Alice Springs

I was staying at the Haven Backpackers Resort an extra day so I decided to make the most of it. I booked a tour to visit the area. Went to see the McDonell Ranges and stopped at Desert Park. The Ranges were beautiful. It was just one really long, not tall, mountain. Aboriginals called it the “caterpillar” because they it literally what it looked liked. Parts of the range were rounded and consecutive. There are two ranges. I went to the West ranges, and not the east. The story goes that during the time of dreaming, giant caterpillars came from the ocean. Two of some ended up in dessert and stopped to drink some water. Interestingly enough, the two ranges stop at a small water source. So there goes the story.



I learned about the “Flying Doctors Service” a lot. What’s that you ask? Let me tell you. Imagine living in the Outback back in the day or even now for that matter. You hurt yourself on your farm and need a doctor. Well, there are no hospitals. So you had to call the Flying Doctor Service and a doctor would fly out to a designated landing area, where you would have to meet the doctor. Other highlights included Stephen’s Chasm and Simpson’s Gap. During the trip, I had tea with some local elderly Australian couples. It’s interesting because I feel the older generation is very European-like, and the younger generation is more Americanized. American television is everywhere on Australian television, and does effect the Australian culture to a degree. I only have 5 channels in my apartment. Two of them are only worth watching. There are always good movies on Saturday night though.



ANYWAY after cruising more of the outback, I was dropped off at Desert Park. It’s like a zoo dedicated to just the Australian Outback. Although I got to see kangaroos, I never got to see a baby joey in its mother pouch. Well, I was luckily enough to get to see that at this park. It was pretty cool. The baby just hopped in there and had his head and feet sticking out of the pouch. The park had tons of aviary’s to walk through. I love birds so I enjoyed myself. I got to see a Kingfisher finally. The park also had an endangered species exhibit. The exhibit was neat and filled with many mammals. This simple says that mammals in the desert are running out food sources and are now very few in number now. We ended our day at the park by seeing a Bird’s of Prey show.





Only one more night in a hostel and I’d finally get to go home and do some laundry. I was in need of some clean clothes.