Whose problem??

I arrived home on the day that the Alice Springs Coroner released his findings on yet another Aboriginal death in police custody. The police involved were castigated on a number of accounts but all remain serving officers. Their shortcomings were not criminal offences apparently. But what of moral shortcomings? The law has nothing to say there.

And now, early in the week that I'm finally finishing writing about this trip, the front page of The Age was full of a report of the catastrophic effects of alcohol on the Aboriginal population around Fitzroy Crossing, ranging from deaths, including suicide, to half of all eight-year-olds suffering from Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

Jabiru Court House

 












A three week visit to the Kimberley region is, almost by definition, superficial. Yet when police stations, courts and legal aid offices were so prominent in small outback towns, alarm bells rang for me. It's not the “Aboriginal Problem” but the “Aboriginals' Problem” ... and that is us, we Europeans who have trampled on a 40,000+year old culture, expecting those people to conform to European culture and yardsticks within the space of a mere two centuries. Failure to comply is being punished, mercilessly in most cases. I don't know what the answer is but what we are currently doing is wrong, and it isn't working.

Ready, set ......

All that packing, carefully weighing on the bathroom scales … get to the airport and I'm over the tour limit. Panic! (Never mind what it means about my weight!!)

Good trip to Alice. Picked up the hire car and decided to check in at the motel first. Room not ready but when I come back I only have to pick up the key, all the paperwork is done, right? Wrong! Two hours or so later, someone else had been given my room and my booking transferred to 1st September!! They didn't handle my booking well (chopped off a day when their house was full for a conference, different place to now) when I was in Alice in May. Must be something about the Alice. Took a while to get sorted. I got a room upgrade. Why can't it be flight upgrades?! I didn't need two queen size beds and the larger rooms front a very busy (read 'noisy') road, unlike the cheaper rooms. Ho hum. The silence of the desert tonight :-)

The only thing I wanted to do in my brief stop here was to get to Emily and Jessie gaps in the East Macs, which I did. Pretty places but not as spectacular as the gaps, gorges and chasms of the West Macs.

Phoned the tour company. My "bit overweight" luggage will be OK. Whew!! 

The tour bus is parked here – the motel I'm staying at is the one the tour company uses. I can see they're doing last minute preparations. I met the tour guide briefly and found out it's a full complement of 26 passengers. That means, in spite of paying a single supplement, and someone else paying a single supplement!!, I'm not going to get a window seat all the time, and neither are they. Such is the life of a solo traveller. As long as I don't have an aisle seat next to a human mountain that I can't see past.

The tour starts for me in less than 1.5 hours. Final pack done, check out done (with almost as much difficulty as checking in so I got free breakfast this time), returned the car, looked in at the library (very well used, lots of customers in) on my way back to the pick-up point.

Hey ho and off we go!!

Jessie Gap, Alice Springs

Alice Springs - Day 7, 18 May 2012

After all that physical getting about, an easy day. First up, collect a hire car again. Next, do a bit of shopping – only three pairs of earrings! A small dot painting. A tea towel - oh no! oh yes!! - I was a sucker for the Sturt Desert Pea pattern. Some early Christmas presents. And ... yes, the obligatory t-shirt for my granddaughter.

Lapis lazuli, Onyx, Silver & Sturt Desert Peas

My contribution to local trade having been made, I headed off to do a bit of networking. First to the hospital library, then, with Chris, on to the Arid Zone Research Institute to meet (another!) Margaret. With her boss and the librarian from the mining section we went to lunch 'next door' at the Black Cockatoo Café in the Desert Knowledge Precinct. We had a lovely lunch with lots of shop talk: our common problems, what's different about what we do (largely to do with our different clientèle), what's the same. I always try to visit libraries when I travel because I enjoy seeing how other places are set up and how they work. This visit, to three libraries no less, was no exception. Thank you Chris, Margaret, Bid and Alison. 

                                         

Those very pleasant few hours had to end .... some people had work to do! I went to RFDS again, and again left without seeing their museum and display. Barely completed renovations made it a place to visit quite a bit later. I succeeded in making a small purchase, needing patience many wouldn't believe I possess, while staff battled the brand new cash registers. I'm hoping it will be third time lucky when I'm briefly in Alice Springs again later in the year.

Coffee for me, seeds & scraps for Port Lincoln parrots

Time for coffee just before closing time at the last open café in Todd Mall. I was spotted by one of the 3-day tour tourists which was fortuitous for us both. I had company for my visit to ANZAC Hill and Angela (from Germany) got to a local site she would otherwise only have seen from a distance. 

