Australia

Here we are in beautiful Alice Springs, smack dab in the middle of the Australian outback. A five hour bus ride from Uluru got us here, and the desert landscape rolled by uninterrupted by any signs of humanity except for the occasional car or “road train” (an 18 wheeler pulling up to five trailers).  We scanned the horizon for signs of wildlife but only saw a few dead cows and a very dead kangaroo (well, Dr. Morton saw the dead kangaroo — not sure about anybody else seeing it). We had lunch on the way at the Ebeneezer Road House, which is an aboriginal-owned way station with a sort of gallery and makeshift gift shop in the back. Then it was back on the bus with only one more stop before Alice — at the camel farm.

There is always a sense of the unexpected waiting just around the corner in Alice. The town is small and life moves at a fairly leisurely pace, but now we know we are really in Australia, as opposed to the way we sometimes felt in Sydney, which is too much like an American big city to be distinctively Australian. Out here, with few streetlights, dogs wandering the streets, Vegenmite served at breakfast, and the occasional python draped around someone’s neck,  there is no doubt that we’ve landed in the Northern Territory.

We hiked in the McDonnell ranges today and set a Queens University record — all 19 students climbed straight up over huge boulders to reach the top of Stanley Chasm. What a wonderful view! We hope to post a picture of the intrepid students standing at the top of the world — well, the top of this world, anyway.  

The air is warmer than it was in Uluru or Sydney, although it is still partially overcast. We have some time this afternoon to do laundry, check email, and wander the streets of Alice Springs. We’ll be here for three glorious days, laid back in the outback.

As they say in Australia, “Beauty.” That means “really cool.” But for us, it means that plus the incredible beauty of the desert.

Dr. Lynn Morton