March 9 - Alice Springs

First Australia was hit with wild fires, then floods and now the third punishment is a plague of flies.  It is impossible to overstate how annoying these pests are.  The second you step outside, you are mobbed with dozen, possible hundreds of these bugs.   It would drive a sane person around the bend. I can not recommend Uluru because of these pests, unless you are really interested in Aborigine mythology.

Today we are driving to Alice Springs to catch the Ghan Train.

Our bus driver / tour guide is a very unique individual.  Keleigh has a head of shocking bright red hair and dresses like a Steve Irwin clone.  She has a great sense of humour and is a fountain of knowledge. We were driving down the highway, when she slammed on the brakes and rushed out the door screaming “there’s one.”  A couple minutes later she re-entered the bus with a Thorny Devil in hand. She told us that it was rare to see one that close to the road during the day, and that we should not confused it with a Horny Little Devil.

Our first scheduled stop was at Curtin Springs. Here we learned about cattle ranching in Australia. Cattle stations in Australia are huge.  The one in Curtin Springs is the size of Belgium. Our guide did not know how many head of cattle were in the station. The Severin family has had a lease on this land for the part 90 years. The standing joke is that patriarch of the family, 97 year old Peter Severin, is the only Australian who still drinks Foster beer.

The main breed of cattle is the “Grey”.  It is known for its ability to live in arid conditions. In order to move the cattle from one pasture to another, the cattlemen will shut off water in one pasture after another until the only water available to the cattle is the water hole in the pasture where the rancher wants the cattle to reside.  The owner will keep certain older cattle because they know the location of all the water holes and will pass this information on to the younger cattle.

Camels were imported into Australia because of their ability to work in areas with little or no water.  Unfortunately, there are now close to a million wild camels in Australia.  This has resulted in a cull being implemented in some areas.  We’ve been told that rotting carcases are the source of the flies.

Our guide told us that 23 of the 25 most deadly snakes inhibit Australia.  She also told us that common sense, such as staying on paths and not aggravating the snakes, is the best prevention. The snakes have very small fangs, about 2 mm in length, so the snakes don’t really bite but actually scratch their victims.  In many cases they don’t release their venom.  If you’re have been bitten, the common cure is to immobilize the limb and slow the circulation.  This buys time until the antivenom can be administrated.  In some cases, the bodies natural defenses will suffice, if the circulation has been slowed enough.  

This area of the Outback from Uluru to Alice Springs is thick brush and sand mounds.  The mounds do not drift as they are anchored by grass and shrubs.  It adds a break to a very monotonous landscape.

Our next stop was in geographical center of Australia, in place called Eridunda. We had a nice lunch in a roadhouse restaurant.

Our guide told us about a medical service for remote residents called the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It is a non-profit organisation which provides emergency and primary health care services for those living in rural, remote and regional areas of Australia who cannot access a hospital or general practice due to the vast distances of the Outback.  The service owns 67 aircraft, operates out of 23 bases with 1,225 employees. Each day, on average, the service travels 73,554 kilometres by air, has 800 patient contacts and transports 177 patients.

One of the more silly stories that we were told was the Great Australian Emu War.  It seems that at the end of Second World War, Australia was being overrun by wild emus.  The government thought that the returning troops could conduct a cull and reduce the emu population to manageable levels.  But it seems for each tactic the army employed, it was countered by the emus, so that when the government finally called off the cull only about a dozen emus had been killed despite 10,000 rounds of ammunition being used.  I don’t know if this true, but it made for a good story the way Keleigh told it.

Late in the afternoon we arrived in Alice Springs, in order to board the Ghan Train.  Alice Springs is small city, but it seems very clean and modern.  We went to ANZAC Hill, which is a war memorial, but it has a great view of the city.

The Ghan Train’s name is an abbreviated version of its previous nickname, The Afghan Express. Some suggest the train's name honours Afghan camel drivers who arrived in Australia in the late 19th century to help the British colonisers find a way to reach the country's interior. The train is about a kilometer in length.  It is a classic luxury sleeper train, with a fabulous dining car and a very comfortable lounge.  It is all inclusive, so as you could expect the bar car was always full. 

Our trip runs from Alice Springs to Darwin in the north.  Our sleeper car might be the smallest bedroom I’ve ever been in.  I had the upper berth of the bunk bed and I hit my head several times getting in and out of bed.  The bathroom contains a sink, toilette and a shower in 4 x 4 foot enclosure.  All that is missing is Hercule Poirot.