A desert safari in the Red Centre

Trip Start Jan 16, 2006
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Trip End Jul 05, 2006


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Flag of Australia  ,
Thursday, June 29, 2006

Can you leave Australia before you have seen what is beyond the line of civilization along the coast? I guess not, so a trip to outback Australia is the last thing to do before going home. From Alice Springs, I depart on a 5-day tour to what is called the Red Centre. We head off to the MacDonnell Ranges with its spectacular gorges and Palm Valley where you can see palm trees in the middle of the dessert. The view on Gosse Bluff, a giant comet crater, is outstanding and I come to realize that Australia is indeed a place on earth where exceptional things happen. We ride on endless dirt roads to Watarrka or Kings Canyon. The walls of the canyon stand high above the desert plains and the erosion patterns form a unique landscape. And then we go to what can be described as the symbol of outback Australia: Uluru (Ayers Rock) and its less famous neighbour Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). You can see Uluru a thousand times on pictures before you come to see it here, but nothing prepares you for what it really is. It is a special moment seeing this huge monolith breaking the line of the horizon. Uluru is a sacred place to the Aboriginal people of this area, and it is not difficult to understand why that is. It is an amazing sight, hardly describable and no picture will ever be able to show you how it is. Kata Tjuta is at least as amazing as Uluru and the boulders of Kata Tjuta have something mystical and attractive. The Red Centre of Australia is a a bit unreal, like being on another planet, but it is a very captivating place. Red dust, a campfire, a million star hotel called a swag, far away from civilization; the true spirit of travelling can be found in the outback.
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