Cairns to Alice Springs

Today we left our great apartment in Cairns, and the wonderful helpful and friendly woman at the front desk, and flew to Alice Springs. Our luggage was last off the plane, and taxis were sparse, so when a lone woman got into the last cab to pull up, which was a wagon (necessary because of Dave's golf clubs) we asked if we could share with her. She let us. She has lived in Alice Springs for 7 years and commented that it is much greener than usual this year. None of us thought it was all that green - out the plane window I had only seen sand and scrubby brush.
We had the cab wait while we checked into the hotel and dumped our luggage at the desk. Then we went to the Camel Cup - Alice Springs has camel races every year and they were today. We watched 4 races - camel races don't necessarily run on time because camels aren't particularly co-operative. I think the camel races could have easily been run in Maple Creek, SK - the race course facilities, the crowd, the amenities, all reminded me of rural Saskatchewan cowboy style. There are no photos of them because I neglected to take my camera out of my carry-on before we rushed to the races.
We returned to the hotel, actually went to our rooms, and then walked into downtown Alice Springs along the Todd River. This sounds much more picturesque than it really is, as the Todd River is pretty much water free - and this even when they have had more rain than usual and everything is green. There is a definite channel (albeit just sand in most places, with the odd stagnant pool). Our taxi woman said that when the Todd runs it's quite an event and everyone goes out to look at the water in the river. Photo is of the Todd River.
When we made it downtown we ate in Bojangles Outback Saloon. Dave and Sean both went on the "see one, eat one" premise and had camel - Sean had a camel pie, and Dave an outback grill with camel, kangaroo, emu sausage, crocodile and buffalo. I wasn't in the mood for camel. They don't look that delicious.