Darwin... Northern Territory (NT), Australia

Darwin is closer to Indonesia's capital Jakarta than to Australia's capital of Canberra! This harbor/port city is a vital trade center link and gateway to Australia's trading partner, Asia. Every so often on our train trip, The Ghan would have to stop and let freight trains go by as they have the right away by law.

One of Darwin's biggest exports is the mango. Did you know that mangoes have to be hand picked due to their delicate nature?

The NT has a frontier mentality. IN 1998, the NT was invited to become Australia's 7th state. The NT rejected that notion by a referendum vote! The vast north of Australia has a mind of its own!

Darwin is in the steamy heart of the tropics. Compared to the red center of Alice Springs, it is a lush green. It is known as The Top and it has only 2 seasons, wet and dry. We were there during the wet season. That season will last for approximately 7 months! It rains most days, but we lucked out with an occasional rain shower in our 2 day stay.

Darwin's is a place where men outnumber women by almost 2 to 1. The average age of a Darwinite is 30. Darwin was destroyed by a cyclone in 1974 and completely rebuilt.
World War II history buffs know that Darwin was bombed 67 times during the war by the Japanese.

The NT has the highest concentration of indigenous people in Australia--- nearly 60,000 Aborigines. We saw Aborigines walking around and/or sitting on the side of the road, but we never met anyone who was indigenous to the country during our 2 month stay.

The snorkel on the front of the truck is so the vehicle can ford the flooded washes and rivers without trouble. Cool huh? Some Arizonans who try to drive through the Indian Bend wash could use one of these! Also, notice the Rooguard on the front end. Unfortunately, they do hit kangaroos whilst driving down the road.

The Middle... Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

90% of Australians live on the coast; most urban people on the planet.

And then... there's the Northern Territory. About 225,000 live in this enormously big place. Consider that Darwin has 125.000 of those people and you begin to realize how few people live in this wide open place.

About 20,000 folks live in or near Alice Springs. This desert oasis is smack dab in the middle of the Northern Territory. You are still 1,500km from Darwin! And... you are in the outback, a remote desert, miles from anywhere---- nowhere basically!

Once at the end of the line, the desert oasis of Alice Springs, known as The Alice, is now merely the halfway point on the rail line that knits Australia together down the middle. It is the red center of the country where emptiness abounds. There's a beauty of desolation in central Australia, but after being in the town awhile, you realize just how isolated it is and how hard life must have been "back in the day" before all the modern conveniences arrived. We had a driver change there and spent 4 hours touring The Alice.

Our visits included the old jail which is now a Museum for Pioneer Women, a Reptile House where we were given a tour, a ride up to Anzac Hill, a place of memory for the Australian armed forces, and a tour out to where the original Alice Springs town started and the actual Alice Springs is located. Since they had gotten quite a bit of rain the previous weeks, the spring was running. That caused excitement in the town. The driver told us that the town was cut off for several days due to the high water. Those of us who live in AZ and see the high water mark warnings at the side of the roads can understand exactly what it means---- it can rain in the desert and instant floods happen. Enjoy a few things that we saw in The Alice.