Touring Alice Springs

The Alice Wanderer is part tour bus and part taxi. It will pick you up and drop you off at your hotel but in between it runs a set route of attractions on a 70 minute rotation. Even that however, is flexible. It is also two days for the price of one. We had arranged on Monday, May 31, to be picked up at our hotel at 8:40 for a day of sightseeing in Alice Springs. To our delight, Nic was once again our driver.

Our first stop was to see the telegraph station which is one of twelve repeater stations built in the 1870s between Darwin in the north and Adelaide in the south. The completion of this line transformed life in Australia allowing direct communication with Britain (via transoceanic cable) within hours instead of months or even years. It is a beautifully restored complex complete with period furniture and, of course, authentic telegraph equipment. The extensive grounds are also home to a mob (or troop or, boringly, a herd) of kangaroos or actually euros aka wallaroos. We only sighted one in the far distance, however. Kangaroos are mostly nocturnal so dawn and dusk make for the best sightings.

Next stop for us was the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The RFDS was the brainchild of the Rev. John Flynn, who as Superintendent of the Inland Mission Bush Department of the Presbyterian Church, was charged with bringing health care to the isolated peoples of the outback. It is a fascinating story. The not-for-profit RFDS still fills a vital role today by doing all of Australia’s emergency evacuations as well as outback health. An interesting side story was the invention and use of a pedal powered radio which the doctors and nurses needed in the early days for communication but which quickly became a social network for the folks in the very lonely, isolated Outback.

pedalling hard

Our last stop for the day was at a desert garden that was planted, tended and gifted to the city by a very eccentric lady named Olive Pink. We enjoyed seeing lots of varieties of gum/eucalyptus/mallee trees and acacia bushes. At the end of the day, we chose to be dropped off at a hotel just the other side of the Heavitree Gap on the edge of town. It is known for a resident population of rock wallabies that have become accustomed to being hand fed every night at dusk. We arrived well before dusk but several wallabies instantly appeared. We had no food for them but enjoyed watching them caper around us. A couple of wallabies boxed with each other and one little joey peaked out of its momma’s pouch. We had intended to catch a cab back to our hotel but, since it was still very light out, we ended up walking back in the lengthening shadows along the dry Todd River instead.
 

the boxers