Alice Springs

It was time to leave to the beaches and reefs and head into the hinterland. However, this also meant lots of goodbyes as our Contiki crew broke up.

We caught a plane into Alice Springs, which is the main hub for travelling around the Northern Territory (which is basically where all the famous things in the Outback are located. Right once we landed you could feel how much hotter it was. Also, the flies were insane. Everyone was questioning their decision to come to the Outback.

(Me infront of Simpson's Gap. That actually a riverbed I'm standing in. Hard to picture a river running through the bone dry area.)

The next day we picked up about 30 new people as our Contiki group grew once again. We began by going to an Outback zoo, where we saw all the creatures native to the Outback. We saw this crazy bird show. Here is a video of bird which pulls 15 Gs when flying! I think roller coasters are around 4 Gs, and a figher jet 10 Gs. I may be wrong with those numbers, put the point is this bird was pulling much higher than anything else.

(Whoa!)

After that we went around to all the Alice Spring’s hot spots, such as Simpson’s Gap, the Royal Flying Doctor’s, the Old Telegraph Station, and Anzac Hill. We went to the pub that night, to get our first experience of a Northern Territory bar.

(An Outback River)