The Telegraph Station, Alice's Spring and some gaps and chasms

Sorry, it's been a few days since my last confession...er, blog. We've been busy - well the kids have - I've been swimming in ennui searching for a purpose and occasionally finding one. There seems to be a lot of lip service paid to the doctor - not a lot of reliability. I should get pretty good at Sudoku by the end! At the end of the day Friday I caught up with the Parker-Mitchell team at the Telegraph station where I heard all about the amazing station and it's continuous single copper wire stretching from Darwin to Adelaide. Far more amazing was the fact that someone was employed to sit with headphones on, listening to morse code all day - and I thought I had it tough! The kids had discovered water tables down at the spring and were keen to dig holes in the sand wherever it appeared dry to show me they could find water - seemed like a never-ending kind of game! We eventually extracted them from the springbed and headed into town to a place called the Bluegrass Restaurant which I'd found online and was touted as one of the best restaurants in Alice - my antennae should've gone up immediately. It was in this lovely old heritage building but if it was a fine restaurant before, it had fallen by the wayside lately. The tables were covered with red plastic tablecloths and the walls looked like they could've used another coat of paint or two - perhaps that's the look they were after? The promise of interesting tasting food was instilled by the menu selections but the follow through was lacking - seems to have fallen into the deep-fried trap so many Australian restaurants seem to gravitate towards.

Yesterday, Aidan woke up and out of the blue said he wanted to get into his schoolwork - we were flabbergasted as it was Saturday morning! Cole wasn't as keen but a few hours were spent getting some work done. We needed to get some passport photos and wanted to browse through one of the big aboriginal galleries (and grab a proper coffee!) so we headed down to the Todd mall walking street in town. From there we wanted to get to the Stanley Chasm, 50kms out of town. Again - it's a sacred area of one of the local aboriginal communities, open to the public . You hike in about 10 minutes from the information booth to a stretch of about 25 metres of  20 metre tall vertical rock on either side about 10 metres apart. The sun shines down the chasm for only 15 minutes a day and we managed to catch it at the right time. The kids had a ball checking out the isolated pools of water left over from some recent rains and enjoyed clambering over all the rocks and creeks on the way in and out. We'd made it there without having checked the fuel gauge before we departed and rather than heading further away from Alice to some of the other waterholes/gorges we had to head back. On the way, we stopped in at the Simpson Gap, only a few kms out of town. It's where a couple of small ranges come together at a steep valley leaving a 'gap' between the rocks - hence the name. At this time, there was a nice little collection of water between the gap in the rock, shallow enough at spots to take a wander in and across. It was incredibly scenic and very tempting to grab some ropes, a harness and some climbing shoes to scale some of the walls. The rock looks like it would come apart as you reached up to grab the next hold but - at least lower down - is actually solid and smooth without any real jaggedness. It looks like the ground has been split and angled upwards with a series of layered rocks split and cracked in perpendicular fashion, jutting in and out up the rock. You can see the different layers of rock pancaked one on top of the other rising out of the earth on a 45 degree angle with parallel seams - it looks ancient and spectacular. With the rising heat and the temptation of water, we ventured in to the local pool and cooled ourselves off for a few hours. The Alice Springs Triathlon Club had advertised a sprint and olympic distance tri for the AM so I mentally signed myself up. Back home though, I checked my mountain bike and found both tires flat - seems an inadvertant run through a bindi-patch had paid its due. As Jen got into making sushi for dinner, Piper and I attacked the tires. I managed to find a spare and some patches but the glue in the patch kit had all dried up and I needed two or three other patches. A quick trip to the Mobil for some glue and we were back on track. I set my alarm for the wee hours this AM, woke and checked my tires for success and found the front one to have softened overnight - so alas - it wasn't meant to be. I feel a little slack not having a go - will have to get prepared for the next opportunity - like maybe doing a bit of fitness!

