The Red Centre

Trip Start Dec 02, 2007
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24
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Trip End Sep 01, 2008


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Flag of Australia  , Northern Territory,
Thursday, May 1, 2008

Despite having a fantastic time driving from Darwin to Alice and beyond, we were very pleased to be getting to the Red Centre and having a few days in more or less the same area. Apart from anything else this would mean having at least one day without having to pay for petrol, which we had thought was extortionate in Australia until ringing home and hearing what we would now be paying to run two cars back in Blighty...Our first stop in the area was Kings' Canyon. Piet had visited this area before, but despite two visits to Australia (including my fairly lengthy stay in Sydney) I had never made it to the middle. I was far from disappointed with our first stop. A walk through this breathtaking canyon (sorry to use a cliched superlative but this is truly the word) not only includes the well
known red rocks, but also a valley called The Garden of Eden which comes as close to living up to this ambitious title, as any other natural garden I've seen.

On to the big ticket attraction, Uluru. This was one aspect of our trip that I had worried may be a let down. I have seen so many images of the Rock (including a big plastic version in Queensland a few years back) that I feared visiting the real thing may feel like a wasted trip. Far from it. Driving towards it at sunset, watching it change colour as night fell, then walking around its base the following morning was, for me, one of the highlights of our entire trip so far. The experience was enhanced by the sensitive treatment of Aboriginal culture and history in the literature we were given by the staff at the National Park, and the fantastic retelling of indigenous tales by the Anangu people themselves through the visitors' centre.

Before driving back to Alice on our final morning, we stopped at Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). These huge, marble like formations appear as one piece from a distance but in actuality can be walked around in another of the area's must do walks, the Valley of the Winds. We viewed the formations from various spots before starting the walk, however after a few days of trekking through red rock, dust and flies, I decided this was one 'must do' too many, so we simply snapped some photos and hit the road back to Alice.
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