Day 61 - Alice Springs, Australia
Well the day started coldly again, the sleeping bags that we had undone and put over us had not been a great success. All the slippery fabric had slid away from us so tonight its our own sleeping bags, nothing else for it.
The day finally got underway after the water pipe had been fixed into the campsite and the showers were working again and we cycled into Alice Springs.
Our first stop was the town centre and we were headed to the todd mall.
We were lucky that there is a great cycle track that runs the length of Alice Springs beside the Todd RIver almost right outside the camp site so getting there was pretty easy and it was also all nice and flat.
Its quite odd seeing a dried up river bed, this looks nothing like an estuary at home with the tide out, no you are talking
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Trevor & Jonathan’s World Trip 2010
about arid, dusty, dessert like sand with signs of dead vegetation that would have flourished had the river still been, well wet.
We made it into the centre of town and I think we were both a little disappointed. I don’t know what we expected but all the guide books had talked Alice Springs up into some bright metropolis rising from the desert, like Las Vegas but without the gambling. Well we followed the yellow brick road of the Stuart Highway and it certainly didn't bring us to OZ!
Alice’s commercial district is about the size of Peacehaven on the sussex coast and if you took out the shops selling didgeridoos and the aborigine art galleries it would be even smaller. We mooched about the shops with our real aim sourcing a decent cup of coffee!
We found a great coffee shop and sat and poured over the maps of Alice to work out our next move. Refreshed from a great Latte and some banana bread and chocolate brownies we headed off back to the cycle track and the Telegraph Station.
So heres the big history part. As I am sure you are now working out Australia is a vast vast country and in days of old it would take months to get news or messages across the outback. In 1872 an overland telegraph system was erected from Darwin to Adelaide crossing the whole length of Australia with Alice Springs being the mid way point.
To paint more of a picture, the railway did not even cross the outback at this point (The Ghan as it is called was yet to come) and all goods arrived over the outback by Camel trains. The reason that the railway is called the Ghan is after the Afghan men that led the camels across the outback prior to the train. They still practice camel racing in the outback to this day.
Anyway back to the Telegraph station, getting there involved cycling across part of the dessert and and over the dry river bed of the Todd River. As the telegraph station fundamentally established Alice Springs as a town it is no coincidence that they built it next to a spring that goes into the Todd River. This spring was called Alice Spring, hence the name of the town that eventually grew up around it.
The telegraph station was an impressive statement to history, immaculately restored to the era around 1895. Not only did the buildings clearly demonstrate times gone by but the story that was told of life in the outback at that time was fascinating.
It’s amazing to think that a few dots and dashes of morse code changed a country when we take communication so much for granted today.
We walked every inch of the telegraph station and went to the Alice Spring where a wedding was actually taking place complete with plastic garden chairs and tables and huge industrial BBQ’s, so so Australian!!!
It was now back on our bikes, through the dessert again for the two mile journey back into town and the flying doctors service base.
This was the base for all the flying doctors before it moved to Mount Isa. We watched a fascinating film about the work they do, saw the real control centre and listened to real incidents. The most shocking part of the story is that like flying ambulances in England the planes that the flying doctors use are not state funded and are only bought through donations. We are talking about $60 million dollars that needs to be raised every ten years to replace the planes. In a country that would have no other option you would think that the state would provide this essential service, wouldn't you?
Ok we have rabbeted on a bit tonight but whats important is that we have had a great day in Alice, we have learnt the most about Australian history here and we hope to learn more about the aborigines and there ways when we get to Uluru.
The bikes have more than proved their worth today as we whizzed round Alice far quicker than we ever could of on foot.
When we got back to the van we planned the next few nights as we go off to Kings Canyon and then ultimately Uluru before heading back up the Stuart Highway again to head south to the gold coast.
It’s been one of the best days so far in Oz as our heads were filled with stuff that made us think and we had fun with the bikes too.