A town like Alice

We set our alarm for 3am and were dressed and ready to go when the phone call came to say that the hot-air balloon ride was cancelled once again due to dangerous weather conditions. We were really disappointed and then when we were watching the news later, we saw that a balloon had crash landed that same morning.

This morning we went to visit the ‘School of the Air’. It was a really interesting place and must take a lot of organising. It is called ‘the largest classroom in the world’ and they have 120 children who live within 521,000 square miles. That’s about ten times the size of England (according to the blurb).

After lunch, we went to visit the Royal Flying Doctor Service. This was more to Chris’ liking as the small museum was really interesting. They have 61 planes available at any one time and a large screen gives an up to date picture of how many planes are in use.

We had a really good meal this evening, followed by Chris’ obligatory “How much?” Over here they eat camel and kangaroo and I was half tempted to give it a try. I ended up with a T.bone steak that was cooked to perfection. Chris had a lamb shank in a vegetable pie. He said it was really good.  

Today has been really hot again and everyone is on fire alert. The bush fires over here are raging out of control and could well affect our holiday. We’re leaving Alice Springs tomorrow to stay in the Ayers Rock area and will be seeing it at sunset and then back again the morning after for the sunrise before getting the chance to climb part of it.