Alice Springs

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I had a lovely day and a half visiting alice springs, I wish i'd had a day or two extra in the murder capital of australia(I'm not being sarcastic!)! There is actually a lot to do considering its in the middle of nowhere and is quite small if you compare it to Sydney.

Kangaroo rehab centre:
I visited a centre for rescued Kangaroo Joey's (baby kangaroo) which is well worth a visit - basically when kangaroo's get run over the joey often survives in the pouch and if not rescued will be eaten/ die slowly. This centre takes in rescued joeys and rehabilitates them until adulthood when they are released into the wild. They have a very careful rehabilitation programme to make sure they do not become tame and grow up as close as possible to how they would in the wild. Definately worth visiting if you are in Alice, its just a small donation of $5

Royal Flying Doctors service:
I grew up watching the flying doctors tv show so of course I had to visit here! Its still going today and for a small fee you can see a video about how it all began, have a tour round and see the staff in action (well the communications room) and visit the museum. Was actually pretty interesting (perhaps thats the health professional in me coming out!)and worth going to see. It's all for a good cause and one day it could be you they are rescuing from the outback! The area they cover is actually mind bogglingly huge!

Alice Springs Reptile Centre: Definately visit here, these people love reptiles and explain all the interesting stuff about them - the stumpy tailed lizard is my new favourite reptile (I'm not sure i ever had a favourite reptile, maybe the gecko but anyway, moving on) as I think I explained in the photo caption, its the only species where its front legs face forwards and its back legs face backwards -this is to help with its defence mechanism, so that if it manouveres itself into the right position, it looks like there are two lizards instead of one and hopefully if that doesn't put a predator off, the predator will bite its tail and not its head! Also they have a new fantastic display all about the evolution of reptiles shown through fossil's - it might sound boring to some but check it out and I think you'll find it more interesting than you think.

I ended my time in Alice by walking up anzac hill to watch the sunset. Alice is surrounded by beautiful mountains. Things i wish i had the time to do in Alice but didn't -visit the school of the air (australian kids in the outback being schooled over the radio), numerous art galleries and museums(particularly showing aboriginal culture but then I went to Ayers Rock so....), free didgeridoo lessons and the alice springs desert park -as I say, lots to do and worth visiting!

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Photos

Me and Ned Kelly
This is a 7 month old joey (baby kangaroo) which is being sensitively reared (i.e. as close to how its mum would) by humans after his mother was knocked down by a car

Snug as a bug...........
Ned Kelly having a nap

The communications room at the RFDS
This is the room where everything is controlled from

Me holding two bearded dragon's
These lizards have really interesting defence mechanism's, the spikey beard actually couldn't hurt a fly, its very soft. If they feeel threatened they take in loads of air to puff themselves up