Doing Alice Springs?? How Ranked/Priority??

From the Sidney Morning Herald and other Fairfax newspapers in Australia today, they have this headline: "Twenty reasons to visit Alice Springs" with these highlights: "The colour and diversity of Alice Springs makes it a great place to explore. Lee Atkinson discovers the best of the outback centre.

1. GET RED SAND ON YOUR SHOES: Just 10 minutes from the centre of town, the Alice Springs Desert Park is much more than just a wildlife park. Grab the free audio guide and take a guided walk through the desert woodlands, sand country and river-land habitats. Wander among birds and kangaroos and don't miss seeing birds of prey swoop out of the sky twice a day. The best time to go is early in the morning before it gets too hot (gates open at 7.30am). alicespringsdesertpark.com.au.

3. RISE ABOVE IT ALL: Get a bird's eye view of the desert on a hot-air-balloon flight. It's a cold, early-morning start, but once you're up it's a magical way to watch the sun rise over the endless desert plains. There's a choice of half-hour and hour-long flights, and a picnic breakfast and celebratory bubbly wine is included. Don't wear white: you'll be expected to help cram the balloon back in its sack at the end of the flight and it's dusty work. outbackballooning.com.au.

4. MEET KANGAROO DUNDEE: Since appearing on the top-rating BBC television series Kangaroo Dundee, Brolga, aka Chris Barnes, and his kangaroo sanctuary about 20 minutes' drive from Alice Springs, has become the must-visit item on the list of almost every British tourist. Brolga's busy shooting a second series of the show, but still has time to welcome guests to his outback shack every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening. Tours last about 2½ hours and you can meet many of the resident mob of orphaned joeys. kangaroosanctuary.com.

5. SEE DESERT ART: Alice Springs has some fabulous art galleries specialising in indigenous art. The Araluen Arts Centre (artsandmuseums.nt.gov.au) has several galleries of central Australian Aboriginal art as well as one of the country's largest collection of works by Albert Namatjira. Commercial galleries worth dropping into include Muk Muk in Lindsay Avenue (mukmuk.com), Papunya Tula Artists (papunyatula.com.au) and Mbantua Gallery (mbantua.com.au), both in Todd Mall. Mbantua is home to Emily Kame Kngwarreye's Earth's Creation, which sold for $1,056,000 in 2007, the highest price at that time paid for a work of Australian Aboriginal art and the highest price to date for a female artist in this country."

These are only four of the twenty options/ideas for this area from this newspaper story. These many options seem very interesting with lots of great potentials, etc. For our early 20014 first trip down under, we will do Cairns/Port Douglas, the Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef, then Kangaroo Island near Adelaide before departing from Sidney’s scenic harbor. We only had so much time and money. Can't do it ALL on our first trip. Plus, the Alice Springs area in their summer can be very hot and challenging. A good reason to go back later. If planning a trip here, this article seems good to check out, use the various links cited, etc.

Are we going to regret our tentative plan to not do April Springs on this first trip? Especially at this time of this year? Other thoughts, views, suggestions?

Full story at:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/travel/holiday-type/family/twenty-reasons-to-visit-alice-springs-20130711-2pspb.html

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Celebrity Solstice Visual Highlights? From our June 7-19, 2011, Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in France, Italy, Kotor and Dubrovnik, I have pull together a number of wonderful visuals of the Solstice, its features, food, entertainment, options, etc. We are now at over 8,403 views for this shorter version of my larger full review of that cruise and all of the port pictures/details. Check these postings and added info at:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1803477

If you go to Alice you really must go to Ayers Rock/Uluru and also, if possible, to King's Canyon. That all requires a week or so at least.

It would be shockingly hot in the summer so hopefully you may wish to return when the weather would be better.

We have spent a total of about 26 weeks touring the US and Canada, over four trips, and certainly do not feel that we've seen it all.

We may not have the population and cities that you do, but we do have the distances (and small towns mean less frequent flights available) So you hopefully will return to fill in some gaps in your travels.

If you go to Alice you really must go to Ayers Rock/Uluru and also, if possible, to King's Canyon. That all requires a week or so at least. It would be shockingly hot in the summer so hopefully you may wish to return when the weather would be better. We have spent a total of about 26 weeks touring the US and Canada, over four trips, and certainly do not feel that we've seen it all. We may not have the population and cities that you do, but we do have the distances (and small towns mean less frequent flights available) So you hopefully will return to fill in some gaps in your travels.

Appreciate your excellent follow-up and solid insights about why our plan is probably focused in the right direction. YES, if we were going to Alice Springs, then we would do Ayers Rock/Uluru, etc. Clearly, our expectation is that a future trip or two with different timing will be needed and desired. Will share your helpful comments on our cruise roll call.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Celebrity Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 135,814 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

Taken from my blog. We had flown up from Melbourne and this was in March 2009. Hope it helps:

After a 3 hours flight we arrived at our hotel and after a quick sandwich we were off on our afternoon trip around the area. First stop was to the School of the Air, a fascinating insight in how the children who are spread over an area of 521,000 square miles are taught. To give you an idea of the size, that is 10 times the size of England!!! Initially using old fashioned radio, the advent of the digital and satellite era has made contact between teacher and pupil more 'hands on'. The next stop was the Flying Doctor Service headquarters. The founder was Rev. John Flynn whose vision was to set up a Mantle of Safety for health in Central Australia. The first Flying Doctor started operation in 1928 and has gradually grown to be the size it is now. It covers an area of 7,150,000 square kilometres, and now has 51 aircraft.

Today has been a very long day. We were picked up just after 8.30 am and did not return to the hotel until 5 pm. Our first call was to Anzac Hill where there is a monument to the soldiers of Australia and New Zealand who fell in the two World Wars and other various conflicts, including Vietnam. Today was a lot cooler than yesterday; a mere 28C instead of a giddy 40C so sightseeing was much more pleasant. We then went to the grave of John Flynn, who we mentioned earlier was the founder of the Flying Doctors. This was followed by travelling to the Western MacDonnell Range and walking to Simpsons Gap. We then went to Standley Chasm which is a narrow cleft in the ranges and can only be reached by scrambling over sand and rocks.. The day was concluded with an afternoon visit to the Desert Park, a most fascinating place which attempts to show three different habitats and their flora and fauna. Desert Rivers showed mainly birds, Sand Country is the land of thorny devils, lizards and termites and Woodland is everyone's favourite – kangaroos.

Alice Springs summation – hot with lots of flies. The 4 of us invested in fly nets and although we felt a little foolish wearing them, it was easier than having to constantly swish them away from your face. To live here we feel you need to be a little mad – where else would you hold an annual regatta which involved carrying your boat down the length of a dry river bed and where else would you find that this same regatta had to be cancelled because it had actually rained the day before and the river level was too high to carry the boat?!!