Alice Springs

Alice Springs 

We’re in the middle of the country. For the first time there seems to be a significant population of Aboriginal people. 

Interesting that in Australia north is hot and the weather cools off as we go south. Last night after dinner we decided to walk home from the restaurant since it cooked to a balmy 92 degrees. There is a river in Alice Springs  called the Todd River which has been totally dry for 18 months 

 

We lucked out re the train. Originally we were going on the Ghan the week before. But because of our Tasmanian friends 
schedules we had to book for the time we 
actually went. Last weeks train was 
cancelled due to a train de-railed . Other comments about the Ghan We loved the apple and mulberry juice. 

The gnats in the Northern territory are relentless. They look for liquid everywhere. Primarily they look for liquids in people’s noses and mouths. Very very unpleasant 

  

On the 5 hour drive from Alice Springs to Uluru the driver kept up an interesting commentary. Of course I hoped to nap and did. But when I was awake found out that the biggest cattle ranch in So Australia has 8 million acres run by 12 people 

 He told us about a problem with truancy in one of the Aboriginal community. They had the community come up with a solution. They asked the  government to build a pool. Once that was done kids needed a wrist band (color coded) to get into the pool. Truancy rate dropped from 95% to 5% in 3 weeks. That’s what’s called action research. Having the consumer come up with the solutions. It works. 

Just stopped at a place 100 km from Uluru that has a mini plateau/mountain that looks like but is much smaller than Uluru. The locals call it Fooluruu

Australia has free university for all. Then when you graduate and get a job you pay back on a sliding scale. The scale starts at $50k. Interesting system. 

Also found out about the health care system, which Trish and Jim talked about also. There is universal health care but if not emergent there’s a wait. For a knee replacement it’s about 4 years. However there’s also private health care insurance. You can go to the private hospitals and get care immediately. Trish and Jim said if it’s anything big they’d still go to a public hospital because that’s where the good docs and care are. Big would be a knee or hip replacement. Or heart attack. To be clear if people have a heart attack they don’t wait. If Trish goes to a public hospital for her knee replacement she gets to go to the head of the line since she has private insurance. It’s like the Canadian system. 

The hotels etc are owned and run by the Aboriginal people. 

Just saw Uluru. One end is older than the other by 50 million years. Puts things in perspective 

The bus driver had the best explanation of dehydration and why you should be drinking 1 1:2 liters of water every 1 hours. Ended up saying listen to me or you’ll have a large bore needle and a plastic bag hanging over you in the Alice Springs hospital 

We saw a dingo while driving   Thank goodness Zack is in NYC so I don’t get why I sat “the dingo ate my baby”

We were brought to our hotel room in this gorgeous resort. We get to our door and the bell person tells a passing maintenance man to remove the bat from our door before we enter. As soon as our bell person/she leaves he looks at us and says oh oh. I say I’ll remove the bat, he’s tiny but David moves me away and moved the bar. What a man 

We’re on our way to an outdoor dinner and to see the stars. It’s 630 and still 100 degrees. He just passed a rock formation known to one and all as looking like Homer Simpson lying down. 

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