Alice Springs – Day 3, 14 May 2012

This day last year I was at a wonderful wedding in Boston. Who'd have thought – and I'm sure the bride and groom didn't!! - that today they would be parents to 10 day old twins, Kiera and Jeremy. Blessings indeed.

Today started with sorting the hotel booking. I remained pretty calm. Not much point in ranting at the trainee on the desk – she was there with no back-up and an inadequate command of English. I took the hotel shuttle into town. I don't know what rank the driver held but he was unimpressed with my experience and said he'd look into it. I hadn't complained but he'd obviously seen something was wrong.

I picked up a hire car for the day but still managed 11,700+ steps. The car cost about $5 more than a ticket on the hop-on, hop-off bus and gave me much greater flexibility. I covered the grand total of 30km. I didn't refill the tank and the hire company didn't charge me for refuelling at their depot :-)

First stop was the RFDS Museum and cafe but no one was about and I didn't fancy a sausage roll for breakfast anyway. On to the Desert Park. I'd just missed the Birds of Prey show so looked forward to a leisurely breakfast in that safe. A muffin and a coffee was as breakfast-y as it got. The park itself though was terrific. It could be 'done' more quickly but the fact that I spent three hours there says something, given I'm not a huge flora and fauna fan. A real fan of either or both could well spend much longer. I've booked to go back for the night tour on Friday.

Heading back into town I was held up at the railway boom gates. How many trains go through there each week? Fewer than the take-offs and landings that close the road on Shetland I'm guessing! It was The Ghan. Would love to do that trip one day. Looking at it though my immediate reaction was how small the windows were – no scenic views as on the California Zephyr or The Canadian.

I headed out to the Telegraph Station, the beginnings of Alice Springs. A very well preserved cluster of buildings. You know you're getting old when something you remember using is an historical exhibit. We had a Coolgardie safe before my parents got a fridge. In the rocks above the carpark there was a wallaby, or was it a small kangaroo? The difference is in the structure of the tail and how the tail is used (by kangaroos) or not (by wallabies), apparently.

Galahs

Kangaroo ... or wallaby?

Telegraph station

The old wiring

The School of the Air wasn't high on my 'things to do' list but I was going by the end of the street, so why not? I'm so glad I went there. Back when I was in primary school SOA was already a legend – though still a fairly new venture. The limited actual knowledge I had from back then wasn't too far off the mark. Although I had thought the pedal radio referred to pressing a pedal to speak or let the other person speak. Sounds a dumb thought once you know: the radio user literally had to pedal to generate the power to operate the radio. It looked a bit like those simple rotary pedals that are advertised on late-night TV instead of getting a whole exercise bike. The internet has vastly changed how things operate. But there are still paper books and the children get together four times per year. The biggest shock to me was the number of children involved: about 120, a number which remains fairly stable. I'd have thought many more than that. It's certainly a big investment in their education but 2/3 comes from donations and fund-raising. The government contributes 1/3 – each child gets the same amount per head as any other school child.

Next it was off to ANZAC Hill but no go there. It was closed for an 'event' – some bike-riding thing. Grrrr. So into town and a visit to the Catholic Church, a fine looking building, relatively new although I didn't see anything that said when it was built. That's as near to a church crawl as this visit will get.

I returned the car, had afternoon tea at a cafe as they were packing up quickly followed by tea at the local pub. Only separated by a quick nick into a gallery where I bought a small dot painting. Then back to the hotel to get organised for an early check-out and set-off on the Three Day Adventure. I'm getting quite nervous now about being up to what's involved.