28th - Plain planes

Alice Springs has surprised me a little. Everything is smaller than I thought – I assumed that the flow of tourists would have made this place grow, but apparently that isn’t the case. The airport consists of just one building; a conveyor belt for luggage, a couple of check in booths, a small security area, an Info booth, a small desk where you can get help arranging accommodation, a booth for Hertz, Avis and Budget, two small cafes and a small kiosk. Of cause, it’s close to impossible to get lost and lose your bearings, but considering Alice is the hub you go to if you want to go to the center of Australia without driving, I thought there would be more activity. But I guess not.

That also means that Alice actually isn’t much different from any other small town I have travelled through within the last couple of weeks. Nothing really to see, the only reason you as a tourist come here is to go out of the town, not to stay here.

A proof of there is nothing out here; two of the first signs I saw leaving the car park at the airport were pointing towards Darwin and Adelaide, both app. 1500 km away. On the other hand, it’s the closest larger cities, and who doesn’t want to know how to get back to civilization?

Alice does have something interesting, though; the Royal Flying Doctor Service museum. Australia has the world’s largest air-based medical service, which is dearly needed in the rural areas that covers most of the country. More than 80% of the country is covered by the non-profit organizations’ almost 60 planes, primarily Beechcraft B200 King Airs and Pilatus PC-12s. (The last app. 20% is actually the northern-most area north of Alice in NT, Northern Territory). We saw their radio room at the Alice center, and a map showed where there were access to landing strips; paved and illuminated, rough and illuminated (but often only illuminated by flares, nothing permanently), and just rough (which therefore only can be used in daytime). The rough landing strips are owned by whoever owns the land it’s on, which means that it is the owner’s responsibility to keep it maintained and usable. RFDS actually relies a lot on the population’s donations, as most day-to-day costs are covered by government funding, but due to the requirement that the planes have to be renewed every 10 years they need a steady stream of money (a PL-12, being the cheaper of the two mentioned planes, costs around 6 M AUD). They started off by sending out doctors to areas where needed and transportation of sick people from the bush to a hospital. But they are now also used as a priority transport service between hospitals in major cities; if there is a patient in Brisbane that needs an acute transplantation in e.g. Sydney, RFDS will most probably be doing the transportation.

The De Havilland DH50, called "Victory", the first plane ever used by RFDS
The King Air

The PC12

Woops – that dragged out a little longer than originally intended.

I also got to see some real Australian camels; apparently the Australian camel is the only camel in the world that only has one hump. These were in a paddock, though, so I still haven’t seen any feral ones yet.

G'day mate!

I got a kangaroo today! (but damn, it was hell cleaning the front of the car afterwards! *hurr-hurr*). I had it for dinner at a nice restaurant in Alice. It was actually quite good, but much darker than I had expected. I have always thought of roo meat as white. Not white as chicken, but clearly whiter than e.g. veal. But the color, texture and taste was actually comparable with venison. Not a bad thing, actually.

Right now I am sitting on the terrace of the small half villa I am staying at in Alice. Right outside the terrace is a palm, and above me is a green fluorescent light giving everything a weird green tint. But it actually goes well with the theme; the place is called Palm Resort, after all. And it’s nice and warm with a fresh breeze. Lovely!