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Published: June 27th 2009
Town
The Pedestrian mall.Alice Springs was a nice place. For a town (population: about 25,000) in the middle of the outback of Australia (a very harsh and dry climate) it was quite pleasant actually. Shopping centres, outdoor pedestrian malls, restaurants, a movie theatre… But the real reason for most people to travel this far inland… is Uluru (Ayers Rock). Of course it’s still a half day’s trip away (something like a 6 hour drive). So we made sure that the first thing we did was book ourselves a tour out there to see the world’s largest monolithic (single rock) structure, which we did through the appropriately named “The Rock Tour”. But the earliest we could book was 5 days away, so we had plenty of time to check out the town.
On our first day, which was Thursday (and the day we arrived), we definitely took it easy. We checked into the YHA, and took the cheapest room. This meant we were in a 16 person dorm room! It was a long room, with plenty of bunk beds. For the most part it worked out well, but with so many people in the room, you’re always bound to get a few very loud
Town - 02
A river, which is usually dry. snorers. Lol
Friday we did our usual stick and went to McDonalds for lunch to use the internet. To my surprise, I was able to stream the last bit of a Montreal Canadiens game and listen to it live! Of course they lost, so I wasn’t too happy about that, but it was nice to hear at least a bit of live hockey playoffs. That night we finished watching the rest of the first season of Dexter. Great show! Just wish we could see the second and third seasons now.
Saturday morning we got up bright and early to climb ANZAC Hill. Remember what ANZAC stands for? Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. The small hill could be easily climbed and had war memorials at the top with great views of the town. In my opinion, if you want to get a good overall feeling for a place you need to see it as a whole. This is probably why I love lookout points so much. Later in the day we came back up the hill to check out the sunset, which was quite amazing. The colours were awesome and it looked like the clouds were on fire.
RFD
The Royal flying Doctor Service of Australia! Very inspirational.
Sunday morning we checked out the market. A couple of times a month the pedestrian mall sets up outdoors and is open on the weekend for visitors to check out. There were tons of great stuff, and we even found a few good buys for Brooke’s upcoming birthday (Hillary’s sister)! Now we just had to think about how we were going to send it home in time. Lol That evening we succumbed to the evil that is television and enjoyed ourselves some American Idol and 24. Haha
Monday was our last day to enjoy the conveniences of modern life before heading out into the bush to sleep in swags (outdoor sleeping bags) and be driven crazy by hounding flies. Did we make the most of it? Not really. Lol We just relaxed and packed our stuff before the big trip. We did do a little planning and prepared for when we got back and would need to move on to Darwin, so we were happy with that.
A few notes regarding Alice Springs. A large portion of the population is aboriginal (Native Australians, or indigenous people). Similar to Native Americans, their ancestors were the original
RFD - 2
Plane not actual size, especially with those strings. inhabitants of the land. But with the arrival of settlers from faraway nations, the land was taken and the people mistreated. Jump now to present day, and efforts are continuously made to try and rectify some of the mistakes of the past. In part, the indigenous Australian people now receive government support funds for day to day living as reconciliation. Unfortunately, from what our short time in Australia has allowed us to see, this has created a cycle of dependence which has led many of the indigenous people down a path of drug-abuse, poverty and lack of self-reliance. Hillary and I do not mean to pre judge people, but we did find it uncomfortable to travel after dark due to yelling and alcohol-induced behaviour. Hillary also lived on a Native Canadian reserve for over 2 months (in northern Ontario, Canada) during nursing school, and found the situation shockingly similar. Of course we’ve also met many indigenous people who lead happy, healthy lives, so we do not mean to generalize. We just find the overall situation very unfortunate and it definitely saddened us. And although we understand that this is really just one side of the story, we still feel fortunate
Australia Post
This is what mail men and women get to ride all day. to be having been able to see this side of Australia. We always appreciate meeting a variety of people from many walks of life.
Kevin (and Hillary)
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