A fly named Alice
”I am not carrying a knife” I glared indignantly at the airport security guard. He patiently trawled through my stuff and agreed he couldn’t find one. So my bag went back through the scanner and there it was again – a knife. After more trawling he triumphantly pulled out a small box and I slapped myself on the forehead. Jennifer’s birthday present Swiss Army knife which I thought was in the checked baggage, wasn’t. The guard kindly showed it to Jennifer before we waved it goodbye – the Birthday present that never was.
Sad start, but then it was off to Alice Springs. We were welcomed, as is the friendly local custom, by everyone waving frantically at us. Cheerful for a moment until you realize than, no, they are just waving off the hoards of flies. They had rain a week ago and the flies have gone wild.
After checking in at our hotel, we wandered off to see the sights. More flies of course and some debate about whether they are baby flies or just little adult flies, because they are quite small. For the record, as we walked Jennifer swallowed three of them.
We went over the Todd River which shows on Google Maps as a blue torrent much like the Rhine or the Thames but is of course a bone-dry river of sand. Todd Mall was our first stop where we bought Jennifer a replacement Birthday present (in my defense, by the way, the reason she needed a knife was that her last one got confiscated at the airport, so I’m not alone in my foolishness).
Nice purple knife purchased, we walked over to the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens (that’s a name, not a description – if it was a description it’d be more like olive, orange) and up Meyers Hill for the view. Alice is surprisingly green, especially in contrast to the surrounding ochre red hills.
Highlight of the hill, though, was a little troupe of black footed wallabies.
We had dinner (Jennifer’s Birthday) in the best place I could find in town. Which handily was also in our hotel. I had been forced to book for 7pm and thought that very early until we got to 8:15 and realized we were the only people left in the restaurant. Alice is definitely a country town.