To Alice Springs

For some reason, whenever I get back from one of these vacations, I feel about ready for, well, a vacation. I suspect there’s some correlation with that and the amount of time we spend moving from place to place, but no time to think about at the moment – we have a plane to catch.

It’s a bit difficult to leave Cairns as we have definitely enjoyed it (and Port Douglas), but we’re also excited to get to our next stop, Alice Springs, as it is from there that we will venture out to Uluru/Ayer’s Rock. We know we’re in for something different as soon as the plane descends to land and all we can see in any direction is red sand and rock. I’m not sure where they film movies like The Martian, but i can’t imagine many places better suited than this.

Stepping off the plane is like a hair dryer to the face, and burning our fingers doing up our seat belts, we get to revisit some of our fondest memories of Texas. Driving on the wrong side of the road gets that much more interesting when you’re steering with your knees, waiting for the air conditioning to kick in and cool it down enough to touch.

Fortunately, it’s a short drive to the hotel, where we are greeted by this rather colorful doorman.

We spend the few hours we have left in the afternoon stocking up on custard, checking out the town (which is pretty much an Outback version of Dawson Creek so doesn’t take long), and visiting the Alice Springs Reptile Center. It’s not much too look at from the outside, but they have some pretty cool critters, a few of which you get to touch.

This is Pickles, the Blue-Tounged Skink (not to be confused with Pickles, the sometimes crabby teenager):

And Barry, the Olive Python:

I would have bet real money my trusty travel companion wouldn’t let a 15 pound snake get anywhere close to her, so a well-earned tip of the hat here.

They also have a saltwater crocodile, about a third the size of the ones Nick walked into the pen with in Thailand. They do a quick demo showing how quickly it goes from not moving at all to attacking something it thinks might be food and trying to tear it apart. Nick, those monks had it all wrong – you are very, very lucky.

We finish our day back at the hotel, where we spotted a tasting plate on the menu with a combination of kangaroo, crocodile and camel. All three are surprisingly tasty, with roo getting the highest marks amongst my fellow adventurers. It’s also a bit educational as I have to admit I never even knew they had camels in Australia, when in fact they have the largest wild population of them in the world. Given our last camel experience, I (and me jumblies) prefer them on a plate.