Day 8- January 25

We all landed our flight in Alice Springs at 11:30 AM. We each at some Free Range Eggs on Toast for brunch at the airport. This was a very nice café for us to eat at. It's called Café Terra Rosa, me and Cole especially loved this brunch. Eggs on toast is out favorite type of breakfast, compared to Chris, he's not the best fan of eggs on toast. We finished eating at 12, and then went to the hotel. To get to the hotel we took a taxi, it took about 12 minutes to get there. We got a Standard Twin Room. This room is able to fit all of us, except one person will have to sleep on the floor. I chose to be the one to sleep on the floor (cause I'm a nice guy). We all dropped our stuff off at the hotel pretty quickly since we don't have much time here. We are doing a tour called the City Afternoon Tour of Alice Springs. At 12:45 PM we took about a 30 minute walk to the meeting point of the tour, which is at the Alice Springs City Center. This walk was really nice, we got to walk  along Todd River and then through Olive Pink Botanic Garden. We had to walk along a bridge over the river to get to the meet up, Chris was trying to lean over the railing to see any fish, and he almost fell over. We got to look around the garden a little bit, since the tour didn't begin until 2. This type of garden was a lot different to what it's like back home, there are not many flowers. It's a whole different type of ecosystem in Australia.

We started the tour with going to The School of Air (History). Here we got to learn how children who can't access schools are educated by ratio. The Alice Springs School of the Air is the world's largest classroom. It covers more the 1.3 million square kilometers. This school is also the worlds first to use two-way radio broadcasts to help with the education of students in remote areas. There are currently only 141 students enrolled in the school of air, but it's so big because all the students living in varying areas covering such a large amount of space. Our group got very lucky and got to listen the actual lessons going on the radio. After we got to visit the School of the Air at Alice Springs, we went to visit the historic Telegraph Station. This station was established in 1872, and was built to relay messages between Darwin and Adelaide. This was also the very first European settlement in Alice Springs. Doug and I were very fascinated with the very old architecture and way of life for people back then. Here we got to learn of the amazing innovation that originated at this site. It's so cool that we got to see the very first place that connected Australia to the rest of the world. After visiting the telegraph station we went to visit the Royal Flying Doctors Service. Here we get to see how medical aid's able to reach people who live in the remote outback. The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS) is the largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organization in the world. They use the latest in aviation, medical and communication technology. There is a primary health care and 24-hour emergency service to people who live, work, and travel throughout Australia. Daniel really wanted us to fly in the plane and experience more how it works, but the tour said we are not aloud to do that.

After visiting the Royal Flying Doctors we went to the Alice Springs Reptile Center (Natural Environment). Here we got to get very close to lizards and snakes. This is the home of the largest reptile display in all of Central Australia. Just a few examples of what we got to see includes Terry the Saltwater Crocodile, HUGE Percentile Goannas, Thorny Devils, Frill-neck lizards, and many other types of lizards of. I thought this was pretty cool, but the entire time Chris was pretty scared of these creatures. There is one area we got to go in, called the Gecko Cave. It's an area we go into just full of geckos, Chris refused to go in, he did not want to go in there. I found the Thorny Devil amazing. The way the Thorny Devil is designed to survive in this environment is amazing to me, I have always found it really cool how animals adapt to their environment. This lizard originates from Australia and every part of it helps it survive. There is a spiny "false head" on the back of it's neck, and uses this to present to potential predators by dipping its real head. Also with the thorny and ridged dragon scales it's able to collect water from any part of its body. So to drink water, all they have to do is touch water with any part of it's body.


To conclude our tour we all got to go to the top of Anzac Hill (History). Anzac Hill is a memorial dedicated to all of those who served in the defense of their country. This observation point gives panoramic views over the township of Alice Springs. All of us were taken away by the great view from on top of this hill. We can see the entire area of Alice Springs from this point which is a great way to conclude our tour of this amazing place.