Matthew and I had an excellent trip to "The Red Centre." We flew to Alice Springs, stayed one night and were picked up at 6 am the next morning by our tour company, Intrepid Connections, for the 3-day "Central Rock and Canyon" tour.
The drive from Alice Spring to Uluru is long - 5 hours (including lots of toilet/petrol stops). Our first stop was at the Outback Camel Farm, for a quick camel ride. It was quite bumpy when the handler told them to run!
Stop 2 was at the Erldunda Roadhouse for petrol, toilet, coffee, etc. They have a giant frill neck lizard and a giant echidna in a covered area, which are from some Expo in the 1980s.
After a few more stops, including one on the side of the highway to gather firewood, we finally arrived at our permanent campsite, which has canvas safari-style tents, and a big screened in cookhouse, which was nice, as the flies in Central Australia are annoying. For lunch, our camp host made us quiche and salad. (We were prepared to help with cooking and dishes, but the hostie and the guide did everything and didn't want help!)
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| our campsite |
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| Matthew and "the bus" |
After lunch, we went to the Cultural Centre at the
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, for a little introduction to the area, and then we were on our way for our base walk to get up close to Uluru. We did the Mala Walk (mala means rufous hare-wallaby), where we saw caves and rock formations. Our guide, Craig, was excellent and told us all sorts of information, including the Aboriginal names and cultural significance of things.
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| Craig talking about the Teaching Cave and its drawings |
We drove to another side of Uluru to go to the Mutitjulu Waterhole, which was awesome. That side of Uluru was not in direct afternoon sun, so cooler, and with the waterhole, there were more trees and birds there. It was so peaceful at the waterhole.
Finally, it was back in the bus to drive to our sunset viewing area for sparkling wine and watching the sunset.
On the drive back to the campsite, we pulled over to get a photo of the sliver of the Moon and Venus.
Dinner was an Aussie BBQ with beef and kangaroo steak, and camel sausages. Apparently with 1 million wild camels in Australia, they're trying to do something with all the camels, and are encouraging people to eat camel!
The next morning, we woke up at 5 am and had breakfast (so nice to have the hostie cooking for us) before heading out to Kata Tjuta for our sunrise walk. (At 6:15 am, we were in the bus waiting at the National Park gates for them to open and let us in.) The Valley of Winds Walk at Kata Tjuta is so lovely, and possibly my favorite walk of the whole trip, although they were all so different, it's hard to compare. It's also nice because the wind kept the flies away!
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| Setting out before sunrise |
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| Craig explaining the geologic formations of the area |
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| We spotted a Euro! |
After the 7.4 km Valley of the Winds Walk, we drove around Uluru a bit more, including a stop at a different viewing area, where you can take a panorama of both Kata Tjuta and Uluru. However, Uluru is 3 km away!
After lunch at our campsite (camel burgers), we drove several hours to our campsite at Kings Canyon. Dinner was macadamia chicken curry and rice, and chocolate cake for dessert. After dinner, Craig played us some didgeridoo and also made us Aussie
damper in the campfire.
He offered
swags to anyone who wanted to sleep out under the stars, and a few people, including Matthew, took him up on it, while the rest of us slept in our tents.
The next morning, we were up at 4:30 am to have breakfast before starting out before sunrise for the 6 km Kings Canyon Rim Walk. I've never started hiking in the complete darkness before! As we were hiking, early morning light started peeking out, which was really cool, but it was chilly while we were waiting at the viewing area at the top for the sunrise to warm us up!
We passed through "Priscilla's Crack," which was seen in the film "Priscilla Queen of the Desert." In fact, the whole Kings Canyon is in the scene below.
Here's us at the top, towards the end of our walk.
Finally, we had lunch at the campsite, then back in the bus for the long drive back to Alice Springs. We were really grateful for Craig, who besides being a cheerful and knowledgeable guide, also did all the driving.
Back in the Alice, we were dropped off at our various hotels, and luckily one of them was Heavitree Gap Outback Lodge, which is right at the base of the MacDonnell Ranges. Black-flanked rock wallabies come down at sunset for food pellets (sold at Reception).
We stayed one last night at our hotel in the Alice, then we flew out the next afternoon (only one flight per day to Sydney on Qantas).
It was really a great trip, and we were glad the tour worked out so well. Here's the album with the rest of our photos from the trip.
P.S. We spotted less wildlife than we expected on this trip. Most animals in the area really do hide out during the heat of the day. But even when we were out driving before sunrise, we still only spotted 2 roos. Anyway, here's a list of all the wildlife we spotted:
galah, hawk/eagle with a V tail (not a wedge-tailed eagle), Corella (white parrot), Willie Wagtail, red kangaroo, ants, flies, thorny devil, dingoes,
Euro/wallaroo, black-flanked rock wallaby, emu, camel,
brumby.
