Australia - Alice Springs - October 2-4

THE RED CENTER

A morning flight from Melbourne took us on the only flight of the day to Alice Springs. WOW! What a difference in landscape. From a large metropolis, we’ve landed in an arid area in the midst of a drought. The annual average rainfall is only 10 inches. However, the total so far this year is only 1 ½ inches. Alice Springs has a population of 28,000 with 1,000 of them being USA citizens associated with the “spy center”, a space tracking station. The town reminds us of some of the laid-back areas of Hawaii. Several of the permanent residents are people who came out on holiday, loved the close contact with nature and decided to stay.

After check-in and lunch, we headed out to the Alice Springs Dessert Park. That field trip included a guided tour through the large aviaries and nocturnal house which houses hard-to-find and endangered marsupials and reptiles. There are three distinct dessert environments in which were depicted typical landforms and native flora.

Here's our "fearless leader" for the center of Australia - Martin.

Here's a picture of spinifex grass; common across the Australian outback.
Here's a little guy called a Thorny Devil. It's he cute? He looks mean, but we're told his thorns are soft.

Isn't this a beautiful bird? This little guy is called a Fairy Wren. Rosie worked hard to get this shot. The afternoon lecture was on Aboriginal culture and heritage with some discussion of the “Dreamline” (Creation).

On Friday morning, a field trip to the nearby Western MacDonnell Ranges took us to Simpson’s gap where we saw black-footed rock wallabies. There we saw a water pool as well as quartzite formations which were red from iron oxide. The river red gums (eucalyptus) are prolific although the riverbed is completely dry. However, the water table is fairly high. You can dig several inches into the sand and find water.
Can you see the Rock Wallabies in the middle of the photo? They didn't move the entire time we were there.
Next we went to Standley Chasm where we saw cycad which is palm-like plants leftover from the dinosaur age. We also saw ghost gums and the shiny red walls of the gap. However, before we walked the chasm, we had time for "morning tea."An afternoon excursion to Alice Springs School of the Air showed us how distance learning for 115 students (currently) in an area twice the size of Texas is carried out by computers now although earlier teaching was done by radio transmission. After primary school, these students go to boarding schools with about 90% of the students attending university. A visit to the Old Telegraph Station showed the 19th century engineering marvel of a telegraph line that was built from Adelaide in South Australia to Darwin in the Northern Territory that connected Australia to the rest of the world through Java. Because of weak signals, relay stations were required every 150 miles to send the signals. The actual springs - named after the first station master's wife - is located behind the station. Interestingly, the "spring" isn't a spring at all, but simply water seeping up through the sand.That evening we had a “Barbie” of steak and fixin’s with a local fellow providing Australian songs accompanied by guitar while we ate. Later Barry had the group join in singing songs like Waltzing Matilda, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, etc. Bob and Kitty got to be "the band" accompanying Tie Me Kangaroo Down. Later there was a “night sky” lecture which was hampered by a cloudy sky. The Southern Cross was too low in the sky to be seen. However, we had been able to see it both in Canberra and Melbourne so we weren’t too disappointed. A very early morning start saw us on the bus headed for Uluru (Ayers Rock). We stopped at a local camel farm where we took advantage of a camel ride. Camels were brought to Australia originally to be used as pack mules for expeditions and delivery "vehicles" to the outback. Once the trains came through and they were no longer needed, the camels were turned loose on the land where they have survived and procreated quite well. It’s currently estimated there are 500,000 wild camels in the Outback. They are considered “pests” since they are competing with and therefore, endangering indigenous animals as well as cattle.
During the 300 mile drive, we passed only 8 cattle stations (ranches) where cattle are allowed to roam before being sent to market for use as meat. Much of the beef is exported to other countries - some even comes to the USA in the form of hamburger meat.