For a town that boasts that the local Todd River rarely
flows and is just a band of sand meandering through the middle of the city,
there sure is a lot of drainage infrastructure hanging off it – culverts,
drains, signage, flood markers...but in our time there – nuthin’ but the sand
and the steady stream of locals using it as a shortcut into town. Still, there
were lots to see in Alice Springs. It’s a very interesting place overall and we
would rank the old Overland Telegraph Station as one of the highlights; Alice
Springs’ original raison d’etre and restored exceedingly well, right down to
the old Stevenson screen and anemometer mast where the weather readings were
taken and transmitted to “Weather Central” – via Morse of course. We were very
lucky in the fact that a bunch of old Morse Codians had gathered there that
week to demonstrate one of the world’s fastest dying arts to tourists who get
jittery when they have no signal on their mobile phones. It’s very impressive
to watch these old guys operate and the gents are wonderfully skilled but who’s
going to take up where these guys are leaving off? They just shake their heads
when asked, but with an “I’m not dead yet” look in their eyes.
Taking the readings at the Overland Telegraph Office...dot dot dash dash....
My sister-in-law Margaret is terrified of snakes and lizards
so naturally she had an urge to visit the Reptile Park (seriously). She really
wanted to look at the reptiles, I guess at close range but sealed up, and they
had some fine specimens there from small desert Geckoes to Terry the Crocodile
(around 3 metres long and growing). The owner also gave a talk about handling
reptiles in the wild (in summary, “Don’t!”) and then provided a few tame
specimens for visitors to handle, to get a feel for them. He even offered a
blue tongue lizard that would give you a kiss on the nose (however there is no
guarantee that he will call you back for a second date). Maurs and I had a go at
snake handling – it was a cool experience. Margaret deferred this opportunity
to get close, but she is one step closer to it – at least she didn’t bolt out
the room with loose reptiles around. She did go close though when the handler
opened up the glass cage of a deadly mulga snake to remove some snake poo. He
turned his back on the snake to explain to us the fascinating aspects of their
excreta when the snake suddenly came alive and started moving about. Marg was
like she was at a Punch and Judy Show, yelling out “The snake! The snake! It’s
moving!” while Mr Punch (the handler) ignored her completely. This theatre
played out until Mr Punch finally closed the glass window with the snake
rearing up the side of his cage defiantly (the ham).
"Mr Punch! Mr Punch! The snaaaake!!"
We took some time to explore the West Macdonnell Ranges.
This was about a 300 km round trip and included wonderful little places like
Simpson’s Gap, Standley Chasm and Glen Helen Canyon but the pick for us was
Ormiston Gorge. All had enough water in them to be interesting but Ormiston was
very picturesque and serene. We just sat down and watched it, well, do nothing
really. There was a camping ground there too that looked good with sufficient
shade to beat the other options available. Temperatures are typically 32C right
now so it’s warm enough and the skies are blue. Very comfortable really.
Back when we were in Uluru, at breakfast of home-made
crunchy Granola, one piece of Granola proved too crunchy for one of Maur’s
molars. Consequently she spat out a piece of tooth (in a most dainty way of course). She made a dental
appointment when we got to Alice to get it fixed. After she came out of the
surgery I thought that I heard the receptionist stumble over his words to the
effect “And that will be Seven...Eighty Two Dollars Mrs Foley”. I thought what
the heck $72 or $82. Silly moi, it was $782! They can get Oxygen out to the
reception area real fast these days. It’s one of the main hazards in dentistry.
And actually the pain hasn’t settled down yet (for her jaw or my wallet!)
Another highlight of Alice was an evening at Alice’s
(Vietnamese) Restaurant. It’s some miles out of town, on their market garden
property, it's small and you need to book ahead but the dishes were sensational – full of
their home-grown herbs and vegetables. Tom and Marg, who hadn’t had a lot to do
with Vietnamese cuisine up til then were very impressed with it all. It’s fun
to find a little gem like that in the middle of nowhere.
Miss Olive Pink’s Botanical Garden is like no other botanical garden that I have visited. Usually they are green and shady with exotic plants in abundance. Miss Pink’s dream was to highlight the flora of the local area so what you get as you walk around in the dry bush is the dry bush...with labels. No frills here, but they serve a good lunch. Five days in Alice – I hope we did it justice.
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