Alice Springs March 6

Alice Springs  March 6

The weather has broken and a cool spell has arrived.  The high today was only 90, there is no humidity, and it isn’t too uncomfortable!

We left the hotel at 7:45 to get to the Alice Springs Desert Park before the worst of the heat.  The early morning was absolutely lovely with a temperature in the low 70’s and a slight breeze.  Skies are deep blue and there are a few puffy clouds.  Ideal.  The Desert Park is an incredibly well done collection of flora and fauna from all over the interior of Australia.  Some of the animals are in enclosures, some are attracted by the flora and stay here.  There are a number of extremely large spaces enclosed by wire nets to keep specimen birds in place, but they are so big you don’t really feel like you’re enclosed.  The artificial bat cave allowed us to see these unusual mammals with white undersides to their wings.  Here are a few of the things we saw:

Ghost Gum trees which are a kind of eucalypt, of which there are many:

 Here’s an Australian Bustard:

A Pied Stilt:

My favorite, a Thorny Devil:

 Ghost Bats:

 A Princess Parrot:

And the Dingo—a close relative to a dog with which they can interbreed:

 After lunch we drove to the Western MacDonnell Ranges, mountains on one side of Alice Springs, and hiked into Simpson’s Gap through which runs a huge river bed which has water running in it about twice a year!:

 Looking downstream you can see Ghost Trees which grow in the river bed.  They have been bent in the direction in which the water flows, as when it does flow it is a torrent:

 There are a couple of permanent pools of water which do not dry up and are an important source of water for the wildlife:

 Our last stop of the afternoon was at the headquarters of the Royal Flying Doctor Service where we learned about this amazing organization.  It began as a small program for severe emergencies and has expanded until now it provides all kinds of medical service, not just evacuation with advanced life support for emergencies.  Here’s a graphic which is updated constantly showing the planes which are in service at any given time. 

The Service has more than 60 planes, all of which are capable of providing almost ICU level care, and they service the far-flung families who inhabit the Outback as well as the Aboriginal people who may need care.  They now provide some routine services to these isolated people including immunizations, well-baby checks and monitoring of chronic conditions.  We watched a well-done video about their history and current mission and had a Q&A with a staff member.  We were all quite impressed.

We had a fascinating lecture/dinner in the evening.  There is an operation here called “Kungkas Can Cook” which is sort of a catering service specializing in Aboriginal bush food traditions melded into European cooking.  The owner, an Aboriginal entrepreneur, gave us a short lecture-demonstration on survival in the bush, and we then had a dinner with many unusual flavors derived from roots, berries, leaves and meat from bush animals and plants.  Full and tired, we are going promptly to bed as we get up at 5:30 AM for our trip to Ayers Rock (Uluru).