Dessert and Desert

November 6, 2001-Ridiculous
(photos:Alice Springs & Mcdonnell Ranges,
Boat racing on River Todd)

Dinner under the stars last night was memorable, sublime, & ridiculous. The air-conditioned bus picked us up along with about 55 twenty-somethings. We were driven to a desolate location in the desert & our bus left. We walked up a dirt path to a formal dinner. There were white tablecloths on the tables & hurricane lamps flickered in the dusk. A buffet was being set up in one corner & a campfire was glowing in another. Trays of champagne & orange juice were being circulating as we found seats & settled in. Our host directed our attention to the setting sun & told us we could see both Ulhuru & Kata Tjuta from the top of a nearby sand dune. As if we needed to be enticed, they promised canapés & a didgeridoo concert when we arrived up top. I cannot describe the splendor of it as we stood on our own private pinnacle surveying the wonder of it all. The sun was setting next to Kata Tjuta & casting a glow on Ulhuru. We turned our gaze in that direction, but were puzzled by the haze that clouded the reflection of the sun dulling the Rock. All was revealed in a split second & I don’t mean the view. A wind whipped up & whisked the sand into the air as it swooped down on our cocktail hour. We turned our backs to the gale & covered our champagne glasses with our hands. Canapés flew off trays & the tablecloth became its own sail in the sunset. We managed as best we could & didn’t learn until later dinner at another site had to be canceled. For whatever reason, our location was more sheltered. As we tripped our way down the dune with our eyes slit to protect them from the flying sand, we saw our cook & host coping admirably. They’d battened down the cloths, removed the lighter candles from the tables, & secured any jackets or sweaters that had taken flight. The temperature had dropped, but most of us were prepared.

Sublime

Wine was poured & the buffet was served. The food was tasty, but cool. The sternos kept going out. We didn’t eat kangaroo or crocodile, but rationalized that emu sausage could not be too non-kosher. There was plenty of lamb, chicken, & fish plus salads, sides, & dessert. The trick was eating fast enough so the rolls & lettuce didn’t blow away. An interesting visitor was blown onto our table & took refuge on the rim of a wine glass. The large green grasshopper joined us for quite awhile as we lined up water glasses & watched it move from one to the other. It didn’t hop, but carefully felt its way along until the wind picked it up once again & sent it on its way.

After seeing the “bathroom” facilities, I decided to limit my drinking. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. The “porta potties” were clean & “decorated” to make them as nice as possible, but they were a short walk down an unlit dirt track. After all, we were in the desert & had been cautioned to stay on the inside of the rope that delineated our dining area. They told us there were “creepy crawlies” out there. What I didn’t trust was that the desert critters whose home we had appropriated would have the same respect for the rope barrier. I took a lantern with me & insisted that David escort me. I’m happy to say I was not stung, mauled, bitten, or scared by anything on the trail.

Memorable

When dinner ended all the lanterns & candles were extinguished. We were asked to be absolutely still & to listen to the sounds of the desert. The howling wind obscured many of the sounds, but many came through. It was eerie. As we looked up into the night sky, the astronomer joined us. He was quite dramatic & had a hugely powerful torch/flashlight he used to point out stars, planets, & constellations. It was the best planetarium experience I’ve ever had. The stars were evident when the lanterns were on, but in the total darkness, thousands more came forward to festoon the entire sky with a sparkle as if sprinkled with the contents of a vial of glitter. As if it could get more interesting, we were invited to look through high power binoculars & a telescope.

The Trek

We headed out this morning for the 4-½ hour drive to The Alice, as they call it. Prices in the Center are very high including hotels & food. We should have been prepared for the gas prices, but $A 1/liter was a shock. Little did we know but that out on the desolate road where the filling station was the town, it rose to $A 1.07/liter. We continued to remark at how little litter there was on the roads. In the resort area & the National Park there is none that we saw.

We did see the infamous road trains. They’re semis hauling anywhere from 3-5 trailers. We braced ourselves for a big jolt as the first one approached, but it didn’t shake us at all. The largest one we saw was hauling 3 trailers. There’s no speed limit & the speed limit signs have no number filled in just a slash across it. There’s a lot of wildlife wandering across the road. Cattle isn’t usually fenced & emus & kangaroos can be a hazard. We saw nothing that shouldn’t be there, but we did see a camel crossing sign and a sign that said there was no parking or standing except for horses & camels. Camel caravans were introduced by Afghanis in the early history of Australia. They were used much as they’re used in the Middle East. Some camels escaped, bred, & added to the already exotic animal life of the outback. Camel treks are popular with tourists. We passed on that having ridden one in Egypt.

The Alice

Alice Springs is a larger town that I expected. It’s surrounded by the McDonnell Mt. Range & is situated next to the Todd River. The Todd is usually dry, but that doesn’t deter residents of The Alice from having boat races. The characters here have to rely on their sense of humor for survival in the most inhospitable part of the country. They remove the boat bottoms, climb in, & carry the boats down the river of sand.

Racing is in the blood of Aussies, but we’d forgotten that today was the running of the Melbourne Cup. We arrived at the Dessert Park on the outskirts of town as the race began. We asked if there was a place to eat lunch before we decided to buy a ticket & were invited to come into the gift shop to watch the race. No tickets were being sold until the race was over. The Park was beautifully laid out, but the “excellent & informative” video was out of commission. The free ranger guided tours were only held from May-October, so we really didn’t get the full impact of the place. We were among the very few who ventured out in the scorching heat. They did have informative talks & a fascinating birds of prey demonstration.

We headed for Anzac Hill where there’s a great view of the town as well as a war memorial. Anzac stands for Australian, New Zealand Army Corp. Would you believe the people from New York & Boca Raton that we met at The Rock were there? The Mrs. wanted a picture taken with “the rabbi.”

A note about aboriginal history was on one of the signs on the hill. The aboriginal word for lesbian is “arragutye alknarintye.” They told about a woman who lived on the hill who “avoided the company of men.”

Yesterday an Australian man we met made an interesting point about the metric system. He said that Australians were sold on the change to metric by being told that the rest of the world was using metric. The U.S. never changed & most of the technology comes from there. The Aussies now have to convert to metric when using our stuff. An example was that pilots here all give altitude in feet. That’s because the planes are made in the U.S. & Boeing does it in feet not meters. Despite these hang-ups Australia has always had a close relationship with the U.S. We even have a covert operations base here.

Just so you know how dedicated I am to emailing you, I’m standing at a counter in the grungiest motel room of the trip to do this. The room doesn’t even have a desk & I think it was part of a hostel before they made the bathroom private. We’re now in Alice Springs.

Toby