We were up again this morning early and we headed out on the road at about 8:15am.
Our first stop was “Devil’s Marbles” and it was totally awesome. There was a tour bus and a couple of small cars like mine and I was blown away there wasn’t hundred’s of people there. I read about the place in Steph’s ‘Lonely Planet’ and stupidly thought it was 2 big boulders…well, marbles was the right name for the place because these huge rocks were everywhere the eye could see…totally amazing place.
We got back on the road and after a small town called ‘Aileron’, which bizarrely had it’s town name like the Hollywood sign on the side of a cliff face, I saw some camels walking next to the Highway. I screeched to a halt and we all ran to photograph these Camels…Where in the world would you see Camels next to a Highway…no-where, I tell you!
Out next random stop was at the ‘Tropic of Capricorn’…it was only a structure with a plaque saying “Latitude 23 - 442028 & Longitude 153 – 833111. If you don’t know what the ‘Tropic of Capricorn’ is…neither do I…look at a map!
We finally got to Alice Springs and I have to say already I really like this town. We managed to get a room at the Pioneer YHA and after dumping our gear we managed to head on down to a place I wanted to see for a long time “The School of Air”.
We parked up and went in to be told the tour had already started…but we were allowed in and we listened to the guide as he told us about the school. It really is an amazing place and it provides education to 112 children over an area the size of central Europe by VHF radio and the internet…just in the NT. These children have a class three times a week for up to an hour and are then tutored at home for the rest of the time during the day. These children are living on cattle stations, roadhouses, police families and aboriginal children (which they total just 20%). I asked lots of questions and I thought I was maybe asking too many…but it was so interesting. We saw pictures of dignitaries who had visited…Charles & Diana (when they were first married), The Queen (who visited in 2000 with a special list of questions the kids could ask) and even John Howard visited quite recently (but without a list…these clever buggers asked him how much he made…$240,000). (They played the video again for us, so we could see the kids in action. After the video, we went out to the lobby where I got chatting to the guide…the conversation went something like this…
Me: How much qualification do the tutors need to help the children?
Guide: None, pretty much their year 12 certificate…why?
Me: Oh, I am just interested…I have just quit my job working for a cruise line…I used to be a corporate trainer.
Guide: Oh, what cruise line did you work for?
Me: Carnival Cruise Lines.
Guide: No way, I used to work for Carnival Cruise Lines too!
Me: As what?
Guide: I was a Purser.
Me: No way, I was a Purser too…I started in 1999…when were you there?
Guide: I was on the Ecstasy…maybe 1998 sometime.
Me: Were you there for the fire in 1998?
Guide: Yes I was.
Me: God, it’s a small world.
The conversation went on for a good 30 minutes naming people who we both knew and it was amazing that I had never saw him on the ships…his name was Peter Thom and he was the Visitors Center Manager. He gave me his card and told me to keep in touch. It really was nice to chat about people we both knew.
We went on to the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia…BUMMER, it was closed! Who can forget Peter O’ Brian (Shane Ramsay) leaving Neighbours to go on the Flying Doctors…I’ll have to try and catch it next time.
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