was a slight breeze.

On our way to the rim

Out Back is Appropriately Named the Red Center

Layers of Ancient Sand Stone

We make it to the top as the blaring sun climbs in the sky!

Flowers and Trees Find a Niche to Grow

On the Edge

Nature's Art  - Genesis of Indigenous Creation "Dream Time" Legends

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Descent into the Garden of Eden

Stunning

The Descent Back

Once we left the rim with the slight breeze, we dropped back down.  The further down we went the hotter it seemed.  I thought I was going to collapse the last kilometer even though I was misting myself, wearing a breathable wide rimmed hat, and drinking lots of water.   My vision was getting cloudy (sunscreen dripping down onto my eyes under my contacts, swarming flies, and relentless sun and heat).  

When we got to the base, I took off my long sleeve shirt and ran it under the faucet and threw it dripping wet over my head. I was really on the verge of sunstroke.  It took over an hour for me to get my body temperature under control.  The wet shirt in the air conditioned bus worked the miracle.

We are on this trip before November which is the beginning of the wet summer season.  Summer seems to be getting to the outback earlier than expected.  After bar-b-quing  burgers back at King station, we took a short cut to Alice Springs on a rutted sand/soil road for two hours of bumpity-bump, rock and roll.  Dave dropped Russ and me off first about 5:30 p.m.  We gathered up our gear and said our goodbyes to everyone incase we did not see them that evening for and end of trip party.

After a swim and a shower, we ended our day with our new travel mates at Annie's place over cold beer and pizza.  And so ends the first leg of our down and dirty Way Outback Adventure.  We will explore Alice Springs on foot tomorrow.