A pretty last minute decision was made to attend the Australia Society of Aerospace Medicine conference in Alice Springs. This was to follow a developing interest in radiation dose to astronauts, and more importantly to learn about the work on this topic in Australia. The medicos doing Aerospace Medicine are pretty into all the health stuff for astronauts. About 4 or 5 weeks out from the conference this saw me booking in a trip to the Red Centre. I decided to leave The Alice on Qantas to try out the Qantas Club.

I wasn’t expecting much from the lounge, and I was disappointed. It really is just a nicer waiting room with some free drinks and a good view of the planes.

The entry was just a little hole in the wall at the end of the Qantas terminal that was pretty easy to miss when placing around. There were no other signs to indicate the location, and it’s not even clear that Qantas Platinum is allowed to use the lounge. Fortunately, Alice airport is pretty small and I managed to get the adult pants on for long enough to find it.

 

Once inside the lounge the staff are super friendly and helpful. The typical hospitality you get in the Territory or in the bush. The views from the lounge are great, desert and the pathway leading to the planes. This time I decided to upgrade to business class for the trip to Adelaide. Maybe a waste of points, but the staff were just wonderfully helpful. At least the upgrade only needed a small number of points, as booking at the last minute meant I was on a flexible airfare.

Food was fairly basic in the Qantas Club, chips and dips and some sandwiches. The beverages offered a much better selection. Being the Territory the bar was open at a decent hour, and fully self service.

 

Given the size of the lounge and the timing of the flights, there was rather a large crowd. This was probably made worse by having a large number of people departing from a conference involving people who like to fly.

 There were a surprising number of faces in the lounge who were also at the conference dinner (which happened to be held on the Alice Springs runway).

Should enough it was my turn to wander out to the aircraft taking me home. The Territory, the Alice, are so wonderful it is always sad to leave. The great part of an airport like Alice Springs is wandering across the tarmac to the plane. Being close to the aircraft more than makes up for a basic Qantas Club. Boarding in Sydney can be so impersonal that the great lounge is almost not worth it; almost. We also had a visit from Retro Roo 1!

Wandering out to the aircraft also offered a chance to view Australia’s first boneyard, which currently seems to have about 5 aircraft sitting out there in the hot, dry desert sun. Take off from The Alice gave a view of the harsh, arid landscape that I find so beautiful.

The real bonus was to fly over the mine site where I first learned to love the outback. The mine has changed a lot since I first lived there. The 3 water bodies on the left didn’t even exist back in the last century