Kazie Oz Pictures (Part I)

Emily Gap, in the MacDonnell Ranges west of Alice.

On the walk up to Standley Chasm, a ghost gum tree.

Standley Chasm. Around Alice there are a lot of these red rock faces, but this one is famous.

Australia's most common native bird: the galah, thought of as stupid, so calling someone a galah is an insult.

Ring neck lorikeets taking a bath. Many birds are surprisingly tame, though I was glad of the zoom lens.

Another stop in the MacDonnell Ranges, Jesse Gap

T-shirt I got DH, to give an idea of some of the odd expressions used there.

It's a sign that was common in Alice Springs establishments. There is a real problem there with aboriginal kids skipping out of school apparently. we were told that their culture discourages excellence--the philosophy being that if you try to succeed you think you're better than everyone else. It's the "lop off the tall poppy syndrome". so they don't care about doing well at school. There are also strict rules for everyone buying alcohol there, you have to show I.D. every time, no matter what your age. The rule is applied to everyone.

This is the Ghan train which we took to Darwin, with me and my friend standing next to the monument to the Afghan camel men after whom it was named. When expansion began in the arid areas of the country, they imported camels to transport goods because they fared so much better than horses in the desert. Now many of them run wild and I even got a picture of some from the road later on.

The above pictures are all from around or in Alice Springs, Kazie's first stop in the Northern Territory.