Alice Springs

15th June 2013

This morning started with the heater in the van getting its first work out on the trip and it worked like a charm, we were toasty and warm in no time at all. After breakfast we headed into the town centre of Alice Springs to check it out and grab some information.We found the centre to be very quiet, especially given it was a Saturday morning.

Todd St Mall around 10.15am on Saturday Morning

Alice Springs first hospital

We did some shopping, more souvenirs and pins for the trip before making our way up to Anzac Hill which gave us a great 360 degree view of Alice and it surrounds, very nice.

Me and the girls at Anzac Hill

We then went out to the School of the Air, which was absolutely brilliant. We spent a couple of hours there, learning about the way the school now conducts itself using modern Internet and webcam software, which is a far cry from the radio set ups used from its inception in 1951 and right through until 2005.

The School of the Air 

The school currently has 140 registered students, spread out over an area of 1,300,000 sq  kms of central Australia. To put that into perspective, this "classroom" is 10 times the size of England and is officially the largest classroom in the world! The logistics involved in keeping this programme running and the dedication of the staff is amazing, it was great to learn more about this institution.

The Map of the Classroom

After school of the air, we headed out of town a short way to the Alice Springs Desert Park which was a wildlife park set at the base of the beautiful West MacDonnell ranges and it not only show cased the plants and animals of the central desert region, but it also focused on the aboriginal culture and history of the region which was excellent for all of us to learn more about.

The girls outside Alice Springs Desert Park

We left the park around 5pm, after spending several hours there and made our way back to camp for dinner and preparing ourselves to make the move out of the town of Alice and into the West MacDonnell Ranges for what promises to be some memorable sections of this adventure, as we explore Kings Canyon, The Olgas and Uluru over the course of the next week, which we are all extremely excited about!