Dirty shirts, no shoes and runny noses

I still can't get my head around the poverty and related illness I'm witnessing. The squallor in which some of my patients live in and how they present to the clinic is mind-boggling. Many haven't washed or changed clothes for days. Few are very happy and most have been through horrendous ordeals of alcohol-related violence and mistreatment. They live on top of one another in the small government supplied housing - 8-10 people in a 3 bedroom house. STDs are rampant, worms and parasitic infections epidemic, and chronic diseases like diabetes, renal failure, rheumatic heart disease almost the norm rather than the exception. Some patients actually live in the bush with addresses like "the big tree, Alice Springs" or "Long grass / Salt bush..." the list goes on. If they are kicked out of their community for whatever reason, they migrate to Alice and essentially camp out along the river or in the parks waiting for their government handout to have a party and continue day to day. The gap between your middle-class Australian and (what appears to be) your average Aboriginal here in the NT is massive and seemingly perpetual. You can see programs aiming at education in nutrition and general hygiene being undertaken and kids are fed two meals at school everyday so perhaps there is some hope in the mix - unfortunately there doesn't appear to be enough positive role models to catalyze change. Maybe it's coming...who knows.

The kids are trucking along well, getting into their schoolwork and enjoying the parks and swimming pool here in Alice. We've taken to an early morning ride to the local park for a play and run the last few days and it's been a great way to start the day. I'm a little worried about my childrens' lack of abdominal six packs so will be endeavouring to start some morning calisthenics and core training (Troy Jacobsen style). I'm probably in need of a bit as well. Jen's started her course again through Deakin so is starting to burn the midnight oil - she's such a motivated creature in this regard - I have utter respect. We're moving into the weekend and hope to do some touring of the outskirts - perhaps to some local gorges or water holes and maybe up to the Devil's Marbles north of here. We'll see how it goes.

The Desert Park and Dige lessons

While I've been off occasionally seeing patients and reviewing a backlog of pathology reports and discharge summaries/letters, Jen and the boys have been out and about - checking out the main attractions of the Alice. Yesterday they spent the day at the Desert Park, scoping out various birds and lizards indigenous to the area and learning about bush tucker and some aboriginal culture. Today they visited the School of the Air, went to a dige class at a local shop so now Jen can make a noise not dissimilar to a massive bout of flatus - I'm sure it'll come along though. They also visited the MBantua Aboriginal Art Gallery - predominantly of artists from the Utopia region - and were spellbound by some of the amazing works produced.

I managed to get through all the pathology reports today and hopefully organized a bit more work for myself, recalling about a third of the patients for review due to amazingly abnormal results. The amount of chronic and acute disability in this small community astounds me! I should hopefully be getting a bit busier over the next few days and if not will have to start a new project to keep myself busy, hmmm? It's not the most stressful job but not the most exciting either. We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

Amoonguna Medical Centre

First day on the job. I was picked up at 8 AM by the clinic practice manager and driven 15kms out of town to the small community (pop. 300) of Amoonguna. Didn't know what to expect on the way in but was ready for anything. The clinic was less than a year old and looked pristinely new. It has two clinic nurses, a local receptionist and a couple of bus drivers who go and collect the patients and bring them in. The practice manager gave me a quick tour of the community which is essentially comprised of government houses which the occupants are meant to pay rent for - some do, some don't. There is variable care taken to the yards and plenty of overgrown, trash strewn lawns. The aged-care facility looks fairly basic, complete with an old white Ford out front on blocks. Today was predominantly an orientation day and I only saw a handful of patients. I think I'll be doing a lot of clean up for the next three weeks - meaning  - there are pathology reports, discharge summaries and a whole bunch more paperwork in need of catching up in addition to follow up health checks and an overwhelming amount of diabetes/chronic health management assessments to tackle. The clinic hasn't had a GP for 3 weeks so the nurses were almost desperate in showing me lists of patients with diabetes and their abysmal numbers indicating poor control. As I started into some of the results I immediately hit a roadblock with the first two patients requiring follow up for STDs I haven't treated since being in Australia.  TB exists and the incidence of Rheumatic Heart disease is apparently epidemic - it's like I've been transported back to India, Guyana or Guatemala with that same smell on patients - a sort of sweet and sour charcoal-like smell indicative of poor living environments. I'm fascinated by the naturally blonde or auburn hair though, commonly unkempt and frizzled - such a contrast to the incredibly dark skin tones.

