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(U) Life in Alice
FROM:
Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap
Run Date: 05/14/2004
FROM:
Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap
(U//FOUO) One night some months ago I said to my husband, "I
think that vacancy announcement in Alice Springs was written for
you."
(U) "Alice Springs?" he said. "Isn't that in the middle of nowhere?"
(U) I nodded. We stared at each other across the table, trying to
imagine our lives at such a remote location. But
applied and
was accepted, and more than a year later, here we are in the
Outback.
(U) Alice Springs is a town of 27,000 people that gets almost
400,000 tourists a year. Most visitors prefer to come in the fall and
winter; in summer, the heat regularly exceeds one hundred
degrees. The nearest cities of any size, Adelaide and Darwin, are
eight hundred miles away to the north and south. There's virtually
nothing east or west, except snakes, lizards and kangaroos. It's
one of the most remote cities of its size anywhere in the world, and
that sense of adventure was part of its appeal.
(U) Alice is the kind of place where you make your own fun, so
we've been to the Camel Cup, the annual camel races, and the
Henley-on-Todd, where people race in bottomless boats in the dry
Todd riverbed.
(U) Besides those two annual events, we've also taken rides on a
camel and in a hot-air balloon, and we've enjoyed didgeridoo
concerts, a night of star gazing, and trips to Uluru (Ayers Rock),
Sydney, Tasmania and New Zealand. We've watched kangaroos
hop across the land behind our house, and we've awakened to the
screeching of exotic pink and gray parrots. We've seen some
incredible sunrises, and for the first time in my life, I've been able
to see the milky part of the Milky Way. The stars are so bright in
Alice's clear air, you'd swear you could touch them.
(U) For an isolated city of its size, Alice has an energetic arts
community. I was surprised at how large and modern the local arts
center is, with two theaters and several galleries. It attracts
national performers, from award winning dance and music groups
to the annual Melbourne Comedy Festival Roadshow. Several
different arts and music festivals celebrating local talent take place
during the year. The Alice Springs Choral Society, which I've
joined, performs some of the most challenging music I've ever
sung.
SERIES:
(U) SID Around the
World '04
1. Letter From Ottawa
2. Yakima: Fertile
Valley in the High
Desert
3. Life in Alice
4. Omaha - The Heart
of the Heartland
5. Life in the Big Apple
6. 'Dropping Anchor' in
Anchorage
(U) Many people associate Alice Springs and its constant sunshine
with year-long outdoor sports. Neither of us is the athletic type,
but if we wanted to try, there's plenty of opportunity. People play
on all kinds of teams, for all age groups - baseball, softball, rugby,
soccer, netball, volleyball, Aussie-rules football, tennis, swimming,
you name it. There are a couple of cycling clubs, and many folks
enjoy camping nearby.
(U) Since you don't have to spend time sitting in traffic, Alice is a
great place to try new things. I've been fossicking for garnets.
We've fed black-footed wallabies that live on a nearby rocky
hillside. I'm planning to cycle the eighteen miles to the facility
before winter's end this year. I can't draw, but didn't let that stop
me from taking up watercolors.
(U) Our first year of our two-year tour seemed to fly by, and it was
time to decide if we wanted to extend. We didn't have to discuss
that very long. For a place in the middle of nowhere, we've found
the quality of our lives here to be high. With the lack of traffic, the
sunny weather, and the variety of experiences we've enjoyed,
we're happy to stay two more years in this town called Alice.
(U//FOUO) See the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap webpage .
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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