July 26th, Australia Day 155

Before I begin writing about my adventures in the Northern Territory, I'll mention the baseball game that I played the Sunday before I left. The result was the same as all my games before it with my team once more taking a loss. I started out in right field but after the center fielder pulled a muscle in his arm, I was placed there for the remainder of the game. I did alright at one point make a dead-on accurate through from mid-center field to the catcher at home plate. Unfortunately the runner just crossed the plate as my ball reached the catcher but it was a great throw. At bat, I can't remember if I was walked but I know I definitely struck out in an unusual fashion. The ball was pitched inside at about knee height (still in the strike zone) and I jumped back to avoid the ball as I thought it was going to hit my knees. For some reason, I decided to swing and it came out as a golf swing with me in mid-air. It was an unusual strike out and an example of how the left and right hemispheres of the brain are sometimes talking at cross purposes.

Anyway, on the morning of the 26th of July, I boarded a flight in Sydney, bound for the "city" of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory (NT). The NT is a vast tract of land that is administered in a way similar to that of Canada's territories, with the federal government having a greater say in the laws of the territory. The NT holds about 1% of Australia's population, about 200 000, and spreads it over an area equal to about 20% of Australia's total. Needless to say, the NT is sparsely populated but that sense of remoteness only adds to its beauty. Alice Springs, colloquially called "The Alice", is the probably the 2nd largest settlement in the Territory after Darwin, with a population of about 9 000. It began as a repeater station on the Overland Telegraph Line and serves as a staging area for tourists who wish to go north to Darwin or west to Uluru/Ayers Rock and/or Kata Tjuta/The Olgas.

I arrived in Alice Springs about midday and was picked up at the airport by a bus from the hostel where I was staying. We drove into town and were dropped off at the hostel where I quickly dropped my stuff off and then made my way to the travel desk to reconfirm my tour as instructed. I walked outside and onto the streets of The Alice intrigued by what the town had to offer. Because of its size, there really isn't that much to do in Alice Springs but there are a few sights. In the center of the city there is the Todd Street Mall which is a pedestrian way, much like Sparks Street in Ottawa, with restaurants and shops. Along the way noticed a pole pointed to several different cities in the world.

One of the feature attractions in Alice Springs is ANZAC Hill which is a war memorial located atop a hill which commands an excellent view of Alice Springs and the surrounding area. I hiked up the small hill and I snapped a few photos of the memorial as well as the surrounding countryside. There are several tall hills that surround Alice Springs and on one of them, snow even fell one day in winter. The one thing you notice in Alice Springs is how much green vegetation there is mixed in with the surrounding red soil. Some might have the impression that the interior of Australia is desert and while there are true deserts in Australia, it is more accurate to describe this part of the NT as an arid savanna.

I walked down ANZAC Hill and found some lunch at a local pub and kept walking around The Alice but there wasn't much else to see. Eventually, I made my way back to the hostel and went to sleep early that night as my tour began at about 06:00 the next morning. This is because the distances that need to be covered in any one day are quite large, given the itinerary that is presented; to see everything there is to see you need to get up early. The nights in Alice Springs are cold while the days are quite hot because the city is located in the center of the Australian continent (almost literally). The high that day was probably around 25C with the night low around 5C but I am told that it can, and does, drop below freezing during the winter nights.

Photos now available at: http://australiaday155.blogspot.com/