Flying from Adelaide to Alice Springs was a real change of scenery. So far all of our time in Australia had been spent near the coasts. Where most of the people live. Now we travelled to one of the driest places on the driest continent. It is also one of the most sparsely populated. It contains 20% of Australia's landmass but only 1% of the population. From the air it was rocks, red sand, and large salt flats.

Alice Springs began as a repeater station for the Overland Telegraph line which connected Darwin in the North with Adelaide in the South, and the route of telegraph ultimately became the path of the railroad and a stock route for bringing cattle to the Outback . The town now has a population of about 28,000 including about 1,000 US citizens who man a NASA tracking station and electronic listening post. That site is not open to tourists but we did visit the home of the Royal Flying Doctors, an amazing service that provides medical services to the people who live on remote cattle stations. We also visited the site of the Old Telegraph Station and learned how Alice Springs got its name. Highlights of that visit included a conversation with Alec Ross, the son of an aboriginal mother and great grandson of John Ross who chose the site for the Telegraph Station in 1871.

His great grandson Alec, attended school here as a young child in the mid 1930s, when the Telegraph Station had become "The Bungalow" a home and school for Children of mixed race. His stories of his early life at the Station and later during the Second World War when he was relocated to Darwin. His stories really helped us understand the role that the Station played in the life of both the European settlers and the Aboriginal people .

Our final stop of the afternoon was at the War Memorial, located on a hill overlooking Alice Springs. It provided a beautiful view of the town and surrounding countryside, and was a nice prelude to our outback meal.

Our second day in Alice springs began with a visit the Desert Park at Alice Springs, an excellent interpretative introduction to the geology, flora and fauna of the Outback. There was a show featuring some of the local birds, although they were trained, they are free flying and return to the aviaries voluntarily. Before the show even started we watched two Black Kites soaring over the area, then they disappeared and we focused on some smaller birds. During the show, it was amazing to watch the birds appear and disappear on cue, sometimes flying overhead and sometimes landing directly in front of the audience.

We also learned about many of the local plants that were used for food or for medicinal purposes, and spent some time with the Red Kangaroos, and then in the Nocturnal exhibit, where we were able to see many of the animals are active at night . Our guide wash an Aboriginal who has been with the park for more than 10 years, and was the one who guided Prince Charles on his visit. The park was so interesting that we were behind schedule, but we had to hurry to visit the Yipirinya School.

Visiting schools and interacting with the children is always one of my favorite parts of OAT trips, but this one was really special. It was founded by indigenous members of the community in 1978 and is other bilingual and multicultural. It teaches literacy and numeracy and western skills as well as four indigenous languages and culture programs. It serves aboriginal children ages 3 through 16, and provides a place of safety for children who live in the town camps around Alice Springs. We spent our time reading with children in the second Grade. We read from a series of books written specifically for speakers of Aboriginal English incorporating their stories and styles of speech.

We also visited the School of the Air, a government funded institution designed to deliver primary education to isolated students throughout the. Northern Territories through distance learning. It is done primarily through interactive distance learning. The state of the art facilities both in Alice Springs and the computers, satellite dishes, and other resources provided free or for minimal cost to the 120 students is a sharp contrast to facilities at Yipirinya School.

After some free time in the late afternoon (when I worked on this blog) we ended our time in Alice Springs with a cookout on the Barbie. Salads, grilled veggies and assorted meats were a great ending to the day. It was made even better when Alec Ross, our guide from yesterday joined us for dinner, and more conversation.