Australia day 8

4 July

We are now in Alice Springs.

The day began in Perth. We put all our round-the-worldly possessions into our three duffle bags, plus our two carry-on bags. We had a lot of little items we'd accumulated along the way while in the camper-van that we hadn't started out with at the beginning of this trip. Some had to be eaten (the food items, obviously) and some had to be left behind (mostly tourist literature, but also our recyclable bottles and cans, which we didn't actually expect housekeeping to recycle but we left them in a line on the room's polished countertop by the TV, just in case). Our shuttle driver came for us at 9:00 AM. She is the first female shuttle driver we've had to date. I muscled the bags into her transporter and we reached Perth's airport in under half an hour. The luggage carts cost 4 AUD so we did without. We checked in after weighing our bags on the scales provided. The process of getting all three bags to have identical weights took a special talent, which I happen to have. The woman behind the check-in counter mentioned how impressed she was that each bag was precisely at the upper weight limit and each weighed exactly the same as the other two. Razelle related to her that we went right from her school to the airport and started this round-the world trip the very day she retired. I hear this every time Razelle describes our trip. It always gets a reaction of amazement, amusement, and disarming entertainment; it's an explanation that never goes stale. Razelle and I cruised the terminal until it was time to fly because I was allowed to push the wheelchair in Perth. We finished off the last of our cheerios at the coffee bar. A plain cup of milk only cost 55 cents while everything else cost several dollars; a fact worth knowing for future use.

As in Mumbai, a special vehicle raised Razelle in her wheelchair up to the fuselage. We took off and I saw out my window the emptiest section of Australia you could possibly imagine; really stark. I didn't see any evidence of human activity during a major portion of our flight. Who knows what natural resources lie hidden out there?

The stewardess and I chatted while I waited for a toilet to become available. The amazing, amusing disarmingly entertaining story of what we are doing impressed her. As we flew above Ayre's Rock she made a point to point it out to us. We stood up to peer out the windows on the other side of the plane (we couldn't see it, but we tried). Everyone on that side of the plane turned to look out their windows, too. I don't think they were any more successful, because they looked back at us with quizzical expressions. You had to be there to appreciate this moment.

On the ground at Alice Springs, Razelle walked down the ramp to the tarmac and she and I rode in a golf cart to the terminal. It was a short ride -- we walked about as far to reach our luggage. Those in the know headed for the airport limousines. We didn't know. There would be no more arrivals this day in Alice, hence there would be no more limousines after these disappeared.

A couple from South Africa and we were the only unfortunates who had no way into Alice except by taxi. He called for a large taxi. It came and we piled in all our combined luggage and ourselves. We introduced ourselves and learned where we were from during the ride through the gap into the town of Alice Springs. That's when we learned that their Dutch-sounding accent was actually an Afrikaans accent.

Our driver perked up when we mentioned we were from Israel. He was Lebanese. Oh-oh. Our first awkward moment of the trip (actually our second; the first was when Razelle was asked by a fellow passenger on the way to the plane in Mumbai – as she told her entertainingly disarming story – why she had left out Israel in the telling, because he saw Hebrew on some of our things). The Lebanese driver asked about life in Israel and about some of the issues of the day, but without any unpleasantness. When we left his taxi, Razelle gave him a souvenir of Israel – a decorative golden hamsa refrigerator magnet. He said he definitely will put in on his refrigerator and thanked us warmly for presenting him with it.

Our room at the Alice Motor Inn was up a flight of stairs. We managed to get all our stuff up and in. Lots of little light switches all over the room. We had to try them all to find out which one went with which lights.

I went in search of food for Razelle and ended up exploring Alice Springs after dark. There is an IGA grocery store a few blocks away. That's where I met my first groups of "Indigenous Australians". Some were loitering outside; others were doing their family shopping inside. They were shoeless, with perhaps a few exceptions. I didn't know quite how to behave around them – whether eye contact was polite or rude; whether to make small talk in English or just nod and smile – or not to smile too broadly – and just go about my shopping. I looked for clues among the non-indigenous but didn't find any.

I searched Alice Springs for their commercial center with a map in hand and got to know the place a little. There is a K-mart here! Much of the town closes by 5:30 or 6:00 PM but K-mart stays open until 9:00 PM. Lots of good prices in there; but we'll wait till we get to the States before we add any more weight of our luggage. The intriguing Indigenous were all over town. I will have to learn more about them as we spend time in this region.

Being the Fourth of July, somewhere in the distance I heard someone shoot off a fireworks rocket. I recognized the sound of the starburst, but didn't actually see it. I realized that somewhere in Alice there were some American expats commemorating Independence Day their way.