While I was struggling to get my head around what my job will be for the next few weeks, Jen and the kids checked out the reptile museum, handling snakes and lizards and learning about the local fauna. The boys said they were the closest they'd ever been to a salty croc - a smiley creature on the other side of a thick plexi-glass window only a nose or finger tip away. Once home from work we headed out as a family to the Cultural Precinct centre complete with a massive playground for the kids to have a run around. Cole has wanted desperately to try out his new boomerang that he bought  in Coober Pedy and we finally found a space to do so. After a number of throws with variable success at returns but no self-induced injuries, he joined his brother and sister in the park. We're settling in to Alice - should be an interesting few weeks - still lots to see and do.

Thorny Devils and washed out of the Kings Canyon

We started out early in order to make it to King's Canyon at a reasonable time in the afternoon. The kids settled into their schoolwork, excited by the prospect of a couple more days in a tent at a new location. En route we caught a good glimpse of Mt Conner - an Uluru mimick we noticed on the way in. It's a monolith about half way from the Stuart Highway turn off to Uluru with less rounded corners but a similar largess sort of stature. It probably doesn't capture the light as well as Uluru and perhaps does not have the spiritual association as much, so has been left alone by the tourist mobs. After the turn off to King's Canyon I finally managed to pull off the road to check out a thorny devil lizard that I hadn't run over. They are incredible little beasties which look like they have actual thorns attached to their legs and backs. On the way we pulled into Kings Creek Station for a coffee and fill up. The flies continued to be incessant in their desire to push us to insanity so we gave in and invested in the colourful head mesh screens - they even had a pink one left! We made it to the Kings Canyon Resort by early afternoon and enjoyed some lunch and a swim by the pool. Dried and refreshed, we made a quick trek into the canyon for a short walk to the valley lookout. On the walk out we noticed an enticing little pool of water to the side of the path and ventured the short distance to check it out. Small frogs littered the rocks and tadpoles with legs scittered around the shallow pools. Dragonflies - both red and blue, zipped around the surface and the kids found small ledges and areas to explore in the near vicinity. As we clambered out we crossed paths with a patronizing guide from the local Adventure Lodge who advised us to "stay to the trail" as some of these off-trail areas were sacred to the aborigines. There were no signs indicating this to be the case and plenty of footprints to suggest we weren't the only ones to explore this little pool. We are quite sensitive to the aboriginal areas and had no intention of trespassing where we weren't meant to go so I was a little perturbed by his lecture as we had done nothing noticeably wrong other than appreciate the beauty of the area. We headed back to camp and enjoyed another swim. The boys didn't seem to want to leave the pool and were good and water-logged by the time they eventually emerged for dinner. A game of snap, a quick read and we settled into a deep slumber.

I woke early and on my way back from the toilet block heard the distinctive clunk of something walking over the bonnet of a car. I looked up to see a dingo maybe 8 feet in front of me scampering off another camper's car. They had placed their cooking pots on the roof (clean or uncleaned I'm unsure) and the dingo was obviously up having a look. As I made my way to the tent the howls began in earnest, lasting maybe 30 seconds to a minute then abruptly stopped. The sunrise had an iridescent purpley-red glow on the sky and the old adage "red skies in the morning - sailors take warning" rambled through my head. The flies were in full force so we elected to have breaky at the resort as dark clouds began to muster and thunder and lightning to strike in the distance. We had set our sites on the canyon rim walk in the morning and a productive, fun afternoon at the pool if  the weather cleared. As we headed to the canyon, buckets of water seemed to be hurled at us such that my wipers had trouble keeping up with the deluge. We waited about ten to fifteen minutes to see if it would pass at the canyon parking lot and our window came...briefly. Traipsed up in our head meshes, hats and nylon rain slickers we trudged up the path to the rim. Two-thirds the way up and the sky opened up again with torrents. We pushed forward despite complaints from the boys about the loud thunder seemingly moving closer and closer the higher we climbed. We made it to the top and called it quits as it looked as if we would be washed away if we persisted on track to the "Garden of Eden" - the goal of today's trek. The waterfall visible from the parking lot, high on the canyon walls, had turned into a veritable Niagara Falls in contrast to its initial trickle and the steps down had come to resemble small cataracts building up steam. By the time we'd made it back to the car we were drenched - seems our slickers weren't so slick! We decided to push our travels ahead and pack up camp (which was very damp by the time we returned) to make our way to Alice a day early. The rain persisted in droves as we made our way to Kings Creek for lunch, with low areas of the road actually covered in a few inches of water, making that wave-spray of water as we drove through. I tried to convince Jen to run ahead and capture our "river crossing" on the camera but she declined. We eventually made it to Alice and Fiona directed us to where we'll be staying for the next three weeks - a small two-bedroom unit at the end of a cul de sac - a bit basic but we'll manage. We didn't know what to expect of Alice and initial impressions suggested significant impoverishment and social issues with numerous aborigines lounging on sidewalks and around the city centre, unkempt and very rough looking, but it wasn't only the aborigines who looked liked they'd had tough times. I start monday at the Aboriginal Medical Service about 15 kms out of town - should be a bit eye-opening.

