Day 7 - Alice Springs war memorial, ASSOA, Flying Doctors, wallabies and more!

Really hot today - 40+ degrees and set for possibly the most strenuous day of the trip...

Quick trip up to the war memorial, from which the views across Alice to the MacDonnell ranges was impressive.

Then on to the Alice Springs School of the Air (ASSOA), established in 1951 it has the 'largest classroom in the world' - essentially 1.3M sq km of outback. Students are sent books and other material by post and lessons are done over the internet using webcams. Until 2005 they did the lessons by radio...

One of the studios they broadcast lessons from - this one has a wall signed by famous visitors

On to the old telegraph station - used to boost the signal coming ashore in Darwin. Very, very isolated for the first operators.

Karen relaying an urgent message "Send more shoes and gin!"

We then visited the Royal Flying Doctor of Australia museum... loads of stuff to see but edited pics below...

Model of the first plane used by the Flying Doctor Service

Grave of Rev. John Flynn, founder of the Flying Doctor Service

 Onward to Standley Chasm... like being back in prehistoric time - we kept expecting a Velociraptor or an Orc to jump out of a bush!

Standley Chasm

 Quick stop for an arty-farty pic...

Arty shot, in the style of Albert Namatjira (sort of)

Finally, walked up a dry river in the Simpsons Gap Nature Reserve to try to see Rock Wallabies. Was planning to have a dip on the way but...

And I really fancied a dip...

 Where's Wally(bie) / "Can ya tell what it is yet...?"

There's a rock wallaby in this picture... honest!

Ended the day eating some of the local fauna, including smoked kangaroo plus crocodile ribs, sadly the emu had run out...