Wednesday 31st January 2007. Kings Creek to Alice Springs.

Up and off this morning we make Mount Ebenezer our first stop to refuel on the homemade pies enroute to Stuart's Well Roadhouse where we will not only have lunch but also meet Jim Cotterill whose family were responsible for opening up tourism in this area from the early 1950's.

Jim actually cut the 100km road into Kings Canyon with his father establishing the first accomodated tours into the canyon in 1961.

Here at the roadhouse I get my first taste of Melbourne Bitter and get introduced to DINKY the singing Dingo.

Here 90km south of the Alice is home to Australia's only singing and piano playing dingo. Dinky was rescued as a cub from certain death during a dingo baiting program. His talent was discovered by his human sisters Tempe and Nicole as they practised their Suzuki repertoire. Dinky has even made it as a question in the 20th anniversary edition of trivial pursuit and today he entertained us.

Back to the Alice passing Yirara College one of only two colleges offering a university style education of combined western and aboriginal studies. The other college catering specifically for the indigenous population in this way is located in Batchelor (also in the Northern Territory).

In 1871 the Alice came about as a repeater station on the telegraph route from the south that connected with the Mother Country from Port Augusta to Port Darwin and on through British territory to London. The Alice is actually built on floodplains between the Todd and the Charles rivers.

John McDouall Stuart reached this area in 1860 on the first of his three attempts to cross Australia South to North.

It was here in the Alice at the law courts that Lindy Chamberlain was first tried for the alleged murder of her baby.

Back in town and we head up ANZAC Hill (Australian and New Zealand Army Corp) to the war memorial before heading off to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

The Flying Doctor now covers over 80% of Australia's land mass connecting with the major metropolitan areas around the country's coast. Flying over 20 million kilometers a year the flying doctor has a major role in preventative healthcare for indigenous peoples. This is very important in a community where avaerage life expectancy is only in the mid/late forties and where there is still a community distrust of white mans medicine.

The flying doctor remains the worlds first and most comprehensive airborn medical provider having been established in Queensland in 1928. The Alice Springs RFDS base opened in 1939.

QANTAS, the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service flew the first flying doctor flight on 17th May 1928 in a De Havilland DH50.

Leg Update...

Tonight we are at The Tavern for a reptile show. It is here that I learn that the suspects for my snake bite are the Black, Tiger or Death Adder snakes. However, Trish from the Alice Springs Reptile Centre is able to confirm that I was biten by a Death Adder which leaves marks such as those on my ankle. This snake attacks muscle tissue and initially the wound appears like a graze but it creates a deep infected wound such as I had because of the myotoxin it holds.