25/03 Exit Alice

It’s my last day in Alice and I cannot say that I am sad to see the back of it. I join some of the others and we wander into town to have a coffee and to find some of the locals selling art but there are nowhere to be found. We head to a local park to have a picnic and coincidentally, there are some women in the process of painting. I like one of the painting and am told that it’s for sale for 50 AUD and it will be ready in half an hour and I wait in the park whilst the others head off. Mavis is one of the women painters and she comes and sits next to me in the bench. I cannot really understand what she is saying but I get the gist that the painting is about a male dreamtime and it has some women in it too: I don’t think I’ve done the story any justice but there you go. She then tries to extort an extra 30 AUD out of me for the painting as she “ thinks it’s now worth that” but I tell her that we agreed a price and refrain from explaining the principles of offer and acceptance to her.

My flight to Cairns is about 2.5 hours and we land in torrential rain but it’s very humid and apparently this is the tail end of the rainy season (note to self: check this next time!). The yoff hostel (described as ‘small and quiet’) is ok and I am the only person in a four bed room but there is no en-suite and I am feeling a bit miserable and want to check myself into the Hilton! It continues to rain through the night and I don’t sleep very well.