The Red Centre: Outback adventure

This post I'm going to tell about my outback adventure with my friends at Central Australia for 4 days and 3 nights. It was a trip that we postponed since April due to other commitments. Although there's only desert and stones, it's actually a very unique and beautiful place.

From Adelaide, we took Tiger Airways from Adelaide to Alice Springs.Once landed, we got our rented car from the airport and head to Alice Spring Desert Park. The parks consists of three areas that showcased the plants and animals that can be found in Central Australia. You can also see the MacDonnell range from the park. Next, we head to Simpsons Gap. Simpsons Gap is one of the scenic gap of West MacDonnell range and it's one of the most prominent waterhole. We also saw a rock wallaby on one of the rocks at the gap. After that, we went to checked in at our accommodation and we went out again after a quick dinner. We went to Anzac Hill Lookout that night. Its a memorial place for all Australian army who had participated in various wars. From up here, we saw the panoramic view of Alice Spring at night. 

We're in Alice Spring

 

A bird roaming freely

Thorny devil

Salt Lake

MacDonnell Range

Simpsons Gap

Waterhole at Simpsons Gap

A rock wallaby hidden somewhere in the pic

Alice Spring from Anzac Hill Lookout

Anzac Hill Lookout

The next day, we started the 470km journey to Ayers Rock (Uluru). The journey was about 5 hours however we took longer that that due to may stops. Our first stop was at Stuarts Well for a short break before continuing our journey south. We also stopped at Cannonball Memorial, this was a memorial for the people who died in the Inaugural NT Cannonball Run in 1994. Then we stopped at Henbury Meteorite Crater Conservation site which is one of the five, meteorite impact sites in Australia. We also went out of route a bit to the border of South Australia and Northern Territory and then back on track towards Ayers Rock. Before reaching Ayers Rock, we stopped to take photo of Mt Conner, a flat topped mountain. By the time we reached Ayers Rock, it was nearly sunset. So, we head to Uluru straight away to see the colour change of Uluru during sunset. 

Heading towards Ayers Rock

The 2 boys who haven't seen kangaroo in their 2.5 years in Australia

An ostrich at Stuarts Well

Cannonball Memorial

 

One of the meteorite crater

NT-SA Border: SA side

NT-SA Border: NT side

About 250km to go

Mt Conner

Uluru

Us with the rock

See how it changes colour

The day after that, after watching the sunrise at Uluru, we climbed the red rock (Uluru). Uluru is a sandstone rock formation in Central Australia and it's sacred to the Australian aboriginal people. the boys climbed up 3/4 of the rock whereas myself and Ciktie only went up 1/4 of it due to our slippery shoes and windy weather. We were sacred that we might not be able to come down. Next, we went to Mutitjula Waterhole at the base of Uluru which is a critical water source for the people and animals around here. Then we went to the viewing area of Kata-Tjuta (group of large domed rock formations and also known as The Olgas) and went to Valley of the Winds (part of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park)for Walpa Gorge walk (2.6km walk). We also went to Kings Canyon to do the short Kings Creek Walk as we were on our way back to Alice Spring. 

Climbing the Uluru

The boys went further up

Kata-Tjuta from Uluru

Mutitjula Waterhole

Kata-Tjuta up close from viewing area

Valley of the Winds

A picture before our walk

Walpa Gorge Walk

At the lookout

Kings Canyon

On our last day in Central Australia, we went to Ormiston Gorge which is part of the MacDonnell Range and did the Ghost Gum Lookout walk. 

Doing the walk

Ormiston Gorge

At the lookout

This was the only place that we visited because our flight back to Adelaide was at 4.55pm. After we left Ormiston Gorge, we head straight to the airport. That's all for the outback adventure in Central Australia.

Alice Spring from above

Till then~