A day in the Outbackcity - Alice Springs / 09.01.2019

After waking up alone in my caravan this morning, I first washed my laundry in peace, relaxed in the beautifully decorated garden, and enjoyed my delicious acquired raisin bread. Then at around 12 o'clock, I went to the Reptile Centre of Alice Springs, where I was going to meet Marie and we wanted to watch one of the daily tours. Here, for the first time, I was able to save with my fake student ID - a whole $5 - which put me in a very good mood. Besides, I was in great company with Marie, and we almost had a private tour, there was only one other girl with us.
We first went into a smaller room with disgusting neon light, where there were terrariums with various animals everywhere on the edges, most of them also found in the Outback. Then a guy came in with two big boxes, and we were somewhat surprised when he started to take out a big gecko-like armored reptile and asked if we wanted to hold it. We were surprised because we had not expected something like this at all, but it was awesome that experiencing the animals up close was part of the tour.
It felt funny when I put the dragon creature on my palm because its belly was very soft and unprotected, while its armor felt hard and spiky. The second reptile was snake-like in contrast to the gecko-like creature, at least in terms of the skin - it was smooth - but otherwise also lizard-like, and it was really great and interesting to be able to hold something like this while our 'guide' told us something about these creatures.
Then came the highlight, a long black snake. We were told that it was completely harmless, and if it should stick its head into our neck or elsewhere, it was only because it was looking for the areas of the body with the highest body heat.
I could see Marie's respect, so I had her first placed around my neck, her tail then wrapped around my belly to my back, and I held the rest of her body with my hands. Her head moved very close to mine, but somehow I wasn't afraid at all, I just thought it was awesome how she felt and how strong she seemed because I could feel her muscles very well through her skin.
After that, it was Marie's turn, and she was a little more scared than me, but we both thought it was a great experience.

Afterwards, we looked at the other enclosures, and outside there were even some without windows, which you would never find in Germany - and my brothers would already be sitting inside with the animals. It was fun looking for them because some could blend in really well, and there was even a large saltwater crocodile that you could also see underwater from a small tunnel. Next to the crocodile enclosure, there was an open enclosure with a few large, cuddly-looking lizards, and for a moment, Marie and I wondered what would happen if we were to throw one into Terry's (the crocodile) water - that would be really easy to do here with the missing windows. But of course, we didn't do that because we didn't have any brain diseases - at least not psychopathic ones.
After we had seen everything, we went to McDonald's for an iconic, refreshing $1 mango blueberry slushie, and then we went to see the absolutely dry Botanical Garden next to the completely dried-up river in Alice Springs, but there were wild kangaroos chilling in the shade everywhere, which was pretty cool. One of them even had a little kangaroo baby in its pouch.
And when we had enough of dry plants and bushes, we went to my hostel, stole two spoons, and then went to Woolworths, where we treated ourselves to a nice raspberry-white chocolate sundae and sat down in a small park - because otherwise, we couldn't stand the heat. It was noticeably warmer in the city than in the pure nature in the past few days. We were also lucky because there were no stinky Aborigines (nothing against the indigenous people, but they should wash themselves more often) chilling on the big lawn at the moment, which seemed a bit creepy because they always stared at us grumpily and contemptuously or asked for money in an intrusive way.
We chatted for a while about God and the world until it was time to walk to the viewpoint over the city, where we wanted to watch the sunset.
We simply walked straight up the steep rocky hill, which was an adventure in itself, and when we finally arrived at the top, we noticed that there was also something like a war memorial here.
From a bench, we had the perfect view over Alice Springs and the hills of the Outback in the background, behind which the sun eventually set with its beautiful colors.

After that, we slowly made our way back home and said goodbye with a hug.

Song of the day: Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day because I've always loved the song, but I somehow rediscovered it in the past few days.