Puffy's Travel Journal, Part 2

Alice Springs and Ayers Rock

Ahhh, the Outback. No Jeff Probst, no Colby Donaldson, no Jerri Manthey. We flew 2 ½ hours north to Alice Springs, in the outback, in the middle of the country. The earth is a deep red color. Interestingly, about 2000 Americans, mostly Air Force people working on satellites, live in Alice Springs.

The Alice Springs School of the Air educates children who live up to 600 miles away, an area as large as Central Europe or 2 times the size of Texas. It started in 1951 with short wave radios. Now they use the internet. The students live on cattle stations (farms), rural sites, and national parks. They would otherwise have no opportunity for education. The students are given computers by the Australian government. The lessons are mailed to them and they have a specific schedule when classes are held online. They get report cards every 2 weeks. If possible, they all meet in person 4 times a year-it’s their only experience playing and interacting with other children. They can see the teacher and other students on the internet. They even had an interactive choir online! Occasionally, the School of the Air teachers take 4-wheel drives and visit the students at home, many of whom are in the top 10% of all students in Australia.

This is a map showing where the children who use the School of the Air live.



Here’s a picture of the online teachers working with the kids.

Here’s a science lesson on bugs.



Then we visited the Royal Flying Doctors Services. This organization began in 1928 and it serves the medical needs of the remote outback. It’s amazing. They’ve saved many lives.

We explored a reptile center. Australia has 18 of the top 20 venomous snakes in the world. This was not my favorite part of the trip. Aren't you happy that I'm not showing pictures of snakes and geckos? Instead, I'll show you two little lovebirds sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.




The homes here have metal fencing and gates due to many termites. We drove a few hours to Ayers Rock. This whole Northern Territory area is 2 times the size of Texas, with a population of only 200,000 people. The aboriginal people have land rights so the cattle stations are leased to the Australians. In fact, they feel that photo-taking might take away the spirit in some areas so we had to comply. I saw a few dingoes and immediately thought of Jimbo. By the way, camel meat has less fat and less cholesterol than beef. Australia is the driest continent in the world, after Antarctica.

Hey Boo-we had a rest stop at Mt. Conner. It’s a sacred site, which looks like a big toothbrush. We went to the Olgas, known as Kata Tjuta in the Aboriginal language. This is a mountain range and a national park with the fine powdery red earth. We walked through the Walpa Gorge. It was beautiful.



Outhouses out here in the bush are called “long drop dunnies.” The Australians have a great sense of humor. Look at the sign for a public bathroom:



Finally, we went to the sunset viewing of Ayers Rock, named Uluru in the Aboriginal language. It is a sacred site. They ask people not to climb the rock, but some people ignore that request.

Can you see the two people climbing down the rock?

We got little canvas seats, wine, snacks, and a great viewing of the Uluru monolith as it changed colors during sunset. Every few minutes, the colors on the rock changed. Amazing.




4:30 am; Wake up! It’s time to go see the sunrise over Uluru (Ayers Rock). Both the Uluru monolith and the sunrise were beautiful.




They served coffee and cookies while we watched the sunrise and the colors change on the rock. The ranger took us to the Mutitjula waterhole. It never dries up, here in the desert.
Every time the waterhole gets low, the Anangu elders come to perform a ceremony. Soon it rains or they get enough heavy dew to fill up the waterhole. This hole always has some water in it!


We bought some “fly nets” to cover our faces. There are hundreds of black flies here so the nets really helped.


Here are some ancient Aboriginal drawings in a cave. The drawings were their way of communicating.



It was very special to experience these World Heritage Sites.

Next stop…Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef!