Awesome Alice!

Dear Mammy,

How are you? I am fine. I'm back in Melbourne now and trying to catch you up on all my adventures. It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks and I've been having some uh, motivational issues when it comes to writing but I think I'm back on form now. Trying to write in the heat is really rather more difficult than one might imagine!

Well, I think the last time I wrote I filled you in on my adventures in Darwin so we're still missing Alice Springs. In the middle of the Alice week I went on tour but I'll write separately about that or this thing is just going to get far too long and quite frankly a little jumbled. I can't imagine that would be fun to read - even for you who HAS to read it cos you're my mammy and it's your job.

So, from Darwin I flew down to Alice Springs - I allowed myself the luxury of a flight mainly because the train was booked out and it was more or less the same price. It would have been cool to go on the Ghan seeing as how I've already clocked up the Indian Pacific but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Arriving in Alice was lovely because I immediately noticed that, while it was still warm (looovely!) it wasn't as humid. I can't begin to describe how fantastic it was to suddenly have a clear head again. It was a bit like surfacing after being under water, suddenly I was able to think somewhat straight again.

In Alice there were, of course, some crazy nights out! We went to this one bar called Bojangles a couple of times. It's the oddest place in the world, literally done up like some wild west saloon. I found out afterwards that, apparently there's a web cam in there and you can get your friends to buy you drinks over the internet - isn't that novel?? I didn't of course, but I did spend quite a bit of time waving at myself on the screen. Hours of fun. Ahem.

The first night in Bo's (that's what the locals call it, or so I'm told) Jenny and I ran into Swiss Andy from the Kimberley tour, along with his new Scottish friend Hugh. It was great to see him again, and over the course of the week he sort of kept popping up. I think he was secretly stalking Jenny, his "Darling".

There's actually quite a bit to do in Alice, which I didn't realise, and I think it's a pity that people only use it as a stopping off point for Uluru (which, by the way, is a good 3 hour drive away, it isn't in Alice at all). One of the most interesting things was the School of the Air. I was the only there, well, Jenny was having motivational issues so she stayed outside to snooze on a bench, so I had the whole place to myself. The school itself covers an area the size of Texas and has 140 students actively enrolled. I even got to see a lesson in progress - that was cool! I was extremely impressed with how well it's set up, as I was somewhat interested to find out what the academic record is like for that kind of school. Although the kids only have an hour or so lessons per day, they actually do most of their work as homework, as well as having "in school" sessions every semester where they all come together. If you're not a nerd like me it's probably quite dull but I was fascinated by the whole set up.

The other big thing that we did in Alice was visit the Desert Park. Jenny and I hired bikes and cycled out there. To be fair, I really didn't realise just how *far* we'd have to cycle. My behind was in shock. That said, we did get to catch 2 interesting talks, one about nocturnal animals - thank you very much guide-lady, who terrified us to our very bones with talk of Death Adders and such!! - and the other about kangaroos. And yes, I FINALLY got to see a kangaroo *actually* standing up. Up to that point I was beginning to suspect that they don't actually stand up at all, that they just drag themselves along the ground on their bellies.

The big highlight of the Alice visit though, was thanks in no small part to the ever fantastic Tommy. She arranged for us to go on a magical mystery tour with her, her friend Stringer (who also has blonde dreddies and looks like her brother though no relation!) and Claire, super awesome Scottish girl who was with us on the Kimberley tour too. We drove out to Trephina gorge in his 4WD and had a look around. Got some gorgeous pics of scenery and the sunset. I was extremely greatful to Tommy for bringing us out there because, without a car, there would have been no way on God's green earth that I would have managed to get there. That lady has acumulated some mondo Brownie points in my book!

On the Wednesday we went on tour with Tommy, to Uluru, Kata-Tjuta (or the Olgas) and Kings Canyon, but I'll tell you all about that in another post. When we got back, we had arranged to go on a big night out. There was a uh, minor, uh, glitch though for me. When we got to Annie's place (the bar / hostel where were were to have some food and drinks before going to the infamous Bojangles) there were 2 mahoooosive dogs running around. To give Jenny her due, the sweetheart that she is, she went to the bar to see if they could put the dogs out. They said no. In the mean time, I was so freaked out that I had to leave. So I walked back to the hostel in the pissing rain, absolutely mortified beyond description. I swear it was like a scene out of a movie, your quintissential "bad day" haha!

I got back to the hostel absolutely soaked through so I put on my PJs and got into bed. I had resolved to go join them in Bojangles but was feeling pretty embarrassed and fed up. Unbeknownst to me, Tommy had arrived later and also asked them to get rid of the dogs (which had since vanished) should they come back, and the bar staff said that would be no problem. I fell asleep and woke up just before 11pm. So I had a decision to make - stay put and sulk or get up and go...

Naturally I threw on some dry clothes and called a taxi! I was going to be dammed if I was going to miss my last night in Alice! I was super glad I went out - from the great "Floozie Wager", which consisted of me betting Jenny $5 that she would snog a random man (long story), she won; to the young lad who very seriously informed me that he sells drugs for a living but really liked my accent so could he buy me a drink (I declined whilst backing away sloooowly); to the impromtou skinny dipping in the pool in the guide house - bloody cold but it was my first time doing that so I feck it, I had to challenge myself!! it turned out to be a really good night.

I was very sad to leave Alice. It's a small and intensely strange place, one of those places where you barely scratch the surface and already there's a myriad of mad bad and very interesting characters everywhere you look. I will have to go back one day...

For now, I'll go ahead and sign off. I should probably get out of my pyjamas given that it's half 12 in the day - oh good holy sweet jaysus I'm becoming *that* house-guest... yikes!

Love you lots! Can you believe it's only 8 weeks to Christmas???

Mind yourself,
Your Daughter, the one who ran away