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What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:23 pm
by master6
We are planning to visit Alice Springs in July /August 2011. What racing or other cycling events will a masters 7 road rider with a CA licence find there?

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:38 pm
by Comedian
I'm not quite sure what you mean - in terms of cycling?

If you are visiting there I'd urge you to sort your accommodation well in advance as it can be difficult to find at that time of year.

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 8:16 pm
by master6
Yes, enquiring about cycling events conducted by local Cycling club.

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 8:18 pm
by The Womble
Flies and lots of drunk natives with broken bottles. Have fun

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 9:06 pm
by CommuRider
Beautiful country and a frontier town with whites who have run away from other parts of Australia to feel emasculated against the blacks.

Really, I enjoyed the Alice. The generations of dispossession and stolen generation are in Alice. There is a more palpable racism there than other parts of the country. The whites there are pretty disparaging of the blacks regardless of who they are or their personality as whites like to stick together in that town. I had a white American just be racist with no compunction towards two teenage indigenous boys. I was pretty appalled. Black stereotyping rules there.

Other than that there are some good cycling paths there and you can count the traffic lights in one hand.

I would recommend going to Papunya Tula art gallery the birth place of modern indigenous art. While Aboriginal art may not be appreciated by white territorians, the art that you see there has been used to fill the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Pity recognition needs to be overseas, in the Alice if you are black you are treated pathetically, you get exploited by contractors charging the government $500k to build a shanty house and you turn to alcohol because the white pub owners know they can make heaps of dosh from you. Segregation by any other name. Felt like South Africa actually.

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:33 pm
by The Womble
...Flies

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:39 pm
by CommuRider
The flies are bigger in Tassie. Similar to this one

Image

They suck the blood out of you like a syringe and you can roast them on a spit. But then again very dumb like mozzies

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 3:34 pm
by master6
master6 wrote:We are planning to visit Alice Springs in July /August 2011. What racing or other cycling events will a masters 7 road rider with a CA licence find there?

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:15 pm
by Parrott
CommuRider wrote:Beautiful country and a frontier town with whites who have run away from other parts of Australia to feel emasculated against the blacks.

Really, I enjoyed the Alice. The generations of dispossession and stolen generation are in Alice. There is a more palpable racism there than other parts of the country. The whites there are pretty disparaging of the blacks regardless of who they are or their personality as whites like to stick together in that town. I had a white American just be racist with no compunction towards two teenage indigenous boys. I was pretty appalled. Black stereotyping rules there.

Other than that there are some good cycling paths there and you can count the traffic lights in one hand.

I would recommend going to Papunya Tula art gallery the birth place of modern indigenous art. While Aboriginal art may not be appreciated by white territorians, the art that you see there has been used to fill the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Pity recognition needs to be overseas, in the Alice if you are black you are treated pathetically, you get exploited by contractors charging the government $500k to build a shanty house and you turn to alcohol because the white pub owners know they can make heaps of dosh from you. Segregation by any other name. Felt like South Africa actually.
I arrived there in '91 and had similar first impressions to what you have described. After 15 years I left fairly disillusioned. I worked for a building contractor building housing on remote aboriginal communities for 2 and 1\2 years when I first got there. in that time we were renovating again the houses we had built at the start of that period. The blokes I worked for were Danish twins who had come over from Europe and started their own business. Nice blokes with a ton of guts and to my knowledge not making a fortune for working hard in some very trying conditions. They had made the town their home and one of them married an aboriginal woman. It was an eye opener working on the communities and seeing the local people live. There was alot of money being spent on schools housing and health clinics but the scale of the waste was astounding vandalsim and destruction everywhere you looked. Throwing money at the problem was not fixing anything, my bosses had seen no improvement in the 15 years they had been working out bush. 2 and 1/2 years was enough for me living rough and working away from home, I got out and got a job in town.

