Day 8 – Australia/New Zealand Adventure – A Chasm, Flying Doctors, and Alice Springs

(Friday, March 14, 2025) by Ann Silverthorn and Jim DeDad

Those who opted for the pre-dawn, hot-air balloon ride were being picked up at 4:55 a.m., while the rest of us, who like their feet on the ground, enjoyed breakfast in the hotel restaurant, before everyone was picked up from the hotel at 8:45 a.m. for that day’s included excursions. 

Our first stop was Standley Chasm, a three-yard wide, 262-foot gorge located in the West MacDonnell Ranges. The area is owned by the Western Arrernte people and is traditionally known as Angkerle Atwatye, which means “gap of water.” 

The quartzite walls of the chasm were formed by ancient seabeds more than two million years ago, and they are some of the earliest mineral formations on the planet. the north/south orientation of the chasm allows direct sunlight to enter for only 90 minutes at mid-day.

We saw people coming out of the gift shop with fly nets, so we reluctantly bought a couple, too. We put them on under our hats right away, and I’m glad we did. Really though, the only thing they did was keep the flies from crawling on your face. Even the strongest insect repellent doesn’t deter them, we were told.

We split into two groups and ours reported to a small building to listen to two young Aboriginal men tell us about their culture. Afterward, they led us on a walk to the chasm. Along the way, they showed us many plants growing along the pathway. Each time we stopped to regard a new plant, the flies attacked us. I tried mind control to keep them away, but that didn’t work and soon, I only wanted to nuke them. 

In Alice Springs, we stopped at the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS)  museum and viewed a revolutionary holographic show about how the organization started. The life-sized hologram of Reverend John Flynn, founder, told the story of how, in the early 20th century, a young man fell off a horse in a remote location, and he died before a doctor could get to him two days later. Flynn had the idea to use airplanes to ferry doctors to patients and patients to hospitals. Today, they use jet airplanes that are almost as well-equipped as any emergency room. In the museum, they had a display showing where each of their planes were at the current time.

After the museum, we had about 45 minutes before the next stop of the day, and we were starving, so we found a Subway, feeling very “basic” until we stepped through the doors and found a good many of our group in there as well.

Next, it was off to Alice Springs Telegraph Station, which is where the town began. It marked the halfway point in a 2,000 mile telegraph line that was strung north/south from Adelaide to Darwin in 1872. The site contains a historical set of buildings preserving the history of how Alice Springs started as a communication hub for Australians to be able to communicate with the motherland, England.

Our guide told us a funny story about the origin of the town name. It seems that the director of the telegraph station had a wife named Alice, and they mistook a puddle for a spring. So, there really was no spring, and the boss’s wife never even lived there! 

I thought I detected a slight German accent in the guide’s voice, and I was right! She came to Australia decades ago. She said she loves living there, but she gets a bit salty at Christmas time because in Australia, the yuletide is in the middle of summer!

In the gift shop, Jim got some ice cream, which was refreshing in the heat, and we bought three postcards for our kids, because we were able to mail them right there, as the telegraph station is still used as a post office. The postcards even have the Alice Springs postmark on them. This is something our oldest would especially appreciate because there was some discussion at home about going to Alice Springs, the inspiration for Alice Springs Chicken  at Outback Steakhouse! We discovered that dish about 20 years ago, and we’ve made it a couple of times from the recipe in our restaurant favorites cookbook.

When we got back to the hotel, we basked in the “aircon” and napped before heading out for dinner. We also checked out the casino that’s on the property. We really aren’t casino people, although we did win about five bucks in New Orleans a few months before Katrina, so the walkthrough was enough.

There are two restaurants in the hotel and the nicer one required reservations, which we did not have, so we ended up at The Juicy Rump, whose name cracked me up, and where you’d link we would have had steak. But, the Asian salad with tofu called to us, and now that I’m back home, I’m still remembering how good it was!

Tomorrow, a 280-mile bus ride to the most-famous natural landmark in Australia–Ayers Rock–otherwise known by its Aboriginal name, Uluru.

9,174 steps