I wasn't going to post a blog from Alice, as they call it here, because the internet fee is another steep one, but I'm about bursting with news to tell you, so here I am.
We left Melbourne at 6:00 yesterday morning, and from all reports, we got out of Dodge in the nick of time. We haven't seen the t.v. news yet, but apparently Melbourne was hit by a violent storm and the city suffered a lot of damage.
We flew from Melbourne to Sydney, a distance of 900 km, which takes ten hours to drive,...hence, our flight of one hour. From there we headed to the geographical center of Australia, to Alice Springs, or Alice, or The Alice. It was a 3-hour flight during which we set back our watches 1 1/2 hours for Alice time. I know, the 1/2 hour is weird, but Newfoundland is 1/2 hour ahead of New Brunswick, so I guess it's not all that unusual.
Alice Springs is a semi-arid area surrounded by desert. Very different terrain and very beautiful in its own right. Our first stop was at a camel ranch to, of course, take a camel ride. Camels were brought to Australia during the frontier days of the 1800s because they're so adaptable to the conditions here, can go six months without water, etc. The camel we rode was actually comfortable, but I probably wouldn't be saying that if I'd ridden him for 12 hours rather than a few minutes.
On to the Flying Doctors headquarters, where we learned about Australia's flying doctor service, which provides prompt medical help to folks in the outback.
Then to the old telegraph station, which was especially interesting Ken. He found a HUGE old plow, and before I knew it he was taking photos of it madly.
I forgot to mention the weather here! Clear blue sky, temperatures 33 degrees C, which translates to 96 F, if I did the math correctly. (After I've doubled the C temp, do I then add 30 or 32, Jim?) It's a very dry heat though, so quite comfortable.
We checked into the hotel around 4:00, then at 5:30 headed to the outback for a barbecue. This was an amazing experience. On the way out to the area, we looked for kangaroos. They're a nocturnal creature, as are all of Australia's animals, so you seldom see them in the daytime but they begin to emerge from the bushes as evening comes on. WE SAW SEVERAL! The first we saw was a mother who was nursing her joey. Our tour guide said it's unusual to see this. Kangaroos can have as many as three separate pregnancies "going on" at one time and if they are experiencing survival challenges (drought, etc.,) they can keep a pregnancy "in the works" for up to two years, then deliver when the conditions have improved. Once a mother is ready to deliver joey #2 (and once joey #1 is a big boy or girl), she tightens her pouch, forcing joey #1 to vacate it, and joey #2 is born. I remember reading or seeing a documentary years ago on kangaroos and being fascinated by the fact that a baby kangaroo is born the old fashioned way, then instinctively he/she climbs up the outside of the mother's pouch, crawls inside, and resides there to nurse and keep comfy until old enough to live outside the pouch. Ain't nature amazin'?
Ok, so we rode to the outback, stopped at the barbie site, saw a demonstration of boomerang-throwing, learned a lot of fascinating facts about the aborigines and their way of life, had a delicious steak dinner (Didn't dare ask whether we were eating beef or kangaroo steak), joined in with a singalong (including Waltzing Mathilda, of course)...and suddenly the man sitting on my left turned to me (he was from the second Globus tour group who happened to be in Alice, too, and joined us for the barbecue) and said, "Where are you folks from?" I said "Maine," knowing it seems to be a rare place to come from, but he replied, "So are we." I said, "You're not," because I thought he was kidding me. He said, "We are, too! What town are you from?" I told him, and he said, "Can you believe it? We're from L, which is just up the road from us by about 10 miles. The four of us stood them dumbfounded, then of course we had a picture take for proof that these four Mainers bumped into each other in the Australian outback.
The absolute highlight of the evening, though, was sitting in the outback on a clear, balmy, star-filled night and listen to a commentary on the various stars and constellations. The Milky Way was very visible, too. The gentleman who pointed out the various stars is a walking encyclopedia. Ken said he's got to be a college professor, but I'm not sure. He's the same guy who told us all of the interesting things about aboriginal life.
Anyway, it was a magical end to the evening.
Today we'll do more touring in this area then fly to Ayers Rock, which looks like it's right next door on the map but is no doubt a few hundred miles away.
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