Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
We declare that Alice Springs (or the "Alice" as it is known collequially) is absolutely the best Australian cycling town that we have cycled in.
With cycle paths leading across and around town, we were able to explore the Alice by bicycle on shared pathways away from traffic.
For those of you who also share our passion for cycling, there are mountain bike tracks galore. There is simply no other option than that we will have to plan another trip to the Alice with mountain bikes.
You need time to appreciate and enjoy the many sights, delights and people of the Alice.
The further north we travel along the Stuart Highway, the more we learn about its namesake, John McDouall Stuart, who reached the centre of Australia on the 12th March 1862. The town was originally named Stuart in his honour.
Stuart's successful exploration from the south to the north of Australia provided the impetus for two of Australia's outstanding engineering feats.
The laying of the Overland Telegraph, connecting Port Augusta to Port Darwin was the first achievement.
Within two months of the completion of the Overland Telegraph line, it was connected to the Java-Darwin submarine line, allowing instant communications between Australia and Europe for the first time. The year was 1872.
Up until this time, the township of Alice was known as Stuart and only the Overland Telegraph Station was named Alice Springs, after the wife of Sir Charles Todd, the man who was responsible for building the Overland Telegraph.
The township was renamed Alice Springs in 1932 after frequent confusion between nearby Stuart's Creek and Stuart after the extension of the Old Ghan Railway in 1929. Sadly, Alice never visited the town named after her.
First on our list in the Alice was to visit the Alice Springs Airport to see the hundreds of airplanes parked in the desert due to the global impact of COVID-19 on airlines. Why the Alice you ask? Well, there is no shortage of space and the low humidity environment makes it a perfect parking spot for Asia-based airlines like Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific.
Continuing on with the transport theme, we visited the National Road Transport Hall of Fame. This is a museum about all forms of road transport. There was in-depth detail about the building of the Overland Telegraph Line as well as the second great Australian engineering feat: the construction of the Ghan railway line.
We were able to climb aboard an old Ghan train and see the dining, bar and sleeper carriages as they once were. We concluded that there were no overweight people back in the day as the passages were narrow.
Before the railway was built, an enterprising individual imported 120 camels and their handlers to Australia in the late 1800s. This is because it was thought that the camels would handle the heat in central Australia much better than horses. Their handlers were labelled Afghans (even though many were from Pakistan).
The Ghan railway is thus named after the cameleers - although others believe that it is an abbreviation of its original name: the Afghan Express.
Today, the Ghan railway journey is one of luxury - and perhaps we will be lucky enough to travel on it one day!
But we digress.
At the museum, there were trains, cars, trucks, trucks and more trucks. Kenworth Trucks had a massive shed full of old and new display trucks for truck lovers to admire. All in all, an interesting museum jam-packed with road transport memorabilia.
It was time to cycle along the Todd River, which is dry for most of the year. This cycle path took us to the Old Telegraph Station. It was an enjoyable ride to the Telegraph Station, which was less than 10km from our campsite.
We learnt a lot about the construction and life at the Telegraph Station, and the importance of the overland telegraph in Australian history. Sadly, the first message sent from the Alice Springs Telegraph Station was to report the death of the first Telegraph Stationmaster. He died of thirst 100km shy of reaching Alice Springs.
On the way home, we stopped to climb ANZAC Hill, which afforded views of the Alice as well as summaries of the major wars Australians have been involved in. Lest We Forget.
We met up with some local Warm Showers hosts tonight. They already had visitors staying, so they were unable to host us, however, they offered to meet us for dinner. It was curry night at their local club, which is a very popular event. We enjoyed the curry and chatting about the Alice and cycling!
2025-05-22