By Craig: On recommendation we stayed just out of town in a caravan park adjacent to the Todd River. The number of locals walking out of the Todd River flats and into town was astounding.
I don’t think I gave Alice enough time as I was focused on getting the car serviced prior to heading up the Tanami Rd. All good as far as the car was concerned.
We took time to visit the war memorial and lookout and the rest of our time there seemed to slip by quickly while we took care of restocking supplies and having timeout.
I’m not sure about the town of Alice Springs I didn’t get a good feeling about it and I know Louise was disappointed in not seeing all it had to offer but it was, or appeared to be, yet another town marred by a lost population of people. A people whom appear caught between old culture and new (White man) ways of living & alcohol.
At this point I was tiring of the ‘You must respect our ways’ rhetoric whilst the ‘we literally litter your streets’ visual display was a daily occurrence.
I couldn’t wait to get out of there and back on the road, Tanami corrugations and all.
By Lou: I had been quite looking forward to visiting Alice Springs, even after the initial disappointment that it didn’t provide a vista to Uluru. I would love to tell you about the aboriginal art galleries, tour of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, School of the Air, and the Desert Park… but in our 5 days there we didn’t get to see any of that. Instead we just seemed to get involved in school catch up, car wash/service, laundry etc etc.
Sam was happy within the confines of the caravan park as we’d lashed out on the Big 4 which had a jumping pillow, Leap of Faith and cool playground. It was kid city but amongst all the hubbub Sam spent most of his time with Nathan and Charlotte whom we had met at King’s Canyon.
We also spent an evening with their parents Carolyn and James in the heated comfort of their Jayco campervan. Did I mention that it has been cold for 100 years? At least the days are warm.
The sale of alcohol in town is very restricted as part of a strategy to reduce the incidence of alcohol-related harm. You can only buy takeaway grog after 3pm, unless you are after cask wine and then you have to wait till 6pm and can only buy 1 cask per person. You even have to present ID every time you purchase alcohol. It's a very effective strategy because it takes away the convenience of picking up supplies when you're down the street on other errands, and you have to make a concerted effort to head back to buy. Anyone concerned about my liver should be pleased to know the strategy worked for me as a deterrent.
After a day of running around shopping for exciting things like groceries, shoes and camp lights I desperately needed to do something touristy so we drove to Anzac Hill, providing a great vantage point over the town. I could quite happily have spent a few more days here but Craig didn’t share my sentiments and was keen to get headed on the Tanami Track up north to the warm weather (hear hear).
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