Day 79 to 81 18-8-2007 to 20-8-2007- Alice Springs Aus

Finally got through a potential disaster with my luggage. My connecting flight from Christchurch to Sydney arrived about 30 mins late, which meant because of the new security scanning protocols , they didn't have time to scan my bags on the connecting flight to Alice Springs. Fortunately Quantas were excellent about it, gave me an overnight bag and delivered my bag to the hotel the following day. (Air Pacific - Rubbish, British Airways- Poor, Quantas- Suprisingly very good)

Alice Springs is all you expect from an outback town in the middle of nowhere. There is lot of native aboriginies here, but they don't do alot. All they do is well ... nothing. A few sell their dream paintings ( which are ridiculesly expensive. Even the cheapest ones will cost over 200 pounds). At those prices all they have to do is sell one a month.

Before i landed in Alice, i had seen on TV that they had banned drinking in all outdoor areas. It became news here because it was seen to be victomising the natives, since that is all most of them did all day on the grassy knolls scattered around the town centre . All the tourists would generally drink in the pubs, which wern't effected. So the locals just sit there like zombies wondering what to do with their day." I know i'll sell my join the dot to dot painting i did when i was six, some american will buy it for a few hundred dollars for sure"

Alice has a a few decent restaurants, in particular the famous ..... not to be forgotten... .ok i forgot its name , but it serves up a platter of Aussie grown tucker such as crocodile, emu, kangeroo, and camel. Yes camel

Years ago, before trains went across Oz. Most travel was by camel. However after the railways were built. There was no use for the camels so they let they go in to the wild. There are now thousands of them all over the bushland and are thought of as pests. However, they are well sort after in the middle east, since they are classed as pure blood and very healthy.

The whole area, for hundreds of miles, is a mass of red. This is due to the iron content which has eventually rusted and has coated everything including the famous, Uluru, Kata Tjunta and Kings Canyon. (All places i shall be visting over the next week). However, whilst i was at Alice Spings, i took the tour to see the McDonnald mountain range. This is a long ridge of mountains, which was created by two plates colliding, one being forced up. At the time they were created, the range was higher that Everest ( how they know this i've no idea ). But due to errosion, all that left now is two sets of peaks, which resemble a train of caterpillers (which ironicly is what the natives call them), but enough history. The tour was a full day and had some good walks and wildlfe on the way

Alice is the best place to go as a base if you want to tour the red centre landscapes. The other places are over priced, although you will have to stop in Uluru to be able to see everything (but make it only 2 days)

.......and restaurant was called the Overlander. not quite yet gone senile.