Connections Tour-Day 4

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Today we got to sleep in (until 6:15--heaven), packed up camp and drove back to Alice. On the way, we saw some wild camels by the side of the road. We stopped at Stuart's Well on the drive, but missed out on Dinky Dingo (the Aussie famous singing dingo). We were also pulled over by cops on the drive back, because we had a swag tied to the top and a rope was flapping off the back (It seemed a strange reason to be pulled over!).

Back in Alice, we went to the top of ANZAC Hill to take group photos. We then went to the Royal Flying Doctor's headquarters and museum. The RFD covers 80% of Australia's landmass as family and emergency doctor, and they are really amazing at what they do. Super cool, the RFD defiantly deserve heaps of respect.

I was dropped off at Toddy's, where I checked in to my new room and repacked my bags for the flight back to Brisbane the next morning. I was then picked up by our bus driver for dinner at Heavitree with the rest of the gang, one last night. (Evidently I can stare taxis down... I was waiting to be picked up and was watching the cars on the road-- the taxi driver saw me watching his car from across the road, swung a fast u-ie and asked if I needed to be driven anywhere!!). After dinner, Rex, owner of the reptile museum in Alice, came to give our group a demo with a bunch of his 'pets.' There were some lizards, a big constrictor (Olive the Olive python), and several highly venomous snakes (the Mogul, or blacksnake, which comes in different color variations). I determined that if I ever need to give a kid a pet, it will be a shingleback lizard (aka, stumpy tail, or slow lizard). It moves extremely slow (it's vegetarian b/c it can't catch anything else, except maybe a snail if it runs), and it's head looks like its tail (and its legs can face backwards), so you can't tell which is its head when it curls up. My favorite was the blue-tounged skink, which gave me a kiss on the nose. I got a nice photo with Olive the 30 kilo python too, which was quite stunning though you can't tell in the photos (she had just molted, so there were rainbows all along her sides as she moved along).

After Rex, a comedian came and did karaoke with everyone. Tired, I headed back to Toddy's for the night, missing my swag...

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Photos

Me and a slow lizard
I swear, it just blinked! That's the most action I've seen all night.

The Blue-Tounged Skink and me
My favorite lizard.

Olive and Me
A very beautiful, friendly 30 kilo snake (60 lb), about 8 feet long

Comments

[Heather]

hi
wow, i would be so afraid of having a snake that big on me! but i'd prob do it just to do it since a chance like that doesn't happen often. lol.