Finally we are reaching Alice Springs, 'The Alice' as the locals are calling it. Nothing to do anymore with the dusty outback town as described in the famous Nevil Shute novel 'A Town Like Alice'. It is now a modern town with a lot of facilities for the visitor and that give and extraordinary combination of history, heritage and unique scenery.

For a first overview of the town the best location is probably from Anzac Hill. You can reach the top of the hill by foot or by car. From the top of the hill you have a nice view of Alice Springs bordered east and west by the spectacular MacDonnell Ranges. The place can be quite busy at the sunset when sun is coloring the ranges all around with a great diversity of yellow, orange and red.

Another possibility is to enjoy the scenery of a sunrise on the MacDonnell Ranges from a hot air balloon.
You will have to wake up early of course and do not forget that depending of the period of the year it can be very cold. Interested? Just have a look to my own experience. I had a great time. It must be done at least once in a life and which such a magnificent surrounding what surely a wonderful souvenir.

There many things to do in Alice Springs and around. If you have an hour or two left before the end of the day you can chose, as we did, to have a look to Panorama Gut.

The panorama is 360° painting of the surrounding of Alice Springs. Interesting to see. At the same location you will also find a gallery with a large display of painting and aboriginal artifacts plus some historic photographs of the town.

If you did not yet visit another 'School of the Air', there one here. Interested by the railway history, well the Transport Heritage Centre is for you. An opportunity to experience the Old Ghan on its original narrow gauge track.

Alice Springs is also one of one of the locations where the Royal Flying Doctors have a base. The base was established in 1939 and is still operational today. Guided tours are possible and are really interesting.

All began with the frustration of one man, a young Presbyterian minister, who felt so helpless and dismayed that so many people died or suffered pain because they were too far from medical help. This man was John Flynn. He understood the possibilities of the new technologies to help him to improve this situation. Together with Alf Traeger (for the telecommunication aspect) and with Hudson Fysh (a young aviator) he set-up the Flying Doctor Service which had its first flight in 1928.

Today the rfds is world famous. Each year the rfds planes around Australia fly the equivalent of 650 times around the world, treating more than 150000 patients and making nearly 125000 evacuation flights.

Going back in the past s also possible by visiting the Old Telegraph Station. This is really the place where Alice Springs is born. In 1871, as part of the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line, a repeater station was built near a permanent water hole in the bed of the dry Todd River. The telegraph station was half way between Adelaide and Darwin on the transcontinental telegraphic line. Once completed in 1872 this line played an important role in the development of Australia as it reduced the transmission of messages, personal, commercial, ... from several months to few hours.

The Station, as displayed today, reproduces the buildings and operations as they were between 1895 and 1905.

It is also the starting point of the Section 1 of the Larapinta trail. ... next page ...