Now, you can’t write a blog post about Alice Springs and not use the title above now, can you?!

Originally we’d planned to spend a couple of days in Alice, but of course our clutch issues and subsequent loss of time meant that we had to cut a few things. Unfortunately Alice was one of those casualties and our time there became an overnight stopover and opportunity to do a grocery shop.

We stayed at the G’day Mate Caravan Park where we couldn’t have faulted the service. Really friendly welcome and every time we saw Alan around the park, he made the effort to check in with us to sure we were ok.

The one touristy thing we did get to do though was check out the Australian Transport Hall of Fame. Everyone in the place was subjected to the constant cries of ‘Daddy’s Truck!’ and despite it being really interesting, the attention spans of two little girls couldn’t withstand the expanse of the grounds and all the trucking history and memorabilia inside. 

We did however, get to see the offerings from Sunraysia!!

Culturally it was an interesting experience driving through Alice Springs. Clearly there is a significant indigenous population there and it was obvious there were a range of social issues within the town. Police officers were situated outside every bottle shop and many service stations, signs reminding people that permits for alcohol were required and we discovered that many of the caravan parks in the NT that we booked into gave us an alcohol permit.

Soup vans were stopped along many of the main throughfares when we went for a drive in the evening to get groceries and many indigenous people were sitting on the sidewalk drinking their soup.   Going through the NT has really challenged my own understanding regarding our indigenous people and the knowledge I have of the issues facing them.

Earlier in the week we didn’t have any TV reception and so I was finally able to get around to watching The Secret River, the Australian mini-series based on Kate Grenville’s book of the same name. I loved the book and it was great to see the book come to life in the movie but now, that film, coupled with our time in the NT I find myself wondering a lot about those early settlement years and the impact colonisation has had on our indigenous communities right across the country. One day I might delve a little more into my thoughts about this but for now I’m letting it rattle around in my brain to digest.

And that is our time in Alice Springs, summed up in a few hundred words!

Have you spent more time in Alice Springs than an overnight stopover? What are your impressions of the town?