I spent the last 5 years as a paramedic dealing first hand with the problems of alcoholism and violence. over 90% of our patients were aboriginal and most of them were pretty good patients. I would rather deal with a drunk black fella than a drunk white fella any day. After a while though the repetitive cycle of dealing with the aftermath of binge drinking, violence and non compliance with treatment and medications seemed to be an exercise in futility to me. There is a complete absense of personal hygeine and self care among many of the alcoholics in the town camps and it wore me down. Seeing the same pts over and over with the same presentation was like groundhog day. I got away from the crime and grog and moved back south.

Nanette Rogers gives an insight into some of the problems in Alice. She started her professional life there as a defender, became disillusioned and became a crown prosecutor.

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 12:08 pm
by CommuRider
The Alice stays in the memory, long after you leave her. It's caterpillar country. The ranges at Alice look like a caterpillar :-)

Back to the topic - has anyone cycled parts of the Larapinta Trail? You could probably do Alice-Hermannsburg but would need an MTB. Hermannsburg is Namatjira country and it's a beautiful part of Australia.

Image

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 2:23 pm
by master6
Can you tell me about the cycling club?

What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 2:37 pm
by Parrott
Yeah it's beautiful country. Hopefully headed back for a holiday this winter. Catch up and see some friends will be good.

What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 4:15 pm
by Parrott
master6 wrote:Can you tell me about the cycling club?
I don't know if you are talking to me, but sorry no not really. I didn't start racing until I left there. They do have an outdoors concrete velodrome and I saw some reasonable sized bunches on the road at times ( 30 or so riders)

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 4:22 pm
by master6
Parrott, I will talk to anybody. Particularly you, as you seem to be my best (only) source of Alice cycling information. :D

What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 8:22 pm
by Parrott
You could try sending a message to member Sandman on here. He was or is still living there though I don't know if he is involved in the cycling club. He may be able to give you more information on them though.

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 1:14 pm
by master6
Sandman,knockknock, Sandman, knockknock. (quickly spoken) Sandman, knockknock,
Sheldon Cooper here, hear?

:D :D :D

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 10:09 pm
by Gabon
Hey master6 try http://www.alicespringscyclingclub.com.au/ has a few contact and ride details

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:48 am
by master6
Gabon wrote:Hey master6 try http://www.alicespringscyclingclub.com.au/ has a few contact and ride details
Thanks Gabon, I tried that, however the fact that it offered online membership for 2008 prompted me to seek a 2011 person. :D

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:19 pm
by Gabon
there is some 2011 info and contacts on the site - this is the territory so some things just take a while to update :)

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 1:35 pm
by Gabon
if you are still looking Master6 the new 2011 newsletter for ASP Cycling Club can be found on the Darwin Cycling Club web site or try www.alicesprings.cycling.org.au

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:25 pm
by master6
Thank you Gabon. Your assistance is appreciated. I have also had a pm with some info, and met a girl on one of the rides in Hobart, who has some Alice springs experience. Our travel timetable is not set in concrete, and I will be keen to see the road program for July/August/September when it is decided.

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 3:35 pm
by sandman
I have been away from the forum for a long time so excuse me... Yes I am in Alice Springs and yes you can ask all sorts of questions about cycling :-)

Sandman

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 3:43 pm
by master6
sandman wrote:I have been away from the forum for a long time so excuse me... Yes I am in Alice Springs and yes you can ask all sorts of questions about cycling :-)

Sandman
Hi sandman, good to know you are about. Everyone is entitled to a break.

The latest Alice Springs club newsletter has been forwarded to me by one of the participants on this site, so I think I have all I need at present.

Thanks,
Jeff

Re: What will I find in the Alice?

Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 3:52 pm
by sandman
Hi Jeff

Good to hear you've got some answers. There is a bit of stuff that goes on outside the Cycling club, again it depends on what you were after. If you need to know anything specific, please feel free to ask. I'm about to don the Lycra and head home...30km, nasty headwind and its cold...hope its a fast ride home :-)

Cheers..Sandman