Take a look at the Red Centre's full waterholes in the gallery above. Half a dozen green-winged budgerigars chitter as they flit between the branches of tall gum trees. A kite wheels silently, high overhead. But the sight that stops me in my tracks is a pair of ducks – not a particularly exotic bird, except when you are in the middle of the desert. How did these two come to be bobbing along happily in a waterhole outside of Alice Springs? See Also The Alice is famously dry. The Todd River that runs through town is usually a dry riverbed. The air itself is so dry that fleets of international aircraft are currently parked in "deep storage" at the airport. In short, the Alice is not an obvious swim spot.