6.23.06

Alice Springs

Alice Springs is about 45 minutes flying from Ayers Rock. We got to spend the day learning about the regional Aboriginals, and how the once hunters and gatherers have been turned into diabetic welfare recipients by the European white folk.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service is a part of the public healthcare in central Australia, and it does just what you’d guess – it flies doctors out to see patients in remote locations, and brings ill patients in to hospitals. Pretty smart deal, though the name still sounds a bit silly to me. We visited the Alice Springs call center – on of a dozen or so throughout the continent.

Today we got to partake in the mandatory Aussie outback barbecue. The food was great, and I got to eat kangaroo steaks again (hooray!). I was also reminded of how freezing the desert can get at night. Fortunately, it was a new moon (or a very small moon), and I saw more stars and nebulas and cloudy clusters of light than I have ever seen. I also learned that Crocodile Dundee was wrong – a real Australian would say “prawns on the Barbie,” not “shrimp on the Barbie.”