Alice from ANZAC HILL, left of the Gap

Alice from ANZAC Hill, right of the Gap

By now it was almost sunset: we looked down on Alice while watching the beautiful changing colours of the sky and the hills surrounding the town. I dropped Angela back at her accommodation then made a quick return to the Hill to see Alice by night, lights twinkling. It was at this point that I met the charming French backpackers plugged into the local electricity supply.

ANZAC Hill

Alice at sunset

 Did I forget something? My mind was such a total blank I couldn't even be annoyed with myself. This was the night for which I'd bought a ticket to the night tour at the Desert Park. What a duffer!!

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.

Alice Springs - Day 1, 12 May 2012

As is my wont, close to departure date I contacted all the companies with whom I had bookings to confirm that everything was set to go. I was rather shocked when one day tour came back “Cancelled.” I wonder when I'd have found out if I hadn't contacted them.

Then I arrived to find my hotel booking had been changed – one night less and the place is completely booked. The latter problem I'm ignoring, simply won't be moving out on the wrong date. The former problem though is a cloud with silver lining.

Wide Brown Land

I arrived in Alice Springs after an uneventful flight. That's saying something since immediately behind me were sitting 18 teenage girls on a school trip. After a couple of screams on take-off, they settled down and were pretty well behaved. I also had an empty seat beside me. It's been a while!

My hotel room, internally, is fine, but otherwise is the single woman traveller's special: at the front, next to the lift at the point where every guest will wander by; at the rear, the prison courtyard, tiny to accommodate the corner everyone has to turn and no view. If you'd shown me a floor plan of the place, I'd have instantly known this is the room they'd give me. Ho hum.

After settling in I set off exploring. It's a 20 minute walk into the town proper. I detoured via Olive Pink Botanical Gardens. The safe didn't appear to have enough choice for lunch but there was a hill there to climb, Meyers Hill. I climbed it in anticipation of the climb to King's Canyon Rim, coming up later in the week. I suspect King's Canyon will be more difficult but with a bit of puffing and panting I made this one and went on to walk quite a way – 16,500 steps for the day for the pedometer brigade - so I'm feeling OK about what's to come.

Where am I?

In Central Australia

Adelaide House - First Hospital

Today was planned as a familiarising half day following arrival so it didn't matter that quite a few places were closed. And therein is the silver lining to my cancelled tour booking. I found a replacement tour (to Palm Valley) for next Saturday, a day on which I was going to have a hire car and see some local sights. Instead I have the car on Monday when more places will be open. Winner!

Stuart Town Gaol

With the exception of a handful of landmarks, the town centre is far from historic. It could be any other shopping centre except for the setting: a vista of magnificent trees at the end of the main streets, rugged hills all about. Oh, and all the Aboriginal art souvenir shops. The weather was just about perfect so, although I was 'only' wandering in the town centre, it really was a most pleasant afternoon. The route to and from the city from my hotel was along the banks of the Todd River – where the annual boat race is cancelled if there's water in the river!

Todd River

Back to the hotel for dinner and an early night in anticipation of an early start to the West Macdonnell Ranges in the morning. Sightseeing starts in earnest!

On the move again ...

There was one thing I didn't anticipate when I arrived home from my US-Canada adventure … the desire, at last, to see more of Australia. I'd thought some things I'd like to do would be beyond me, as a solo traveller. As serendipity would have it, while I was away, friends did a Kimberley tour. Robyn was so enthusiastic, both about the tour and the possibility of doing it as a solo, that I investigated. In the end I settled on a two part trip, two parts basically to fit in my leave at work around other people, seeing as I had first choice of leave in 2011.

Now, I'm about to set off for eight days in Central Australia. Later, in August-September, I'll take 3½ weeks to travel through the Kimberley, starting at Alice Springs, crossing the Tanami Desert to Broome, then through the Kimberley itself to Darwin.

I've been training (a rather overblown description), so now I'm as fit as I'll ever be to tackle the Centre, starting on Saturday. I've re-read “A Town Like Alice”, not that that's got much to do with Alice at all, but it was every bit as enjoyable the second time around as it was the first. I'm feeling apprehensive – Has my 'training' been enough? Will I cope with my first-time-ever camping experience? … a whole two nights out of the eight that I'm away! Why do I seem to have so much to take? … to cover the warm days and cold, very cold nights.

If nothing else, I hope to learn by experience so I'm better prepared for the second part of this next great adventure.

So … hey ho, off we go!!!