The Kirks

Flew from Darwin to Alice Springs on a very nice Qantas flight across the “Red Center” of Australia. The view out of the window of the plane was quite extraordinary. It’s 1459km from Darwin to Alice and apart from the Stuart Highway and the Ghan Railway line, there’s absolutely nothing but red desert and the occasional geometrically straight track leading off into the wilderness.

In Alice, we checked into our “River View” rooms at the Alice Springs Resort which looked out over the Todd River. The view from our hotel balcony looks like this:



Every year they run the Henley on Todd regatta where the boats all have wheels. There’s a certain self deprecatory humour about Alice which is quite endearing. Of course, if you live at the end of civilisation, you have to have a sense of humour. To get into the spirit of the humour, I played my guitar (which has been carted around and played in various jungles and national parks) in the middle of the Todd River.



So, as you can see, it was a great idea to take the guitar. Extra points for anybody who can identify the song I’m playing….

Since we’re going to Chicago eventually, Isabelle thought she’d make a start on the 15749km from Alice to Chicago tonight…



We’re about to leave Alice to drive through the outback in our 4wd car towards Uluru (or Ayers Rock as it used to be known) and King’s Canyon. There’s two ways to go from Alice. The first is fairly simple and on tarmac roads; the other is off road and through some fairly hairy country. Guess which one we’re going for…..