An aside here: I wanted to sing my Australian love song, Stay Down Here With You and had signed up to sing at 9:15 pm. Well, Gav was running a little behind. By 10:45, the crowd had swelled as the restaurants closed - a big audience, a full of drink happy but noisy crowd. My froggy throat was even worse in the dry desert air, and the more so due to the smokers on the rooftop. So it was a major disaster but I did it anyway, kind of yelling the song through the mic - couldn't hear a thing! Much better when I sang it to our guides from Glen Helen - uh, later.
We got to know the beautiful state of the art public library, surrounded by trees and a sculptured meeting place honouring the first peoples and pioneers of Alice Springs. We ate at Sporties and the Red Ochre Grill - kudos to both. Closer to where we stayed, I would skip Juicy Rump next time. But for our last night in Alice Springs, The Deck at the Hilton served delightful meals and the bar even had Gentleman Jack for me. Coles, Woolworths, and the Pharmacy at the Yeperyenye Centre provided our needs and Dingo equipped us for our forthcomng camping trip through Kakadu.
So...what did we really do in the red centre? in our frst few days in Alice Springs, we visited the Araluen Cultural Centre, a complex that includes a theatre, several galleries, a craft guild, and two museums. One gallery exhibited a collection of larger than life 3-D photo portraits of Aboriginal individuals, each dealing with a particular physical challenge. Fascinating works. Another was filled with the most beautful and exceptional Aboriginal artworks ranging from representational landscapes, exquisite dot paintings, and contemporary sculptural pieces. The crafters shop included a workspace for locals and an exhibit of mostly textile arts like knits and painted silks. The Natural History museum focused on Australian fossils, meteorites, and minerals, as well as the history of first contact and the changing population. It also housed a good Aussie gift shop. We did not visit the air museum. Or school of the air museum? But did walk through the sculpture garden surrounding a 300 year old sacred cork wood tree. The garden borders a sacred hill, Two Women Dreaming, that is fenced to prevent climbing. We ran out of time, but not before JD spotted the first lizard, a long nosed dragon, and the only species of lizard we have seen thus far.
When we arrived at Desert Park in Alice Springs we had missed all the exhibitions. Matt recommended the Nocturnal Walk that night. We can't say enough about this wonderful experience! In fact, it bears repetition. The park keeps small species almost extinct in parts of the wild since the introduction of camels and cattle have disrupted their environments. Even captive breeding and release programs do not work now due to the huge numbers of invasve foxes and feral cats, even where the dingos are still hunted, which might control the fox and cat populations. We wore red head lamps to see the creatures who came to the feeding stations after dark. Our guide along the walk, Damion, was obviously knowledgeable about all the creatures we saw along the two hour walk: malas (tiny kangaroos and one a momma with an eensy joey in her pouch!), echidnas (one took a stroll through our group!), stickneck rats and a nest, long nosed bandicoots and long eared bilbys. The battong and wallaby remained in shadows so we caught just a glimpse. It was splendid. However, jostling and low light elimnated most photo attempts :)
I will leave you here and pick up the next blog at our drive to Uluru. In the meantime, have listen to the song of love I wrote on my first visit to this wondrous country. It is available on iTunes and all music platfoms if you search Catherine M Thompson or Celtic Cat. The song is Stay Down Here With You: soundcloud.com/catscupboard/stay-down-here-with-you
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