Alice Springs: No she doesn't, she sweats!

Friday

We still had one more full morning and afternoon in Adelaide before catching our overnight Greyhound to Alice Springs. We only had one goal and that was to seek out a suitable wide brimmed hat to wear during our time in the Australian outback. We'd previously searched in souvenir shops in the coastal town of Glenelg and one in Adelaide but had no success. Annoying, I had brought a suitable hat with me when we left home but I sent it back with my parents when we were in Budapest, as I hadn't used it yet. Cricket was where we started. After a quick google, we learned that there was a South Australian Cricket Association shop a short ride away on the tram in South Adelaide. As it was free we hopped on and got off a stop early so we wouldn't have to pay a fair. It was a quick trot through a quiet park before we found the road the shop was on. We walked along and found the building but there was absolutely no indication as to the shops existence. The area seemed to be light industry and businesses, so we gave up and walked back through the park to the tram stop. We decided to try one final time around the Rundle Mall area, which was the main shopping area of the city. Our first attempt proved fruitless at a large shopping centre, the normally reliable topshop/topman not selling a single hat between them. We were almost resigned to having to buy one in Alice Springs but decided to give the souvenir shop we hadn't tried the night before a stab. And boy did it pay off! They had hats better than ones we were expecting to buy. Proper Indiana Jones style ones made from genuine cow and kangaroo leather. They cost slightly more than we'd planned but they definitely seemed worth it. After an hours deciding which one we preferred we left the shop with 2 very suitable hats at a reasonable price. After our hat success we went to Woolworths to stock up on snacks for our bus ride north. The hat choosing had taken longer than expected but we still had plenty of time to sort out sandwiches and bags for the trip. Quarter to 5 soon came round and we set off for the bus station. It was still pretty hot out and by the time we'd made it we'd worked up a good sweat, the stations air conditioning came as a welcome relief. We checked in and were assigned our seats and after a short wait boarded the bus ready for the off. Once we were all aboard the driver stood up and introduced himself as Barry and informed us that he would be driving in the middle of the road once he was on the highway as “there is a lot of wildlife out there”. He then told us that a few weeks ago he had had a kangaroo get hit by a lorry coming in the opposite direction that had come through his window and the woman sitting in the seat I was had “worn it” but she had been okay after the paramedics “sedated her”. It's safe to say that at this point we were both slightly worried and agreed that it could be an eventful trip. We set off as the sun was setting to our left. We hadn't been going an hour before all the driving had clearly worked up a hunger for Barry and he stopped without notice, ran into a fast food chicken shop and came out with his dinner in hand. The rest of the trip that evening through to the town of Port Augusta was fairly uneventful. We picked up a cluster of Aboriginies here and they all piled on with their pillows and duvets and spread themselves out on 2 seats each. This is when the fun started on the road. From Port Augusta we joined the Stuart highway, which runs for about 2000 miles all the way to the northern city of Darwin, we were only covering half of it on this stretch though as Alice Springs is almost right in the middle of it. The kangaroos seemed to be massing at the side of the road and despite the highways lack of traffic, always jump out right in front of the vehicle. A number of time the driver had to suddenly brake as a suicidal kangaroo hopped out and stopped upon seeing the coaches headlights. A couple weren't so lucky to avoid the front bumper and caused quite a loud bang that woke everyone when they hit. The driver was right, there was an awful lot of wildlife on the road. Charlotte spied an Echidna (a hedgehog like marsupial only found in Australia) risking life and limb as it ran across the road and there was plenty of cattle which would have caused a considerably larger dent than the kangaroos did.

