Dustin had arranged for a few of us to receive a tour of the Tower and so we climbed the stairs up to the control room and admired the view. It was interesting watching it all work and we enjoyed observing our host talk the big jets down and separating them from the local traffic. He certainly knew his stuff. While we were there 'Yananyi Dreaming', a Qantas 737-800 taxied out. It is the third of the indigenous decorations on Qantas aircraft and was designed by Balarinji using the artwork of Renee Kulitja, a Pintjantjatjara woman who is one of the traditional owners of Uluru. Yananyi means going or travelling and it was a nice machine.
I got a call from Majella saying they had made it to the hotel and that the bus was returning for us and so we said our thank-yous and wandered off to meet it. It was a short trip in to 'Alice in the Territory' and after dumping our bags and grabbing a quick coffee we decided to walk into town -- down the road, across the empty Todd river, past the hospital and into the CBD. The 60 minute walk introduced us to the street-scapes of Alice and some of the party found it pretty confronting. It is a sad and disturbing thing to see the abject state of some of the indigenous people here. But wherever we encountered them they were either happy and friendly or else they paid us no heed. On reaching the mall we grabbed some sandwiches and drinks and wandered around the art galleries. Trinity bought a nice piece from a woman in the park. It is difficult to reconcile the stunning art with the abject social conditions. It is a tragedy for wiser heads than ours.
Anyways Andrew was keen to catch the bus for the Show and so we went in search of the stop. On the way we found a fireworks store. Fireworks are permitted only on Territory Day and the sound of loud explosions near and far told us that the locals were making the most of it. The noise was so constant that it made you feel like you were in a war zone. Anyways when we saw a giant box of fireworks Dustin's eyes met mine and we just had to have it. It just wouldn't be polite not to join in the celebrations. Armed and dangerous we now had to find a place to let them rip. Most of the crew grabbed the bus into the Show and the rest of us hailed one back to the Hotel, where we showered, rested and then went in search of rocket sites. It was a tricky problem. The town was covered in this dry white spinifex grass about waist height and it all looked pretty flammable to me. There was a huge field across the road from our hotel but it was a definite fire trap. Finally I picked a piece of wide footpath that formed a large island because of the way the roads encircled it. If we fired this then at least it should burn out without too much damage. Later that evening we were to discover that the locals were not so careful in their planning.
The show-goers came home with their spoils and we got ready for dinner. The hotel had a wonderful restaurant and we all enjoyed a pre-dinner drink and then a great meal. My beef wellington was almost as good as the ones Majella makes. We were getting close to the end of our trip and we were all a little tired but everyone was excited about the explosives. Of course we were determined to be responsible. The bloody Giraffe wasn't going to be allowed anywhere near them and we would have help from Master T, Harry and the Green Lantern. Halfway through dinner one of the locals showed us how not to do it. The idiot starting letting fireworks off right outside the restaurant window. The manager came out and ordered him across the road and so he picked up his box of explosives and went. I signalled to Dustin because he walked straight over to the tinder dry field and immediately started blowing things up. About 5 minutes later we saw him standing in the middle of a pretty big fire trying to put it out with his jacket. We were squealing with laughter and after a few rums to steady our nerves figured it was time to have a crack at it ourselves.
In the end it wasn't such a big deal but we had a lot of fun with the kids, lighting the fuses and then running away (the instructions said 'don't run but walk with purpose' - we chose to run with purpose). It was very dark now and a mad dog decided to join us for the festivities. When we ran away he ran in the other direction. The animal insisted on sticking his nose over the exploding munitions and leaping in the air to catch at the sparklers. It just went absolutely nuts. We were trying to hold it back and tear it away when a German Shepherd arrived with love or destruction on its mind. Having separated the two we abused the embarrassed owner who arrived to remove the Shepherd. Then we got back to attempting to preserve the life and smelling apparatus of Kamikaze Dog. Maddy videoed the whole thing for educational purposes. Said she was going to post it to U-Tube so maybe you can get it there. It was ridiculously silly.When we finally ran out of explosives we cleaned up our mess (another thing not in keeping with local custom) and returned the 50 meters or so to our hotel. There was smoke from our fireworks everywhere, the fire alarm was ringing and the building was in the process of being evacuated. 'Oh shit we've set off the fire alarm!'. Master T, the Green Lantern and Andrew were thrilled to bits to see the big red fire-engine rock up and all the firemen pour out of it. I wondered whether or not we were going to wear the call-out fee because the boys in red were not happy campers. Apparently it was their 40th call-out in 2 1/2 hours. In the end though it was blamed on some guy having a hot shower and everything was sweet. Driving to the airport the following day we could see huge grassy areas all over the city that had been burnt out. The Territory really knows how to celebrate a holiday and it was a great day to be there.
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