A Town Like Alice

Arrived here off the Ghan this afternoon. A great journey with wonderful food and the additional advantage of making me feel very young. Most of the passengers were 80 in the shade and travelled by train 'cos they couldn't have coped with climbing in and out of a bus. Some of them looked like they might cark it in the heat while waiting on the platform.

Red earth, strangely decorated with green now after lots of recent rain.

I met a delightful 85-year-old gent, Peter, who had the sleeper opposite mine. He told me about his most recent stint as a butler in the Director's Cottage in Broken Hill! Which I believe came to an end twenty years ago. Some times I thought I might nod off if I had to hear about one more sailing chum, or another anecdote from his working life, but he was generally pretty good value. Met a Dutch woman whose boyfriend dropped me off at the hotel.

Been wandering round Alice Springs since I arrived in the Alice, and I've never seen so many Aboriginal people in my life. Another piece of culture shock was being asked for my driver's licence when I bought a bottle of wine in Woolworth's. At first I thanked the boy for his compliment about my age: thought I must be hot stuff now that I've relaxed a bit on holiday. But no. . . "Some people have restrictions on whether they can buy alcohol."

Tomorrow, at 6 in the morning, my tour leader will pick me up and transport me by 4WD van, with a group of my fellow adventurers, to a campsite at Yulara , from where we'll explore the area around Uluru. More later when there's more to write.