Saturday

After a few near misses we did manage to get a small amount of sleep before we arrived the town of Coober Pedy at about half past 5 in the morning. This was a long stop, and most of the coach departed here leaving only us 2 and 3 more backpackers onboard. We got off while everyone was faffing around with suitcases and wandered over to a petrol station to use their facilities and buy a fresh drink for the remainder of the journey. The friendly man behind the counter tried to advise us to buy 3 big bottles instead of the 2 small ones we wanted but we turned him down, as we didn't fancy lugging so much around with us.  We walked back to the coach just in time to see it pulling out its bay and down the road. By our reckoning we still had plenty of time at this stop. The driver opened the door to let us know he would only be 5 minutes while they popped up the road but we insisted on getting back in just incase they never returned. Coober Pedy had been in our original itinerary but due to transport times, it seems like an awkward place to make a stop, so we dropped it. It gets up to 50 degrees in the town during the summer and the locals have counteracted the heat by living underground where it's cooler. We did return to where we had been but it took a lot longer than the 5 minutes the driver had said it would. The original driver departed and the new one joined but this time we got no introduction or wildlife warning. It was pushing 7 o'clock by the time we left so the nocturnal animals had all disappeared by the time we got back in the highway. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful until we arrived in the small town of Alice Springs at about half past 1 in the afternoon. To say it was hot when we got off the bus is a bit of an understatement. It was probably the hottest place we had ever been. Sweat seeped from our skin the instant we stepped off the bus and after a quick visit to the tour companies shop we were booked with, the walk to our hostel was almost unbearable. The man in the shop tried to sell us another tour to do on our spare day but we told him we'd think about it as we were fairly worn out from the bus journey. We checked in to our hostel and cooled down in the room for a little while before heading back in to town for some food. We had a fairly large lunch/dinner of 3 croissants each and after another quick poke around the supermarket to pick up some pasta and beans for dinner we went back to the hostel. The day ended prematurely and without any dinner as we were so tired from the bus journey. We weren't hungry after the croissants so we decided to skip dinner and I fell asleep at 6 o'clock before making it into bed and didn't wake up until 9 o'clock the next morning. Charlotte managed to keep her eyes open just long enough to get a shower and actually make it into bed.

Sunday

This was our one full day in Alice Springs for which we had no plans whatsoever. After getting up after a good long sleep we ate some more croissants (they were good croissants and on offer) and an apple for our breakfast. We headed out into town to have a look around. There was little to see but it was a completely different prospect from Perth or Adelaide. The aboriginal population was a lot more noticeable than the other cities. Which could either be down to the lower population of the town as a whole or that the Northern Territory has the highest indigenous population of any Australian state or territory. Or both. We walked over the dry bed of the Todd river, which had pathways through it and looked like it hadn't seen a drop of water in decades and past Anzac hill which we had been recommended but would leave to our final day in the town. We were walking in the direction of a shop called Harvey Norman, which is pretty much Australia's answer to Currys. We were after a reasonably priced, good quality underwater camera for an upcoming excursion in Cairns but when we arrived the shop was shuttered up for the day. With it being a Sunday, we weren't expecting it to be open anyway. We walked back towards the centre of town and down the deserted Todd Mall area. All the shops were shut here too apart from the souvenir shop at the end of the street. We went in and after some deliberation over the numerous pin badges they had, picked up a couple to add to the collection. We stopped by Woolworths to pick up some lunch and also snacks and supplies for our 3 day/2 night trip to Uluru and Kata-Tjuta. We lugged the goodies home, working up quite a sweat with a 6 pack of water on my shoulder. Our last job for the day would be to pick up a sleeping bag and fly net each from receptions but when we got there, they informed us that they were all out of fly nets. This meant another trip into town, which was slightly annoying bearing in mind it was a bit of a walk and it was 40 degrees. We were told K-Mart would sell them for next to nothing but after looking around for a while and not finding any we asked a member of staff who allegedly asked another member of staff who told that first member of staff that they no longer sell them, which was weird as it doesn't seem like something you would just stop selling. We tried the 2 big supermarkets in town but to no avail so we had to resort to popping into the tour shop and buying a couple from them. That was definitely our last visit to town for the day and we spent the evening writing blogs, uploading photos and scoffing our pasta and baked beans we’d purchased the day before.

We needed an early night as we had an early start for our excursion into the outback the next morning but we weren't going to get it. Somewhere, tucked away beneath my bed was a cricket that insisted on making a racket all night. Despite our best efforts to move it along, or even kill it, it held strong and wouldn't budge. In the end I gave up and put some earplugs in, which did help. Charlotte somehow managed to drop off without any though. We were staying in the same hostel when our tour ended, so hopefully it would have moved on when we returned.

James and Charlotte