Arrival in Alice Springs

We landed yesterday at noon at Alice Springs Airport. Alice Springs is very isolated in the middle of Australia and has a population of around 30,000. The nearest town is over 500 km away and has only 3,000 inhabitants! Alice Springs is really exciting to experience. It's completely unique and very different from any other Australian city we've visited. We have chosen to swap the campervan for a rental car and it works really well for us. The camping life and facilities in this area are quite simple and there are generally fewer activities on the sites, so it's a better fit with hotel nights for us🏨 It's a very special, different and exciting part of the country. It's home to a large proportion of Australia's Aboriginal people, who have lived on the continent for tens of thousands of years. Today, they are highly visible in the urban landscape and unfortunately, many in the community struggle with social challenges - especially related to poverty and alcohol. It's a complex issue rooted in a long and often tragic colonial history. Yesterday and today we've experienced Alice Springs and the beautiful scenery found west of the town in the West MacDonnell Ranges. It's an impressive desert landscape of red rocks, deep canyons and waterholes where we've been swimming and hiking vandreture⛰️ When we hike, we have several times had nets on our heads, as there are some relatively annoying flies everywhere....🪰 But the locals are used to them....