Alice Springs- 20th-22nd Dec

The desert Rose

I'd planned to have 1 day in Alice springs before taking a trip for 3 days overland to Darwin. However there'd been flooding on the main road and the trip was cancelled. No-one knew when the road would re-open and the only detour routes were likely to be worse so I booked a plane ticket instead. A bit ironic under sunny skies and in temperatures of 36C!

Some bushtucker

After a morning organising and planning I visited the Royal Flying Doctors museum and learnt about this service that can provide medical aid to anyone in Australia within just a few hours, no matter how remote. A massively important and reassuring service.

Next day a trip to the slightly out of town Desert Park with walking trails, avaries and lots of information about the different kinds of desert habitats- river, sand and woodland- set amongst the beautiful backdrop of the MacDonnell ranges. In the nocturnal habitats were some of the small marsupials, many endangered now due to feral cats (which having evolved in the desert of Africa originally have been reverting back towards wild cats for many decades now) including spiniflex mice who seem to exist on nothing!

On saturday, after a short walk up Anzac hill for the view and then recovering from the heat it was time to fly North to Darwin. (from the dry interior sauna to the tropical North steam-room!)