Spent our final day in Alice Springs taking in the sights and preparing for a few days touring through the West MacDonnell Ranges. Another cool night had us sleeping in for the first time in ages – fortunately an early start after a great meal at Hanuman Restaurant last night was never on the agenda!
The Alice Springs Desert Park was just a short drive from our camp site and we were there around 10:00am just in time for the open air bird show. The park is very well laid out, being divided into distinct areas of woodland, sand country and desert rivers with the West MacDonnell Ranges as a backdrop.
Without knowing what was on offer we easily filled a couple of hours and ended up having a light lunch there. The nocturnal house was really well done and one of the best we have visited. The landscaping and gardens were well planned and in sympathy with the region they represented, with lots of information regarding the trees and plants and their various uses as a source of food or medicine.
Things we learnt while visiting the park include:
- ‘impaja’ means animal tracks
- if you spot finches (or any other seed-eating birds), water is nearby
- German tourists talk loudly when wearing audio guides
- both the common black kite and the whistling kite eat whilst flying and never land to consume their prey
- witchetty grubs are found in the root system of the witchetty bush
- mala (a type of small wallaby) were thought to be extinct until some were recently found in the Tanami desert
- feral cats (more than foxes) have decimated many native marsupials.
Now that we are experts we can trot out our new found wisdom as required. Can’t wait for the opportunity to try it out!
The remainder of the day was spent in and around town doing things like taking photos of the currently dry Todd River and stocking up at the supermarket to get us through to Uluru in a few days time.
Tomorrow we pack up and head west. The drive is short but there are plenty of sites to visit before we set up camp again at Glen Helen Gorge for a few nights.