Day 4 - Around town in Alice
Tuesday 17 September
Today we spent most of the day visiting in Alice Springs.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service museum was excellent, including a hologram presentation of John Flynn mentioned previously who was the driving force behind the formation of the RFDS, and a virtual reality exhibit of a pilot and flight nurse evacuating a patient. Squeezed in a visit to Reptile World across the road and got to hold a spiny dragon and a blue tongue lizard and a python. Also learned what to do if faced with a venomous snake - we’ll remember that at least till we get back to NZ.
After lunch checked out the Women’s Museum of Australia which had heaps of interesting info but presented in a very old style museum fashion so quite hard to take in on a very hot afternoon. Next was the Araluen Art Centre which currently had a major exhibition of Aboriginal art. Managed not to buy anything which was good.
After that we went back to the Mercure for a swim in the pool. Pretty chilly actually but nice and refreshing. The swim gave us the energy to visit Emily gap and Jessie gap in the East MacDonnell Ranges. Emily gap is known for its caterpillar rock paintings which can be viewed but not touched or photographed. The Caterpillar Dreaming story tells how the MacDonnell ranges were created, apparently involving the carcasses of a great many caterpillars, but I’m sure there is much more to it than has been made known to non Aborigines. The ‘gaps’ were very impressive and sacred places. No pics allowed but found a couple of Emily gap and the East MacDonnell range on line.
Finished off the day with tea at Casa Nostra a very pleasant local Italian place where unfortunately the food was pretty ordinary.
Today we spent most of the day visiting in Alice Springs.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service museum was excellent, including a hologram presentation of John Flynn mentioned previously who was the driving force behind the formation of the RFDS, and a virtual reality exhibit of a pilot and flight nurse evacuating a patient. Squeezed in a visit to Reptile World across the road and got to hold a spiny dragon and a blue tongue lizard and a python. Also learned what to do if faced with a venomous snake - we’ll remember that at least till we get back to NZ.
After lunch checked out the Women’s Museum of Australia which had heaps of interesting info but presented in a very old style museum fashion so quite hard to take in on a very hot afternoon. Next was the Araluen Art Centre which currently had a major exhibition of Aboriginal art. Managed not to buy anything which was good.
After that we went back to the Mercure for a swim in the pool. Pretty chilly actually but nice and refreshing. The swim gave us the energy to visit Emily gap and Jessie gap in the East MacDonnell Ranges. Emily gap is known for its caterpillar rock paintings which can be viewed but not touched or photographed. The Caterpillar Dreaming story tells how the MacDonnell ranges were created, apparently involving the carcasses of a great many caterpillars, but I’m sure there is much more to it than has been made known to non Aborigines. The ‘gaps’ were very impressive and sacred places. No pics allowed but found a couple of Emily gap and the East MacDonnell range on line.
Finished off the day with tea at Casa Nostra a very pleasant local Italian place where unfortunately the food was pretty ordinary.
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