Woken by the howls of dingos

…a piercing chorus of howls broke the early morning silence and stirred me from my slumber. I scrambled slowly out of the tent to view the commotion but it had already ceased and appeared to be coming from the hills behind the camp. Awake and behind on my blogging I took refuge in Bessie and plugged my computer in to get caught up. The sun rose with the kids and we organized ourselves for a short drive to Uluru and a pilgrimage saunter around its base. Having lived in Narrandera for 6 ½ yrs we were used to flies now and again finding the many orifices and moist areas of our face and managed quite well without putting the head netting on to avoid their advances. Perhaps due to the recent rains or not, legions of flies seemed to be doing their utmost to drive us batty – but we were tough (or stubborn) – unlike virtually all the other tourists making the trek who sported brightly coloured mesh over their heads to keep the annoying, buzzing, incessant creatures at bay. The 10 – odd kilometre walk and rising heat took it out of the kids a bit but we managed to eventually find our way back to Bessie and ventured to the local cultural centre for some lunch. As expected there were a couple of aboriginal art shops with literally hundreds of pseudo-professional dot paintings but nothing that truly grabbed our attention. The education centre was worth a look and the kids found some activity books which helped them break up the time and learn something about Uluru and the aboriginals in the area. Hot, sweaty and bugged out, we did a quick jaunt to the look-out over the Olgas – another sacred site opposite Uluru, which appeared more like a jumble of bolders which had all fallen together from the sky – quite distinctive in the flat otherwise featureless terrain of the area. Back in Yulara we keenly returned to an artshop we’d visited the day before and took a closer look at a few of the paintings. A couple of in-house aboriginal artists were painting as well and kept Piper entranced while Jen and I decided whether to purchase an amply coloured piece entitled ‘Bush Medicine’ – seemed rather 'a propo'. After some journal writing and other school work we packed up and headed back to Uluru to catch the sunset and witness the magic. True to form, without a cloud in the sky, Uluru lit up in different hues of red and dazzled the hundreds of tourists like ourselves gazing in awe upon it. Over 400,000 tourists visit it every year despite its remoteness and it’s easy to understand why. Having had our fill we headed back to base camp and under the romantic light beams of our AWD Bessie, cooked up and feasted on a mixed grill and veggies before retiring to our toasty warm and cozy tent for another night in the desert.

The Big Red Rock

There is little doubt - Uluru (Ayer's Rock) is a long way from anywhere! We struck the road early to cover the 730km in good time and make it to our camp before nightfall. I was actually suprised how well we went as we made it there by mid-afternoon - time for a play and swim in the campground pool before heading out to the rock. We were informed by the tourist office that sunset was around 6:30 pm so we needed to make tracks around 6 pm to check it out. As instructed we headed out and were in place at the sunset parking lot with time to spare - unfortunately, the clouds and sun failed to cooperate and we ended up calling it a night early. It wasn't a total loss though as the rock is impressive even without the right light shining upon it. All the pictures depict it as this seemingly rectangular shaped beast with rounded or weathered ends but it is actually more of a triangular-shaped formation well wrinkled and crevassed with age. We headed back to camp and stopped at the Brough Buffet located at the Outback Pioneer Hotel just outside the campsite. The kids were in heaven  (they love buffets) and had their choice of camel, crocodile, kangaroo and a few other tempting tastes. Kids ate for free so all was good and we feasted into the dark. At the end of it all we tucked into our cosy tent and had an uneventful night until...