Alice Springs Desert Park

            

We visited the Alice Springs Desert Park today, which was very interesting.  The park is divided into three areas representing distinctly different desert habitats- sand, woodland and riverland.  We were given a set of headphones with recorded information to listen to at various points around the park. There were also information boards dotted around and plaques with names and descriptions of various plants.

It was a hot day, however, and the children got tired very soon.  They have seen so much desert lately, and found all the walking a bit much.  What they did really enjoy, however, was the nocturnal house where we saw all sorts of desert creatures from geckos and snakes to bilbies, bats and malas (a tiny endangered wallaby).  We also listened to a very interesting talk from a young aboriginal man about how his people have survived in the arid land they have called home for so long.

The ultimate highlight of the day - especially for Arthur- was the free flight theatre where we heard a park keeper talk about the birds found in the area and saw free flight kites, falcons, a barn owl and others which flew around within centimetres of our heads. Arthur practiced "flying" for most of the day after seeing them. Both he and Esther enjoyed being invited to feed the spinnifex pigeons after the show.

Back "home" at the caravan park we have plenty of birds to observe, too, as well as the euros (wallaroos) that come into the paddock next door every evening.

galah

Grey-crowned Babbler

ring necked parrot

butcherbird

euros

Philip has booked his car in for some repairs on Friday, so we will probably have to stay in Alice Springs for a few extra days.  This means we can take it slowly and plan to have a day off from sightseeing tomorrow.