Monday 2nd May
It was a beautiful sunny morning and so Mark headed off for an early bike ride and I took a walk into town. Town was nothing like I had expected: there were very few walkers out and about and very few cars on the road. Rather strange for a Monday morning I thought. We found out later though that it was a Labour Day holiday here in the NT so that would explain the relative quiet.
We headed down to breakfast at around 9 am, in the restaurant area where Tali dining was located, before heading out for some local sight seeing for the day. Mark was in charge of the itinerary and so I was interested to see how this was going to unfold.
Our first stop was at the Alice Springs Desert Park where we spent a few hours walking around looking at all they had on offer. We were lucky to join in an 11 am talk offered by a First Nations man, Ruben, and he was very passionate about his subject matter about how Indigenous people lived off this land. He also spoke with great fervour about the times his family members have lived through: about how his father was counted among the flora and fauna until 1967 and about how his mother, who had lighter skin because of some Malaysian heritage, had been assumed to be of mixed race and was therefore taken from her family to become one of the ‘stolen generation’. He also spoke very fondly of the Lutheran Missionaries, who came over from Germany and settled in nearby Hermannsburg, because they had tried to coexist with the local Indigenous people. Ruben’s talk was only meant to be of about 15 minutes, and on just the subject matter of indigenous food gathering, spears, boomerangs and the like, but the second part of his speech, about his family ordeals, was much more memorable and carried far greater impact for all in attendance. It was a rather surprising and moving experience.
We continued on the trail after this talk and made our way to the Nocturnal House. We were very lucky to find that the next talk here was also to be given by Ruben. This talk was just meant to highlight a few of the amazing nocturnal animals that this country has to offer but Ruben spent twice the prescribed time and went over nearly every animal in the enclosure. He is certainly one very committed and passionate employee of the Desert Park and they are very lucky to have him!
Our next stop was at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station. This was another interesting stop and we were lucky enough to tag onto a free tour been given to a group of tourist from the Ghan. There was some confronting history with this place as well. Apart from being the reason that Alice Springs town ship evolved, The Telegraph station had once housed children from the stolen generation. It’s definitely a must do activity if you are ever in Alice Springs.
We had two more stops before we headed back to the hotel and this was at the ANZAC Hill Memorial, an elevated site the offers spectacular views over the city, and then to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. We found ourselves tacked on again to a tour at the RFDS with the same group from the Ghan that we had seen earlier. This was becoming quite a theme for our trip, we seemed to be adding on to other group-tours around the place. The tour here started with a 15 minute video highlighting the main points of history of the Royal Flying Doctor Service and then there was a short walk through the museum that has a replica of one of the planes used.
It was 4 o’clock by the time we emerged from the RFDS and so we then headed home to rest up before going out for dinner. Dinner tonight was at Hanuman, in the Hilton Double Six hotel, located next door to our hotel.
Dinner was very nice and is a venue I’d recommend if you’re ever in Alice Springs. In a strange twist of fate, we ended up seeing the Pharmacist crowd from Kings Canyon. Who is following whom?
