Day 8 — Coober Pedy → Alice Springs
“Alice”or “The Alice” is the unofficial capital of the Red Centre and not just your gateway to Uluru. A few attractions should not be missed: the Araluen Arts Centre with works by a famous Aboriginal artist, the Museum of Central Australia showing local fossils and meteorites, the Central Australian Aviation Museum, the Royal Flying Doctors Service Tourist Facility, with guided tours every half-hour; the out-of-town Desert Park, that with an easy 1.6 km (1-mile) trail through three reconstructed natural habitats, shows you 120 or so of the animal species that live in the desert around Alice but that you won’t spot too easily in the wild, including kangaroos, but especially small marsupials like the rare bilby, reptiles like the bizarre thorny devil lizards, and birds. Don’t miss the excellent Birds of Prey show. You need at least 2 hours to see it. The centre of town occupies a compact area between the Stuart Highway and Leichhardt Terrace, along the almost perennially dry Todd River. Todd Mall, a pedestrian thoroughfare lined with cafés and galleries, bisects downtown. Get an overview of Alice’s going up Anzac Hill for a 360-degree view over the town and the MacDonnell Ranges.
Take several hours to explore the many facets of this interesting grouping of attractions, all within walking distance of one another. The Museum of Central Australia mostly shows local fossils, natural history displays, and meteorites. Some impressive Aboriginal and contemporary Aussie art is on display at the Araluen Arts Centre ([tel] 08/8951 1122; www.araluenartscentre.nt.gov.au), the town’s performing-arts hub, which incorporates the Albert Namatjira Gallery, with works by this famous Aboriginal artist, as well as a display of the Papunya Community School Collection, a group of 14 paintings from the early 1970s. Check out the “Honey Ant Dreaming” stained-glass window in the foyer. Aviation buffs may want to browse the old radios, aircraft, and wreckage in the Central Australian Aviation Museum, which preserves the territory’s aerial history. You can buy stylish crafts, and sometimes catch artists at work, in the Central Craft gallery. You may also want to amble among the fabulous outdoor sculptures, including the 15 m (49-ft.) Yeperenye caterpillar, or among the gravestones in the cemetery, where “Afghani” camel herders (from what is now Pakistan) are buried facing Mecca.
