Sunday, January 28, 2007

Alice Springs

The whole Alice Springs experience has been a bit of a debacle. The main reason for coming here was to see Uluru but it's a 450 km drive and it's possible to just fly there. I came to Alice Springs because I like driving and seeing countryside and I heard that there were some cool sights to be seen in the city. I had a devil of a time finding a reasonable rate on a rental car and nothing came with unlimited miles. I'm stuck with a 1000 Km limit which I'm definitely going to exceed at a rate of $$A0.28 per Km. It doesn't sound like much but it still annoys me. I'm still looking forward to the drive tomorrow but Alice Springs has been a bit of a disappointment. Most of the historical monuments are just tourist traps that try to take your money. There isn't a real museum here and all the history is about the white people who settled the land. There isn't anything telling of the history of the aborigines. It's esimated that 90% of indigenous Australians died when the British settled here due to diseases and massacres. It really pisses me off how people can be such assholes. Obviously this isn't just a problem in Australia because we did some fucked up things to the Native Americans. I'm jus tmiffed at how people can come into a new world and kill whomever or whatever is currently living there, rape the women, etc. The thing that frustrates me further is the fact that there are a bunch of aborigines in Alice Springs but none of them have good jobs or education. They're all just sitting on the street looking poor. There are a few aboriginal art shops and whatnot but they're all run by white people and feel super fake.

Man, maybe I just got out on the wrong side of bed this morning. I don't really know a ton about the aboriginal history other than what I read on Wikipedia and I should probably read more about the history before getting so agitated. I hazily remember Cory-Ann saying something about trying to improve the education system for aborigines but we were at the bar in the Crown Casino and the conversation may never have happened. If it did though, I'll have a long chat with her this weekend and might feel better about getting up in arms.

Tomorrow I'm driving ~460 Km to Uluru. I'm probably going to get to my hotel around 4 PM and will try to get to the rock by sunset. Then, in the morning I will wake up at sunrise and go back. While it's still early, I'm going to drive to King's Canyon and hike along the rim. Hopefully I get out of there by 2 PM or so and I can drive back to Alice Springs before it gets dark. Apparently there are a lot of animals all over the roads and they're hard to see at night. Internet is $A16/hour over there so I'll be sure to post once I get back to Alice Springs safe and sound. It would be awesome if I could complete the drive without hitting anything. Peace.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gees you drove to Alice! Brandon my man, you need a better travel guide!

DRIVE SAFELY WATCH OUT FOR WOMBATS

Make sure you have the camera on "night setting" get to Ullaro before dawn and start taking pix. And keep taking the pix for at least 20 minutes. It will be amazing!

Anonymous said...

Brandon, I hate to sound like your mother (oh yeah, I AM your mother), but you're experiencing the REAL Australia. The history of Aborigines and whites is as grim as it gets. The Ab's and whites are less assimilated into each others' cultures less than anywhere else that I'm aware of. You should definitely do more reading when you return, but I'll warn you -- the more you learn, the worse it gets!

Pauly said...

I miss sharing a bed with you.

The German chick says, "Hello!"