Thursday 8 November 2012

Another day, another flight

Can I say it was great, after we got to the hotel in Alice Springs yesterday, just to do nothing? 

Drive from the Desert Springs Hotel in Yulara to Alice Springs took us about 5 hours through the arid terrain.  We were being "chased" by a large thunderstorm - lightning was on our left and right.  The rain was torrential.  We broke the drive up at a few places along the way, including a camel farm.  No stop at the Henbury meteor crater unfortunately :(  Boooo - i think the bus driver wasn't able to go off road. 



Upon arrival at the hotel, Mum did laundry, we used the gym and pool, had dinner and had a quiet night.

Today in the Alice we went to the Royal Flying Doctor Service;

http://www.flyingdoctor.net/
What a fantastic service, providing medical care to all who need it throughout the vast outback.  The cattle stations  (often covering thousands of sq kms) have landing strips. 

We then went to the reptile centre - well worth a visit.

Then off to the school of the air - using the internet to educate kids over vast distances -when we were there they were doing an astronomy lesson!




and then off to the telegraph station - which I thought would be boring, but was actually wonderful.  Spent some time talking to a local aboriginal guide who had been through the residential school system as a kid, just before WW2.  He described seeing Japanese bombers flying overhead, and how he saw the pilot clearly enough to see that he took his goggles off to peer down, and how they waved at each other (!).   It was also interesting hearing his impression of being taken away from his family by missionaries, how kids were randomly designated religions and weren't encouraged to see their family or follow aboriginal traditions.  He didn't seem to harbour any grudges, but it's certainly a shameful part of Australian history, like in Canada and elsewhere.

 Off to the Anzac memorial, where there's a great view of Alice Springs, before getting to the airport to fly a couple of hours north to Darwin, where I write this.  Remembrance Day is in 3 days.







1 comment:

  1. which camera are you using for these photos ? the storm one would make for a great video clip !

    ReplyDelete