I always loved deserts, the idea of a road going straight for miles, nothing on the left, nothing on the right. So it's no wonder that while in Australia I decided to stop in Alice Springs and Ayers Rock. From the plane you could see the vastness of the red desert in its majesty, and when you land.. the red of the desert and the blue of the sky is all in front of you.
Plenty to do in “the Alice”; parks, museums, reptile centres, and western movie style saloons. I particularly enjoyed the School of the air: A school that teaches children in the outbaack in a radius of more than 1000kms; the old days it was done via radio, nowadays by internet. I guess the trainer in me is still alive and wanted to know more about “distant learning”. The idea was inspired by the Royal Flying Doctors; doctors that will fly in an “ambulance plane” to remote destinations in the outback, or sometimes just giving instructions by radio.Nature is indeed different here from other places in Australia, and definitely from any other part of the world. Instead of pigeons you have all kind of colourful parrots flying around, some pink ones called Galahs are particularly common everywhere (like pigeons in some places sometimes too common). The best was however the Thorny Devil, a cute little lizard that looks like.. well a thorny devil.
The word “river” here means actually “dry bed of a river”
as you can see here. They even have a boat race every year, on a boat with no bottom and the racers just running in it. I believe it's the only boat race in the world which gets canceled where there is water. The river actually runs under the bed, and aboriginal people judging from the plants on the surface will actually be able to tell where the water actually is. If some explorer would have consulted them they wouldn't have perished trying to find the inner lake in Australia.To learn about how to find water, which plants are edible, and tons more info on desert life the best place is the Desert Park, just outside Alice. As the very informative Real Australian Outback Guide mentions: ”If you have time for only one attraction in Alice Springs, visit the Alice Springs Desert Park. If you can spend only one day in Alice Springs, make it a day at the Desert Park. And if you have all the time in the world? Well, lucky you.” I rented a bike and off I went through Alice and the desert road outside it, and spent a whole day in the Park learning about and watching reptiles, kangaroos, birds, plants, and the red red ground contrasting with the immense blue sky. To top it off I went biking on my return on the "river", and i was luck enough to bump into wallabies in the wild coming out at sunset.
A final note talking of new animals. Not only I've seen them, but being on top of the food chain I got to eat a lot of them. Well here's my review:
Crocodile: A mix between fish and chicken. Nothing special to tell the truth.
Emu: Lovely sausage, somehow with some "venisonish" taste
Wild Buffalo: Beef after all, bit more "smoky" if you want
Camel: I was looking forward to it but no. Definitely not recommended. Incredibly chewy. You'll chew for hours and it's still there in your mouth (untill when nobody's looking you'll spit it away).
Kangaroo: the best ever! Rigorously cooked very rare (the old days that's how Aboriginal people would get some moisture) it's a fantastic meat and incredibly tasty.
Did I make you hungry or angry at me now? Bon appetit either way!
